ROBESONIAN (Lumberton, North Carolina) - December 2, 1954 Issue 

Contact: Myrtle Bridges

Anterior to 1729 when the colony was divided into North and South Carolina, there were settlements of the Scotch Presbyterians 
along the Cape Fear river in Cumberland county, and by 1740 these settlements had been increased and had extended to the Sand Hills 
of Moore, Robeson, Richmond, Sampson and what is now Harnett county. In 1746 the illfated banner of Charles Edward, around which the 
highlanders had rallied on the hills of Moldart, went down in final defeat on the fateful field of Culloden.

After Culloden, owing to the cruel and oppressive measures of the British government, thousands of these hardy people came to this 
quiet, and established their homes among their friends and kindred who had already settled in the new world …

With this influx of population came the first Presbyterian members to this section, of whom we have any authentic record. From this 
time the work of evangelizing the scattered people was slow and tedious, Hugh McAden visited a portion of the territory, now embraced 
in the Presbytery of Fayetteville in 1755 and seeing the destitution, he induced Rev. James Campbell, then laboring in Pennsylvania, 
to visit his countrymen in North Carolina. Mr. Campbell came in 1757, and besides other points preached at Raaft Swamp near McPhaul's 
Mill. This is supposed to be Antioch and was the first Presbyterian Church in Robeson county, of which we have any record. In 1759, 
Mr McAden returned to the State and preached in the Eastern part of the Pesbytery in the bounds of what is now Wilmington Presbytery … 
A call given to him in 1758 was the first regular call to a Presbyterian minister in North Carolina.

Mr. Campbell was succeeded by Rev. John McLeod, who in 1777 sailed for his native land, and as the vessel was never heard of again, he 
is supposed to have found his grave in the bosom of the Atlantic. He was succeeded by Rev. Dougald Crawford, a Scotch divine who was 
induced by John McCormic and Duncan McEachin to visit Robeson. In 1789 Mr. Crawford organized Raft Swamp church where Mr. Campbell had 
preached thirty one years before, of which he became the first regular pastor, and which was as stated the first Presbyterian church 
in Robeson county. This church was located near the Lumberton road to William McMillan place in upper Robeson, now Hoke county. In 1799, 
there were five ministers of our church within the boundairies of the Presbytery of Fayetteville. These were Colin Lindsay, without charge; 
Samuel Stanford, who supplied Black River and Brown Marsh, now in Wilmington Presbytery; Angus McDiarmid at Barbecue, Bluff and McKay's; 
John Gillespie at Centre, Laurel Hill, and Raft Swamp, and Robert Tate at South Washington and Rockfish. In 1801 at Barbecue, Malcom McNair, 
Murdock Murphy, Murdock McMillan and Duncan Brown were licensed to preach the gospel. They preached both in the English and Gaelic Language. 
In 1812 the Presbytery of Fayetteville was set off from the Presbytery of Orange.

During all these years there had been a small nucleus of Presbyterians of Scotch descent, living in and near Lumberton. [additional - see Robesonian]

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