The story of Ebenezer Presbyterian begins in the 1760s with the creation of the Township of Queensborough near present-day Louisville. Established to encourage Scots-Irish migration, the settlement lay on land ceded by Creek and Cherokee leaders in 1763. It was a dangerous frontier. Settlers endured raids, and several were killed in the early 1770s, forcing many families to abandon the area.

Those who stayed built a log meetinghouse that served as both church and community hall. Over time, the congregation shifted locations, first to Buckhead Creek, then to Vidette, where the church still stands today under the name Bethel. Political divides during the Revolution also split the Presbyterians. Loyalists remained at Buckhead, while patriots gathered on land donated by Richard Fleeting. This group became known as Ebenezer, organized in the early 1770s by the Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia.

The early years were turbulent. One of the first pastors, Rev. William Donaldson, was forced out for his Tory sympathies. After independence, the congregation called Rev. David Bothwell from Ireland in 1790. Bothwell became a trusted friend of Georgia governors Jared Irwin, James Jackson, and David Emanuel, all of whom were elders in the church. In 1849, Rev. David Gardner Phillips took the pulpit. Living with the family of elder William Little, he fell in love with Little’s daughter Julia, whom he married. He served Ebenezer for 43 years, and both he and Julia rest in the church cemetery.

For nearly 250 years, Ebenezer has stood as a witness to Georgia’s frontier struggles, the Revolutionary era, and the endurance of rural Presbyterian faith. The congregation continues to gather, preserving one of the oldest Presbyterian legacies in middle Georgia.