Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Bethlehem Lutheran Church grew from services held in the 1780's at nearby Wicker's Camp Ground and was formally organized in 1816 with Rev. Godfrey Dreher as its first pastor, after which a log meeting house was built on this site. In 1830 its third pastor, Rev. John G. Schwartz, founded the first Lutheran seminary in the South here in Pomaria at the home of Col. John Eichelberger. In 1855 the S.C. Synod met here and voted to establish a Lutheran college at Newberry. Among the notables buried in the churchyard are Col. John Eichelberger, a veteran of the American Revolution, Rev. John G. Schwartz, and Rev. Thaddeus Boinest, who encouraged the German settlement of the Dutch Fork region. The present church was built in 1881-82 and remodeled in 1942 and 1966.

South Carolina · United States