Part 3

“Besides all this, they were forced to witness almost daily acts of cruelty practised by the British and Tories toward those Americans who happened to fall into their hands as prisoners of war; for it will be remembered that Ebenezer, while in the hands of the British, was the point to which all prisoners taken in the surrounding country were brought and from thence sent to Savannah. It was from this post that the prisoners were carried who were rescued by Sergeant Jasper and his comrade, Newton, at the Jasper Spring, a few miles above Savannah.

“There was one act performed by the British commander which was peculiarly trying and revolting to the Salzburgers. Their fine brick church was converted into a hospital for the accommodation of the sick and wounded, and subsequently it was desecrated by being used as a stable for their horses. To this latter use it was devoted until the close of the war and the removal of the British troops from Georgia. To show their contempt for the church and their disregard for the religious sentiments of the people, the church records were nearly all destroyed, and the soldiers would discharge their guns at different objects on the church; and even to this day the metal “_Swan_” (Luther’s coat of arms) which surmounts the spire on the steeple, bears the mark of a musket ball which was fired through it by a reckless soldier. Often, too, cannon were discharged at the houses; and there is a log-house now standing not far from Ebenezer, which was perforated by several cannon shot.... The Salzburgers endured all these hardships and indignities with becoming fortitude; and though a few were overcome by these severe measures, yet the great mass of them remained firm in their attachment to the principles of liberty.”[33]

It is suggested that the establishment of tippling houses in Ebenezer, during its occupancy by the British, and constant intercourse with a licentious soldiery, corrupted the lives of not a few of the once sober and orderly Germans. That the protracted presence of the enemy, the confiscation of estates, the interruption of regular pursuits, the expulsion of such as clave to the Confederate cause, and the general demoralization consequent upon a state of war, tended to the manifest injury and depopulation of the town, cannot, for a moment, be questioned. Indications of decay and ruin were patent in Ebenezer before the cessation of hostilities. From the time of its occupation by Maitland, shortly after the capture of Savannah by Colonel Campbell in December, 1778,—with the exception of the limited period when its garrison was called in to assist in the defense of Savannah against the operations of the allied army under the command of Count D’Estaing and General Lincoln in the fall of 1779,—Ebenezer continued in the possession of the British until a short time prior to the evacuation of Savannah in July, 1783. In his advance toward Savannah, General Anthony Wayne established his head quarters at this town. The Tory pastor, Triebner, who, during the struggle had sided with the Royalists and remained unmoved amid the sufferings and oppressions of his people, betook himself to flight so soon as the English forces were withdrawn, and found a refuge in England, where he ended his days in seclusion.

Upon the evacuation of Savannah, many of the Saltzburgers returned to Ebenezer. Its aspect was sadly changed. Not a few of the abandoned dwellings had been burned. Others had fallen into decay. Smiling gardens had been trampled into desert places, and the impress of stagnation, neglect, and desolation was upon everything. Jerusalem Church was a mass of filth, and very dilapidated. Notwithstanding this sad condition of affairs, much energy was displayed in the purification and renovation of this temple of worship, and in the rehabilitation of the town.

The arrival of the Reverend John Ernest Bergman,—a clergyman of decided talents and of considerable literary attainments,—and the revival of the parochial school greatly encouraged the depressed inhabitants and promoted the general improvement of the place. The population began to increase. It assumed an apparently permanent character, and countenanced the hope that the ante-bellum quiet, good order, thrift, and prosperity would be regained. This expectation, however, was not fully realized. The former trade never revived. The mills were never again put in motion. Silk-culture was renewed only to a limited degree. Having for twenty-five years more remained about stationary, New Ebenezer commenced visibly to decline; and, when scarcely more than a century old, took its place, in silence and nothingness, among the dead towns of Georgia.[34]

The act of February 26th, 1784,[35] provided for the erection of the “Court House and Gaol” and for holding public elections in Effingham County at Tuckasee-King, near the present line of Scriven County. The situation proving inconvenient, three years afterwards the county-seat was removed to Elberton, near Indian Bluff, on the north side of the Great Ogeechee river.

On the 18th of February, 1796, the Legislature of Georgia[36] appointed Jeremiah Cuyler, John G. Neidlinger, Jonathan Rawhn, Elias Hodges, and John Martin Dasher “commissioners for the town and common of Ebenezer,” with instructions to have the town “surveyed and laid out as nearly as possible in conformity to the original plan thereof, to sell all vacant lots, and such as had become vested in the State, [reserving such only as were necessary for public uses,] and appropriate the proceeds to the erection of a County Court House and Jail.” Any over-plus was to be applied to building a public Academy. For three years only did Ebenezer remain the County Town of Effingham County. In 1799, its public buildings were sold, and the village of Springfield was designated by the Legislature as “the permanent seat for the public buildings of the County of Effingham.”[37] David Hall, Joshua Loper, Samuel Ryals, Godhelf Smith, and Drurias Garrison were appointed commissioners to carry this change into effect.

In 1808 the Ebenezer Congregation received legislative permission to sell the glebe lands which it owned. By degrees all the real estate held by the society was disposed of. The proceeds arising from these sales were invested in lands, mortgages, and securities;—the interest accruing being applied to the payment of the pastor’s salary and the current expenses of the church.[38]

Until about the year 1803 all the religious services observed by the Saltzburgers were conducted in the German language; and, in the church at Ebenezer, for a long time subsequent to that date, the religious exercises continued in that tongue. Methodist and Baptist Churches springing up in the neighborhood drew away many of the younger members of the congregation. The introduction of the English language into all the Saltzburger Churches was effected in 1824 through the instrumentality of the Reverend Christopher F. Bergman.

Year by year Ebenezer became more sparsely populated. Many of its citizens removed into the interior and upper parts of the county. Quite a number formed settlements in Scriven County, while others went to Savannah, and to Lowndes, Liberty, and Thomas counties. Others still,—more enterprizing than their fellows,—sought new homes in South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

We close this sketch with a picture of Ebenezer painted by one of the late Pastors[39] of Jerusalem Church,—a gentleman of cultivation and of piety, who saw the last waves of oblivion as they closed over the town and obliterated its decayed traces from the grass covered bluff of the Savannah.

“To one visiting the ancient town of Ebenezer, in the present day [1855] the prospect which presents itself is anything but attractive; and the stranger who is unacquainted with its history would perhaps discover very little to excite his curiosity or awaken his sympathies. The town has gone almost entirely to ruins. Only two residences are now remaining, and one of these is untenanted. The old church, however, stands in bold relief upon an open lawn, and by its somewhat antique appearance seems silently, yet forcibly, to call up the reminiscences of former years. Not far distant from the church is the cemetery, in which are sleeping the remains of the venerable men who founded the colony and the church, and many of their descendants who, one by one, have gone down to the grave to mingle their ashes with those of their illustrious ancestors.

“Except upon the Sabbath, when the descendants of the Saltzburgers go up to their temple to worship the God of their fathers, the stillness which reigns around Ebenezer is seldom broken, save by the warbling of birds, the occasional transit of a steamer, or the murmurs of the Savannah as it flows on to lose itself in the ocean. The sighing winds chant melancholy dirges as they sweep through the lofty pines and cedars which cast their sombre shades over this ‘deserted village.’ Desolation seems to have spread over this once-favored spot its withering wing, and here, where generation after generation grew up and flourished, where the persecuted and exiled Saltzburgers reared their offspring in the hope that they would leave a numerous progeny of pious, useful, and prosperous citizens, and where everything seemed to betoken the establishment of a thrifty and permanent colony, scarcely anything is to be seen, except the sad evidences of decay and death.”

II.

FREDERICA.

“As the Mind of Man cannot form a more exalted Pleasure than what arises from the Reflexion of having relieved the Distressed; let the Man of Benevolence, whose Substance enables him to contribute towards this Undertaking, give a Loose for a little to his Imagination, pass over a few Years of his Life, and think himself in a Visit to _Georgia_. Let him see those, who are now a Prey to all the Calamities of Want, who are starving with Hunger, and seeing their Wives and Children in the same Distress; expecting likewise every Moment to be thrown into a Dungeon, with the cutting Anguish that they leave their Families expos’d to the utmost Necessity and Despair: Let him, I say, see these living under a sober and orderly Government, settled in Towns, which are rising at Distances along navigable Rivers: Flocks and Herds in the neighbouring Pastures, and adjoining to them Plantations of regular Rows of Mulberry-Trees, entwin’d with Vines, the Branches of which are loaded with Grapes; let him see Orchards of Oranges, Pomegranates, and Olives; in other Places extended Fields of Corn, or Flax and Hemp. In short, the whole Face of the Country chang’d by Agriculture, and Plenty in every Part of it. Let him see the People all in Employment of various Kinds, Women and Children feeding and nursing the Silkworms, winding off the Silk, or gathering the Olives; the Men ploughing and planting their Lands, tending their Cattle, or felling the Forest, which they burn for Potashes, or square for the Builder; let him see these in Content and Affluence, and Masters of little Possessions which they can leave to their Children; and then let him think if they are not happier than those supported by Charity in Idleness. Let him reflect that the Produce of their Labour will be so much new Wealth for his Country, and then let him ask himself, Whether he would exchange the Satisfaction of having contributed to this, for all the trifling Pleasures the Money, which he has given, would have purchas’d.

“Of all publick-spirited Actions, perhaps none can claim a Preference to the Settling of Colonies, as none are in the End more useful.... Whoever then is a Lover of Liberty will be pleas’d with an Attempt to recover his fellow Subjects from a State of Misery and Oppression, and fix them in Happiness and Freedom.

“Whoever is a Lover of his Country will approve of a Method for the Employment of her Poor, and the Increase of her People and her Trade. Whoever is a Lover of Mankind will join his wishes to the Success of a Design so plainly calculated for their Good: Undertaken, and conducted with so much Disinterestedness.”

By such suggestions did Benjamin Martyn[40] seek to enlist the public sympathy in behalf of the then projected but not established Colony of Georgia.

Mr. Oglethorpe, in a contemporaneous publication,[41] had assigned, among the weightiest reasons for founding the Colony, the ample opportunity which would be afforded in Georgia for persons reduced to poverty at home and constituting a positive charge upon the Nation, to be made happy and prosperous abroad and profitable to England. The conversion of the Indians, the confirmation of the development and security of Carolina, and a lucrative trade in silk, rice, cotton, wine, indigo, grain, and lumber, were enumerated as additional inducements to the enterprize.

On the 9th of June, 1732, his Majesty, George the Second, by Charter, granted to the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America and their successors, all the Lands and Territories from the most northern stream of the Savannah river along the sea-coast to the southward unto the most southern stream of the Alatamaha river, and westward from the heads of the said rivers respectively in direct lines to the south seas. Not only the lands lying within these boundaries, but also all islands within twenty leagues of the coast were, by this Royal feoffment, conveyed “for the better support of the Colony.”[42]

During the first year of the foundation of the Colony, Mr. Oglethorpe’s attention was directed to providing for the emigrants suitable homes at Savannah, Joseph’s Town, Abercorn, and Old Ebenezer, to concluding necessary treaties of cession and amity with the Natives, and the erection of a fort on the Great Ogeechee river to command the main passes by which the Indians had invaded Carolina during the late wars, and afford the settlers some security against anticipated incursions from the Spaniards. This fortified post,—as a compliment to his honored patron John, Duke of Argyle,—was called _Fort Argyle_, and was garrisoned by Captain McPherson and his detachment of Rangers. At this time no English plantations had been established south of the Great Ogeechee river. Having confirmed the Colonists in their occupation of the right bank of the Savannah, and engaged the friendship of the venerable Indian Chief, Tomo-chi-chi, and the neighboring Lower Creeks and Uchees, in January, 1734, Mr. Oglethorpe set out to explore the coast, and determine upon such settlement as appeared most advantageous for the protection of the southern confines of the Colony. During a heavy rain on the 26th of that month, he and his party landed “on the first Albany bluff of St. Simon’s island” and “lay all night under the shelter of a large live-oak-tree and kept themselves dry.” This reconnoissance, which was continued as far as the sea-point of St. Simon’s island, and Jekyll island, convinced Mr. Oglethorpe it was expedient and necessary for the proper defence of the Colony that a military station and settlement should be formed, at the earliest practicable moment, near the mouth of the Alatamaha river; and that, as an outpost, a strong fort should be built on St. Simon’s island.

This plan was in part compassed in January, 1735, when one hundred and thirty Highlanders, and fifty women and children, who had been enrolled for emigration at Inverness and its vicinity, arrived at Savannah, and, a few days afterwards, were conveyed in periaguas to the southward. Ascending the Alatamaha river to a point about sixteen miles above St. Simon’s island, they there landed and entered upon a permanent settlement, which they called New Inverness. Here they erected a fort,—mounting four pieces of cannon,—built a guard-house, a store, and a chapel, and constructed huts for temporary accommodation preparatory to putting up more substantial structures. These Scots were a brave, hardy people,—just the men to occupy this advanced position. In their plaids, and with their broad-swords, targets, and firearms, Oglethorpe says they presented “a most manly appearance.”

Upon their arrival in Savannah some of the Carolinians endeavored to dissuade them from going to the southward by telling them that the Spaniards, from the houses in their fort, would shoot them upon the spot selected by the Trustees for their future home. Nothing daunted, these doughty countrymen of Bruce and Wallace responded[43] “we will beat them out of their fort and shall have houses ready built to live in.” This valiant spirit found subsequent expression in the effective military service rendered by these Highlanders during the wars between the Colonists and the Spaniards, and by their descendants in the primal struggle for independence. To John Moore McIntosh, Captain Hugh MacKay, Ensign Charles MacKay, Colonel John McIntosh, General Lachlan McIntosh, and their gallant followers, Georgia, both as a Colony and a State, owes a special debt of gratitude.

On the 5th of February, 1735,[44] two hundred and two persons, upon the Trust’s account, conveyed in the Symond and the _London Merchant_, and conducted by Oglethorpe in person, arrived at the mouth of the Savannah river. It was his intention to locate all these emigrants at St. Simon’s island, but, in compliance with their earnest entreaty, such of them as were German Lutherans were permitted to join their friends at Ebenezer. Upon leaving London it was contemplated that the Symond and the London Merchant should sail directly for Jekyll sound, and land their passengers at the point where it was proposed that the new town should be located. The timidity of the captains, however, who, in the absence of experienced pilots, feared the dangers of an unknown entrance, caused this deviation in the voyage.

Having engaged the services of fifty Rangers and one hundred workmen, and having dispatched Captain McPherson with a part of his command to march by land to the support of the Highlanders on the Alatamaha, Mr. Oglethorpe who, since his arrival, had been busily occupied in arranging matters at Savannah and Old Ebenezer, returned to the ships which were still lying in Tybee roads. Finding their captains unwilling to risk their ships without having previously acquired a knowledge of the entrance into Jekyll sound, he bought the cargo of the sloop _Midnight_, which had just arrived, on condition that it should be at once delivered at Frederica, and with the understanding that captains Cornish and Thomas should go on board of her, acquaint themselves with the coast and entrance, and then return and conduct their vessels to Frederica. During their absence these ships,—the Symond and the London Merchant,—their cargoes still on board,—were to remain at anchor at Tybee roads in charge of Francis Moore, who was appointed keeper of the stores. Mr. Horton and Mr. Tanner, with thirty single men of the Colony, and cannon, arms, ammunition and entrenching tools, were ordered to proceed to the southward with the sloop Midnight. The workmen who had been engaged at Savannah, and Tomo-chi-chi’s Indians were directed to rendezvous at convenient points whence they might be transported as occasion required. The sloop sailed for St. Simon’s island on the morning of the 16th, and at evening of the same day Mr. Oglethorpe set out in the scout boat to meet the sloop at Jekyll sound. Captain Hermsdorf, two of the Colony, and some Indians went with him, and Captain Dunbar accompanied him with his boat. They passed through the inland channels lying between the outer islands and the main. “Mr. Oglethorpe being in haste,” says one of the party, “the Men rowed Night and Day, and had no other Rest than what they got when a Snatch of Wind favoured us. They were all very willing, though we met with very boisterous Weather.... The Men vied with each other who should be forwardest to please Mr. Oglethorpe. Indeed he lightened their Fatigue by giving them Refreshments, which he rather spared from himself than let them want. The Indians seeing the Men hard laboured, desired to take the Oars, and rowed as well as any I ever saw, only differing from the others by taking a short and long Stroke alternately, which they called the Yamasee Stroke.” On the morning of the 18th they reached St. Simon’s island and found that the sloop had come in ahead of, and was waiting for them. Mr. Oglethorpe at once set all hands to work. The tall grass growing upon the bluff at Frederica was burnt off, a booth was marked out “to hold the stores,—digging the ground three Foot deep, and throwing up the Earth on each Side by way of Bank,—and a roof raised upon Crutches with Ridge-pole and Rafters, nailing small Poles across, and thatching the whole with Palmetto-leaves. Mr. Oglethorpe afterwards laid out several Booths without digging under Ground, which were also covered with Palmetto Leaves, to lodge the Families of the Colony in when they should come up; each of these Booths was between thirty and forty Foot long, and upwards of twenty Foot wide.... We all made merry that Evening, having a plentiful Meal of Game brought in by the Indians.

“On the 19th, in the Morning, Mr. Oglethorpe began to mark out a Fort with four Bastions, and taught the Men how to dig the Ditch, and raise and turf the Rampart. This Day and the following Day were spent in finishing the Houses, and tracing out the Fort.”[45]

Such was the simple beginning of Frederica.[46] Near the town Mr. Oglethorpe fixed the only home he ever owned in the Province. In its defence were enlisted his best energies, military skill, and valor. Brave are the memories of St. Simon’s island. None prouder belong to the colonial history of Georgia.

Three days afterwards arrived from Savannah a periagua with workmen, provisions, and cannon, for the new settlement. Captains Cornish and Thomas returned from the southward to Tybee roads on the 26th and, although assured of the fact that there was ample water for the conveyance of their vessels to Frederica, still refused to conduct the Symond and the London Merchant to the southward. Mr. Oglethorpe was consequently compelled to consent that their cargoes should be unloaded into the “_Peter and James_,” which could not carry above one hundred tons, and the rest transferred in sloops to Savannah for safe storage until such time as opportunity offered for conveying it to its destination. He was also put to the great inconvenience of collecting periaguas[47] sufficient for the transportation of the Colonists.

Much incensed at the conduct of the Captains of the transports, and inconvenienced by the demurrage consequent upon their timidity, he was also indignant at the delay thus caused in the consummation of his plans, annoyed at the additional charges for transfer of passengers and cargo, and solicitous for the health of the colonists who would be exposed in open boats, at an inclement season, during the passage from Tybee roads to Jekyll sound.

It was not until the 2nd of March that the fleet of periaguas and boats, with the families of the Colonists on board, set out from the mouth of the Savannah river. Spare oars had been rigged for each boat. With their assistance,—the men of the Colony rowing with a will,—the voyage to Frederica was accomplished in five days. Mr. Oglethorpe accompanied them in his scout-boat, keeping the fleet together, and taking the hindermost craft in tow. As an incentive to unity of movement, he placed all the strong beer on board one boat. The rest labored diligently to keep up; for, if they were not all at the place of rendezvous each night, the tardy crew lost their ration. Frederica was reached on the 8th, and there was general joy among the colonists.