Document text
Project #3613
1. Dixon,
Annsboro, S. C.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY
George Gregikkageg
(white)
72 Years Old.
George Gregg Mayes O. D., a retired Presbyterian minister, is a resident
of the town of Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South Carolina. He is held in high
regard by all classes of people in this section of the State.
I was born at Mayesville, South Carolina, September 18, 1666. Ny father
was Robert Peterson Mayes, a son of Peterson Mayes, for whom the town of Mayes
vino was named. Grandfather was a signer of the Ordinance of Session, by which
South Carolina withdrew from the Union of States then composing the United States
of America. The War Between the States, and its attendant cireumstances, deprived
my father of a college education, but he was possessed of a fine mind, sound prin.
ciples, and lots of common sense. He was a good all around business man and a
site counselor among his associates who bore the brunt of the difficult times
following the Civil #ar. He was prominent in the Red Shirt movement, which,
as you know, resulted in the election of wade Hampton and a return of white
supremacy and good government to South Carolina. He died in 1881, when I was
fifteen years of age.
My mother was Caroline Chandler ?Ives. She was a very remarkable woman
and a devout Christian. The home she made for father and her children was a
happy peaceful one and a haven for the ministers of her church and the re-
turned Confederate soldiers. The wanted her children to learn in this way about
God, the Father of us all, and the true motives of patriotism that actuated
the soldiers of the South in sacrificing their lives and property in defense
2.
of what they deemed moral and right.
Of the ministers who frequented our hone, remember Doctor James
McDonald, Doctor W. J. Way, Doctor J. 3. Cosby, Doctor I. Rills, and the
Rwierend if illiem Cuttino Smith. Association with such men early turned my
mind toward a life work in the ministry of the Gospel. 4y mother encouraged
me in this thought and bent all her tremendous energies to give so, as a
basis for the work, a good education. Oh, the anxiety of a mother's hearti
Who can measure it or sound its depth in sacrificial love? She VAS overheard
asking one of the godly men who visited us, 'Do you think there is a promise of
usefulness in Christ's service in George?* I had weak lungs and was predis—
posed to tubercular trouble in boyhood days, and she was anxious concerning my
physcial as well as my moral and mental fibre to undertake so greet a work in the
I'aster's service for a whole lifetime.
attended the ordinary school in the village of 'layesville for eleven
years. Miss 5allie Leland was my primary teacher. I was afterward prepared to
enter the freshman class of Davidson College. I spent one year at Davidson
College and then entered the sophomore class of the 4auth earolina College,
now the tTniversity of 5outh Carolina. I was graduated in the class of 1888,
with 'Magna cum lauds written on my diploma.
favorite studies always have been history and philosophy, but the
philosophy being taught at louth Carolina College was not altogether true. It
stimulated me, however, to seek for and find the truth.
"It was while there that I came to know Doctor James A)odrow, and the power
of his personality influenced and continues to influence my thought and life. I
consider him, bar none, the greatest teacher I ever had. He knew of my mother's
and my design to become a minister of the Gospel and was kind enough to give me
extra help in my research for spiritual truth, and, above all, he encouraged
3.
me to think for myself.
While in college, I took an active part in college Christian work. I
was for two years head of the Y. M. C. A. I was sent by the association as
the student's representative to the first students gathering at Northfield,
Massachusetts. That was in 1888. From there, I went to theMeeting of the
Nations,' as their first conference came to be known.
I was one of the fif-
teen students who net at sunrise during the conference one morning for prayers
and started the 'Students' Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.'
"In the fall of 1888, I entered Princeton Seminary and also Princeton
University for post graduate study. Here I was under such master minds as
Patton, Warfield, Wm. H. Green, and others. The life at Princeton did not
rob ma of my Southern convictions and sentiments but rather intensified them
in philosophy under Professor Patton and Professor McCash. When I received
my certificate from the seminary, I also received my Master of Arts degree
from the university.
In the summer of 1890, I was licensed to preach by Harmony Presbytery.
In March, 1891, I received a 'call' to supply three churches in Sumter
County. I next supplied, during the summer, three churches in Anderson County.
Shortly afterwards, I received a call from the Presbyterian Church at Walhalla,
South Carolina. On the advice of Doctor John B. Adger, I accepted it and ar-
rived there on June 5, 1892, without an acquaintance of anyone in the congrega-
tion. They had called me 'sight unseen.' They seemed disappointed that
in appearance, was a mere boy. The next day the Presbytery net and confirmed
the call. I remained in this pastorate six years, and then I was sent by the
Presbytery to the Edgefield group of churches as a Home Missionary. I resimined
4.
there 18 months, when the second Presbyterian Church at Greenville, South
Carolina, prevailed upon me to accept their call.
In Greenville, I had no easy task. It was a struggling congregation,
heavily in debt, but in six years we climbed out of its difficulties and paid
its debts. The work was too hard a field for my dear wife, so we left Greenville
for Concord and Blackstock churches in Bethel Presbytery. These churches are
in Fairfield County. Ws remained in charge of Concord and Blaokstock congrega-
tions for five years, and then I was called to the superintendency of the Home
Mission work. It was a work congenial to my taste. For six years I was en..
gaged in this position. It took me to all parts of South Carolina, and well..
nigh into every pulpit of the Presbyterian Church within the bounds of the State.
The close attention and family demands caused me to relinguish this special
work, in 1915, and accept the call of Sion Church at Winnsboro, South Carolina.
On the 7th of November, I entered upon the duties of the pastorate, and for twenty-
three years have ministered and labored in this community.
I took an active part in the various World War activities in drives to
raise funds, sell bonds, and conduct stamp sales of the governnent. The night of
the armisticeI led a parade up and down Congress Street in 77innsboro. It was
the largest crowd ever assembled in Winnsboro. I also led in a prayer of thanks-
giving for victory and peace at a service conducted at the foot of the Confederate
Monument at the intersection of Washington and Congress Streets.
"After the World War, I busied myself to help secure from the War Depart-
ment one of the Y. M. C. A. huts at Camp Jackson, Columbia, 3outh Carolina, and to
transfer it to Winnsboro as a community house for the town and surrounding county.
I was successful in doing this, and I superintended the remoial and reconstruction
of it.
"During my twonty..three years of pastorate at Winnsboro, a new church building
5.
was erected and paid for. The membership of the shersh increased by 33 1/3
percent.
I was one of the youngest moderators the church has ever had to preside
over the Synod. I represented our church in its General Assembly eight times
and was a member of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian College at Clinton,
South Carolina, for twenty years. This college conferred on me the honorary
degree of Doctor of Divinity.
When I reached the age of seventy years, I carried out a long declared
purpose of resigning the active pastorate work of the denomination. After one
year and six months, the church and the Presbytery consented to the release.
On the 14th of October, 1891, when I was at the pastorate in Walhalla, South
Carolina, I married Alethea S. Cosby, a daughter of Doctor J. S. and Mary
Low Cosby. Through the many years that have followed, she has proven to be
a true helpmate, the chief adviser and counsellor of my life.
To us have been born six children, two sonas and four daughters. Our
first born son died in infancy the other son, F. B. Mayes, has been ordained
to the Gospel ministry and is the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Beaufort,
South Carolina. Mary, Mrs. J. M. Workman, is a resident of Winnsboro. Alethea
is married to Doctors R. T. Douglas, and lives in Winnsboro. Carrie, wife of
C. M. Turner, lives in Ellenton, South Carolina.
Customs? When I was a boy, no instrumental music was permitted in the
home, except Watts hymns. A ride on a railroad train was a sure sign that
you were on the road to perdition. One's hands would go up in hnistor at a
golf same,ra's. a pavilion dance, or a 141179aktit show on Sunday. Sight-seeing in
conveyances and swimming at a public resort or beach would have been scored as
6.
as partaking of the world, the flesh, and the devil. These things are toned
down now, in the light of the age. They are classed as innocent pleasures by
the general public and many church members. IV opinion has suffered little
change from what they were deemed in the old days.
I have been asked many times why there is a decrease in church attendance
on the aubath and at prayer meetings in mid. -week. 1. The radio sermons have
had something to do with the decrease. 2. Sunday sermons in Newspapers. 3. The
disparity between the rich and pour, as to members, is greater. There are fewer
well -do -do people of leisure now and more hard -laboring folks than there used
to be. The latter really need a rest, or think they do, when Sunday comes around,
and many of the whole number are at work on prayer meeting nights. Some have
schooled themselves that Jod didn't consider it of such importance as to ordain
and provide for prayer meeting night. 4. The multiplicity of social clubs and
card parties is another hindrance. 5. Ministers are somewhat to blame, too.
Many of them are place hunters and are not capable of holding the membership of
the church to regular periods of formal services nor the congregation to con-
tinued church sermons from Sabbath to Sabbath throughout the year.
One thing earthy of notice, along this line, is that from year to year
Church membership increases in spite of all the foregoing enumerated causes
that militate against its increase. 1 think that the regulation of all sumpt-
uary laws and rules of society for its government should have been left pri-
marily to the family and secondarily to the church, instead of to the State
legislature.
"One thing I have observed about legielaturing morals with the public is
that it is done at the expense of the home, the church, and the school govern,-
ments. And when there are too many such enactments by the legislature, it
diminishes the respect for the whole body of the 1, and the individual
gets into the habit of selecting the ones he intends to respect and the ones
he 13 3o!.ng to disregard. And he winds up by ignoring them all, when any one
of them runs counter nnd contrari•wise to his or her self-interest.