Papers, 1839-1896 and undated, of this Presbyterian minister; chiefly sermons and notes of lectures; "Autobiographical notes" and journal, 1 Sept. 1859-25 June 1861. Salutatory address [1839] as second honor graduate at S.C. College; letter, 15 Dec. 1858, "committee" call to supply the Hopewell [Pee Dee Presbytery] Presbyterian Church; Frierson began his "Autobiographical notes" on 1 Sept. 1859 while he was serving Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Marion District, S.C. He was the second of eight sons of Daniel and Martha Jane McIntosh Frierson. His father was a ruling elder of the Presbyterian church in Kingstree, and young David joined the church at age eleven at the Brewington camp meeting. He recalled that when questioned by the session, "I remember shedding tears.... I approached the Lord's table for the first time with a vague feeling of solemnity but without any distinct knowledge of myself or of my new position." Following his relocation in 1858 to Hopewell, Frierson organized a Sunday School for both white and African American slave children in the area and "gathered between 130 and 140 negro children into my class." His wife had been in poor health and following her death, 16 Aug. 1859, Frierson's autobiographical notes became an occasional journal that runs until June 1861; Frierson comments on his struggle to deal with grief at the death of his wife, which left him a single parent, and with tobacco, the use of which he renounced on 3 Oct. 1859, condeming it as detrimental to one's moral and physical health, although later entries note that he subsequently succumbed to its temptations. Frierson's journal concluded, 25 June 186, with his sole reference to the Civil War, "The political storm which began to mutter last December, is now in full tide in the firmament." Letter, 11 Aug. 1863, Chickamauga [Ga.], to Mrs. McPherson, re camp life, his ministry among the soldiers, participation in whorship, and comments on Arkansas men and their separation from home by the Mississippi River. Later items include Frierson's essays: "Practical Treatment of the Mode of Baptism" (1891, 4 pp.); "Prize Essay on the Origin, Nature and Observance o fthe Sabbath" (28 pp.); and a typescript copy [ca.1880?] of the prayer offered upon the dedication of the First Presbyterian Church of Anderson, S.C. Bound items, include volume, 1840-1865, "Compendious Discourses on Christian Theology," (microfilm, R.114) begun at Theological Seminary, Columbia, S.C., with notes on lectures, sermons, an account of the "First General Assembly of the [Presbyterian Church] Confederate States of America", a catechism and list of questions written for ministry to African American slaves (Nov. 1863), and "Explanations of difficult passages" (22 Feb. 1863); Scrapbook volume, 1875-1881, containing articles from various Presbyterian publications and several printed pamphlets: "A Tract: Infant Church Membership" [1870s?], and "Pastoral of S.C. Presbytery, to the Elders, Deacons, and Members of the Churches," in which Frierson as Chairman, scolds the members for a perceived decline in piety and obervance based on reports read during a recent session at Liberty, S.C., "We were distressed, dear bretheren, at the evidences of lapsed household religion shown in the narratives...."
