Shady Grove Campground

Established about 1870, this is the largest of four Methodist campgrounds in Dorchester County. Tradition holds that a group of Freedpeople stopped in a grove here for shelter from a storm. Rice planter S. M. Knight asked them to help harvest his fields and after they did so he gave them this spot as a place of worship. They named it Shady Grove. Typical of 19th-century evangelical campgrounds are the “tents,” rough-hewn cabins where worshippers live during several days of services, and a central “tabernacle.” The original tents burned in 1958 and were replaced. Services still take place in late October.

KEYWORDS: METHODIST, CAMPGROUND, RICE, DORCHESTER COUNTY