Thumbnail History of Zion Lutheran Church,
Lexington County, S. C.;
ZLC web site

1. Where was the church?  The original church congregation was formed at least as early as 1745, in Lexington County, S. C. near the Saluda River in what was known as the Switzer's Neck area near the pre-Revolutionary (Colonial) Godfrey Dreher Fort. War Between the States Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman called it (in his journal) "the Dutch Church". This area in central S. C., largely centered in what later became Lake Murray, is still known amongst locals as the Dutch Fork area (a corruption of the German words, Deutsch Volk ["German Folks"]). These Germanic ancestors largely emigrated out of the Rhine River area of the German Palatinate along the German-Swiss border.
   
   The Dutch Fork arose (to describe a large central S. C. area) after the Royal Colonial Township Act of 1730 created 10 "townships", the 20,000 acre Congaree Township being one (centerred on the west bank of the Congaree (West Columbia and Cayce). Friday's Ferry was at the current west base of the Gervais Street Bridge. That "Congaree Township" name was changed to the colonial township of Saxe Gotha in 1735, and immigrants then began to arrive. Though a town plan was laid out, there was no actual "town" of Saxe Gotha (a name in honor of of the marriage of the British Prince of Wales to Princess Augusta of the German state of Saxe Gotha). Saxe Gotha District was much larger at 35 miles long & 30 miles wide (625,000 acres). Granby Village arose (1760), the Fort Congaree site of 1718 being at about the downstream edge of what would become Granby Village. And the Fort Congaree site of 1748 (50 years later) was located on the upstream edge of Granby Village, just downstream from the western end of the current Blossom Street Bridge. Leading up to the Revolutionary War, Granby Village was one of the most important inland towns east of the Mississippi (it was the center of a coastal spur from the Charlotte, N. C. point of the Philadelphia Wagon Road [map] through Camden, the current Cayce area...Granby Village...and thence to Charleston). This area is documented in the Cayce Museum as having yielded up an amazing collection of artifacts going back 12,000 years (the probable site of an important permanent Congree Indian village).

   The Switzer's neck area is just upstream of the confluence of the Saluda & Broad rivers. It begins upstream of Granby/Saxe Gotha (present-day Cayce and West Columbia). In about 1757-60, the Saxe Gotha Township area had about 66 families & a population of about 1000. This is across the river westward of what is now our state capitol city, Columbia (the town of Columbia was founded in 1786, the new capital city site having legislatively passed for that Taylor Plantation location rather than Granby Village by a single vote!). "Lexington County" became the new name for Saxe Gotha District in 1785 (in honor of the Rev. War battle in Mass.). Saxe Gotha switched to the small crossroads town of Lexington in 1820 (jail & wooden court house bulit) and was actually incorporated in 1861. Here is a good on-line resource for Lexington County, S. C.

   Lake Murray: Plans were concieved as early as 1904 for this 78 square mile (54,000 acres) lake named after the yankee engineer from New York who headed up its planning and construction (finished by 1932). HERE is the write-up by Mr. Boozer; HERE is Wikipedia.
     

2. How was the name chosen?  Formed at least as early as 1745, there is no record of how the name was chosen. “Zion” in the Bible refers to the city of God, ancient Jerusalem atop Mount Zion in present-day Israel. “Zion” is an honored church name throughout the history of Christendom.
     
3. Zion being ELCA Lutheran, who can be members? Originally a church mostly of rural farmers, Zion currently has former Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, etc., as well as multi-generational life-long Lutherans whose ancestry harks back to original colonial immigrants. A very old congregation by American historical standards, she is modern and proud of her outreach to the entire spectrum of our community, especially the young in age and heart. Come join us at Zion Lutheran Church!
     
4. What is the very early colonial history of drawing European immigrants here? The pre-revolutionary South Carolina Township Act of 1730 established eight inland townships.  Most were within 60 miles of the coast & on rivers. Incentives were created to draw immigrants to form settlements in interior S. C. to act as protective buffers against Indians and others attacking the British subjects around the colonial seaport capitol of Charleston, S. C.  Protestants were lured from various European areas & promised 100 acres per head of household and 50 acres for wife and each child above maybe 12 years of age...plus a town lot...plus tools & provisions for the first year. The German & Swiss immigrants were directed to the area of Saxe Gotha (the area of present-day Lexington County), over 100 miles inland and containing the very important village of Granby. Germany being “Deutschland”, the present day area between present day I-20 and the Broad River (Switzer's Neck being west of the Saluda & about Gervais St. bridge to highway #6 going over Lake Murray dam) became known up to the present day as the “Dutch Fork” (much of the area  being in the "fork" between the Saluda & Broad Rivers ["Saluda Fork"]...but the name is a corruption of the German words, Deutsch Volk ["German Folks"]). In the late 1700s & early 1800s, this "strict" Dutch Fork between the Saluda & Broad Rivers had a western divide at about what was Ridge Road south of Prosperity, the German folk tending to be eastward (downstream) and the Irish on westward; and it was centered 3 or so miles around old St. John's Lutheran Church near Pomaria. As with Jacob Drafts who arrived in S. C. 1743/44 (my wife's ancestor), some family lines have continued for many generations at Zion (Kleckley, Corley, Wingard, Cromer, Gable, etc.). And other very early settlers in the greater Dutch Fork included Summer, Wessinger, Shealy and others. In August 2017, I was made aware of a Dutch Fork website listing information derived from old German Church records about MANY German families coming to the Dutch Fork area of S. C., HERE.
     
5. How old is the Zion congregation compared to others? Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Georgia is the oldest continuous congregation in America (started 1733). St. John's in Charleston is the oldest (started 1742) in S. C. Zion is the oldest continuing congregation of any religion in Lexington County and is likely the oldest congregation in the entire state of South Carolina westward of the “fall line” (where river navigation encounters rapids and water falls) junction between coastal & piedmont regions of S. C.)!
     
6. Has Zion always been at the present site? Settlers met for Lutheran services in the Zion Lutheran Church (ZLC) area possibly as early as 1735. Academic church-history officials have arbitrarily set the year of 1745 as the beginning of Zion Lutheran Church. The first worship site is legendarily thought to have been westward up (on "high ground" above the Saluda River) within the vague fork area of the junction of Fourteen Mile Creek with Twelve Mile Creek. That is near where Murray Seay [@ lat. 34.022222, long. -81.181389, 300 ft. above sea level] lives on Mill Stream Road (just northwest & upstream of where the creek joins Twelve Mile Creek.
   
   The first (#1) actual church was probably built downstream, very close to the mill built by Gottfried Dreher the immigrant (grandfather of Rev. G. W. Dreher) where Twelve Mile Creek is currently (2014) crossed by Corley Mill Road (site #1 HERE, about 1745-1792...a granite marker is there [@ lat. 34.031262 & long. -81.161284, 320 ft. above sea level]) at about what might be 450 Corley Mill Road (funded in about 1947 by Zion Lutheran Church). The immigrant's sons, Godfrey & John Dreher gave the land. That site was also very close to where "The Corley Brothers' [grist] Mill" was located.
   
   Then (#2) it relocated about a half mile SE, closer to the Saluda River, about 100 yards downstream from where Twelve Mile Creek empties into the Saluda River, HERE (lands also given to Zion by Gottfried's sons, Godfrey & John Dreher), where the old road (Darby Ambrose Road is the last surviving segment) from Lexington to Leaphart (community of "Leaphart" being about where the GE plant used to be on St. Andrews Road just inbound from Seven Oaks Shopping Center)  near a ferry (Younginer's) over the Saluda River HERE.  [Further up the Saluda was a crossing of the Saluda known between about 1778 & 1928 as Dreher Shoals, at the western end of what is known as Lake Murray Dam. An addition was added to that church in 1856. A permanet marker was approved and funded in about 1947 by Zion Lutheran Church.
   
   In more modern times (#3, 1922), the church located (as the first brick Lutheran church in Lexington County) back up Twelve Mile Creek (which crosses under Corley Mill Road about a half mile north of the present church) & southward, in the present area [@ lat. 34.02080, long. -81.15360, 380 ft. above sea level] on 226 Corley Mill Road on the same side as (and just toward highway 378 from the entrances to) the new River Bluff High School, HERE. That land was donated by S. M. Corley, W. L. Corley, and G. C. Areheart. The bricks were shipped from Augusta to the train depot in Lexington; then members got them to the building site. By the way, the now-capitol-city of Columbia, a few miles eastward & on the east bank of the Congaree River, was founded & became the new state capital in the year 1786 (Charleston had been the original colonial town-center [1670], then state capital after 1776).
   
   The earliest sketch or photo-documented ZLC building was a log cabin followed by a boarded construction (see photo at site #2 link, above), located on the above site #2 (small monument there 1792-1922) near the Saluda River. The congregation served members on both sides of the river. Some would bring their own boats across the river to worship and others came over by ferry.  Children who arrived at church early would go across with the ferry (Younginer's Ferry) to ride back with their friends from the other side.  Members from this side of the river either walked, rode horses or carriages to church.  The custom at that time was for the male and female members of the church to sit on separate sides, children with their mothers.  Stories have been told of members going into the church by boat to rescue hymnals and other items when the Saluda River periodically flooded. Current congregation member, Mr. S. B. "Todd" Areheart (son of the above G. C. Areheart), was the oldest surviving member who was baptized in that old church #2 by the Saluda River (Todd died 19 Oct. 2014, aged 99...then Burlie W. Corley became the last member baptized in that old church).
   
   That 1922, originally cross-shaped, brick church prospered until a tragic afternoon fire destroyed the building on February 4, 1944. There was no insurance. Because the Second World War was being fought, money and building supplies were scarce & food was even rationed. Members cleaned the burned debris up and donated timber from their own lands to the church. E. L. "Ed" Corley found a burned metal cross in the debris, and his father mounted it on a small wooden pedestal (we saw it at the mid-day Ash Wednesday service 1 March 2017). To satisfy government regulations at the time, the building had to be rebuilt using the foundation from the burned church (otherwise, any building permit would have been denied). The corner stone was laid on 30 July 1944 at a service conducted by Rev. J. L. Drafts, President of the Western Conference. On Dec. 3, 1944, the first service was held; but, interior furnishings and final finishing were not complete until the middle of 1947. The beautiful stained glass windows were paid for by individual families; the large one over the alter was paid for by the whole congregation. Today the different layers of brick can be noticed on the side of the building in the interior church courtyard opening from within the vestibule. Some of the early members were Jacob Drafts & family, and the Kleckley family.
   
   
7. What about the S. C. Historical Marker in front of the church? Some 7 to 14 like-minded German Protestant pastors (Lutheran and Reformed Presbyterian) in this part of S. C., in a meeting for a union of churches (Unio Ecclesiastica), formed an association (Ministerial Society) in 1787 to establish some guidelines for membership, ordination, etc., the first type of synodical-like gathering in the history of South Carolina. Karen Corley found a listing of the churches as follows: The Frederician Church on Cattle's Cree, The German Calvinistic Church of St. John on the Fourhole, The German Lutheran Church of St. Matthew in Amelia Township, The German Lutheran Church of Salem on Sandy Run, The German Lutheran Church of Mt. Zion on Twelve Mile Creek, The German Lutheran Church of St. Peter on Eighteen Mile Creek, The German Lutheran Church of Bethel on High Hill Creek, The German Lutheran Church of St. Martin, The German Lutheran Church of Bethlehem on Forest's (Faust's) Ford, The German Protestant Church of Bethany on Green Creek, The German Protestant Church of Appii Forum on Cedar Creek, The German Protestant Church dedicated to Queen Charlotte on Slippery Creek in 96 District, The German Lutheran Church of St. Jacob on Wateree Creek, and The German Protestant Church of St. George on Indianfield Swamp. The Lutheran component would be the precursor to the S. C. Synod, and it was called the Corpus Evangelicum (became a Synod 2 Nov. 1824 in St, Michael's Church). Due to area suffering in the Cherokee War (1757-1761), the immigrant Gottfried (Godfrey) Dreher (an early Zion member, coming to this area in 1747) erected Fort Dreher nearby in 1759 (separate from his mill at that first Zion site #1 on the creek crossing at Corley Mill Road) as a safe haven when warring parties were near. See Historical Marker database photos/notes HERE.
     
8. Which are the churches birthed from Zion? Bethel Lutheran (in White Rock), St. Peter’s (west of town of Lexington, St. Peters Church Road), Pilgrim (between town of Lexington and the Lake Murray dam), Emmanuel (West Columbia), Mt. Hermon (West Columbia), Providence (north of town of Lexington, Old Chapin Road), St. Michael’s (between the Lake Murray dam & Ballentine, near Yacht Cove), St. Andrews (off I-26 @ St. Andrews Rd.), and Bethlehem (just north of Irmo toward Ballentine).
     
9. What about colonial-to-Revolutionary War times? Life was no easier once the settlers arrived from trans-Atlantic voyages of 1-3 months and received their land grants. Indian raids, a hard farming life, and the Revolutionary War took their toll. The Cherokee Indian War (1757-61) had a founding member civilian casualty when Jacob Drafts was scalped & killed in 1760 (a small monument is on the side of 262 Glenkirk Lane off of Corley Mill Road [@ lat. 34.043056, long. 81.184722, 240 ft. above sea level]).  (A blight on the church's history was the Jacob Weaver [Weber] heresy [weberite sect & weberite heresy, 1756-1760] when Zion was on the Saluda River near the then Younginer's Ferry. Weber considered himself God and his wife, the virgin Mary and Johann, Christ. Then Weber had a change of mind & killed Johann Georg Schmidtpeter , stating that Johann was the actual devil; Johann's son moved to Tenn.). Focused on daily survival, it is understandable that settlers could not record church history.
     
10. What about Civil War times? Older Southerners (born before, say, 1950) used to prefer other terms for the name of the war: The War Between the States (because S.C. had already left the union when the war started...thus, not a "civil war" as to S. C.) or The War of Northern Aggression. The hard times continued & worsened during the Civil War, with records of communion and baptisms but no direct mention of the war in the written records of the church. Very local (neighborhood) oral tradition reports that Sherman’s armies entered the church building, destroyed the organ and parts of the building, and then used the wood as firewood. Some stayed in James & Iris Harman's ancestral home (Leaphart-Harman House, now at the Lexington Museum) that was moved prior to Taco Bell being built on the home site at #378 & Corley Mill Road. While that tradition says this home was the headquarters of General Sherman, Sherman was downstream in the Old State Road area below Cayce. Left Wing Generals could have stayed at the Leaphart-Harmon House., possibly Gen. Slocum or Gen. Kilpatrick. They camped several hundred yards away from the church on the Harmon (where Taco Bell is) & Buff (where the cemetery is) places at Highway #378 and Corley Mill Road. Whatever might have happened, however, the war did not destroy Zion’s church-body of believers.
      
11. What about the prehistory of this area lead settlers here? From my friend, Nan Faile:
    
    The bottom lands surrounding most rivers, creeks, and even seasonal streams in South Carolina have a unique archeological story to tell about this state’s inhabitants prior to the time of written history. Few creeks in the state have a richer history than that of Twelve-Mile Creek located in the central midlands of S. C. in Lexington County.
    
    Draining into the Saluda River (whose upstream reaches now run submerged beneath the waters of Lake Murray), Twelve-Mile Creek has rich archeological evidence of earlier peoples up and down its entire length in Lexington County. Native American peoples camped seasonally in the region for thousands of years prior to the white man. A local resident, John Lowery Frierson, Jr., documented dozens of "indian Mounds" in this area & others for an advanced degree study some years ago.
    
    The physical area surrounding Twelve-Mile Creek brings together an important convergence of environments, namely that of the mountains giving way to the sea.  This area is widely known by local archeologists as the “fall-line” region and is characterized by relatively easy-to-travel rolling hills and valleys.  The region is also characterized by an abundance of water and game.   Abundant natural springs along the creek's length and especially closer to the Saluda River were a key attractor (today and during prehistoric times): the availability of water…key to natural fruits & nuts, small farming, and abundant wild game.  That abundance of nut-bearing trees provided an important food staple for prehistoric people who both hunted and gathered their foods.  And, trails were probably easily evident due to this constant use. It would be many years later before native peoples would settle in villages during the Mississippian era and begin growing crops.
    
    Food, water, game, and easy-to-travel land & trails made the region of the Twelve-Mile Creek attractive for all forms of life; and the archeological evidence suggests the region has been inhabited for four to six thousand years.  This age could possibly be conservative given the evidence now emerging from the Savannah River region at a very ancient site (estimated 15,000 years before present) called the Topper Site.
    
    In August 2017, from Hanne Enderle, re: Johann Georg Krebs of Germany, I note the link to the website she is creating about these early German immigrants to S. C. (with property map of small area around St. Peter's Church, Lexington Co., S. C.), HERE. Also, she brought a Dutch Fork website to my attention listing information derived from old German Church records about MANY German families coming to the Dutch Fork area of S. C., HERE.
    
    
12. Pastors: (***many thanks to Janet Drafts-Boltjes for her great primary help in assembling the following list.)
• 1745-60: An old book says that there was no regular minister prior to 1750 (p230, The History of the German Settlements of the Lutheran Church in N. C. and S. C. by G. D. Bernheim, 1872, 557 pages). At this time, there was only one German-speaking minister devoting his full time to the Saxe-Gotha & Dutch Fork (and Orangeburg Co.?) area: the Reformed preacher, Christian Theus. Within the fear and tensions related to the Cherokee War and many other dangers in the backcountry, it was not unusual for spirituality to take unconventional turns as manifested in colonial British America as Radical Pietists. Within the vacuum of pastoral care, Jacob Weber arose as sort of a layperson spiritual enthusiast. Before long two others were caught up in his influence, John George Smithpeter and a slave known only as Dauber, laid claim to “the most extraordinary revelations" and helped hatch out a sect that lead to the Weberite Heresy.
• circa 1760: Rev. John Nicholas Martin, first ZLC pastor (1724-1795...immigrant, buried St. Johns, Charleston)
• circa 1767: Rev. Lewis Hockheimer (it apparently is a mystery as to what happened to him)
• circa 1788: Rev. Frederick Augustus Wallberg or Wallburg (? to 1795-1803...German immigrant to N. Y. and thence to S. C. & buried somewhere in "Saluda Fork", S. C.)
• circa 1788: Rev. J. G. Bamberg (1760-1800...immigrant, buried Erhardt, S. C.)
• 1800-1809?: Rev. C. E. Bernhardt (1763-1809...immigrant, buried near St. Michaels)
• uncertain: Rev. John Nicholas Marcard (about 1798-99...it apparently is a mystery as to what happened to him)
• uncertain: Rev. Michael Rauch (1781-1861...buried Corinth, Saluda, S. C.)
• uncertain: Rev. J. P. Franklow (1758-1829...he & wife from London, England; buried Lexington)
• 1810-1812: Rev. Godfrey Walter Dreher (1789-1875...buried St. Michael's)
• 1812-1816: Rev. J. Y. Meetze (1757-1833...immigrant, buried St. Stephens)
• circa 1816: Rev. R. J. Miller (1758-1834...immigrant [Scotland], buried Lenoir, N. C.)
• 1817-1824: Rev. J. Y. Meetze (1757-1833...immigrant, buried St. Stephens)
• 1825-1853: Rev. Godfrey Walter Dreher (1789-1875...buried St. Michael's)
• 1854-1855: Rev. Daniel Efird (1824-1891...buried St. Michaels)
• 1855-1870: Rev. Adam Efird (1821-1870...buried at Zion)
• 1870-1872: Rev. Daniel Efird (1824-1891...buried St. Michaels)
• 1872-1877: Rev. Andrew Leonhardt Crouse (1849-1915...buried in Hickory, N. C.)
• 1877-1878: Rev. Daniel Efird (1824-1891...buried St. Michaels)
• 1879-1884: Rev. E. L. Lybrand (1852-1922...buried Mt. Tabor)
• 1884-1922: Rev James Albert Cromer (1847-1922...Zion Lutheran Church, Lexington, S. C.).
• 1922-1934: Rev. H. A. Kistler (1879-1938...buried Daniel Church, N. C.)
• 1935-1942: Rev. Glenn S. Eckard (1907-1976...buried St. Stephens, N. C.)
• 1942-1951: Rev. Thomas F. Suber (1890-1969...buried Properity, S. C.)
• 1951-1954: Rev. C. K. Wise (1897-1960...buried Salisbury, N. C.)
• 1954-1960: Rev. Horace J. C. Lindler (1909-1985...Mt. Horeb Luth. Ch. cem., Chapin, S. C.)
• 1960-1968: Rev. Daniel M. Shull, Sr. (1902-1992...buried St. Davids)
• 1969-1980: Rev. Garth Lee Hill, Sr. (1924-2013)
• 1981-1989: Rev. Hollis A. Miller
• 1989-1998: Rev. William "Bill" Milholland
• 1999-2007: Rev. John David Derrick [now at Emmanuel]; Rev. Ron Brown and Rev. Jim Nichols alternated as interim pastors.
• 2009-August 2013: Rev. Timothy Leroy Bupp [now at Reformation]; Rev. Jane Mitchum was interim pastor Oct. 2013-June 2015.
• July 2015-present: Rev. Nathan T. Gragg
  
13. Modern customs and notes: ***[the ZLC web site]
    • Thanksgiving Day "meals on wheels" effort: This custom began around 1980 when ZLC member J. F. "Frank" Waites ("white"/Caucasian) reached out to _?__ ("black"/African-American) & helped that local family during a hard time. In about 1997, the program ramped up when it was learned that Meals on Wheels did not deliver on Thanksgiving day. Tim Driggers, Thomas Lee Kleckley, and Iris Harman's names and efforts have long been identified with this annual project. Non-members from the community often take part in the effort. Saxe Gotha Presbyterian joined in maybe about 2008 and contributes around 300 meals a year. While a core group does a great job of annual master planning, it seems miraculous to me how all of the more peripheral efforts come together. Turkeys (60 in 2018) are cooked & cut up Monday & Tuesday; youth cut & bag pound cakes after church service Wednesday evening. A Thanksgiving morning breakfast for volunteers is cooked & served at 7:30AM. Then at about 8:30 or so, volunteers arrange themselves at stations along two lines of tables. A whistle or command starts the plate assembly into action, and about 800-1200 plates are assembled in about an hour. For 2013...Ron Leaphart in charge of the hugely important food-prep kitchen detail, we just now assembled 875 plates in 40 minutes! I heard (12/2013) that Pastor Mikki Corley Gay, Breath of Life Lutheran Church in Blythewood, S. C. started such a project that year at that church after having been part of Zion's while she interned here. In 2015, to include the plates from the men at Saxe Gotha, we had 1605 plates! Saxe Gotha transitioned to their own program after that year. In 2016, 2017, & 2018 ZLC assembled 1200 plates in about one hour (40 minutes in 2018)! Other volunteers then make the deliveries to homes. All is accomplished in time for volunteers to return to their own homes to enjoy a family dinner gathering at home. Amazing effort and a joy to be a part of!
    • Golden Ager celebration luncheon: as of the luncheon of 11 Sept. 2016, the Drwight & Nita Corley family have hosted & cooked this annual meal for the over-age-70 members for over 30 years!
    • Mrs. Margaret Sox started the annual ZLC Easter egg hunt for chilren at her home in 1993.
    • LICS Food Drive: Members (about 2000), decided to start an every-Sunday collection of canned foods for Lexington Interfaith Community Services (LICS) which accelerates each year with a Carolina-Clemson competition preceding the annual football game rivalry. We collect almost two tons of canned goods per year!
    • Meetze and English Project: Pastor & members (about 2010), noting the "crack alley" condition of a small black neighborhood close to New Mount Zion AME church (NMZAME), started a "clean off" project that ended up getting community business support along with the county sherriff's department and became the Drafts-Skenes Community Park, to include a sort of Sheriff's Department substation. Many older folk at ZLC believe that NMZAME church relates to ZLC by common membership before the War Between the States ending in 1865.
    • Overtime: Members, noting the opening of Riverbluff High School next door in the fall of 2013, started this time of safe gathering event following home football games. The Family Life Center is used for a chaperoned-for-safety gathering spot for a few hours after the games.
    • Church wood-workings: Member John Thomas Drafts' latest contribution is the wooden devices for the bell choir to make the bells "hum". He crafted the alter rail system, the baptismal font, and the pastor's pulpit.
    • The eternal flame (hanging over alter): After lifelong ZLC member, "Ed" E. L. Corley saw an eternal flame at a Synod meeting, his aunt bought one for ZLC & it was placed above the alter; and Ed kept it re-filled with oil & lit for some 40 years (Steve Shumpert took over). So this was bought in about in about 1973!
    • Narthex Garden: This has wall features of the various stages of the church building since the early 1900s.
    • Narthex ZLC History Quilt (in narthex): This was made by Janet Drafts-Boltjes, daughter of John T. & Noreen Drafts.
    • Alter Stained Glass Window: Ruth & Tod Arehart recalled that this was part of the rebuilt church after the fire of 1944; Thomas Lee Kleckley recalls that this was paid for by the general congregation.
    • Main Sanctuary Memorial Stained Glass Windows: Ruth & Tod Arehart and Thomas Lee Kleckley also recall that families individually subscribed to place these windows as part of the rebuilt church after the fire of 1944.
    • Our banners on the walls of our sanctuary were made by Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church's (West Columbia) banner lady, Alice Pollack, who has made over 3,000 banners within our Synod since 1980.
    • Thomas Kleckley Dinner for Scouting: The inaugural event was 11 May 2019. ZLC scouting began during the pastorate of Rev. Garth Hill as troop 363 which later became troop 425. Steve Hendrix was instrumental in launching this. Dwight & Nita Jo Corley donated the current scout hut building.

    
    
    

14. Denominational connections: With the ELCA, S. C. Synod.
    
    
    

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(posted 11/30/2008; latest addition 17 May 2019)

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