Mount Elon Baptist Church
Mount Elon Baptist Church organized in 1831. The congregation was among the first to join the Welsh Neck Baptist Association, formed in 1832. The church’s name translates to “Mountain of Oaks” in Hebrew and was taken from nearby Mount Elon Post Office. Congregants shared ministers with other local churches until 1908, when Rev. H.B. Jones was hired as Mount Elon’s first full-time pastor.
In 1855, an enslaved man named Enoch became Mount Elon’s first African American deacon. Female members gained the right to vote in calling new preachers in 1859. In the early 1870s, Mount Elon members organized one of the first Baptist women’s missionary societies in S.C. The current Carpenter Gothic church was built in 1911 and is Mount Elon’s third church building.
Where it stands. 1132 W. Lydia Hwy. (S.C. Hwy. 34), Lydia, Lydia