The Parsonage Relocation Survey

This project was an emergency archaeological salvage survey situation, which was brought on by the construction of Ebenezer Elementary School by Effingham County. As plans for the school construction were far along, it was realized by members of the Georgia Salzburger Society and local residents that the construction site was the former Ebenezer parsonage tract and a standing structure on the site was the parsonage building. The owner of the building donated the building to the Georgia Salzburger Society, but plans for the school construction proceeded. The Salzburgers began a rush to gather funds to finance moving the building onto another site. After some discussion, the site selected for the parsonage was in a wooded area west of the Weitman-Fail house, northwest of the Salzburger Museum, and a short distance east of Georgia Highway 275. From an archaeologists perspective, this was not the optimal site for the building, since it would impact portions of the First Tything, West Ward, which contained colonial period houses during the early years at New Ebenezer. Calvin Seckinger contacted Daniel Elliott and an emergency survey project was scheduled. This report details the results of this study. Archaeological survey was conducted on a portion of the West Ward, First Tything of New Ebenezer (9EF28) on February 22, 23, and 24, 1995 (Figure 1). New Ebenezer is located at the eastern terminus of Georgia Highway 275 at the Savannah River in Effingham County, Georgia. The project was performed for the Jerusalem Lutheran Church by the LAMAR Institute, Inc. in order to determine the impact of relocating a historical parsonage building on a portion of the New Ebenezer town site. This research is part of an ongoing research effort by the LAMAR Institute, Inc., i n collaboration with the Jerusalem Lutheran Church, Georgia Salzburger Society, and New Ebenezer Kessler Trust, to document the archaeological remains of this important colonial town site (Elliott 1988, Elliott and Elliott 1991).