Notes for the Year 1749

JANUARY

1. John 1:16.

2. Ebenezer Creek, a sluggish and unnavigable creek, ran from Old Ebenezer, the original Salzburger settlement and now the Trustees’ cowpen, to the Red Bluff, the site of New Ebenezer. Recently several German families had settled along it.

3. The Great Ogeechee, a blackwater stream, ran parallel to the lower reaches of the Savannah. Although slavery was not yet officially legal in Georgia, South Carolina slave-owners were already taking out large grants and would soon drive out the yeoman farmers, as Boltzius had predicted.

4. Ruprecht Schrempff, Henry Bishop, and Georg Held. See entry for 22 March.

5. Boltzius frequently preached to “legalists,” those who feared the law of the Old Testament more than they trusted the grace of the New Testament.

6. Boltzius’ memory must have failed him here. Both Luther and the King James Bible say that two shall be in the field. Matthew 24:40-41.

7. Isaiah 59:2; 1 John 3:15.

8. Karl Heinrich Bogatzky, Güldenes-Schatzkästlein der Kinder Gottes, Halle, many printings.

9. Thomas Bosomworth, the new Anglican minister, married a half-breed named Mary Musgrove and took over her trading post, thereby neglecting his ministerial duties.

10. Boltzius, who had already lost some parishioners to Pennsylvania, constantly belittled that province to dissuade others from going there.

FEBRUARY

1. With land free for the asking, no capable worker wished to work for anyone else, since status depended upon ownership of land. Adjusted to a labor-rich European economy, Boltzius complained of the un-Christian wages demanded by the greedy laborers in Georgia.

2. This name appears as Lechner, Lochner, and Lackner, the last form being the one that survived.

3. “Temptation” (Anfechtungen) meant the temptation to doubt that grace could overcome law. See Jan., note 5.

4. It is to be remembered that “Reformed” meant not “Protestant” or “born again,” but a follower of Calvin or Zwingli, in this case Johann Tobler, a Swiss of New Windsor. The book was des sel. D. Johann Schmids, aus Strassburg, Buspredigten.

5. This was Maria, the “youngest” of two daughters. She married Josef Schubdrein and her sister, Hanna Elisabetha, married Johann Flerl.

6. Adam Straube, who arrived in 1738, married the widow Pieta Clara Häfner and adopted her six children.

7. It is doubtful that melting snow had much effect on the height of the Savannah River.

8. At this time “the last Germans” were those who arrived in 1746 on the Judith.

9. The silk interests in Savannah conspired to prevent the Salzburgers from spinning out their cocoons in order to monopolize this profitable task themselves and thus earn the greater profits.

MARCH

1. Romans 8:34

2. The various German states had already introduced the new, or Gregorian, calendar in place of the Julian. Boltzius, as an English subject, used the old calendar until the British adopted the new one three years later.

3. The “them” surely refers only to the hares. There is no evidence that the Salzburgers ever trapped deer, even though Netzjagd (chasing deer into nets) was popular in their mountainous homeland.

4. Glauchische Hauss-Kirch Ordnung, oder christlicher Unterricht Halle 1699.

5. The Salzburgers celebrated a Remembrance and Thanksgiving service every year at the anniversary of their arrival in Georgia.

6. St. Patrick’s Day is still the most extended drinking bout of the year in Savannah.

7. Psalms 73:1.

APRIL

1. From quasi modo geniti infantes, “as newborn babes,” words of the introit for Low Sunday.

2. die Erklärung des hohenpriesterlichen Gebeths Christi, welche den sel. Herrn Past. Freylinghausen zum Autore hat. Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen, one of Boltzius’ professors at Halle, was the editor of the hymnbook used at Ebenezer. See Oct., note 9.

3. des seligen Prof. Franken Buspredigten, oder des Herren Past. Freylinghausen Epistelpredigten. August Hermann Francke, the founder of the Francke Foundation in Halle, was a prolific writer. The borrower was Tobler. See note Feb. 4.

4. des strassburgischen Theologi, D. Johann Schmidts, Busspredigten.

5. There were four renegade brothers: Iscariot, Lorentz, Michael, and Peter Richard, three of whom absconded from Ebenezer and one from Savannah. The original name may have been Ritschard.

6. Boltzius, or his editor or type-setter, has made an error. It should read “Augustine.”

7. See Feb., note 6.

8. It was costly because it contained gold dust.

9. The “masonry” refers to the brick or tile surface built to protect the wooden walls from the fires under the boiling pots. See entry for May 10.

10. Tobler again. See Feb., note 4.

11. The word Hauswesen, like Haushalt, included the entire domestic economy of the household and farm.

12. This well composed letter appears in The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, ed. Allen D. Candler, Atlanta 1904 ff., Vol. 24, pp. 433-444.

13. A “justiciar” or “justiciary” was the manager of an ecclesiastical or secular estate. Johann Ludwig Mayer (later spelled Meyer) consented to assume this heavy burden despite ill health.

14. East Prussia was adjacent to Lithuania, which was Catholic.

15. wo Negers überhand nehmen. This means where slave-labor prevails, that is, where the slave-owners are in power.

16. das schöne in Wernigeroda gedruckte Büchlein, die Lehre von der Buse und Vergebungder Sünden genannt. The city of publication is now spelled Wernigerode.

MAY

1. To the Reformed (see Feb., note 4.) and the Lutherans, the latter being “our co-religionists.”

2. Johann Arndt, Vier Bücher vom Wahren Christenthum, Halle, many printings, was a best-seller among the colonial Germans.

3. The “Small Catechism” was by Luther. The second work was Ambrosius Wirth, Christliche Anweisung. See Oct., note 4.

4. Bishop and Held. See Jan., note 4.

5. Maria Camuse (Camuso).

6. The “praiseworthy Society” was the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a missionary society in London that had been the chief agent in bringing the Salzburger exiles to Georgia. It paid the salaries of both pastors and the schoolmaster and also collected many donations for them.

7. Ship mills, which were common on the Danube, had a large paddle like that of a paddle steamer. The current of the river turned the paddle, which turned the millstones. The advantage was that the ship rose and fell with the level of the river and was never idle, as the Ebenezer mills so often were, when the river was too high or too low. It is not known why Zübli’s ship mill failed.

8. See Feb., note 3.

JUNE

1. The Francke Foundation was then supplying missionaries for Danish Lutheran missions in East India.

2. das Herz des auferstandenen Jesu, unidentified.

3. See note 1, above.

4. Until the fall of 1749, the “last German servants” were those aboard the JUDITH, which arrived on 22 January 1746. This new husband was Johann Caspar Walthauer.

5. Gott kann eher/ als wir denken/ unsere Noth zum Besten lenken. Seele! was verzagst du doch? lebt doch unser HErr Gott noch, from a hymn.

6. The individual contributions (Beiträge) to a large compendium of religious writings titled Sammlung auserlesener Materien zum Bau des Reiches Gottes.

7. Im Himmel ist gut wohnen/ hinauf steht mein Begier, etc., from a hymn.

8. The Mill River, or Abercorn Creek, was a branch of the Savannah River, which was almost shut off at the northern or upstream end and therefore very sluggish. That made rowing easier than on the often swift main channel despite the danger of fallen trees.

9. Bartholomew Zouberbuhler, as he called himself in Georgia, was a Swiss from Appenzell dwelling in Purysburg. Finding no living as a Reformed minister, he converted to the Anglican Church and was ordained in London. He returned to Georgia on the Judith but returned to London to fight for a better wage.

10. Dr. Gotthilf August Francke, son of August Hermann Francke, and Chrétien von Munch, an Augsburg banker and benefactor of the Georgia Salzburgers.

11. See April, note 4.

JULY

1. Capt. George Dunbar, who brought the second Salzburger transport to Georgia.

2. See April, note 11.

3. Ulrich Driesler, a pastor from Wurttemberg, was much loved during his short tenure in Frederica.

4. “European” or “German” grains were wheat, barley, rye, and oats, as opposed to Indian corn and rice.

5. The Herrnhuters, known in America as Moravians, claimed to be a movement in the Lutheran Church. Boltzius, like other orthodox Lutheran ministers, considered them dangerous innovators. Although a party of them resided in Savannah fom 1736 to 1738, they made no efforts to proselytize any Salzburgers.

6. Frensen was a pastor ministering to the Salzburger exiles in East Prussia.

7. Joachim Zübli, later Zubly, was the son of David Züblin of Purysburg. He became a Reformed pastor in South Carolina and later in Georgia, which he represented at the Second Continental Congress.

8. A man named Parker had built a mill but abandoned it when he was not allowed to use slave labor. Boltzius says that he was actually a native Swede mamed Purker.

9. The Uchee land across Ebenezer Creek belonged to a small tribe, then reduced to some thirty braves and soon extinct.

10. See June, note 4. As the “last German servants” worked off their indentures, Col. Stephens directed the Reformed to Acton and Vernonburg and the Lutherans to Abercorn and Goshen.

11. The Ausführliche Nachrichten, the original of the Detailed Reports, were issued in a series of continuations.

12. Vertrau du deinem Herre Gott, der alle Ding erschaffen hat. Er kann und will dich lassen nicht; Er weiss gar wohl, was dir gebricht. Himmel und Erd ist sein; mein Vater und mein Herre Gott, der mir beisteht in aller Noth!. From a hymn.

13. See Jan., note 6. To acquire some sea islands as private property of his wife, the “Empress,” he incited the Indians to cause trouble.

14. Pieta Clara, the widow of Paul Häfner of Vernonburg. See Feb., note 6.

AUGUST

1. See July, note 3. Because many Germans were leaving German Village at Frederica, Driesler was advising them to go to Ebenezer, where they would find a Lutheran ministry.

2. ......; Ezekiel 18:20; Proverbs 23:26; Luke 19:10; the story of the brazen serpent is told in Numbers 21.

3. Epicedium, funeral oration. Inspector Freyer, unidentified.

4. Boltzius had taught at the Halle Orphanage while studying in Halle.

5. See June, note 4.

6. Aaron was a native Indian convert, who converted many of his compatriots to the Christian church. A picture of him, wearing a turban and beak-shoes, appears in a pictorial history of Georgia with the amazing caption, “A Salzburger Colonist.” The People of Georgia, ed. Mills B. Lane. Savannah, Ga.: Beehive Press, 1975, p.26.

7. The authorities in Savannah, having been warned of possible violence, honored the Indian guests with an armed honor guard consisting of most of the able-bodied inhabitants of the city.

8. Most fevers, including malaria, were blamed on changes in the weather.

9. See Jan, note 9. It was inconsistent of Urlsperger to suppress the name here but not elsewhere.

10. auserlesene Lieder, unidentified.

11. Revelations 7:17

12. Herrn Sen. Heinolds nöthige Verbindungen des Gesetzes und Evangelii.

13. des Herrn Sturms schönen Tractat vom Mühlenbau. See June, note 10.

14. God soon did so, in the persons of the Schubdrein brothers.

15. The condition of the sickness.

SEPTEMBER

1. Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen was instrumental in having many German immigrants in London sent to Georgia. For Driesler, see Aug., note 1.

2. See April, note 5

3. A cesspool of wicked men.

4. This is 1 Peter 2:2.

5. As will appear, this was a considerable exaggeration.

OCTOBER

1. Ordinarily, the tides reached up only as far as Purysburg, a reason why the town was placed there. Except when the Savannah was unusually high, people could row, or even drift, that far up with the flood.

2. See June, note 8.

3. Mr. Thomas Jones, who succeeded Thomas Causton as keeper of the stores in Savannah.

4. des sel. Ambr. Wirths Beicht- und Abendmahlbüchlein.

5. John 13:7.

6. Boltzius’ memory must have failed him here. Both Luther and the King James Bible say that two shall be in the field. Matthew 24:40-41.

7. Exodus 12:30. The King James version says there will not be a house without “one dead.”

8. Isaiah 66:2; Matthew 11:28; Psalms 51:17; Luke 19:10.

9. John 3:16.

10. Boltzius calls this the Fourth Commandment, numbering according to the Roman and Lutheran system. The command to honor one’s father and mother was extended to include all spiritual and secular superiors.

11. The Day of Judgment.

12. See Aug., note 4.

13. The Canstein Bibles were inexpensive Bibles published by Karl Hildebrand, Baron von Canstein. Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen’s Geistreiches Gesangbuch was the hymnal used at Ebenezer.

14. See May, note 2.

15. des Herrn D. Walchs Einleitungen in die Religionsstreitigkeiten in und ausser der lutherischen Kirche.

16. The King James Bible has an entirely different rendition.

17. der Lehre des Dippels zugethan. Dippel was an innovative theologian within the Lutheran Church who was opposed by the orthodox.

NOVEMBER

1. Psalms 50:23

2. See April, note 5.

3. Johann Tobler of New Windsor was a noted mathematician and calendar maker.

4. in des seligen D. Antonii Collegio Antithetico. This was Paul Anton, Boltzius’ mentor at Halle. See the end of this entry.

5. This was Johann Caspar Wirtsch, later Wertsch, a baker’s apprentice, who subsequently became one of the two most influential members of the Ebenezer community.

6. God did so, through the Lord Trustees.

7. Acorns were an important feed for swine. The Red Bluff, the site of New Ebenezer, had been discovered by Salzburgers gathering acorns for their swine.

8. “The work performed,” the divine service itself, rather than its symbolic meaning.

DECEMBER

1. She had been brutalized while serving an Indian trader near Augusta before coming to Ebenezer.

2. See Oct., note 4.

3. Ambrosius wirth, Das Nürnbergische Kinder-Lehr-Büchlein, Nurnberg 1729.

4. Kern- und Kraftsprüche. English has no exact equivalent.

5. Urlsperger was sometimes inconsistent with his deletions. He named Eigel in this connection in his entry for 13 Nov.

6. These were adult runaways, in contrast to the Richard boys.

7. John Dobel, a Savannah schoolmaster and friend of Boltzius who had to flee the wrath of the Malcontents in Savannah because of his opposition to introducing slaves.

8. The three Richard boys. See April, note 5.

9. Gott ist doch Herr auf Erden: er sitzet an der höchsten Städt. Wenn sies auf klügste greifen an, so geht doch Gott ain andre Bahn, etc., from a hymn.

10. See Oct., note 17.

11. “The last transport” are now those who came with Capt. Peter Bogg on 2 October 1749. See June, note 4.

12. See June, note 8.

13. See Oct., note 4.

14. Like Chaucer’s millers, those in Germany were often accused of cheating their customers. As the Swiss used to say, “The miller has the fattest swine” (because he spills his customers’ grain for them.)

15. The Day of Judgment.

16. Boltzius is again contrasting the law and grace. See Jan, note 3.

17. Kern- und Machtsprüche. See note 4 above.

18. Verse 15.

19. See Jan., note 8.

20. England had not yet introduced the Julian calendar, which it did three years later.

21. Die Gerechten werden ewiglich leben, und der Herr ist ihr Lohn, und der Höchste sorget für sie. Wisdom 5:16.

22. Boltzius failed to insert these names.