About the year 1744 the Saltzburgers at Ebenezer and along the line of the public road running from that town to Savannah, through the assistance of friends in Germany, were enabled to build two comfortable and substantial houses for public worship,—one at New Ebenezer, called _Jerusalem Church_, and the other about four miles below, named _Zion Church_. The joy experienced upon the dedication of these sacred buildings was soon turned to grief by the death of one of their faithful pastors,—the Reverend Israel C. Gronau,—who, in the supreme moments of a lingering fever, desiring a friend to support his hands uplifted in praise of the Great Master whom he had so long and so truthfully served, exclaimed “Come, Lord Jesus! Amen!! Amen!!!” and with these words,—the last upon his lips,—entered into peace.[17] Reverend Mr. Bolzius continued to be the principal pastor and, as an assistant, the Reverend Mr. Lembke was associated with him. As early as January 31, 1732, Sir Thomas Lombe[18] certified to the Trustees of the Colony that silk produced in Carolina possessed “as much natural Strength and Beauty as the Silk of Italy.” In his “New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South Carolina and Georgia,”[19] Mr. Oglethorpe enumerated among the chief revenues which might be anticipated from the settlement of Georgia, profits to arise from the manufacture of silk. His opinion was that between forty and fifty thousand people might be advantageously employed in this business. In view of the encouragement which might reasonably be expected from Parliament, and the cheapness of the labor and land, he estimated that the cost of production would be at least twenty-five per cent. lower than that then current in Piedmont. Sharing in this belief, the Trustees sent to Italy for silk-worm eggs, and engaged the services of several Piedmontese to go to Georgia and instruct the Colonists in the production of silk.[20] In the grants of land to parties emigrating to Georgia either at their own expense or at the charge of the Charity, may be found covenants on the part of the grantees to “keep a sufficient number of white mulberry trees standing on every acre,” or else to “plant them where they were wanted.” A special plea is entered by Benjamin Martyn in behalf of silk-culture in Georgia and the manifest benefits to be expected.[21] The early accounts all agree in representing the production of silk as one of the most important matters to be considered and fostered in connection with the establishment and development of the Colony of Georgia.