Francis Asbury (1745-1816), a pioneer bishop of American Methodism, came to Cheraw in 1785 on his first visit to S.C. After being ordained a general superintendent at the first General Conference in Baltimore on December 27, 1784, he traveled toward Charleston with Revs. Woolman Hickson, Jesse Lee, and Henry Willis. They crossed the Great Pee Dee River and arrived in Cheraw on February 17, 1785. Asbury's party spent the night with a Methodist merchant there, and the merchant's clerk told Rev. Jesse Lee (1758-1816) that his native New England needed circuit riders to preach the gospel. The clerk's earnestness so impressed Lee that he later established churches from Connecticut to Maine. Asbury and his party also spent some time in prayer at St. David's Episcopal Church before continuing south.