USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume I > Part 8
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On the approach of hostilities with England, both John Mullryne and Josiah Tattnall remained steadfast loyalists. The latter was a fighter, whose sword flashed in the Colonial wars. He could not antagonize the mother-country, however, even though he declined a com- mission in the Royal army ; nor could he shed the blood of kinsman at home. He was poised between two painful extremes ; but the situation was soon simplified by banish- ment. With John Mullryne, he suffered the penalty of expatriation ; and, taking his two sons, John and Josiah, he embarked for England. The family estate was con- fiscated by the Whigs ; and thus were these staunch parti- sans of the royal house rewarded for the conservatism which kept them loyal to the Crown.
The boys were put to school abroad; but young Josiah, making his escape, returned to America. He felt the lure of Bonaventure, the home of his birth. Joining the American army at Purysburg, he took an active part in the closing scenes of the Revolution in Georgia. He was honored in many ways by the State, was finally made Governor, and before his death was reinvested with the titles to Bonaventure, within whose soil his ashes today sleep. He died in the West Indies, an exile in search of health, and his last request was that he might repose in Bonaventure, under the guardian oaks of his boyhood.
His son Commodore Josiah Tattnall became an illus- trious commander. He served the United States govern-
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ment with eminent distinction upon the high seas. It is a coincidence, however, of the most singular character that eighty-four years after his grandfather's property was confiscated by the State government his own personal property was confiscated by the Federal government be- cause he refused to remain in the service after Georgia seceded; and among the effects thus appropriated were some of the identical belongings which his grandfather forfeited to the State and which were subsequently restored .*
*Consult: Life of Commodore Josiah Tattnall, by Charles C. Jones, Jr., Savannah, 1878.
CHAPTER XIX
Brampton: The Home of Jonathan Bryan
N EAR the south bank of the Savannah River, on a gentle eminence of land, which, in the days of the illustrious old patriot who first owned it, was some distance from the city, but which today is well within the enlarged boundaries of Savannah, stood the fine old Colonial mansion of Jonathan Bryan, one of the earliest of the patriots of Georgia. He called his beauti- ful country seat Brampton. Here, worn by the hard- ships of the Revolution, including an ordeal of imprison- ment on board a prison ship off the shores of Long Island, the sturdy old friend of liberty breathed his last on March 8, 1788, at the ripe old age of four-score years. His remains are entombed in a large brick vault occu- pying the south-west corner of the family burial ground at Brampton, a small plot of land fifty by forty feet, situated some quarter of a mile from the house. The vault forms part of a heavy wall of brick which encloses the sacred area of ground and is entered by an iron door on the west side. The Savannah River, only two hun- dred yards distant murmurs a soft requiem to the old patriot who here sleeps, his warfare ended.
As an embankment was thrown up against the south wall of the enclosure in 1864 it is supposed that the burial ground was used at this time for a battery by the Con- federates. During the occupation of Savannah by General Sherman the vault was opened, doubtless by prowling soldiers in search of silver, at which time the contents of
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the tomb were somewhat disturbed. Jonathan Bryan's wife was Mary Williamson. Brampton was settled upon her some time prior to the Revolution. Consequently when her husband and son were sent to Long Island, she was not molested by the British. In after years, Brampton became the property of the Williamson family several members of which are interred in the burial ground; but the wife of the old patriot occupies a crypt in the vault with him. Most of the children are also entombed here. On account of his connection with the earliest affairs of the Colony, no less than for his part in the drama of independence, Jonathan Bryan has been aptly called one of the principal founders and fathers of Georgia. The Brampton estate contains 600 acres of land. It is today owned by the heirs of the late Dr. James B. Read whose mother was a Williamson .*
In the old family Bible of Jonathan Bryan-perhaps the most ancient relic which exists today in the State- appear the following entries penned by Mr. Bryan's own hand: "The year 1752 was a very dry summer, the pastures were burned up and void of grass as in the dead of winter and the cattle were watered from the wells for three months." "The greatest hurricane we have had in the memory of man was in the year 1754, on Thursday and Friday, the 14th and 15th days of September, and was succeeded by another on the 30th of the same month." "The year 1756 was a dryer and severer year than the year 1752 there being very little rain from the month of March till November and December." "Janu- ary 3rd, 1749 was the greatest frost and coldest day ever known in these parts." "Small-pox broke out in Savan- nah, April 1762." "The year 1760 memorable for that most detestable act of Parliament called the Stamp Act." "March 16th, 1766 was the time of the great freshet in the River Savannah." "This Bible was clasped with
*Letter from Mrs. Jane Wallace Bryan, Dillon, Ga., dated Aug. 5, 1911.
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silver by Mr. James Deveaux in the year 1747." "Joseph Bryan, son of Josiah and Elizabeth Bryan, was born on the 18th of August A. D. one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, a very fine promising boy." [This grand- son in after years became a member of Congress.]
Caesar, one of the numerous slaves owned by Jona- than Bryan lived to be a centenarian. But long before his death he was made a free man by the voluntary act of his master. Andrew, a son of the old ex-slave, became a noted negro preacher of Savannah during the early ante-bellum period. The following brief items, copied from the records, tell a story of some interest. First, the death notice of Jonathan Bryan's faithful servant Caesar. This reads as follows: "Nov. 27th, 1798. Savannah, Ga. Died at the plantation of Col. Wylly [son-in-law of the late Hon. Jonathan Bryan] aged 103 years, negro Caesar, father of the celebrated Parson Andrew. Caesar was a faithful servant of the late Jonathan Bryan, Esq., for forty-two years, when he gave him his freedom."-In Book B. Chatham County Records, pp, 213,214, dated May 4th, 1789, will be found an entry showing where William Bryan, planter, son of Jonathan Bryan, sets free Andrew, a former slave on the estate of Jonathan Bryan and by division of estate Wil- liam Bryan's slave .- In Book N. Chatham County Records, p. 117, dated Sept. 4, 1773, there is an entry showing where a plot of ground at Yamacraw in what was then called the village of St. Gall was deeded to William Bryan and James Whitefield, in trust for a black man named Andrew Bryan, a preacher of the gospel. The. consideration involved was thirty pounds sterling. On this plot of ground was built the negro church of which Andrew Bryan was the pastor until his death. As an item of interest for the future historian, this fragment illus- trative of life under the old feudal regime at the South is worthy of preservation.
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Joseph Bryan, a distinguished grandson of the Revo- lutionary patriot, brought fresh honor to the old ances- tral name by representing Georgia in the halls of Con- gress ; but dying at the early age of thirty-nine the hopes begotten by a genius of rare brilliancy were unfulfilled. In this respect he was not unlike the youthful Hallam, beloved of Tennyson. Educated in Europe, he crossed the ocean a second time for the purpose of enjoying a season of travel on the continent and to gain a more inti- mate knowledge of foreign lands and letters. There is no telling to what heights of distinction he might have attained in the service of Georgia had not his career been prematurely shortened. The papers of the day, in announcing the death of Mr. Bryan, dwell in the most glowing terms of eulogium upon his manifold accomp- lishments ; while John Randolph, of Roanoke, an intimate personal friend of the deceased, paid him a tribute the warmth of which told how close he was to the tender heart of the great Virginian. He died at Nonchalance, his residence on Wilmington Island, below Savannah. In compliance with directions given by Mr. Bryan in his will, he was entombed in a vault above ground, at his country seat, where he was joined in the sleep of death by his beloved wife within a very few years. There is a marble tablet at the entrance to the vault which bears this simple inscription :
"Joseph Bryan. born Aug. 18, 1773, and died Sept. 12, 1812. Delia Bryan, born Mar. 4, 1783, and died Dec. 16, 1825."
CHAPTER XX
The Jews in Georgia: An Outline History
G EORGIA'S earliest historic annals record the presence of the Jew in the infant Colony of Ogle- thorpe. The records furthermore bear witness not only to his mercantile activities, but to his pioneer hardships and vicissitudes in an untamed wilderness, to his religious fervor in the worship of God, and to his patriotic zeal in the cause of American independence. The humane experiment of founding a free State in the Western Hemisphere, for the benefit of the unfortunate debtors of England, appealed with peculiar force to a people schooled in the harsh discipline of oppression since the days of the Pharaohs. But strange to say it was not without some debate that the benevolent scheme of Oglethorpe, though born of an impulse of humanity, was made broad enough to include a persecuted race, from the loins of which had come a promised Messiah whose mission was to redeem a lost world.
On July 11, 1733-to quote an authoritative document* -a tiny vessel rode the harbor of Savannah. The event was full of significance for the future of the State, since it not only brought news from home but bore fresh colonists on board whose racial genius was to constitute no small asset in the building of a commonwealth. The ship's roster included: Benjamin Sheftall, accompanied
*Some Notes of the Early History of the Sheftalls of Georgia, by Ed- mund H. Abrahams. Reprinted from the Publications of the American Jewish Society, No. 17 (1909).
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by his wife, Perla Sheftall; Dr. Nunis, with his mother, Mrs. Nunis; two other bearers of this name, Daniel and Moses; Shem Noah, a family servant; Isaac Nunis Hen- neriques, with his wife, Mrs. Henneriques, also a son Shem ; Raphael Bornal and Mrs. Bornal, his wife; David Olivera; Jacob Olivera; Mrs. Olivera, the latter's wife, two sons, Isaac and David, and a daughter, Leah; Aaron Depevia; Benjamin Gideon; Jacob Costa; David Lopez, with Mrs. Lopez, his wife; Mr. Veneral; Mr. Molena; David Cohen and Mrs. Cohen, his wife, three daughters, Abigail, Grace and Hannah, also a son Isaac; Abraham Minis and Mrs. Minis, his wife, with two daughters, Leah and Esther; Simon Minis; Jacob Yowell; and Abraham DeLyon. These colonists were in the main Portugese and Spanish Jews, though a few were descendants of English refugees from Holland. Dr. Nunis, whose know- ledge of medicine proved to be of great value to the settlers, came from Portugal. The Sheftalls were of Bavarian stock, but came from England. Some have claimed that the first native Georgian was a Jew-Philip Minis, who was born on the bluffs of Savannah, not long after the vessel dipped anchor.
The Colony of Georgia was less than five months old when the new comers arrived. Little had been accomp- lished; and there was the usual unrest incident to pioneer beginnings. The welcome which the Jews received was not cordial. Even here-"in the vastness of an untrod wilderness, hushed by nature's God"-an old prejudice which sixteen centuries of Christianity had not uprooted caused some of the settlers to look askance at the new arrivals. But the benign influence of Oglethorpe soothed the discordant elements. There was no room for bigotry in the heart of the true English gentleman who founded Georgia; nor was there any excuse for intolerance in a great State whose horizon was broad enough for every faith and whose motto was "non sibi sed aliis." Few
1
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fragments have come down to the present time telling of the early Colonial life of these settlers. But the religious devotions of the little band were not neglected. They brought with them from England a copy of the Safer Torah, in what was called a "Hechal"; and here, in a rude home, on the shores of the new world, was founded the Congregation Mickva Israel. In 1742, when Ogle- thorpe returned to England, many of the Jews left Savannah, some of them going to Charleston, where there were many co-religionists, others to Philadelphia, then the center of Jewish interests in America. From this time until the Revolutionary period the Jewish history of Savannah was confined to the records of three fami- lies : Sheftall, Minis, and DeLyon.
Tondee's Tavern-afterwards the Cradle of Liberty in Georgia-was the chief rallying place of the town during the Colonial period, a social as well as a business center, where the older people quaffed ale and the chil- dren played quoits. Here the Union Society was formed, an organization which years later took over the care of Bethesda, the oldest organized charity in America, founded by the great Whitefield. Three of the most influential members of this society were: Peter Tondee, a Catholic. Richard Milledge, an Episcopalian, and Benjamin Sheftall, a Jew.
There was no burial ground set apart in the early days for the settlers of Israelitish faith, barring a small family plot which belonged to the DeLyons. It is a local tradition that when a Jew who was not of this household died in Savannah, application was made for the use of the DeLyon burial ground, but the request was refused. This is said to have greatly angered a member of the race who was destined to become a man of marked prominence in Georgia: Mordecai Sheftall. Thereupon this gentleman conveyed to certain trustees a tract of land which became the Jewish cemetery of Savannah and continued to be used as such until 1850. Here today lie buried the early Sheftalls, in graves which are marked by well preserved tomb-stones.
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It was Israel Zangwell who coined the fine aphorism that since the time of the Exodus freedom has spoken with the Hebrew accent. Though wedded to pursuits of peace, the Jews of Georgia were not slow to resent the oppressions of England. The spirit of liberty burned in the hearts of these gentle people and overmastered the commercial instinct. Mordecai Sheftall, born in Savan- nah, December 16, 1735, became one of the most zealous of the patriots. The royal proclamation which appeared in the Georgia Gazette, of July 6, 1780, proscribed him as a "Great Rebel," in a list which included the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and two Generals. When the theater of war shifted to the South, in 1779, Mordecai Sheftall was commissioned by the Provincial Congress to fill the office of Commissary General of Issues for the State of Georgia. His son, Sheftall Shef- tall, became his deputy, and together they furnished sup- plies to the soldiers. The large sums of money received and disbursed by them show that to the fullest extent they possessed the confidence of the State authorities.
When Savannah fell into the hands of the British in 1779, the Sheftalls were captured, put on board a prison ship, and transported to Antigua in the West Indies. At first they were consigned to a common jail where they suffered great privations and indignities, but they were afterwards released on parole. With other prisoners of war, they were brought at a later period to Sunbury. Here, in a most singular manner, the charter of the Union Society was saved from extinction. It was pro- vided in the charter that unless a meeting was held an- nually for the election of officers, the charter itself was to be forfeited. Mordecai Sheftall remembered this pro- vision. With three of his fellow-prisoners, who, by a fortunate coincidence, happened to be members of the Union Society, he managed to hold a meeting before the time-limit expired. This took place under a tree which is said to have been the birth-place of the first Masonic Lodge organized in Georgia. By virtue of this timely
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rescue, the tree became known as Charter Oak. When exchanged, Mordecai Sheftall was appointed by the Board of War in Philadelphia, a Flag Master to carry funds and provisions to General Moultrie for the desti- tute inhabitants of Charleston. It is needless to say that he faithfully performed the trust.
After the Revolution, he was the victim of shameful ingratitude. From his own private resources, he had spent large sums of money for the support of the Georgia troops. When there were no funds on hand, he went into his own pocket for the necessary means; but most unfortunately when the British entered Savannah the commissary was sacked and many of his vouchers des- troyed. Impoverished by the war and broken in health, due to his prison life, he applied to the general govern- ment for reimbursement of expenditures ; but the demand was not honored. Some time in the fifties-more than half a century later-his heirs presented a claim to the Legislature of Georgia ; but the watch-dogs of the treas- ury managed to pigeon-hole the resolution. To quote the terse comment of Mr. Abrahams: "Ingratitude is not confined to individuals."
The old patriot died at his home in Savannah, on July 6, 1797, and was buried in the old Jewish cemetery which his liberality had set apart to the people of his race. The year before he died, his fellow citizens of Chatham honored him with a seat in the General Congress which convened at Louisville, then the capital of the State. Sheftall Sheftall practiced law in Savannah until 1848. As long as he lived he continued to wear Colonial knicker- bockers; and because of his peculiar style of dress which he refused to alter, in conformity with popular taste, he was called "Cocked -- Hat Sheftall." On the occasion of the visit of President Monroe to Savannah in 1819 he was an honored guest at the banquet. Dr. Moses Sheftall, his son, became an esteemed citizen of Savannah, a surgeon
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in the Chatham Regiment, and a judge of the inferior court. When Washington became chief-magistrate of the nation, in 1789, Levi Sheftall, then president of the Hebrew Congregation, of Savannah, addressed him a letter of congratulation to which he replied at some length, speaking in the highest terms of the part taken by the Jews in the struggle for independence and praying that the same wonder-working Diety who had delivered them of old from the hand of the oppressor might con- tinue to water them with the dews of heaven.
It is not the purpose of this sketch to do more than trace the beginnings of the Jewish colony in Georgia. But true to the heroic precedents furnished by the race in Revolutionary times the descendants of the old patriots of Hebrew blood were prompt to enlist in 1861; and not a few of them made gallant soldiers. The last official order of the Confederate government was issued to a Jew-Major Raphael Moses; and there were few Geor- gia regiments in which men of Israelitish stock were not enlisted. The famous Straus family of New York was identified with Georgia from 1854 to 1856. One of the members of this household, Oscar S. Straus, became United States Minister to Turkey, holding this office un- der three separate administrations. He was also the first American citizen of Jewish parentage to hold a portfolio in the Cabinet of a President of the United States. Isidor and Nathan Strans, his elder brothers, became wealthy merchants of the metropolis, men of wide sympathies for the unfortunate, and of many noble philanthropies. The former of these, Isidor, perished at sea, on board the ill-fated Titanic, in 1912.
CHAPTER XXI
Savannah's Revolutionary Monuments
D URING the visit of General Lafayette to Savannah, in 1825, the old palladin of liberty was asked to take part in laying the corner-stones of two monu- ments to be erected, one to the memory of General Nathanael Greene, in Johnson square, and one to the memory of Count Pulaski, in Chippewa square. He yielded assent; and on March 21, 1825, the corner-stones were duly laid in the places designated, General Lafayette acting in association with the Masonic lodges. Subse- quently donations were received for the erection of these monuments. The sum desired was $35,000, for the rais- ing of which the Legislature authorized a lottery; but the enterprise languishing after a few years it was de- cided to erect only one shaft, to be dedicated in common to the two illustrious heroes.
Accordingly the first monument erected, a shaft of granite, fifty feet in height, was called the "Greene and Pulaski" monument, and for twenty-five years it con- tinued to honor the two heroes jointly, though it bore no inscription. Finally, in 1853, funds having been raised sufficient to carry out the original plan, the monument in Johnson square became the "Greene" 'monument, and a shaft to Count Pulaski was erected elsewhere. However, it was not until 1885 that it bore an inscription. The Georgia Historical Society then took the matter in
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hand, and, with the aid of the city authorities, raised the money needed for the tablets. Both made of bronze, the one on the south side portrays, in bas relief, the full length figure of General Greene, while the one on the north side reads thus :
"Major-General Nathanacl Greene, born in Rhode Island, 1742, died in Georgia, 1786. Soldier, patriot, and friend of Washington. This shaft has been reared by the people of Savannah in honor of his great services to the American Revolution."
On November 14, 1902, the remains of General Greene having been found in the Graham vault, after long search, in the old Colonial burial ground, were re-interred with impressive ceremonies under the Greene monument. The ashes of his son, George Washington Greene, were like- wise committed to the same receptacle. Directly over the spot which marks the last resting-place is a wreath of bronze, there placed by Savannah Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and unveiled at the time of re-interment.
Though it was designed originally that the monument to Count Pulaski should stand in Chippewa square, the corner-stone, on October 11, 1853, was relaid in Mont- erey square; and, on Jannary 9, 1855, the superb structure was dedicated with impressive ceremonies. It is fifty feet in height; a column of solid marble resting upon a base of granite and surmounted by a statue of the goddess of liberty, holding a wreath in her out- stretched hand. On each of the four corners of the base is chiseled an inverted cannon, emblematic of loss and mourning. The coats-of-arms of both Poland and Geor- gia, entwined with branches of laurel, ornament the cor- nices, while the bird of freedom rests upon both. Pulaski, on an elegant tablet of bronze, is portrayed in the act of
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THE PULASKI MONUMENT ON BULL STREET, IN SAVANNAH. .
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falling, mortally wounded, from his horse, at the time of the famous seige; and the whole is a work of consummate art. It was executed in Italy at a cost of $18,000 and was considered at the time one of the most elegant memorials in America. The inscription on the monument reads :
"Pulaski, the Heroic Pole, who fell mortally wounded, fighting for American Liberty at the siege of Savannah, October 9, 1779."
Underneath the monument, soon after the laying of the corner-stone, were placed what at the time were sup- posed to be the remains of the gallant foreigner. These, having been exhumed at Greenwich, on Augustine Creek, the traditional place of Pulaski's burial, were placed be- side the corner-stone, in a receptacle specially designed for them. The conformity of the remains to such a man as Pulaski, ascertained upon an anatomical examination by medical experts, decided the commissioners to place the remains beneath the structure. [However, there are some who insist that Pulaski was buried at sea and that his real ashes are entombed between Savannah and Charleston.] To Major William P. Bowen belongs the chief honor of the project which culminated in the erec- tion of the monument. Dr. Richard D. Arnold was the chairman of the commission.
Among the numerous articles deposited in the corner- stone was a piece of the oak tree from Sunbury, under which General Oglethorpe opened the first Lodge of Free Masons in Georgia, and under which also, in 1779, the charter of the Union Society, of Savannah, was pre- served and Mordecai Sheftall, then a prisoner of war, was elected president. It was the contribution of Mrs. Perla Sheftall Solomons. Colonel A. R. Lawton, after- wards General, was in command of the various military organizations at the time of the re-laying of the corner- stone. Robert E. Launitz, of New York, was the designer
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