USA > South Carolina > Orangeburg County > The history of Orangeburg County, South Carolina : from its first settlement to the close of the Revolutionary War > Part 6
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ĮMr. Samuel P. Jones had a copy of this plan made from the origi- nal in the office of the Secretary of State, from this Judge Glover made a copy and from Judge Glover's copy Mr. Lucas made a copy which is now in the record book of the Church of the Redeemer in Orange- burg.
THE OLD GIESSENDANNER CHURCHYARD. From Photo by O. B. Rosenger, Orangeburg, S. C., 1898.
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same street as that on which the present brick Court House now stands say- feet. There is a lot be- tween the grave yard and the Bull Swamp Road* which corresponds with the space marked for public square. This said lot is now owned by the Town Council of Orangeburg.
"The old Court House of wood and jail of brick oc- cupied the second square North of the said street on which the new Court House now stands. The jail was destroyed & another built.+ The Court House still stands having had many changes and uses. First as a church for first one and then another denomination, a masonic Lodge, black-smiths's shop, and it is at this present time in good order and repair, & is owned and used as a residence by Mr. John Marchant. This said square (C. H. & Jail) is on the West side of the Bull Swamp Road or street known on map as Broughton street. There is no other grave yard nor has there been any other known in this village except this one & those recently opened by the Methodist ch., Luther- an, & Baptist and not as yet used for burials .; The Catholic, Presbyterian & this Episcopal Church of the the Redeemer has grounds in use not older than 10 to 12 years.
"Tradition, as well as facts, has marked this old vil- lage grave yard as the grave yard and the spot on which stood the Prot. Epc. Church known in the Book of Record of the Revd Jno. Giessendanner as the Church & Churchyard of Orangeburgh and iu which he officiated.
"There is a mound of earth on the South end which
*Which lot has since been filled with graves, mostly of negroes. +Upon the site where the First Baptist Church now stands.
¿The Methodist and Lutheran church-yards were never used as bu- rial grounds.
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marks the spot on which the church stood. Many old persons recollect hearing this called the Episcopal Church yd. & show this mound as the spot on which the church stood. Mr. Peter Rowe, an old gentleman near S6 years old, says he remembers his father's pointing out this yard & mound as the Church & church-yard of this Book of Record by Jno. Giessen- danner's church, and said it was built of wood & clay in same manner as chimnies are done. I, J. Lucas, have examined the foundation & think it must have been built in some such manner as described, as no signs of brick I found, & should think it to be about 30 by 60 feet. The mound I cannot account for ex- cept it must have been used as a raised earth floor having some sort of foundation to keep in the earth so raised. Dr. Wm Rowe remembers his grandfather Jacob Rickenbaker aged - years & now dead years to say that this was the Episcopal church & church yard as per Book of Record. He also remem- bers & so does Capt. John C. Rowe and also D. Rowe a bell which belonged to this Church of Giessendan- ner to be in possession of their grandfather & father also. From them and through the Rev. Dr. J. W. Tayler I learn that this bell was borrowed from Mr. Rowe by Mr. Wm. Murrowe who kept a hotel for use therein. Mrs. Caroline Gramling, formerly his* widow says Mr. Edward Spencer who married her sister's daughter got it from her first husband and hung it in a window at the Methodist Church from which it fell and was broken so as to be useless. It lay for many years where it fell. Mr. James Harley remembers seeing it so lying in a broken condition & thinks it was made away with by a blacksmith. Mrs. Gramling (maiden name Stroman.) says she remem-
"Mr. Murrowe's.
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bers that the said grave yard was the Episcopal church yard and that it went by that name. Her father told her the bell was never hung owing to a brake in the holding part or head.
"Mrs. J. W. Taylor, an old lady, wife of the Rev. J. W. Taylor, remembers that this ground was known as the Episcopal churchyard. Her family was Episcopal. There are relics of the former Episcopal Church in the shape of Prayer books, &c. Mrs. Arant, an old lady, now living has her mother's Prayer book. (Engh). The said Mrs. Arant was born in 1776 & was baptized in the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. & Mrs. Chris- topher Rowe were her sponsors. Mr. Donald Rowe and also his brother, Capt. Jno. C. Rowe, remember hearing their grandfather Jacob Rickenbacker say that this was the grave yard and the spot on which was built the Episcopal Church of this Record of the Revd J. Giessendanner. The said Jacob Rickenbacker was the son of the first Rickenbacker that came to this country from Germany. The lands owned by their fathers are still in the possession of the Rowe family, situated by and near this village in which the family live as their fathers did before them. Other families are still living in and on the same places as their fore- fathers before the Revolution. This district was changed but slightly in many instances of family names & residences.
"In the grave yard of Orangeburgh Church of this Record as above were buried Michael Christopher Rowe and his wife and many of his family after him. Mr. Peter Rowe has also informed me that he remem- bers the bell mentioned before, and that he was born before Michael Christopher Rowe died and that num- bers of the members of families still continue to use this grave yard as the place for family burials & as the ancient place of rest of their forefathers.
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"The Revd J. W. Taylor of the Protestant Episco- pal Church, and assistant minister of this Church of the Redeemer in Orangeburg, was buried in this old village church yard. His obituary was written by the Rev. D. X. Lafar, of the Presbyterian Church. and who for some time was the Paster of the Presbyterian Church of Orangeburg, in which he calls the grave yard 'The Old Church Yard.'
"Capt V. de V. Jamison, a brother of Gen'l D. F. Jamison, said to me that his brother, Gen'l D. F. Jami- son, had, & and perhaps still has, in his possession a prayer book belonging to the late Revd John Giessen- danner which was presented to him by the Bishop of London.
"The Amelia Chapel, it is believed, was situated somewhere near the plantation of Mrs. Mary Russell. Its exact location may be yet discovered. The Chapel ordered to be built by an act passed April 12, 176S, (See Dalcho's Church History) in that part of the Parish called Orangeburg Township was never built, no evidence remains that it was .*
"From the close of Dalcho's History service Episco- pal was very seldom held here & few and far between until about the year 1848, at which time Rev. R. D. Shindler became a missionary at this place & resided in this village.
"There is very strong evidence that it was built. From the minutes of the vestry of St. Matthew's Parish we learn that at a meeting of the vestry and wardens held at the parish church, October 10, 1770, it was "agreed that when Mr. Turquand receives the above he do purchase a Folio Bible & quarto common Prayer Book for the use of the chap- pel at Orangeburgh". And Mr. Lucas himself stated that Mrs. Arant had a prayer book used by her mother at Orangeburgh, and that Mrs. Arant herself was baptized in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and that she was born in 1776; which was eight years after 1768. Again, my grandmother, Mrs. A. S. Salley, tells me that she remembers a part of an old church standing in the old church yard when she was a small girl, which was about 1835.
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"John Lucas, Sec. & Treas. of the Church of the Re- deemer, Octo. 31, 1866."
It is singular how much the descendants of the first settlers of Orangeburg have neglected this old grave yard in which the bones of their ancestors lie buried, and in which stood the first Lutheran church in the Carolinas, and likewise the first Episcopal church in Orangeburg, and in which also stood the Episcopal chapel that succeeded the old church. As an instance of this indifference, it is related by Ex-Governor Perry in his "Sketches," p. 113, that when Hon. A. P. Butler was a young man he went to Orangeburg with an idea of locating there. He put up at a little tavern, and finding it quite chilly, he ordered the negro boy who waited in the house to bring him some lightwood. The boy went out and in a few minutes returned with an armful of grave markers. "Where did you get those ?", asked Mr. Butler. "Pull 'em up out de grave yahd", answered the negro. Mr. Butler thereupon decided that he would not locate among people who had so little reverence for the dead, and went else- where.
Section 3. The settlement of Saxe-Gotha; the condition of the settlers; their spiritual advantages and disad- vantages.
When Orangeburgh District was formed in 1768 Saxe-Gotha Township, now Lexington County, was included in that district; so that in giving the history of Orangeburgh District it is proper to include the his- tory of Saxe-Gotha Township up to the time when it was separated from Orangeburgh District and was in- cluded in Lexington District.
In 1730, it will be remembered, eleven townships were laid off on the banks of rivers in South Carolina,
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and of these eleven townships two were laid off on the Santee. Or, more properly, on the Congaree, a branch of the Santee, and the Santee. These were Amelia and the township which up to 1736 was called Congaree Township, but which in that year was called Saxe-Gotha by Governor Broughton.
It is possible that there were a few unsettled traders and members of the former garrisons of the Congaree fort settled in this township previous to 1736. The following account of the settling of Saxe-Gotha Town- ship is taken from Rev. G. D. Bernheim's History of the German Settlements in the Carolinas; Section 11: (p. 126.)
"In Mills' Statistics of South Carolina, page 611, we have the following statement in reference to Lexing- ton District (now County): "This District, when first settled, was merged in Orangeburg precincts. A parish and township were laid out in about the year 1750. and named Saxe-Gotha, in compliment to the first settlers of the country, who came from that part of Germany.'
"An entirely different statement may be found on pages 25 and 26 of Dr. Hazelius' History of the Ameri- can Lutheran Church; from which we learn that the name Saxe-Gotha originated in Queen Anne's time. and that the first settlers of that county 'came from the neighborhood of the Rhine, Baden, and Würtem- berg,' kingdoms considerably removed from Saxe- Gotha.
"But from the Journals of Council, in the office of the Secretary of the State, the date of the settlement of Saxe-Gotha by Germans is unmistakably fixed to be 1737, and that few, if any, of the first settlers of that county came from Saxe-Gotha.
"Council Journal. vol. viii. p. 69: May 26th, 1742. -Petition of John Casper Gallier and family, John
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Casper Gieger and family, John Shalling and family, Abraham Gieger and family, Jacob Liver and family, Julius Gredig and family, Caspar Fry and family, Con- rad and Caspar Küntzler (now Kinsler), John Jacob Bieman and family, Herrman Gieger and family, Eliz- abeth Shalling and family, showing that, as they ar- rived and settled in his Majesty's Township of Saxe- Gotha, even since the year 1737, and received his Majesty's most gracious bounty of provisions and war- rants for lands in Saxe-Gotha Township, but that they could not find in what office they are, therefore they humbly pray his Honor, the Lieutenant-Gover- nor, and his Majesty's honorable Council, that they would be pleased to order that search may be made, &c., &c.
"Again, under date 1744, 'John Jacob Gieger arrived seven years ago, is now married, and prays for one hundred acres of land over against Santee River, op- posite Saxe-Gotha, where he has already begun to clear ground and almost finished a house. Granted'. Subtract seven years from 1744, and we have again the date 1737, the time of the first settlement of that township by Germans.
"From the above reliable source of information we evidently perceive that Mills' statement is entirely in- correct, and that Saxe-Gotha Township was laid out and received its name long before the year 1750, as it is spoken of in the Journals of Council as early as 1742, as being then a township and known by the name Saxe-Gotha, and may have been so called, ac- cording to Dr. Hazelius' statement, during Queen Anne's time, previous to the year 1714, the time of her Majesty's death. However, the Council Journals likewise prove the Doctor to have been mistaken in stating that these lands were wrested from the Ger- mans, for they settled there, and their descendants are
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there still, occupying the very lands which their fore- fathers had received by warrant from the king of England, showing conclusively that, inasmuch as their titles came directly to them from the first legal author- ity, these lands had not yet passed into other hands.
"But it is possible that, as in the State of New York. the benevolent Queen Anne did make grants of land for church and school purposes in Saxe-Gotha Town- ship, which, however, could not be occupied at the time, as the settlements in South Carolina had then not been extended so far inland; the Indians were still in possession of that portion of the province, and the grants and good intentions of the Queen were eventu- ally lost sight of and forgotten. Afterwards, when the Germans did actually locate themselves in Saxe-Gotha. new warrants were issued and secured to them by the authority of the then ruling sovereign, his Majesty George II.
"Independent of the actual account and dates of the settling of this township, we have before us the gener- al rule that 'Westward the star of empire takes its way,' and that the farther westward or inland the set- tlements were made, the later will be the dates of such settlements. This is the result of natural causes, and admits of no exceptions to the well-known rule: the first settlers of America necessarily located them- selves along the seashore, afterwards a little more in- land, whilst the aborigines, living in the forest. gradu- ally receded from the march of civilization; then fur- ther encroaches were made upon their territory. and so on, gradually, until the Appalachian chain of moun- tains was reached. After the Revolutionary War even the mountains formed no barrier to the settlements of the whites, and thus, in a short time, nearly all of America became populated. even beyond the valley of the Mississippi.
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ORANGEBURG COUNTY.
"Orangeburg, South Carolina, was settled by Ger- mans in 1735; Saxe-Gotha, further inland, of necessi- ty was settled still later; hence common sense will admit of no date of permanent settlement earlier than, or even as early as, that period of time.
"Saxe-Gotha comprised nearly all that portion of territory embraced at present in Lexington County, it is not many years since the name was changed, in honor of the battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, by an act of legislature, which was a most unfortunate ex- change of names, being less euphonic, very inappro- priate, and altogether unhistorical .* Give us back the the old name, and may the citizens of old Saxe-Gotha, in South Carolina, never be ashamed of their German names and German extraction.
"How the name originated, as applied to this town- ship, it is impossible to state. It certainly was not so called in compliment to the Germans who settled there, as they came from a different section of Ger- many; it is possible that the name, 'Saxe-Gotha', was applied to this scope of territory during Queen Anne's reign, as intimated by Dr. Hazelius, and thus, even by name, it was to be distinguished as a future home for German emigrants.
"The following record of this settlement is made in the Urlsperger Reports, vol. iii, p. 1791: 'Wednesday, December 2d. 1741. We had heard nothing before of Saxe-Gotha in America, but we have just received the intelligence that such a town (township) is laid out in South Carolina, twenty-five German miles (100 Eng- glish miles) from Charlestown, on the road which passes through Orangeburg, and settled with German people. Doubtless the majority of them were German Reformed, as they have a Reformed minister among them, with whose character we are not yet acquaint-
"Nor was the honor ever appreciated by the people of Massachusetts.
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ed'. This minister was the Rev. Christian Theus, of whom we shall say more hereafter. He commenced his labors in Saxe-Gotha as early as 1739.
"The Geiger families and their neighbors were not compelled to remain a long time as isolated settlers in their new homes; the name Saxe-Gotha sounded so agreeably familiar to the ears of the Germans that they flocked in numbers to this Germany in America.
"Besides, a certain German. named Hans Jacob Riemensperger, contracted with the government to bring over a number of Swiss settlers, many of whom he located in this township, as we learn from Urlsper- ger, vol. iii. p. 180S, and from the Journals of Council. on several different pages. In addition to these set- tlers, this same Riemensperger, in company with a Mr. Haeg, brought a number of orphan children to Saxe- Gotha, for which service to the province, as well as for the boarding of the children, they brought in their accounts to the Council for payment. Vol. viii, pp. 69 and 70."
The following extract from the South Carolina Ga- zette of November 13th, 1736, should settle the question as to how this township got its name, and set at rest the differences in statements given by various South Carolina historians on this point:
"His Honour the Lieut:Governour* having been de- sired to visit the Townships of Amelia Orangeburgh & Saxe-Gotha. so named by his Honour. & before known by the name of Congaree Township, in order to settle some Inconveniences complained of by the Inhabitants of those Townships, did after the adjourn- ment of the General Assembly & when the Business of the Council was dispatched, set out for the said Townships on the 19 October, settling all matters to the entire satisfaction of the inhabitants & re-
*Broughton.
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turned in good Health to his seat at the Mulberry on the 3d November."
As Broughton did not become Lieutenant-Governor of South Carolina until 1735, the theory advanced by some historians that the township received its name in Queen Anne's time is fallacious. The paragraph from the South Carolina Gazette given above should settle the point as to how Saxe-Gotha Township got its name, but just why Governor Broughton should have given it that name is a point yet to be decided.
Dr. Bernheim, on p. 131 of his history, writing of the settlement of Redemptioners, says: "Some of our best and most useful settlers in the South were per- sons, who, too poor to pay their passage-money across the ocean, were sold by the captains of the vessels, that brought them to America, to any one of the set- tlers who felt inclined to secure their labor. The price for which they were sold in Carolina was usually from five to six pounds, sterling money, and both men and women were thus alike sold to service; and then, by hard labor, which extended over a period of from three to five years, they eventually redeemed them- selves from this species of servitude.
"The advantages of such an arrangement to them and to their adopted colony were, upon the whole, im- portant and salutary.
"1. Our infant colonies stood in need of a useful population which would prove a defence to the coun- try in case of the execution of the continued threat- enings of a Spanish invasion, and the sudden attack of hostile Indians.
"2. Besides, labor was greatly needed for the culti- vation of the virgin soil, and these poor Germans- many of them excellent farmers, some of them useful artisans, and all of them hard-working people-fur- nished this labor, and at very cheap rates.
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"3. The country also needed permanent settlers who would become habituated to the soil and climate, who would learn to love their adopted country, by being compelled to remain until they had fully tested all the advantages of the same; these the Redemptioners abundantly supplied in their own persons.
"4. Nor were the advantages to them of slight im- portance. They had nothing to risk in the shape of property, as they possessed nothing of this world's goods, and thus they never became a prey to those landsharks which often despoil the less sagacious im- migrants of much of the possessions which they brought with them to America.
"5. Besides, they were the poorer class of people at home in Europe, and would always have remained in this condition, had such an arrangement not existed: but now they enjoyed the flattering prospect of re- ceiving competeney and wealth at some future day.
"6. Then again, their servitude became their ap- prenticeship in America; in the meantime they learn- ed the English language, they became acquainted with the laws and customs of the new country. they discovered by silent observation what would in future be to their advantage, and thus in every way did they become qualified by sagacity, industry, and economy. for their new and independent sphere of life.
"Yet it must be confessed that they had to endure many hardships; often were they rigously treated by their ship captains: ill and insufficiently fed on their voyage across the ocean, and on shore before they were purchased for their services: exposed publicly for sale as the African slave: often treated harshly by their masters who purchased them, and compelled to labor in the broiling sun of a southern climate, and many. by disease and death. frequently closed their short earthly career.
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"However, when our country had become sufficient- ly populated, the government interposed and put an end to this kind of servitude, on account of the severi- ty of the lot of these unfortunate laborers, and thus abandoned this source of colonization. In confirma- tion of these facts, the following extracts will furnish abundant proof, and are herewith submitted:
"Journals of Councils, vol. xiv, p. 37, January 24th, 1744: 'Read the petition of a considerable number of Protestant Palatines, most humbly showing that the poor petitioners have been on board the St. Andrew's, Captain Brown commander, these twenty-six weeks past, and there is as yet no likelihood for them to get free of her, because there are none of us yet who have purchased their service; they therefore humbly pray his Excellency and Honors that they may find so much favor as to their passages that a sum equivalent to discharge the same be raised by the government, for which they promise to join in a bond to repay the same within the term of three years, with lawful in- terest; and that if any of them shall not be able to pay the above sum within that time, that the gov- ernment in that case shall have full power to dispose of them and their families as they shall think proper, &c. Ordered to make investigations, and report.'
"Vol. xiv, pp. 62 and 63: 'Several Protestant Pala- tines, who arrived hither on Captain Brown's ship, and whose services have not as yet been purchased, sent a complaint, by their interpreter, to the governor, that the said Captain Brown had often withheld their diet from them on board his ship, and that they had been several days without meat or drink: particularly that last Friday they were the whole day without any. the least, sustenance, and had been the like for several days before, and not only they, but all the rest of the Ger- mans that still remain on board Captain Brown's ship.
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"'Captain Brown being sent for and interrogated whether he had used those foreigners in the manner they had represented, answered, that if they had asked him for food in their language he would not have understood them.
""'His Excellency ordered the captain's steward to be sent for, who attended accordingly, and the origi- nal contract between Captain Brown and those Pala- tines in Holland was also sent for and laid before the Board, which being read and the particular species of of diet that was allowed for every day of the week specified, his Excellency asked, in particular, if the said Germans had been fed last Friday in the manner contracted for?
"'The steward replied that the Germans would sometimes reserve the taking of diet on certain days in order to have double allowance another. But his Excellency gave Captain Brown to understand that as he was by virtue of his contract bound to maintain those foreigners till they were disposed of, if any should die for want while aboard his ship, he must answer for their lives; after which they withdrew.'
"The accounts of the trials and hardships of these persons, as narrated in the Urlsperger Reports, are entirely too numerous to be inserted in these pages: those who feel inclined to search for themselves are referred to the volume and page of those Reports. where they can find all they desire to know concern- ing the Redemptioners. Vol. i, p. 10; vol. ii. pp. 2472. 2482, 2508. How the Redemptioners conducted them- selves can be learned from vol. ii, pp. 2193, 2200. 2213. 2221. 2404. 2413 .*
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