Annual Heritage Day in Effingham County to celebrate Salzburger history in Georgia Annual Heritage Day in Effingham County to celebrate Salzburger history in Georgia A community in Effingham County gathered at New Ebenezer for the Georgia Salzburger Society's annual Heritage Day, celebrating the Salzburgers' enduring legacy of faith, perseverance and religious freedom. The quiet waters of Ebenezer Creek hold the memory of a difficult beginning. In 1734, German-speaking Protestant refugees known as the Salzburgers arrived in Georgia after being expelled from their homeland in present-day Austria. Seeking religious freedom, they established Ebenezer in what is now Effingham County. But the first settlement was plagued by swampy ground, poor farmland, disease and a creek that did not provide the transportation route settlers expected. Many became sick, and dozens died during the community's first years. In 1736, James Oglethorpe allowed the Salzburgers to relocate to higher ground near the Savannah River. The new community became known as New Ebenezer. "Coming here to this community, up on the high bluff that's never flooded and they were really able to thrive," said Erika Bragg, President of the Georgia Salzburger Society. Here, the Salzburgers built a thriving settlement. They operated gristmills and sawmills, produced silk and established Georgia's first Sunday school and one of its earliest orphanages. Their red-brick Jerusalem Lutheran Church, completed in 1769, still…
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