By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

PUMPKINTOWN — Soapstone Baptist Church has been a part of Mable Clarke all her life, and she wants to make sure the church is on a firm financial footing when she is gone.

A fundraiser is underway to pay off the church mortgage’s remaining $50,000, Clarke said.

“We’re down to nine members that’s left at the church,” Clarke said Sunday. “We have to get this paid off by December, because we’re facing a maturity date coming up on the church.”

For the past 14 years, Clarke has been overseeing monthly fish frys to support the church and its slave cemetery. She’s now 78.

“I want to make sure no one can come in and buy the church once I’m gone,” she said. “I need to get this paid off. I want to get rid of that mortgage so the church can be free and clear of the debt.”

The church’s beautiful view of Table Rock makes it tempting to developers, she said.

“Investors are coming out of the woodwork that are interested in that site,” Clarke said. “Because of the beauty out there — it’s picturesque. They say it’s the perfect site for a resort. I can’t see that happen.”

Her ancestors were among the 600 freed slaves who created the Liberia community in Pumpkintown.

“They were told at the time that the land wasn’t fit for anything,” Clarke said. “That was the biggest mistake in the world.”

Clarke’s great-great-great-grandfather was the founder of the original church.

“He built the church and named the church Soapstone after the soapstone rock on the grounds,” she said. “In 1966, the original church was burned by the Klansmen.”

Her parents sold vegetables to help raise the funds to bring the church back, Clarke said.

“They had the church built back in a year,” she said. “It opened in 1967. So I have two legacies here.

The slave cemetery was discovered on the church’s 6 acres in the early 2000s, covered by overgrowth.

Thanks to the work of many, the brush was cleared and the cemetery was restored and preserved.

“This is the rich history of Soapstone and that holy ground here,” Clarke said. “We cannot let that history die.”

Clarke is working on getting the church preserved as a historical site.

“I also want a marker in front of that church,” she said. “I’m on fire and I’m determined that church will be preserved as a historical site and also that no developers can come in and take that history and put a resort there.”

A GoFundMe fundraiser had raised nearly $10,000 of the $50,000 goal as of early this week. The campaign can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/soapstone-church-and-slave-cemetery.

Donations can also be mailed to Soapstone Baptist Church, 296 Liberia Road, Pickens, SC 29671. Make checks out to Soapstone Baptist Church.

“All those funds will be applied to the mortgage,” Clarke said.

Ensuring the church’s future will allow Clarke to keep a promise to her mother, made just before she died at age 104.

“My mom called me to her bedside,” Clarke said. “She said ‘I need two favors. My time is up.’”

Her mother asked Mable to bring her oldest brother home and care for him “until God sends him home to me,” Clark recalled.

“And she said ‘Do not let the doors at Soapstone Church close,’” she said. “‘You find some means to keep the doors open. Pray for God to give you the vision to do that.’

“She asked me for my hand and asked me ‘Will you do that?’” Clarke continued. “Three days later, the angels swarmed around my mother’s bed and took her on to meet her Heavenly Father in Heaven. So far, I have kept those promises.”

She cared for her brother for 11 years.

“The last cross she asked me to bear was to keep those doors open,” Clarke said. “I’m challenging everyone that reads this story — I hope your heart will be touched the way my heart was touched to keep this promise to my mom. All I can say is, to God be the glory.”

She’s in the process of speaking with attorneys in order to obtain legal protection for the historic site.

“I want to get that in place so that site will be preserved once I go on to a new land,” Clarke said. “That’s my legacy I want to leave for people, to give that respect to those slaves that paved the way for not only people of color, but for every mankind person.”

The next fish fry is set for Saturday, June 20, from noon-7 p.m. Organizers won’t be taking call-in orders this time, Clarke said. The cost is $14.

“But they can come and bring their lawn chairs and sit out on the lawn,” she said. “We’ve got 6 acres — there’s plenty of room. Or they can pick it up and take it home.”

The June 20 fish fry will also feature entertaining music, Clarke said.

“We’ve got our ducks in order,” she said. “We’re ready for a big crowd, and hopefully we get a big crowd.”