At the campgrounds, in the center of the circled cabins, is a large Tabernacle. In every camp we have gone to they are very big. I read somewhere Indian Fields can sit about 900 people.
The photographs below were taken from several back seats point of view using an OM-1 (1), Olympus 40-150 r. The lens was chosen because it seems to give more contrast than others. It might be me, but paid a grand total of US $ 60.00 for it…very used and I love how a light plastic lens can work like this.
Tabernacle, Indian Fields
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Indian Fields Campground is a Methodist site for camp meetings. It is one of about 5 in South Carolina. The local church was founded in 1787. Revival meetings started out as tents and an arbor for the circuit preacher. In 1801 / 1803 the official campgrounds was created.
Indian Fields Methodist Revival Campground
The design of the campground was taken from the Book of Leviticus in the Bible. In there, dwellings were called tents, though made of wood, and the meeting house was called the tabernacle. A horn was blown to summon members to service.
There are 99 tents/cabins built around an open air Tabernacle, just as described in the Bible.
Over time the cabins and Tabernacle have been rebuilt, or at least repaired. In a visit to the Cypress Campground in South Carolina we were invited into a tent. The building was mostly original!
Indian Fields Methodist Revival CampgroundIndian Fields Methodist Revival Campground
Indian Fields is privately owned by the Methodist Church in Dorchester County, South Carolina.
One of the most interesting history stories in the ‘Biggins/ Cooper River Area’, and I almost forgot we visited the same day as Biggins Church.
Mepkins history starts at 1681. It was a plantation recorded as owned by three sons of Lord Colleton one of the original British Lord Proprietors for the colonies.
A generation later it was sold to Henry Laurens who took residence here with his wife Elizabeth Ball from the Comingtee Plantation. Elias Ball was a founder of Strawberry Chapel published in an earlier related article. My first time photographing inside Strawberry was with one of the current Ball family members who are still in charge of the Chapel 300 years later.
Laurens was an early activist for independence, he was captured at sea, spending two years in the famous ‘Tower of London’. He was eventually traded in a prisoner swap for the famous British General Cornwallis.
Laurens also was President of the US Continental Congress and signed the US Declaration of Independence.
But wait, there’s more…
Mepkin Plantation / Abbey
In 1936 Henry R. and Clare Boothe Luce bought the plantation.
Henry Robinson Luce was an American magazine publisher who founded Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated. Clare Boothe Luce was an American writer, politician, diplomat, and conservative public intellectual. Both were important politicians in US history.
Mepkin Plantation / Abbey
And finally…
The Luces donated a large part of the property to the Roman Catholic Church to be used by the Trappist Order’s Gethsemani Abbey. Twenty-nine monks of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) came from Gethsemani, Kentucky to found the Abbey.
Mepkin Plantation / Abbey
The Mepkin Abbey (Plantation) is currently a monastery for Trappist Monks, and a very friendly dog.
These last photographs in the project were shot behind the private area of Mepkin along the Cooper River… and a short distance from Biggins Church and Strawberry Chapel.
To view the other locations related to the plantations/churches on the Cooper River click here.
Strawberry Chapel is the only remaining building from Childsbury Towne. The chapel was built on land donated from the nearby plantations.
Now, 300 years later, it is still owned by the descendants of the original plantations owners. No federal funding is accepted to keep the property independent, and closed to the public.
Photographs from inside the chapel are rare. It took me 6 years to get access. At that time there was some repairs underway. In March of 2026 we can have our next visit inside.
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
The history and stories here are too many to write on this page. The Ball family members of Comingtee and Ball plantation alone have many historical references, documents, and even a NY Times best seller book about them.
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Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (5) Strawberry Chapel 1725 – 2025
As part of my photographing the Biggins Church area an important piece is the old site Childsbury. It is part of the Biggins history because the site belong to the churches parish. The town doesn’t exist now except for a chapel and grave sites.
A bit dramatic on the images, but there’s nothing else left.
Biggins/ Cooper River Area, Childsbury Towne (4)
Childsbury Towne was founded in 1707 on land owned by the Childs Plantation. The Cooper River is just beyond the trees here. It was the central purpose town. Interesting but Childsbury was created as an idea to have a place for plantations to get services and move goods down river to the port of Charleston.
Biggins/ Cooper River Area, Childsbury Towne (4)
For 50 years there was a general store, leather tanner, access to the Strawberry Ferry, a doctor, tavern, and chapel. Financially it didn’t work and all the services closed. The Chapel remains… the historical treasure that most people don’t know.
In this area, outside the towns, was a countryside filled with plantations. There was Comingtee, Ball, Strawberry, Mepkin, Rice Hope, and several others.
Biggins/ Cooper River Area, Childsbury Towne (4)
This is now woods, a wildlife area, and a dead end black top to here, Childsbury.
Like most of the churches outside the Charleston area Biggins Church was directly involved with both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. And like most others the church was damaged/burned/destroyed a few times. Surprisingly the area suffered as much from the revolution as the US Civil War, which started down the road a few miles.
First during the Revolutionary War, British and Loyalist troops used the church and burned it with anything the Patriots could need when they retreated to Charleston. The revolution history here can get confusing real fast. It can seem like everybody was fighting everybody else. There were three side. The obvious British, also the Patriots, and just as important were the Loyalists. Not all of the population wanted the British to leave. Many in Charleston, and other big cities, were making money and living well.
A movie named ‘The Patriot’ with Mel Gibson (who played a real life local Patriot Francis Marion) shows what the revolution was like in South Carolina. It was filmed all around the Lowcountry.
The church was repaired and again in use until towards the end of the US Civil War. Federal troops marched on Charleston and surrounded much of the plantation areas damaging the Lowcountry towns.
Biggins Church never recovered. The population of the south used anything available to rebuild after the war. Much of Biggins was scavenged for materials to rebuild Moncks Corner, SC., and finally a forest fire burned what was left.
Biggins/ Cooper River Area (2)
Biggins Church is only one piece of history that can be seen and photographed n this area. There were many smaller plantations on the Cooper River.
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Most plantation photos and related wildlife on this site is from along the Ashley River side around Charleston. The other side of Charleston is the Cooper River area. Again plantations in the past, but there they disappeared over time.
The Berkeley county / Cooper River plantations were not large, they suffered from the same wars, fire, and earthquakes, but never came back from them. Many were purchased for their timber and left to fade into the forests and swamps.
The history of the area is incredible, there to see and touch, finding it is the trick.
Below is the original entrance to the Biggins Church, like I said… finding it is not always easy, the new entrance area is not much better.
Biggins/ Cooper River Area
This Anglican Parish church, Biggins, has been burned and looted over the centuries. What’s left is a brick shell, ruins surrounded by fencing for protection. The grave yard remains, and there have been recent burials since the old founding families from 1720’s are still around.
Biggins / Cooper River AreaBiggins/ Cooper River Area
Recently we photographed all around this area one wet day. I will try to publish a few articles all related to the history of this immediate area. This is an important area in US history but the fine details of places like this are not in the history books you typically have.
I started here, at Biggins Church, since the early life of planters focused around the small Anglican Parish.
I thought this might be an interesting project for the winter days ahead.
