BETHLEHEM LUTHERAM CHURCH CEMETERY, Anderson County, SC A.K.A. Version 2.3, 28-Dec-2006, A023.TXT, A023 **************************************************************** REPRODUCING NOTICE: ------------------- These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, or presentation by any other organization, or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Paul M Kankula Seneca, SC, USA Anderson County SC GenWeb Coordinator Anderson County SC GenWeb Homestead http://www.rootsweb.com/~scanderson2/ **************************************************************** DATAFILE INPUT . : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in Nov-2003 DATAFILE LAYOUT : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in Nov-2003 G.P.S. MAPPING . : Gary L. Flynn at (visit above website) in Nov-2003 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Jason Dunn at rjdun@bellsouth.net on Dec-2006 IMAGES ......... : Paul M. Kankula at (visit above website) in Nov-2003 TRANSCRIPTION .. : Gary L. Flynn at (visit above website) in Nov-2003 **************************************************************** CEMETERY LOCATION: ------------------ 4 miles south of Townville. Latitude N 34 30.362 x Longitude W 82 53.386 CHURCH/CEMETERY HISTORY: ------------------------ Bethlehem is the Lutheran Church mentioned in a book written in 1928 by Louise Ayer Vandiver Traditions and History of Anderson County, pp 60 and 61. There has been one Lutheran Church in the county. It was in Fork Township, organized in 1876, Reverend Dr. Smeltzer its pastor. At that time the Lutheran College was located at Walhalla, and Dr. Smeltzer was its president. The member- ship of the church was never large, and after the removal of the college to Newberry the congregation dwindled away to such an extent that the building was finally sold to the Methodist who established a church there under the leadership of Reverend "Charley" Ligon. In its surrounding grave yard, however, sleep some of the Lutherans who once worshipped there. Among the leaders of the church were the Cromer family. Anderson Intelligencer March 9, 1898 Cromer, Adam F., died near Williamston 27 Feb. 1898 and was buried 1 Mar. 1898 at Double Springs in Fork Township beside his first wife who died 1 Jan. 1885. He was a native of the Upper Dutch Forks section of Newberry County where he was born 24 June 1824 and lived until 1875 when he moved to the Fork. In 1848 he married Counts, Sarah C. of Newberry County. From this union four children survive; 1./Cromer, James H. 2./Cromer, John S. 3./Cromer, Adam C. 4./ Cromer, Lizzie, all reside in the Fork. During the war he served under Col. Ellison S. Keitt in NC and SC, was a member of the Lutheran Church and was a moving spirit to build Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the Fork that became a Methodist Church 10 years ago. Dr. E. Olin Hentz who practiced in Anderson during the early half of the twentieth century was a descendant of the same line of Cromer's. His grandmother was a sister to Adam F. Cromer. Willie Walker Cromer is my great grandfather. He died at age twenty three, the same day, April 8. 1890, his only child, my grandmother, Willie Talulah (Cromer) Dunn, was born. He is buried in the cemetery at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The people buried there with inscribed stones were all related. and likely some of those with field stone markers. Willie Cromer's parents apparently died when he was two or three years old. The 1870 census shows that he lived with a cousin, Lavenia Ellen (Cromer) Dickert and her husband, Marion Dickert in Newberry. He came with them to Anderson County in 1875. They attended Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in Newberry. The Anna E. Feltman buried there was a niece of Marion Dickert's. And the Lula Lee was a daughter of Willie Cromer's sister, Ella, and her husband, William Lee. They left here soon after the death of their daughter and went to Texas. After William Lee died, Ella married William Thomas Hatcher. She died in 1947 in Cass County Texas. There were more Cromer's who came to the Fork about the same time (all relatives). Some of them are buried at Double Springs Baptist Church and some at Smith Chapel. Of course its only a guess but some of the graves marked with field stone may be where the Dickerts are buried. I can't find another cemetery close by where they were buried. Jason Dunn at rjdun@bellsouth.net on 27-Dec-2006 TOMBSTONE TRANSCRIPTION NOTES: ------------------------------ a. = age at death b. = date-of-birth d. = date-of-death h. = husband m. = married p. = parents w. = wife CROMER, Willie Walker, b. 1866, d. 1890 FELTMAN, Anna E., b. 11-oct-1851, d. 15-jun-1893, h. william FELTMAN, William M., b. 2-oct-1837, d. 20-nov-1916 LEE(?), Lula, b. 18-aug-1886, d. 8-nov-1888