Page 94 - Florence County, SC Florence County 2032: Connecting Our Past, Defining Our Future

Existing County | Cultural Resources

Trinity Baptist organized in 1868, with Rev.
Wesley J. Parnell (d.1873) serving as its first
pastor. The church initially met at the home
of members Jacob and Sarah Lindsey on
Trinity Baptist 34° 12.026′ N, Front St. before obtaining a property at the
21-49
Church 79° 46.052′ W corner of Dargan and Marlboro Sts. The
church acquired this site in 1884 and began
meeting in a small frame sanctuary.
Construction began on the current church
around 1893 and finished by 1909.
Jews have lived in Florence since the city’s
founding in the 1850s and were among its
early civic leaders. Local Jews first formally
organized in 1887 as the Florence Hebrew
Beth Israel 34° 11.485′ N, Benevolent Association. The group’s mission
21-50
Congregation 79° 46.675′ W was to promote community and establish a
Jewish cemetery, now 1 mi. SE of here.
Members also opened a school for Jewish
children before merging with Beth Israel
Congregation in 1922.
The brick house at the corner of Palmetto
St. and Dargan St. was built c.1919 as the
home of Dr. Frank Hilton McLeod (1868-
1944). In 1906, McLeod founded the
Florence Infirmary on W. Cheves St.,
34° 11.604′ N, adjacent to his personal residence. To allow
21-51 F.H. McLeod House
79° 45.942′ W for the Infirmary’s expansion in 1916,
McLeod had that wood frame home moved
to this site. He and his wife Caroline Nelson
McLeod (1878-1952) lived here in the old
frame house until the brick house was built
next to it.
This Methodist church organized in 1871,
when trustees acquired ½ acre of land north
of the Jeffries Creek Public Road for “a place
of Divine worship.” Many founding
Salem United 34° 7.428′ N,
21-52 members had previously been enslaved in
Methodist Church 79° 36.762′ W
this area, then part of McMillan Township in
Marion County. Congregants built a frame
church at this site in 1884, when Rev.
Jeremiah McLeod (1854-1920) was pastor.

Florence County, SC | Comprehensive Plan pg. 93