Organized in 1839 and named for Saint John's, Berkeley Parish, this was the third Episcopal church established north of Columbia. The Rev. Josiah Obear became its first rector in 1841, serving from 1841 to 1849 and again from 1875 to 1882. The first sanctuary, a wood-frame building, was built on Fairfield St. in 1842. During the Civil War, many families who fled the lowcountry and lived in Winnsboro as refugees worshipped there. The original sanctuary was burned by Union troops in February 1865. A second wood-frame sanctuary, designed in the Carpenter Gothic style by former rector the Rev. John DeWitt McCullough, was built on Liberty St. in 1869 and burned in 1888. The present brick sanctuary, designed in the Gothic style by architect R.S. Schuyler and constructed by contractor George Waring, was consecrated in 1889.