Reverend Godfrey Dreher, Sr.

See http://www.lexingtonsar.org/about-the-chapter-2/

"The Dreher family journeyed across the sea to the colonies in 1744, but their linage can be traced back to 1626 in Emfingen of Württemberg Germany. Johannes Dreher, born in 1626 and his wife (Agatha Munz, dau. of Jacob & Barbara Munz) had four grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren. His sons, Gottfried & Hans George Dreher, left for the new world & arrived in the Carolina’s in 1744. Hans Jorge (John George) received a Kings grant of land near Crimms creek in Newberry County. John George Dreher and John Michael Stingle agreed to go back to the homeland to bring other German settlers back with them. John George secured 100 immigrants passage, and John Michael Stingle secured 150 more settlers. John George Dreher then returned to South Carolina on the ship Priscilla in 1754. Their first journey overseas to the Carolina colony had been a difficult trip. Though knowing how hard it was, these two thought it was worth traveling back to Germany to tell others about the opportunities in the new world. This time however, they had first-hand knowledge about the land in the Dutch Fork, the weather, and what they needed to bring."

"Gottfried, grandson of Johannes & Agatha Munz Dreher & son of Andreas and Anna Maria Siger Dreher (both parents deceased before Gottfried was 10), arrived in Charleston in 1744 and applied for a land grant in the Saxe Gotha area in 1745 & a few months later was awarded a 150 acre grant in Saxe Gotha Township. If this was a “bounty grant”, the acreage suggests that he was married. Being a Wheelwright in the middle 1700’s was a well respected occupation and a necessity because carriages and wagons were the main mode of transportation. To create wheels, one had to have precise measuring skills and the talents of both a carpenter and a blacksmith. Gottfired Dreher started his career as a wheelwright in the Meidelstetten area of the Baden Wuettemburg, Germany."

"He subsequently obtained land upstream and built a two story home and erected a stockade around his home and possibly the adjacent first Zion Lutheran Church (becoming known as “Fort Dreher”) in 1759 as a safe haven during Cherokee war (1757-61) and also against outlaws & subsequently the Tories. He erected an adjacent grits mill on Twelve Mile Creek near the Saluda River (I think it was where Corley Mile Road [the road in 2016] crosses Twelve Mile Creek just north of Zion Lutheran Church, known in the 1890s as the S. T. Lorick Mill site & subsequently being noted @ about 1900 on maps as Corleys Mill)."

"So, he was a very early member (likely a founding member) of Zion Lutheran Church, He erected a grits mill on Twelve Mile Creek near the Saluda River where modern Corley Mile Road crosses Twelve Mile Creek just north of Zion Lutheran Church. That mill became known in the 1890s as the S. T. Lorick Mill site and subsequently being noted by about 1900 on maps as Corley’s Mill. Dreher lived in a two story house almost at that mill site & Zion Church alongside (as the Indian Wars threatened, he built a stockade around the house and the church meeting house and it became known as “Dreher’s Fort”)…and that house sort of like a fort."

Children: Gottfried & Maria Barbara had four (4) daughters (Catherine, Anna Maria “Molly” Mary Ann & Anna) and two (2) sons (Capt. Godfrey Dreher & John Dreher).

"Captain Godfrey Dreher, son of Gottfried, born in 1760, was a patriot and veteran of the Revolutionary War. He was just a teenager when he enlisted. Captain Dreher moved from the Dutch Fork to Georgia and was in the business, like his father, Gottlieb Dreher, of building water-powered mills. In 1813, Captain Dreher signed a contract in Louisiana to build waterpower mills for the Shepard Brown & Company. Records in Louisiana indicate that Dreher was a friend to John McDonugh. A McDonough family story says that John McDonough embezzled, cheated or stole Dreher’s money and Captain Dreher and his wife died in Algiers, Louisiana under suspicious circumstances, some suspected murder. The Dreher children were then placed in a Louisiana orphanage."

"John Dreher, the brother of Captain Dreher, had a son who would impact the Lutheran Church in South Carolina. His name was Rev. Godfrey Walter Dreher. The German custom of naming the first-born son after the father and the fist born daughter after the mother can get someone researching genealogy really confused!"

=== GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,60525::77847058 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,60525::77847058 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,60525::77847058 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,60525::77847058 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. === GEDCOM Source === Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=115337401&pi...

@R850838881@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,60525::77847058 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,60525::77847058 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc 1,7486::0 === GEDCOM Source === Place: South Carolina; Year: 1747; Page Number: 161 1,7486::3800827 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc 1,7486::0 === GEDCOM Source === Place: South Carolina; Year: 1747; Page Number: 161 1,7486::3800827 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60525::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,60525::77847058 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ Germany, Select Marriages, 1558-1929 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,9870::0 === GEDCOM Source === 1,9870::23775793 === GEDCOM Source ===

@R850838881@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. === GEDCOM Source === Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=115337401&pi...

GEDCOM Source === Ancestry.com U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012; @R2@ === GEDCOM Source === Ancestry.com U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012; @R2@ === GEDCOM Source === Ancestry.com U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2010; @R2@ Place: South Carolina; Year: 1747; Page Number: 161 === GEDCOM Source === Ancestry.com U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012; @R2@