"When that tide of Scot-Irish emigration, which flowed southward from Pennsylvania, had peopled that fertile region between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, it continued to flow westward, and gradually the valley and great watershed between the Catawba and Broad Rivers was occupied by the same sturdy race. In this way, what is now known as York County, South Carolina but which was then a part of Tryon county, North Carolina was settled.

How characteristic of this Presbyterian people, in whose history, religion had been for so long a time a potent and potential factor, that churches should be seen springing up almost contemporary with the settlement itself. Of these, …,the Waxhaw Church in Lancaster County, South Carolina is the oldest, having been organized in 1755; Catholic, in Chester County, organized in 1759, is the second oldest, and Bethel, organized in 1764, is third…"

Bethel was organized by Rev. William Richardson, who was at the time minister at "the Waxhaws" in Lancaster county, but he did extensive missionary work in the regions between the Catawba and Broad Rivers. The site was selected by Mr. Andrew Floyd, Mr. Adam Baird, and Col. Samuel Watson. These men resided at extreme points from each other. They agreed to meet at the spring and realized from the distance each had traveled that they were approximately in the center of the congregational boundaries. Thus, "as the spot was pleasant to look upon, and water was near, they fixed upon this as the site of the building." The congregation, in the beginning, covered an area of about 20 square miles.

In 1770, Rev. Hezekiah Balch, a member of Orange Presbytery, which extended over the entire state of North Carolina, received and accepted a call to Bethel. During his pastorate, we can only imagine what life was like, with the onslaught of the Revolutionary War.

Members of Bethel "were Whigs, that is, patriots, to a man". Such strong and unanimous support of the Revolution was quite unusual in the South Carolina Upcountry. Because of geographical isolation of their region, most Upcountry people had not felt the heavy hand of British rule as often or as directly as had their follow Carolinians in Charleston and the Low-country. Thus many Upcountry residents were unwilling to risk their lives and fortunes (however small) in open rebellion against the strongest military power in the world. As a result probably no more than half of all free residents of the Upcountry supported the Revolution. The other half of the population, the half that was not patriot was divided into two groups. A relatively small group, the Tories, remained openly and unequivocally loyal to the British Crown, and sometimes fought bloody battles against the Whigs. A substantially larger group, probably amounting to roughly one-third of the total Upcountry population, simply preferred being left out of the struggle all together. These "non-participants" as they were called, supported neither side, and demanded, usually in vain, that they be left alone.