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UPDATED: 06/02/04         Send Feedback        Visitors: 

D. Wilhelm Giedinghagen,
a.k.a. Rev. William Giadinghagin,
1824 - 1902, found in S.C.

Thanks to Russ Wright, a Marine stationed at Camp LeJeune, NC, we now believe that a missing member of the Giedinghagen family has been found in a small country churchyard.  Russ's father is pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Gaffney, SC.  Gaffney is near the North Carolina border in the western part of South Carolina.

Russ and his father were exploring an old section of the church cemetery when they discovered two old tombstones lying on their backs.  One had been broken and pieced back together, making some parts difficult to read.  The family name on the tombstones was "Giadinghagin".  One was Rev. William, the other, apparently his wife, read "GillyAnn".

Amongst the somewhat extensive information on Rev. William Giadinghagin's stone was the fact that he was born on Jan 17, 1824 (as indicated in our records), came from Germany in June 1854 from "...alia" (Westphalia), the name of the location partially obliterated by the crack.  He died in 1902, and GillyAnn died Mar 8, 1908.  Although there was no evidence of children in the family, Russ reported that there were several unmarked graves close to those of the couple.

As an amateur genealogist, Russ was interested by the unusual name and the age of the tombstone.  He decided to search the internet for the name.  Google suggested "Giedinghagen" as a possible alternative spelling, and led him to this site, where he found information that appears to confirm the identification of Rev. William Giadinghagin as the same D. Wilhelm Giedinghagen mentioned on pages 5 and 6 of our Giedinghagen story.

Mount Ararat Baptist Church  was founded and the first church building erected in 1825.  Baptisms were performed in a natural spring behind the church.  That spring also served as a source of drinking water.  A new church building was built in 1890.  Later in the 1890's the congregation built an outdoor baptistry about 25 feet forward of the spring so members would not have to get muddy wading in the spring.  The baptistry had to be filled bucket by bucket.  Later an indoor baptistry was added in the church.

The Wright Family (left to right)
Russ, Rev. Wright, Brennan, Shannon, Caroline

Rev. Tommy R. Wright, Russ's father and pastor at Mount Ararat Baptist Church, also teaches high school in the area.  Rev. Wright reviewed some old church records and found that Rev. William Giadinghagin was a member of the church, but not the church pastor.  Rev. Giadinghagin did serve on the Education Committee of the Broad River Baptist Association, which operated in what was then a much larger county than the present one.  At that time, the role of ministers in education involved active teaching of reading to enable members to study the Bible.  The Broad River Baptist Association operated as part of the Southern Baptist Association.

The church is situated in a community known as McKown's Mountain, about six miles southeast of Gaffney, at 412 McKowns Mountain Rd.  In the 1850's, the area was known as Gowdeysville, and was part of a much larger Union County until 1897.  At that time Union County was divided into a number of smaller counties, and the community became part of Cherokee County.

The area around Gaffney and McKown's Mountain includes several Revolutionary War battlefields including Cowpens and Kings Mountain.