USA > Georgia > Georgia as a proprietary province; the execution of a trust > Part 23
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It was no easy matter to secure missionaries for the Georgia work, and it was nearly a year before the vacancy could be filled. After investigating the fitness of other pos- sible workers, the Board of Trustees finally selected Rev. Thomas Bosomworth for the position. He had already lived in Georgia, having acted as clerk for Secretary Stephens and having also served in the army under Oglethorpe. He had not given promise of being especially religious, but
#C. R. V: 572, 618, 639, 712.
"C. R. IV Supplement: 142.
5 B. T., Ga., XIII: 22; C. R. V: 545-546.
"1 C. R. V: 655.
...
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shortly before his appointment he had returned to England and taken orders.52 He was chosen for the Savannah mis- sion ; but he went instead to Frederica and began to assist as chaplain of the regiment until the Trustees learned of his change in plans and ordered him to follow his original directions.53 He was a trouble maker all the while he was in the colony. He was a bitter enemy of the orphanage and, as we have seen, he wrote to the Trustees with a view to getting it suppressed. He continued in Georgia until 1745, when he left the province without getting leave from his superiors, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and the Trustees; nor did he make any provision for services to be continued in his absence. He explained to the Venerable Society that he found it neces- sary to leave the colony both for his own preservation and for the peace of the colony. He claimed that he and his Indian wife had not been treated well by the white people and that the Indians were threatening to cause trouble out of sympathy for them. To avoid such evil consequences, an abrupt departure was his only recourse.54
The Trustees did not feel that his excuse was sufficient, and they addressed a letter of reproof to him and revoked his commission. Bosomworth later returned to the colony, though not as a minister ; and he gave to the authorities of Georgia more real trouble and anxiety perhaps than any other person who ever resided there, for he succeeded in stirring up the Creek Indians against the colony. The efforts he made were purely selfish, and it was not his fault that they did not succeed.
The next appointee for the Savannah mission of the
52 C. R. V: 630-631, 686, 704.
NC. R. I: 454.
" S. P. G. Correspondence, Mss., Sept. 3, 1745.
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Church of England served longer and on the whole did bet- ter work than any of the men who preceded him. He was Rev. Bartholomew Zouberbuhler who had been born in Switzerland, but was reared and educated in South Caro- lina. As early as 1741, the German inhabitants of Savan- nah had requested that he be allowed to supply them with preaching, as he could give them instruction in their own lan- guage. The request was granted by the Trustees, but there was no way of paying for his services at that time.35 Other requests had been made also for a minister who could speak both French and German.56 As Zouberbuhler could meet this requirement, and as he was ordained a priest of the Estab- lished Church, the Trustees felt that he would be the very man to meet the needs in Savannah; and he received his ap- pointment November 1, 1745.57 He proceeded at once to Savannah and entered upon his duties. He was a zealous worker, preaching regularly in both English and German, holding frequent prayer services, and visiting all persons within a radius of six or eight miles from Savannah, whether or not they were members of his congregation.58
In spite of his earnest labors, Zouberbuhler did not sup- ply all the religious work that was desired by the foreign speaking people of the vicinity. Those living in the little villages of Vernonburgh and Acton had petitioned the Trus- tees to allow a Swiss minister, Rev. John Joachim Zubli, to serve them; and he had actually entered upon the duties of the work before he learned that the Trustees on account of the expense could not agree to his employment. In 1746 these people wrote the Trustees again, telling that they were trying at their own cost to provide a house of wor- ship and asking once more that Zubli be appointed as min-
" C. R. VI: 17. 57 C. R. II: 469.
"C. R. V: 713-715.
58 B. T., Ga., XXIII: 23.
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ister. The Trustees desired to encourage the people in their efforts to help themselves, and so they wrote to Zouber- buhler recommending that he accept Zubli as his assistant and stating that if he would allow the assistant £10 an- nually from his salary they would give him an additional servant.59 To such an arrangement, Zouberbuhler was not at all willing to consent. He did not like Zubli, as he re- garded him as an interloper in his parish; and he was not willing to surrender any part of his salary. On the con- trary, he wrote the Trustees and also the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that servants were an expense rather than an aid and that he did not have a sufficient income even without dividing with another.60
He was so much in earnest about the matter that he went to England to confer in person about it. He requested the Society to remove him to some mission in South Carolina where he might at least procure food and raiment, both of which he was in danger of lacking in Georgia. The Trus- tees appreciated his services so much that they were not will- ing to permit him to leave Savannah. As a result of several conferences with him, they agreed that if he would return to Savannah they would give him double the salary he had been getting, would provide him with two servants, would repair or rebuild the parsonage, would lay out the glebe in a better place, and would give to him and to each of his two brothers five hundred acres of land.61 More signal proof of their appreciation of him could hardly be given, for at this time the colony was in greater financial difficulties than at any previous time.
Encouraged by the consideration shown him, Zouberbuhler
5º C. R. I: 492-493.
60 S. P. G. Correspondence, Mss., Aug. 8, 1748.
61 B. T., Ga., X: Martyn to Pres. and Assts., July 7, 1749.
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returned to his work and continued to perform faithfully his duties until the end of the proprietary period. The most notable event of his remaining ministry was the completion and dedication of the Savannah church, but this . will be noticed later. When, in 1758, the royal province of Georgia was divided into parishes of the Church of England, Barthol- omew Zouberbuhler was named Rector of Christ Church in Savannah, the principal church in the colony.62
The only other mission which the Established Church through its societies attempted in Georgia was at Augusta. Here the enterprise was begun on the initiative of the set- tlers themselves. They requested the Trustees to supply them with a minister, but the expiration of the period of the Trust was near at hand; and the Board felt that they would be unable to pay the salary of a missionary. However, as they had so frequently done before, they presented the petition to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts with the request that it send a worker if possible. The people of Augusta promised to pay £20 annually toward the salary of a minister, to cultivate a glebe and build a parsonage for him, and to provide a handsome church, the building of which was already considerably advanced.63 The Venerable Society finally agreed to the proposal on condi- tion that the Trustees grant the glebe and that the people perform their promises. Rev. Jonathan Copp was the mis- sionary selected. He was an American, a graduate of Yale, who had gone to England for ordination as deacon and priest because there were no bishops in the colonies. He reached Augusta in August, 1751, and was joyfully received.6+
In spite of the cordial welcome given to the new minister,
"C. R. XVIII: 261.
" S. P. G. Correspondence, Mss., Aug. 8, 1751.
" Ibid., Aug. 15, 1751.
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Religious Development of Georgia
the work at Augusta did not prosper. Copp himself was partly to blame, for he had hardly begun his work before he stirred up disputes among his people; but they too were at fault. When they had secured a minister, they were not so enthusiastic in providing for him as they had been when they were trying to get him. The Trustees were too occupied with preparations for surrendering their charter to urge the people to perform their duty. Copp remained until after royal control was established in Georgia; but his let- ters to the Society abound with complaints and indicate fully his disappointment with the field of work to which he had been assigned.65
In addition to the work of the Church of England out- lined in the preceding pages, its services were held irregu- larly for Oglethorpe's regiment. A Mr. Dyson acted as chaplain from its arrival until his death in 1739; but he was a drunkard and otherwise immoral, and his ministry only served to bring things religious into contempt.66 We have already pointed out that Norris served as chaplain for a while; and, though he baptized many soldiers during his ministry, he was soon discredited. Other men followed him for short periods, but none of them accomplished enough for us to consider them here.
On the whole, one cannot help joining in Copp's feeling of disappointment as he reviews the work of the Established Church in Georgia. Only two or three centers were reached at all, and the efforts in them were too spasmodic to hope for much success. It was the favored religion of the Trus- tees, and they regretted that it did not reach effectively more of the colonists. If the Trust had lasted longer, it is probable that more systematic efforts would have been
" S. P. G. Correspondence, Mss., 1751-1752; B. T., Ga., XXIV: 93-94. %C. R. IV: 198; C. R. V: 80.
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adopted to cover the whole province with the influences of the Church. In 1751 Zouberbuhler suggested accomplish- ing this object by the establishment of a system of itinerant catechists ; but there was no time for the Trustees to try the experiment, and nothing came of it.67
The next religious work in Georgia that we shall notice was that done under Presbyterian auspices. In 1735 the Society in Scotland for Promoting Christian Knowledge noti- fied the Trustees that it would support a missionary to labor among the Scotch going to Georgia if the authorities con- trolling the colony would license him. On August 23, of the same year, Accomptant Verelst wrote for the Trustees that they heartily approved of having a Presbyterian go to the field suggested, and they asked the Society to nominate a man, promising to appoint him as a minister for the colony and to provide for him a glebe of three hundred acres.68 In response to this letter, the Society named Rev. John McLeod who had just been ordained a minister of the Pres- byterian church, and on October 29, 1735, he was regularly commissioned by the Trustees for the performance of ec- clesiastical duties in Georgia.69
McLeod settled at Darien and labored among the Scotch of that region for about six years. For a while he seemed quite successful and was highly regarded by the people in all parts of the colony, and the state of religion at Darien was repeatedly reported as excellent.70 He felt very keenly the need of a house of worship, and he worked earnestly to secure it. In 1738 he wrote to his supporting Society that the Trustees could not furnish the money for a church be-
"7 S. P. G. Correspondence, Mss., Aug. 15, 1751.
B. T., Ga., VIII: Verelst to S. P. C. K., Aug. 23, 1735.
B. T., Ga., XII: 268.
70 B. T., Ga., XXI: Stephens to Trustees, May 27, 1738.
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Religious Development of Georgia
cause they were supporting too many schools, but he re- ported that Oglethorpe was trying to provide the needed funds.71
In the matter of securing a house of worship, the Scotch were disappointed ; and by 1740 McLeod seemed particularly discouraged on account of the loss of many of his parishion- ers who perished during the invasion of Florida. He re- sented also the rather strict rules, as he thought, that Ogle- thorpe had placed on the methods by which the Scotch might make their living. In May, 1741, he left Darien and soon took charge of a church in South Carolina. He wrote very severe letters to the Society about conditions in Georgia. The information he sent was so despondent that the Scotch Society determined to support no further work in the col- ony.72 McLeod could not justly be censured for leaving his Georgia work if he desired to go elsewhere; but there was no occasion for trying to injure the colony by misrepre- sentation. The Darien work suffered for lack of a leader, and it never again amounted to much.
There seem to have been no other regularly commissioned Presbyterian ministers in the colony. At Bethesda there were quite a number of Presbyterian adherents, and Rev. Jonathan Barber, who acted for Whitefield in spiritual matters during the latter's absence, was of that faith. He preached for the orphan community and occasionally in Savannah; but he was in the colony rather by the sufferance of the Trustees than by their appointment or that of any of the regularly organized missionary societies.73
The stay of the Moravians in the colony was too brief to require any detailed account of their religious history in
11 B. T., Ga., XXI : McLeod to S. P. C. K., Jan. 6, 1739.
72 C. R. V: 589, 600.
73 C. R. IV: 52, 116, 157.
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Georgia. Their object in coming to the province was two- fold-to secure an asylum from the persecutions at home and to do missionary work among the Indians. The first group of them came to Georgia in the spring of 1735; set- tling in Savannah until they could clear and improve their lands on the Ogeechee river. This party was under the spiritual guidance of Rev. Augustus Gottlieb Spangenburg. They were joined by others who came under the leadership of Rev. David Nitschman during the following year. From time to time other small parties joined the colony, especially in 1738 when Rev. Peter Boehler led a small party to the colony and assumed the leadership of the whole Moravian community.74
They were a very industrious people. Their lands were cultivated better than those of any other settlers in the province, and they were soon able to repay the Trustees for their passage money which had been advanced to them, a precedent which few of the other colonists followed. They were the only settlers coming to Georgia during the period of the Trust who became entirely self-supporting.
The Moravians through their leader, Count Zinzendorf, asked to be appointed by the Trustees as regular mission- aries to the Indians; but this request was declined on the ground that it would seem to be a reflection on England, as if there were not enough good men in it to preach the gospel to the natives. 75 The Trustees, however, heartily approved of any missionary work that the Brethren on their own initiative and at their own expense might under- take. A most useful work was begun by them at Irene, about five miles from Savannah, as we have already noticed. The policy of living among the Indians and adopting to a
74 Loskiel, Part II: 3.
" B. T., Ga., IX: Martyn to Zinzendorf, Sept. 23, 1737.
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Religious Development of Georgia
large extent their customs and habits seemed to please the natives and made them more amenable to religious influences. There is every reason to believe that the mission would have made a permanent impression on the Indians if the Moravians had continued in Georgia.76
It was against the religious principles of the Brethren to bear arms in warfare, and the necessity of their having to do so in Georgia was one of the points discussed before they sailed from England. It was difficult for the Trus- tees to make an exception of them in the general rule that all men were liable for service without breaking down their whole militia system ; but as the Moravians went to Georgia as servants of Count Zinzendorf, and not as independent freeholders, it was at last agreed that regular military service would not be required of them. It was specified, however, that they would be required to furnish two men for guard duty, one for each of the Moravian plantations held in the Count's name. This arrangement was not altogether satisfactory to the Brethren, but they agreed to it.77
The authorities in the colony did not understand this exemption ; and when the Spanish threatened to invade the colony, the Moravians were requested to furnish their quota of soldiers for defense. The latter declined the call and re- ferred the matter to the Trustees, who of course upheld their former agreement ; but the people of Georgia felt that the Brethren did not show the proper spirit and that the Trustees favored them too much. The Moravians realized the feeling on the part of the other colonists, and they felt that it would be best for them to move to some other loca- tion. Accordingly some of them left for Pennsylvania in
76 Loskiel, Part II : 3-4.
77 B. T., Ga., IX: Martyn to Zinzendorf, Sept. 23, 1737.
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Georgia as a Proprietary Province
1738, and the remainder departed in 1739 and in 1740.78 Some attempt was made by Whitefield to get them interested again in missionary work in the province, but the results were negligible.79
Another religious work that was carried on in the Sa- vannah region was that of the Jews. That there were any of them in Georgia was contrary to the wishes of the Trus- tees, who feared that their presence would prejudice the people of England against the colony. The manner in which the Jews were able to go to Savannah against the wishes of the Trustees was as follows. When the Georgia enterprise was first launched, many people of England asked permission to help raise funds for its promotion; and of course the Trustees welcomed such assistance. Among those who asked permission to solicit funds were three Jews, and they were readily allowed to do so. Instead of turning the money raised over to the Trustees, they used it in sending forty Hebrews to the colony as settlers. The latter arrived at Savannah during the summer of 1733. Oglethorpe found them useful citizens and made them welcome in spite of the efforts of his fellow Trustees to have them sent away from the province.80 As a matter of fact, they made very good citizens. They were too few in number to have a complete religious organization ; but they rented a synagogue and conducted services regularly without the assistance of a rabbi.81 They were not propagandists, and their work was too quietly carried on to make much impression on the life of the community.
Another missionary enterprise that was begun at Savan-
" Loskiel, Part II: 5.
7º Ibid., 6-7.
& B. T., Ga., VIII: Martyn to Oglethorpe, Oct. 18, 1733, and Nov. 22, 1733.
" Stevens I: 368-369.
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nah but never produced enough fruitage to require serious attention was an effort to organize a French mission. The work was carried on from Purysburg, South Carolina, by a minister named Chiffelle. He succeeded in gathering a following of about thirty persons and kept up the work for a year or two, but he could not get enough financial sup- port to continue his efforts. So far as can be ascertained, he was not working under the auspices of any board or so- ciety in his efforts.82
The last religious work for us to consider was the most permanent and successful done in the colony. It was that done among the Salzburghers. These were Lutheran Protes- tants who had been expelled by the Catholic clergy from the Bishopric of Salzburgh in Austria. They were sent to Georgia by Rev. Samuel Urlsperger, bishop of Augsburgh, and Mr. Chretien de Munch, a banker of the same place. Both these men were non-resident Trustees of Georgia, given this honor because of their activity in behalf of the perse- cuted Protestants.83 The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge of England co-operated with the Trustees in removing the Salzburghers to Georgia, paying most of the transportation charges and contributing also to their main- tenance. In the perfecting of the plans for the removal, James Vernon was more active than any of the other Trus- tees; and without his earnest negotiations first with the Protestants in Germany and then with the Society in Eng- land, the project could hardly have succeeded.64
On the first expedition to Georgia, some seventy-eight per- sons left Augsburgh ; and the number was increased by others at Rotterdam. They were under the guidance of Baron Von
82 B. T., Ga., XXII: 108.
83 C. R. I: 499.
84 Ibid., 69, 77, 78, 92, 93, etc.
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Reck; but they had as pastors Rev. John Martin Bolzius, who had been superintendent of the Latin Orphan School at Halle, and Rev. Israel Gronau, who had been a tutor in the same school.85
The colonists settled about twenty-five miles from Savan- nah in what is now Effingham County, Georgia. The site was chosen by their leaders in company with Oglethorpe. The town that was erected was called by them Ebenezer. In 1735 and again in 1736, other Salzburghers joined them, so that the total number in the latter year was about two hundred. The location which pleased them at first did not prove to be altogether suitable for a permanent home; and during the years 1736-1737 they moved to the Savannah river and established another town called New Ebenezer about the same distance from the town of Savannah as their old settlement had been.86 When the old town. was com- pletely abandoned, the new settlement was called simply Ebenezer as the first had been named. It was the chief center of Salzburghers in the colony, though in 1736, a smaller number of them had gone to settle with Oglethorpe at Frederica, and a smaller group still was located at Sa- vannah.
From a religious viewpoint, Ebenezer was a mission sta- tion under the joint control of the English Society for Pro- moting Christian Knowledge and the German Evangelical Lutheran Church. All the pastors and people had to sub- scribe to the Augsburgh Confession and a code of rules drawn up in 1733 by Samuel Urlsperger of Augsburgh, Frederick M. Ziegenhagen of London, and G. A. Franké of Halle. According to these rules, at least seven deacons must assist the pastors in the discipline and financial manage-
8 Strobel 51, 62.
* Ga. Hist. Collec. III: 13.
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ment of the church, and the people were to support the churches and schools if possible, though the salaries of pas- tors would be paid from England.87 Regular reports were required to be sent from the mission to Augsburgh and Halle in Germany, to the Society in London, and also to the Trus- tees.88
1
The Ebenezer congregation was ministered to by Rev. John Martin Bolzius until the period of the proprietors ended. He was an able and versatile man, being the leader of his people in things temporal as well as in those spiritual. He superintended agricultural pursuits, directed a corn mill and saw mill, supervised the culture of silk, and sold the products of these industries. He acted as arbiter in dis- putes, exercised supervisory care over the schools of the community, and managed the Ebenezer orphanage. In addition he kept up a rather vigorous correspondence with both England and Germany. For about ten years after the Salzburghers came to Georgia, Rev. Israel Gronau assisted Bolzius, especially in the religious affairs of the settlement. His work was largely confined to the outlying plantations. He was in every way a faithful preacher, and he was greatly beloved. He died in 1745.89
After the death of Gronau, Bolzius with remarkable hu- mility asked that a chief minister be sent over and that he himself might be the assistant; but neither the Lutheran Church authorities, nor the Trustees of Georgia, nor his own people, would have been willing for that. On Novem- ber 11, 1745, Rev. Herman Henry Lembke 90 was com- missioned by the Trustees to take the place of Gronau. He
37 Strobel 93-99.
88 Ibid., 106.
& Hazelius 61-62.
9 C. R. II: 419. The name is here spelled Leruke, evidently an error.
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was well liked also both by his parishioners and by Bol- zius.91
Under the ministration of Bolzius and Lembke, the num- ber of Salzburghers and their friends increased until two plantation missions were necessary besides the main sta- tion at Ebenezer itself. In 1751 another group of colonists made a fourth station necessary. By 1752 the number of settlers was so large that a third minister, Rev. Christian Rabenhorst, was sent to assist Bolzius and Lembke. The Salzburgher pastors did not at first feel that the new helper was needed, and they were not disposed to give him a cordial welcome; but he was a good man, and he soon won a place in the affections of both them and the people.92
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