New Light Beulah Baptist Church will host a special homecoming event in honor of one of its founding spiritual leaders—Reverend William Weston Adams and his descendants. On Sunday, June 1, members of the Adams and Gilmore families will return to New Light Beulah Baptist Church, 1330 Congaree Road, Hopkins, to worship, fellowship, and celebrate a legacy that helped shape the spiritual and cultural foundation of the Lower Richland community.
Reverend William Weston Adams was born of a unique and complex heritage—the son of a White planter, Robert Adams, and an enslaved woman named Dollie. Adams rose from the hardships of bondage to become a pillar of faith and leadership in the post-Civil War South.
On November 11, 1865, he was ordained into the Gospel ministry by Reverend James Lawrence Reynolds, then pastor of Old Beulah (now New Light Beulah) Baptist Church.
Reverend Adams first married Millie, a fellow formerly enslaved woman, and together they raised at least six children, including Reverend Spencer H. Adams, who became a teacher at Beulah School and later served as pastor of Zion Benevolent Baptist Church in Hopkins.
Following Millie’s passing around 1871, Reverend Adams married Louisa Weston, the mixed-race daughter of planter Moultrie Weston and formerly enslaved Sophia Phoebe Ward. Phoebe lived with Moultrie Weston on Grovewood Plantation near McEntire Air National Guard Airbase. Another child of theirs was Deacon Jame H. Weston, a member first of Beulah/New Light Beulah Baptist Church and then Shiloh Baptist, now defunct. Deacon J. H. Weston and Burrell J. Goodson were real estate partners in Lower Richland.
Reverend Adams and Louisa had eight children, among them Mary Maria (Marion) Adams, who later married John T. Gilmore Jr., son of a former South Carolina State Representative.
Everyone is invited to come and be part of this historic gathering. The day’s events will begin with Sunday School at 9 a.m., followed by morning worship, children’s church, and youth church starting at 10:15 a.m.
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