Ebenezer, Georgia

Ebenezer, also known as New Ebenezer, is a ghost town in Effingham County, Georgia, United States, along the banks of Ebenezer Creek. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as Ebenezer Townsite and Jerusalem Lutheran Church in 1974.

Ebenezer Townsite and Jerusalem Lutheran Church
Jerusalem Lutheran Church
LocationEffingham County, Georgia
Nearest cityRincon, Georgia / Springfield, Georgia
Coordinates32.376667°N 81.180833°W / 32.376667; -81.180833
Built1767
NRHP reference No.74000674[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 4, 1974

History
Map of New Ebenezer, founded 1736

The town was established in 1734[2] by about 150 Salzburger emigrants, Protestant refugees who had been expelled from the Catholic Archbishopric of Salzburg (in present-day Austria) by a 1731 edict of Prince-archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian. With the consent of governor James Oglethorpe, New Ebenezer was moved closer to the Savannah River in 1736, and at its new location many silk mills were opened. The Salzburger's pastor, the Reverend Johann Martin Boltzius, sought to build "a religious utopia on the Georgia frontier." That idea was very successful for a time, and the economy thrived. Jerusalem Lutheran Church was completed in 1769, and is the fourth-oldest building in Georgia.[3]

But, after the British invasion of 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, the town was severely damaged. It never fully recovered, although it briefly served as the capital of Georgia in 1782. It was made the county seat of Effingham County in 1797, but two years later the seat was transferred to Springfield, taking much county business with it. By the time Ebenezer was abandoned in 1855, the town covered only 1/4 square mile. The Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church is one of the few buildings that has survived in Ebenezer, and is believed to have the oldest continuing congregation in the state.

The Ebenezer Townsite and Jerusalem Lutheran Church were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 4, 1974. The New Ebenezer Camp, established 1977, is located in former Ebenezer. In 1987, the LAMAR Institute began an archaeological study of Ebenezer. Several reports from its researchers are available online at the institute's website.[4]

One of the more notable people from Ebenezer was John A. Treutlen, the first state governor of Georgia.

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Morgan, Ted, Wilderness at Dawn: the Settling of the North American Continent, Chapter 13 (The Salzburger Frontier), Simon & Schuster, New York, 1993
  3. Runyon, Shane A.; Davis, Robert Scott, Jr. (March 18, 2005). "Ebenezer". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Georgia Humanities Council. Retrieved July 7, 2008.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. http://thelamarinstitute.org
  • Swihart, Altman K. (1960). "The Lutheran Church in America, The Colonial Period". Luther and the Lutheran Church. New York: Philosophical Library. p. 273.
  • Wolf, Richard C. (1965). "A Land of Hopes and Dreams, Salzburgers in Georgia: 1734". Lutherans in North America. Philadelphia: Lutheran Church Press. pp. 18–20.
  • Daniel T. Elliott; Elliott, Rita f. (1991). "Seasons in the Sun: 1989 & 1990 Excavations at New Ebenezer" (PDF). The LAMAR Institute. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  • Historical maps of Ebenezer Settlement at the State and University Library of Bremen
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