John Feaster oversaw the construction of the buildings now included in the national historic district.

The construction of the church building in 1831 coincided with the formation of the South Carolina Convention of Universalists in November 1830.

[4]  The academy buildings were constructed in 1845 as a commercial enterprise to provide educational facilities to area residents.

The school has alternately been referred to as an “academy,” “female seminary” and “boarding house.” The grounds and buildings continue to be used for private yearly family reunions.

A significant percentage of those settling in this area were German Baptists or related religious sects such as the Schwenkfelders, Moravians, Mennonites, Quakers and Amish.

Into the Feaster – Frie marriage six children were born, John (1768–1848), Susannah (1769–1829), Margaret (1770–1825), Andrew (1777–1808), Alice “Ailsey” (1781–1830) and Jacob (1791–1872).

She cites a 1774 petition by Andrew Feaster for a land grant in Wilkes County, Georgia.

However, due to agitation by local Native Americans, Feaster abandoned his Georgia land grants and moved to South Carolina.

For the purposes of this article, it will be assumed that Feaster and his large family arrived in Beaver Creek along the Broad River in Fairfield County, South Carolina in the late 1770s.

In a personal historic reflection printed in 1880 in the newspapers about Feaster and other early settlers in the Beaver Creek area, the author said, “[They] were called Dunkards and were the only men seen with unshaven faces.”[7] Dunkards (alternatively Tunkers, First Day Baptists) were associated with the Schwarzenau Brethren, a branch formed from the Anabaptists in Germany by Alexander Mack in 1708.

The Brethren adopted adult (vs. infant) baptism via a three-time immersion, giving rise to the term Dunkards.

Clayton stated that Feaster and his son John preached salvation for all in their Dunkard church.

Nonetheless, from 1780 to 1830, three preachers, David Martin, Giles Chapman and Elijah Linch moved the Feasters and their Brethren neighbors to Universalism.

Morgan Edwards, a Baptist historian, offered a 1772 first hand observation of Martin's labors, noting that despite having no meetinghouse, his Beaver Creek Brethren congregation included 25 families and 50 baptized members.

Edwards evidently had sufficient personal contact with David Martin to describe him as having an "excellent character" and that he is "facetious and devout at the same time."

"[10] Martin additionally preached to non-German-speaking settlers, forming a congregation of English Dunkers and Seventh Day Baptists in the Clouds Creek area.

[10] Thomas Whittemore in The History of Universalism in America offered that around 1780 Martin was led to doubt the validity of the doctrine of endless punishment by the works of the English clergyman William Law.

Winchester, who would later become a leading voice for Universalism, was the pastor of the Welsh Neck Baptist Church (1775–1779) on the Peedee River in South Carolina.

He was beyond all doubt an eloquent and a gifted preacher; and seemed to me to be inspired with a full portion of the holy and divine spirit, which taught ‘God is Love.’”[13] Although Martin and Chapman preached universal salvation, they and their Dunkard followers did not consider themselves Universalists.

[14] By 1805 Linch joined Chapman in preaching Universalist sermons in Fairfield, Newberry and other nearby districts.

A contemporary news account regarding the second meeting of the South Carolina Convention of Universalists in September 1831 in Feasterville commented upon the zeal of the local brothers “in building the Liberty Meeting House.”[17]  This account documents that the current structure on the Liberty Universalist lot was erected as early as September 1831.

The Liberty Universalist and Newberry churches were later joined by societies that formed in Lexington, Laurens, Anderson and Abbeville districts.

Clayton, in his autobiography, recalled that among the congregants who responded to his 1871 call for individuals to commit themselves to a re-organization of the church was Jennie Coleman, the great-great-granddaughter of the family patriarch Andrew Feaster Sr.[19] Six years passed, however, before the church was officially re-organized in 1877.

Membership growth in the only Universalist church in the state showed modest gains, rising to 58 by 1887.

Dire financial conditions in the late 1920s did not bode well for South Carolina cotton farmers nor a revival of the church's fortunes.

Thomas Chapman, a native South Carolinian, now living in Georgia occasionally travelled to the Feasterville church to provide services.

Mrs. Catharine Ladd, who had previously taught at the Brattonsville Female Seminary in York County, South Carolina and more recently (1842–1844) at the Woodward Academy in Winnsboro, was appointed principal.

[26]  Academic courses included spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, Latin, French and music.