SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 - 7:00 P.M.
LAURENS COUNTY MUSEUM
MAGNOLIA ROOM
116 SOUTH PUBLIC SQUARE
LAURENS, SOUTH CAROLINA
Robert Ryals of Fort Mill South Carolina is a fifteen year committed historian speaker and reenactor that has pursued his passion to living history. He is a ‘story-teller of facts and owner of Walkin’ Talkin’ Tours. He will tell you up front that this business is not for the money but to tell the stories and get people interested in history. He has traveled all over the South to participate in war reenactments and will readily explain, “those of us who do this love telling the story.”
Mr. Ryals graduated from Florida State University with a Masters of Arts, Historical Administration and Public History. He is also a proud recipient of the Allen Parker Scholarship from the Florida Huguenot Society and the National Huguenot Society Scholarship. Mr. Ryals currently serves on the Lancaster County 250 Committee.
Mr. Ryals will be speaking on Reverend William Martin who was the first Irish-born Minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, which had been introduced by Scottish settlers in the 1660s.
In 1760 as Minister of the oldest congregation in the Irish Church Council, it was a time of economic hardship made worse by demands for higher rents. These evictions provoked a secret society the Hearts of Steel and these troubled times reached their height in 1772 and affected many of Reverend Martin’s congregation.
Speaking from the pulpit in 1772, Martin encouraged his congregation to escape their suffering under landlord rule and to him to South Carolina. One thousand individuals, representing four hundred and sixty-seven families of different religious denominations, sailed to Charleston, South Carolina. Upon landing, these families were given land in the interior, which they cleared and settled to begin farming.
Reverend Martin was minister in a church in Chester that was called a ‘Catholic church’ at the time because it was interdenominational. By 1794 he had his own Reformed Presbyterian congregation in a church they had built for themselves. Because of his experiences in Ireland, Martin opposed colonial rule and fought against the British in the American War of Independence. He died in October 1806 at the age of 77 after falling from a horse and was buried near his home.
The church is also strong in America, particularly in South Carolina, where Reformed Presbyterians still honor the memory of Reverend William Martin, not just for his work as a churchman but also for being a patriot.
A suggestive donation of $5 for those not members of the Museum
Members and those 18 years of age and younger are free
For more information, call (864) 681-3678
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