Bell Chapel (Methodist)
Abbeville's Rural Churches
Ben Carlton's WPA Sketches and Notes (1939)

Bell's Chapel (Methodist) was located about 300 yards off the Antreville-
Lowndesville road a mile and a half south of Antreville. Carlton learned from 
its members that it dated from 1855, and its first pastor was the Rev. W.W. 
Jones. One of our older members told him that it was given its name because Dr. 
John Bell donated the church lot. Another member said that "the first building 
was used as a 'Union' church by the different denominations." The Press & 
Banner, October 6, 1886, reported that the Rev. S.J. Bethea was conducting 
meetings in the five charges in his Abbeville circuit which included Bell's 
Chapel where it said that a congregation was "recently organized," but the work 
had to be held "in open air until a building could be put up." In August 31, 
1887, the paper noted "an unusual occurrence Tuesday at Bell's Chapel at the 
close of a ten day meeting held by the Rev. S.J. Bethea, I.E., the taking into 
full membership of sixty members, together with the baptism of forty five or 
fifty of those same members. The new church was organized at that place.
The story which Carlton garnered from its members in 1939 was that there had 
been a building there from 1857 to 1891 when "it was blown down by a wind 
storm," and it had been used as a school building. A new building was put up 
about 1891, a rectangular frame structure (36' by 42'), and in 1918 its wooden 
steps were replaced with concrete ones. In 1939, the Rev. J.H. Manly, Abbeville 
RFD #1, had been its pastor since 1935, and its membership about 260.