Bethany Cemetery, Effingham County, Georgia, Ebenezer Archaeological Report Series, Number 2

On July 14 and 15, 1989, archaeology was conducted within the Bethany settlement in present-day Effingham County, Georgia. This report presents the findings of that study. These efforts were predicated on an unpublished study in historical geography conducted by Raymond Davis, and others. Davis assembled a variety of documentary evidence and presented a convincing argument for the precise location of the Bethany cemetery (Davis 1987). As a result of Davis' thorough detective work, a 1.76 acre tract was deeded to the Georgia Salzburger Society and was designated as the Bethany Cemetery. Plans were formulated for the erection of a stone memorial to commemorate the forgotten colonists at Bethany. Archaeology was implemented to independently confirm the presence of a cemetery at this location and to identify a sample of graves that could be marked with replica wooden slabs as part of an ongoing restoration of the abandoned cemetery. This project was sponsored by the Georgia Salzburger Society (Bethany Cemetery Restoration Committee), Historic Effingham Society, and the LAMAR Institute. The Bethany colony was established by Swabian immigrants in 1751 under the leadership of William G. de Brahm. This settlement was situated on the northern flank of the Ebenezer colony--composed of Swabians, Salzburgers, and other German-speaking groups who practiced the Lutheran faith. [Note: For a detailed account of the Bethany colony consult George F. Jones' The Salzburger Saga. Religious Exiles and Other Germans Along the Savannah, University of Georgia Press, Athens (1984)]. Bethany was situated along the Savannah River and consisted of many "long lot" plantations. Within the central core of Bethany were the Glebe lands which contained a church, school, an cemetery. A colonial plat dated 5. September, 1760 depicts the 100 acre tract deeded t Harman Lemke and others, Church and School Land (Figure 1). In 1760, this Glebe land was bounded on the north by Ludwig Ernst, on the south by Valentine Deppe, on the west by John Happakers, and on the east by the Savannah River. Surviving church records indicate that at least 33 colonists were buried in the cemetery at Bethany between 1757 and 1775 (Voight 1929). A list of those known to be buried at Bethany is shown in Table 1. There were doubtless many others buried there as well. Bethany was - thriving settlement until the onset of the American Revolution. As a result of military occupation, pillaging, and internal strife, Bethany, as well as Ebenezer, became a dead village. During the nineteenth-century lands in the Bethany vicinity were annexed for the formation of large plantations, and consolidation in land holdings occurred. The Bethany cemetery continued to be used for burying the dead until the nineteenth century.