The last Unitarian minister of our church before the Civil War was the Rev. John Pierpont Jr., (1819-1879) a native of Boston and son of the noted Abolitionist minister and social reformer the Rev. John Pierpont. John Jr.'s brother, James Lord Pierpont, (1822-1893) was the organist, and also gave organ and singing lessons at the church.

The famous winter song "One Horse Open Sleigh" was copyrighted in 1857 while James was living here, and re-titled two years later as "Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh." James was also the uncle of financier J. Pierpont Morgan.

When the Civil War came, John Pierpont Jr. went home north and his brother, James, remained here in Savannah. After the death of his first wife, Millicent Cowee of Troy, NY, he married Eliza Jane Purse, daughter of Thomas Purse, a Civil War mayor of Savannah. James also served with the First Georgia Cavalry (later part of the Fifth Georgia Cavalry) and wrote music for the Confederacy. He died in Winter Haven, Fla., and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah.

A "Jingle Bells" marker honoring him was dedicated at this church in June of 1985, and the James Lord Pierpont Music Scholarship Fund was established at Armstrong Atlantic State University in 1997. The 1837 chamber organ played by James in this church, has been restored and is now owned by Florida State University in Tallahassee.