OBITUARIES

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REV. ISAAC GRIER, D.D.

It becomes our duty to announce the death of the Rev. Isaac Grier, D. D., which occurred at his residence in Mecklenburg County, N. C., on the afternoon of the 2d of November. He was born in Greene Co., Georgia, in the eventful year of 1776, being the first Presbyterian minister born in that state, and was baptized by an itinerating Covenanter minister, the Rev. Mr. Martin, in Cabarrus Co., N. C., where his father had taken refuge from the more dangerous hostilities on the frontier. He received his academical education under the Rev. Messrs. Cunningham and Cummins, who conducted an academy in Georgia. He graduated in 1800 at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., under the presidency of the distinguished Dr. Nesbit. In the absence of theological seminaries, there being none at that time in the United States, he prosecuted his theological studies under the Rev. Mr. Porter, the pastor of Long Cane. Abbeville District, S. C., and received license Sept. 2, 1802. In 1804, he was ordained at Sardis, Mecklenburg, N. C., and installed pastor of that congregation in connection with Providence and Waxhaus [sic], each place receiving one third of his labors, it being a provision in the meantime that the latter place, in consequence of the distance, should be stricken off as soon as another more convenient congregation should be substituted. Accordingly, in 1808, Steel Creek, having been demitted by Mr. Blackstocks, was taken under his pastoral superintendence in place of Waxhaw. In 1815, having resigned his charge at Providence, he divided his time equally between Sardis and Steel Creek, and so continued their pastor until resignation in 1842. It deserves to be recorded, not so much in praise of the deceased, as an example worthy of imitation by surviving ministers, that perhaps [p.4] nowhere in the Southern Synod has there been so happy an influence exerted among the colored people, as put forth by him among those in the limits of his charge many of whom are now professing Christians, claiming him as their spiritual father. his ministry was blessed in another channel.... about two thirds of the ministers and probationeers now constituting the First Presbytery, were brought up under his ministerial charge....

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Death & Marriage Notices, 1843-1863, p.3

Source Information: Wells, Lawrence K, and Brent H. Holcomb, ed.. South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 1-20 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 1999. Original data: Wells, Lawrence K., ed.. The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research. Vol. I-XX. Columbia, SC, USA: SCMAR, 1973-1992.

submitted by: Valeria Reckert