BETHLEHEM LUTHERAM CHURCH CEMETERY, Anderson County, SC A.K.A. Version 2.3, 28-Dec-2006, A023.TXT, A023 ******************************************************************************** It's believed that the usage of any original work submittals contained within these webpages such as articles, compiling, photographs or graphics, conform to Fair Use Doctrine & Copyright Guidelines. COPYRIGHT NOTE: (1.) Works published before 1923, are considered to be public- domain. (2.) Works published 1923-1977 without a copyright notice, are considered to be public-domain. (3.) Unpublished non-copyrighted works will have Author permission for public-domain. Facts, names, dates, events, places & data can not be copyrighted. Narration, compilations and creative works can be copyrighted. Copyright law in the U.S. does not protect facts or data, just the presentation of this data. REPRODUCING NOTICE: These electronic pages may only be reproduced for personal or 501(c) Not-For-Profit Society use. Use the following names, if, you would like to give any author compiling credit. AUTHORS: Paul M. Kankula-NN8NN & Gary L. Flynn-KE8FD *********************************************************************** 05-01-15 HISTORY WRITE-UP : Jason Dunn at rjdun@bellsouth.net on Dec-2006 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