My great-great-grandfather Albert Kenneth Wingard Sr. was born in Germany around 1855. As a young man, he immigrated to a small town in South Carolina named Dutch Fork. He was not the first, nor the last, to settle in the area. In 1886, Wingard founded St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Columbia, South Carolina. The Bible shown was given to my father in 1976 when he had his communion. Wingard came to the United states because much like present time, the US is and was known to be the land of opportunities. Although unlike other immigrants, he didn’t have much trouble in Germany, Wingard found that it would be in his favor to live out the American Dream. Wingard, as well as many other immigrants, successfully conquered the American dream. He was one of the first immigrants to start a church, and therefore, he was extremely influential in religion with regards to immigration. To this day, my whole family and I go to that same church every Christmas and Easter day. While personally I’m not very religious, the fact that one of my relatives founded a holy place is astonishing to me. Without the church, many immigrants may not have found a church they could go to without feeling discriminated against, and therefore, Wingard’s legacy lives on within his church.

– Wyatt H.

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more