NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1. For greater detail, see George F. Jones, The Salzburger Saga, Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1983.

JANUARY

1. Only fifteen were reported in Ausführliche Nachrichten for 1742.

2. Boys generally had to serve to the age of twenty-one, girls to the age of eighteen.

3. Here Feinde means “Devils.”

4. Convinced that salvation comes from faith alone and not from good works, Boltzius preached unceasingly against self-righteousness (eigene Gerechtigkeit) self-piety (eigene Frömmigkeit), use of the means of salvation (Mittel des Heils) such as church ritual and reputable behavior (ehrbarer Wandel). All of these give a person false security (Sicherheit) and cause him to fail to depend upon Christ’s merits.

5. Boltzius numbers the Sabbath commandment as the third, following Lutheran (and Roman Catholic) numbering. It divides the first commandment into two, thus causing a difference by one in the numbering of the intervening commandments. This translation numbers them according to the Greek system, which is standard in English literature.

6. Du sollst von deinem Thun lassen ab, dass Gott sein Werck in dir hab”.

7. For the Pietists, sickness, although harmful to the body, was salutary for the soul, which it properly humbled. The same was true of any physical loss.

8. Dort wird mein GOtt in ewger Lust aufs schönste mit mir handeln, mein Creutz, das mir und ihm bewusst, in Himmels-Freud verwandeln, da wird mein Weinen lauter Wein, mein Aechzen eitel Freude seyn, das glaub ich, hilf GOtt! Amen. From a hymn.

FEBRUARY

1. Because Boltzius says Stangen spalten, it would appear that these are rail fences, instead of the usual fences of planks, unless fence posts are being split. See end of entry for 21 February.

2. Seeing the advantage of private enterprise, Boltzius had successfully resisted Oglethorpe’s efforts to have the Salzburgers work communally.

3. Boltzius seems unaware that the idea of “long lots” had been brought from Central Europe. When Joseph Avery, the English surveyor, tried to resist the Vernonburgers’ demand for long lots, they threatened him with bodily harm.

4. At first the redeemed indentured servants, as well as the earlier Salzburgers, had been supplied provisions from the storehouse; but later they, and the fourth Salzburger transport, were given a cash allowance instead.

5. David Züblin, a Swiss from Appenzell, was the father of Johann Joachim Zubly, later an important figure in Georgia.

6. This lack was remedied very shortly.

7. Boltzius is most often quoted as giving practical, rather than moral or religious, arguments against slavery. That is understandable, since he was trying to influence the English authorities, whose interests were primarily practical.

8. Samuel Montaigut (Montague) was a Huguenot merchant in Purysburg who had many dealings with the Salzburgers.

9. After receiving much praise for herding their cattle instead of letting them run free, the Salzburgers finally let their cows roam on the open range like the other settlers.

10. The red wolf, long exstinct in the region but now being reintroduced, was a timid creature.

11. Hans Krüsy, an old Swiss.

12. Capt. William Thomson had brought many Swiss and Germans to Georgia at his own risk.

13. Most men served only till the age of twenty-one. Perhaps this lad had to serve longer to pay the passage of other family members, perhaps members who died more than half way across the Atlantic.

14. These are clearly for a split-rail fence. See Feb., note 1.

15. Like other theologians of his day, Boltzius looked upon the people and events of the Old Testament as precursors, or prefigurations, of people and events in the New. For example, the tree in the Garden of Eden, which caused man’s fall, prefigured the cross, on which man was redeemed.

16. David was a prefiguration of Jesus. See note 15, above.

MARCH

1. The letter A. usually designates Augsburg. There seems to have been little reason to disguise that city.

2. See Jan., note 7.

3. These friends were German merchants in Venice in the firm of Schalkhauser, Flügel, and Jastrum.

4. Matthias Kurtz did start a plantation but then died.

5. The word Ebenezer was interpreted both as “Stone of Help” and “The Lord hath helped so far.” The latter seems the more authentic.

6. This was the “corn-shilling,” a subsidy of a shilling on each bushel of corn, beans, or sweet potatoes raised in 1739.

7. It was a custom at the time to send Bible verses as gifts to friends.

8. By “German crops” or “European crops” Boltzius meant wheat, rye, oats, and barley, as opposed to corn, rice, and sweet potatoes.

9. This was a cash allowance for buying provisions. See Feb., note 4.

10. The council consisted of a President and five Assistants. At the time, Col. Stephens was the president.

11. In Pietist parlance, “misery” (Elend) meant sin, or “alienation from God.”

APRIL

1. These must have been the two disciples on the way to Emmaus in Luke 24:13. Perhaps Boltzius was using a Hebrew or Greek spelling.

2. Canstein Bibles were inexpensive Bibles printed in Halle since 1710 by the Pietist Karl Hildebrandt, Baron of Canstein.

3. See Jan., note 3.

4. See Jan., note 7.

5. In the 18th Century, the word “epilepsy” could connote any type of paroxysm.

6. See Jan., note 7.

7. See note 5, above.

8. Josef Ernst had dislocated a thumb, which could not be reset. Eventually gangrene set in, and the hand had to be amputated at the armpit. The operation, while excruciating, was successful; but the patient died of pneumonia. According to Boltzius, such bodily chastisement saved his soul.

9. See March, note 6.

10. See March, note 8.

11. He should not live under the law of the Old Testament but under the grace of the New. The servant was Martin Herzog.

MAY

1. Abercorn soon became a dependency of Ebenezer and remained a predominantly German area until shortly before the Revolution, when the yeoman farmers sold out to William Knox, a wealthy Englishman who developed a large slave-operated agribusiness.

2. This was Robert Williams, the leader of the Malcontents, or disaffected party in Savannah. He slandered Boltzius by saying that, for the Salzburgers, he was “God, priest, and king.”

3. The German word Person, although feminine, could refer to a male person. Here the feminine gender is used because most such discussions were with women.

4. “Approval.”

5. It was more difficult to disguise the ear marks. The Salzburgers’ cattle brands and their cows’ earmarks are recorded in the Cattle Brand Book in the Georgia Archives in Atlanta.

6. The Lutheran’s work ethic derived from Luther’s conviction that laborare was just as important as orare.

7. Ignorant of Pietist dogma. They may have been well instructed in secular or “external” matters such as earning a living.

8. See March, note 3.

9. Friederica Bischoff of Purysburg, nèe Unselt, was the wife of Henry Bishop, an Englishman who had been sent from London as a lad to be Boltzius’ servant.

JUNE

1. A reading assignment.

2. Lobe den HErren, der deinen Stand sichtbar segnet, der aus dem Himmel mit Strömen der Liebe geregnet, dencke daran, was der Allmächtige kan, der dir mit Liebe begegnet. Stanza 4 of the hymn Lobe den Herrn, den mächtigen König der Ehren, by Joachim Neander.

3. A religious tractate by Martin Statius.

4. See note 9, below.

5. Carl Heinrich Bogatzky, Güldenes Schatz-Kästlein der Kinder GOttes, Halle, many printings. This was a very popular devotional work.

6. See March, note 3. The Venice firm must have demanded anonymity.

7. GOtt, der dir täglich alles gibt.

8. “As many words, as much weight.”

9. Des Herrn Lindners Auszüge aus den Postillen B. Lutheri, Bibeln, Gesang-Bücher und Schatzkästlein). The “B” is a misprint for “D” (Dr.). For Schatzkästlein, see note 5, above.

10. “Her” is of course Mrs. Steiner. Boltzius will sometimes even write “I called on Hans Schmidt, and she said ...”

11. The Georgia Salzburgers were then corresponding with their kinsmen and countrymen who had found refuge in East Prussia and Lithuania.

12. See note 5, above.

13. Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen, Geist-reiches Gesangbuch, Halle 1714 ff.

14. Friederica Maria Gronau.

15. Hilft er nicht zu jeder Frist, hilft er doch wenns nötig ist, from an unidentified hymn.

16. Archpriest Schumann was chaplain to the Salzburger exiles in East Prussia.

17. Pastor Breuer was another minister with the Prussian Salzburgers who corresponded with those in Ebenezer.

18. Dr. Schultz was superintendant of schools for the Salzburgers in Lithuania.

19. When the Salzburgers abandoned Old Ebenezer against Oglethorpe’s wishes, they had to leave all buildings and lumber behind.

20. Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, who had passed through Ebenezer during the previous year, was now in Philadelphia, where manufactured goods were more available.

21. See March, note 8.

22. Col. Stephens’ disloyal son Thomas, a leader of the Malcontents in Savannah, was aided by the Ebenezer schoolmaster Ortmann in obtaining signatures on a petition to allow the importation of slaves.

JULY

1. Jonathan Bryan, a South Carolina planter who furnished many cows and horses to the Salzburgers, was a bit of a relgious enthusiast and worked hard to convert his slaves.

2. Ringe, dass dein Eyfer glühe, und die erste Liebe dich von der gantzen Welt abziehe: halbe Liebe hält nicht Stich. From Ringe recht, wenn Gottes Gnade, by Johann Joseph Winkler.

3. Boltzius is referring to the Swiss and German town of Vernonburg, which Joseph Avery had just surveyed on and north of the White Bluff on the Vernon River south of Savannah.

4. The redemptionists received land and provisions under the condition that they cultivate their land; but many left the farms to their wives and children and sought employment elsewhere, often at neighboring forts.

5. This is clearly Mrs. Sanftleben, the only woman who has lost two children. Urlsperger often deletes names even when the identity is obvious.

6. The Francke Foundation in Halle had provided not only ministers for Ebenezer, but also missionaries for Danish missions in East India. Like Boltzius and Gronau, they, too, sent in regular reports, which were published as the Der Königlichen Dänischen Missionarien aus Ost-Indien eingesandte Ausführliche Berichte, Halle 1735 ff.

7. selbst gemachter Trost had about the same meaning as eigene Frömmigkeit and Sicherheit.” See Jan., note 4.

8. So wahr sich GOtt im Himmel find’t, so wahr bin ich sein trautes Kind, von Sünden los, gantz heilig, voller Gnaden. Er will mein lieber Vater seyn, schliesst mich in seine Vorsorg’ ein, beschützet mich vor Unglück, Leid und Schaden. From a hymn.

9. It is not clear from the records which of the Züblin brothers was then residing in Ebenezer, Ambrosius or Johann Jacob.

10. See May, note 3.

11. By natürliche Leute Boltzius seems to mean the Old Adam, the unconverted man.

12. Muhlenberg had preached to the Germans in Savannah when visiting Ebenezer the year before.

13. Her Welt-Ehrbarkeit, fleischliche Sicherheit, and Trost were the same as the previously mentioned ehrbare Wandel, Sicherheit, eigene Frömmigkeit, and selbstgemachte Trost. See Jan., note 4.

14. HErr JEsu, sey mein Hort, Versöhner, HErr und Schild, und führ mich wie du wilt, dein bin ich wie ich bin, nimm mich zu eign hin. From a hymn.

15. In this case again, Feinde probably means “devils.” See Jan., note 3.

16. Ringe recht, wenn GOttes Gnade dich nun ziehet und bekehrt, dass dein Geist sich recht entlade von der Last, die ihn beschwert, by Johann Joseph Winkler.

17. He means, of course, the cattle disease.

18. See note 6, above.

AUGUST

1. Johannes Arndt, Vier Bücher vom wahren Christentum, a massive work of many printings, one of them in Pennsylvania, was the best seller among colonial Germans. August Hermann Francke’s Die Lehre vom Anfang christlichen Lebens, Halle, 1696, was also very popular.

2. Johann Baptist Homann (1664-1724) and his heirs produced some of the best cartographic engravings of the time. Pastor Schmidt’s Biblischer Medicus, not identified.

3. A panacea manufactured by Johann Caspar Schauer of Augsburg, which was very popular in Ebenezer and its environs.

4. Johann Vigera, a citizen of Strassburg, conducted the fourth Salzburger transport from London to Georgia. He was now on his way to Philadelphia.

5. When Andreas Zwiffler, the apothecary who came over with the first Salzburger transport, departed for Philadelphia, he left his brandy-still behind. It was inherited by the new physician, Christian Ernst Thilo, who also used it for distilling medications. While backing Oglethorpe in his opposition to rum, Boltzius accepted brandy as a necessary medicine.

6. Bonaventura Riesch, the minister to the Salzburgers who resided in Lindau, continued his interest in them after they came to Ebenezer with the fourth transport.

7. This sackcloth was not for making sacks but for straining the meal.

8. During the first years, Urlsperger succeeded in maintaining a strict censorship of all letters from Ebenezer.

9. Martin Luther’s Haus- und Kirchen Postille über die Evangelia .

10. The cattle disease (blackwater) reached Ebenezer only after having plagued the surroundings for two years.

11. See Feb., note 3.

12. The city of Hardwick made a start but soon joined the other “dead towns of Georgia.”

13. Luther has Lehre uns bedenken, dass wir sterben müssen, which is very direct. The King James version has “So teach us to number our days.”

14. In King James this is Jonah 2:8. Luther renders it as Die über dem Nichtigen halten, verlassen ihre Gnade.

SEPTEMBER

1. Jeremias Theus, a Swiss, later painted Boltzius’ portrait.

2. Thomas Causton had been replaced as keeper of the stores in Savannah and was about to go to London to have his accounts audited.

3. This is an early example of share-cropping, which was later to harm Georgia’s agriculture.

4. The Salzburgers had to wait until 1749, when Capt. Peter Bogg brought a transport of Palatines on the Charles Town Galley.

5. Ach GOtt! du bist noch heut so reich, als du bist gewesen ewiglich. From a hymn.

6. Mein Vertrauen steht gantz zu dir; mach mich an meiner Seelen reich, so hab ich genug hier und ewiglich. From a hymn.

7. Thue als ein Kind und lege dich in deines Vaters Arme, bitte ihn und flehe, bis er sich dein, wie er pflegt, erbarme, so wird er dich durch seinen Geist auf Wegen, die du ietzt nicht weisst, nach wohlbehaltnem Ringen aus allen Sorgen bringen. From a hymn.

8. Boltzius writes Leckner. The name also appears as Lechner and Lackner, which seems to have been the name that prevailed.

9. Boltzius seems to have used the word Schindeln to mean not only shingles but also weatherboards, which it probably means here.

10. Boltzius uses the word Stube (cognate with Eng. stove) for the heated room and the word Kammer for the bedroom, even though that word (cognate with Lat. camina) originally meant a heated room.

11. Kitchens were usually built separate from the house as a precaution against fire.

12. Although the stove was in the room, it was fed from outside so one did not have to enter the room with dirty shoes and dirty firewood. The stove pipe also emptied outside, thus keeping smoke out of the room.

13. Cards were a sort of curry comb for carding wool or flax.

14. There is a kind of polecat in Germany (Iltis), but nothing to compare in stench with an American skunk.

15. This Old Testament verse is perhaps the best support for the Pietists’ belief that sickness is salutary.

16. For the meaning of “secure” (sicher), see Jan., note 3.

17. Although Salzburg was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, when a person left there he was going “into the Empire.”

OCTOBER

1. When the first Salzburger exiles reached Augsburg, they were quartered in the Evangelical poorhouse.

2. See June, note 5.

3. For True Christianity see Aug., note 1. Ehre und Lehre Augsburgischer Confesssion and Tractätlein von der Bekehrung unidentified.

4. Christian and Margaretha Löwenberger, who had come over with Capt. William Thomson in 1738, had been indentured to the schoolmaster Ortmann; but he had been unable to maintain them and they were returned to the service of the Trustees.

5. Moses hat nun ausregieret, Christi freyer Geist uns führet, die Gefangenschaft ist aus; wer gehört in Gottes Haus, kan durch unsers Goels Büssen, freyer Kindschaft nun geniessen. Hallelujah!, from the hymn Auf, Auf, weil der Zag erschienen, by J.A. Freylinghausen.

6. “Memory aid.” From adminiculum, a beanpole, support.

NOVEMBER

1. The Kieffer girl’s name is not given. It may have been Ottile, born in 1728.

2. There having been no one by the name of Stocher in Ebenezer, this must have been a typographical error for Mrs. Thomas Bacher.

3. Glauchisches Gedenck-Büchlein, Oder Einfältiger Unterricht für die Christliche Gemeinde zu Glaucha, Leipzig and Halle, 1693. Glaucha, the seat of the Francke Foundation, is now in Halle but was then a neighboring village.

4. Since there was no one named Stichler at Ebenezer, this must have been an error for Bichler.

5. Boltzius is probably distinguishing between long leaf and short leaf pine.

DECEMBER

1. Orangeburg was a township on the South Carolina frontier settled by Swiss and Germans. By Boltzius’ standards, it was a wild and godless place. Besides that, it was Reformed rather than Lutheran.

2. Although Urlsperger suppressed Steiner’s name at the beginning of this entry, he failed to do so here.