Chatham County GaArchives History .....Chapter VI - History of Savannah 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 23, 2004, 7:27 pm p. 53 CHAPTER Vl SALZBURG AND SILK ACCESSION OF SALZBURG (GERMAN PROTESTANT) COLONISTS—ENCOURAGING THE SILK INDUSTRY—THE FILATURE BUILDINGS—DRAWBACKS INSURMOUNTABLE. The attention of the trustees was called, at a very early date after receiving the charter, to the needs of foreign Protestants seeking a home where they could be free to worship God after the manner of their ancestors and as conscience led them. Thus, at a meeting held July 27, 1732, the minutes show that they "drew up a Proposal for transporting a number of the Salzburg Exiles, and desired Mr. Vernon to lay the same before the Gentlemen now concerned in collecting benefactions for their Relief. Next month, August 3d, Mr. Vernon reported that he had followed the instructions given him, and that matter met with the approval of the persons before whom he had laid it. Still later in the month, August 31st,—"Jacob Winekler, Theobald Kupper, Ludwig Koel, Henric Croneberger, George Menglesdorff, Andereas Winekler and Nicolas Rizer, German Swiss, being labourers and vine dressers, attended, and received from Lord Carpenter, Mr. Vernon and Mr. Ogle-thorpe three guineas towards furnishing them with working tools; they, with their familys being the first Germans that are to establish the town of Purisburgh." Again, on the 12th of October of the same year, the minutes record that "Mr. Vernon and Dr. Bundy acquainted the Trustees that the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge were desirous that the persecuted Salzburghers should have an asylum provided for them in Georgia." ACCESSION OF SALZBURG (GERMAN PROTESTANT) COLONISTS Willing though they were to provide at an early period homes in Georgia for those good people, the trustees were forced to put them off for a while because the funds collected for the support of the colony were well-nigh exhausted. As soon, however, as the means were provided for the purpose the good intention was brought to a delightful realization which added not only a substantial increase to the population of the colony but gave an impulse to the upbuilding of the design of its founders which could hardly have been looked for elsewhere. It is not positively stated how the trustees became possessed of an interest in cer- ----------- p. 54 tain lands in the Island of St. Christopher, but we do have the record that by an act of parliament the money paid for said lauds was put at the disposal of the trustees to be by them applied "towards defraying the charges of the carrying over and settling foreign and other Protestants in said colony.” Through this means the band of Salzburghers came to Georgia, and settled, in March, 1734. in that portion of the colony now known as Effingham county, at a place they named Ebenezer. Descendants of these people now live in the city of Savannah, and most of them are among the truly good and exemplary citizens. The leaders of them were Baron Philip George Frederick Von Reck, the Rev. John Manin Bolzius and Israel Christian Gronau. In his diary, the first named of these wrote an account of their arrival in Georgia, from which we make the following extracts: "March 7—At nine there came from Charlestown a pilot on board our ship. We immediately cast anchor, and at ten the captain, the Reverend divines and I, went into the pilot's boat. At one in the afternoon, we came to Charlestown, where I immediately waited on his excellency, Robert Johnson, Esq., and Mr. Oglethorpe. They were glad to hear that the Salzburgers were come within six leagues, all safe and in good health, without the loss of any one person. Mr. Oglethorpe showed me a plan of Georgia, and gave me liberty to choose a settlement for the Salzburgers, either near the sea or further in the continent. I accordingly accepted his favour and chose a place 21 miles from the town of Savannah, and 30 miles from the sea, where there are rivers, little hills, clear brooks, cool springs, a fertile soil, and a plenty of grass. Mr. Oglethorpe sent on board our ship, by the Pilot's Sloop, a large quantity of fresh beef, two butts of Wine, two tun of Spring Water, Cabbage, Turnips, Radishes, Fruit, etc., as a present from the Trustees, to refresh the Salzburgers. "March 9—We beg'd of God that he would permit us to go to our Georgia. We went away this morning at ten, and got on board our ship at two in the afternoon. "March 10—God blessed us this day with the sight of our country, our wished-for Georgia, which we saw at ten in the morning, and brought us unto the Savannah River, and caused us to remember the vows we had made unto Him, if he did, through His infinite Goodness, bring us hither. We were today very much edified with the 32d chapter of Genesis, and the 26th of Leviticus. At noon we cast anchor, because of the Tide; at night, during the Evening Prayers, we entered the river of Savannah. "March 12—The magistrates of the town sent on board our ship an experienced Pilot, and we were carried up to the town of Savannah by eleven in the Forenoon. They returned our salute of five guns, with three, and all the Magistrates, the citizens and the Indians, were come to the river sides. The two Divines, Mr. Dunbar, some others and myself, went ashore in a boat. We were received with all possible demonstrations of Joy, Friendship, and civility. The Indians reached their hands to me, as a testimony of their joy also for our arrival. The Salzburgers came on shore after us, and we immediately pitched a tent for them in the Square of the Town. -------------------- p. 55 "March 13—I went to see the Indians, and their King, Tomo-Chachi. I caused some raisins, of which they are very fond, to be distributed amongst them. " March 14—Mr. Oglethorpe had given orders for three horses to be ready for my service, to take a view of the country, and to ride to the place where the Salzburgers were to settle. I went this morning at nine of the clock, with a Constable and a Guide; but after we had gone a mile or two, we entered some thick woods, divided by deep brooks of water, and though we could with great difficulty pass over some, yet there were others we could not pass; wherefore we returned back to the town. "Mr. Oglethorpe, and Mr. Jenys, Speaker of the Assembly of Carolina, arrived at Savannah from Charlestown; the first having, out of love to our Salzburgers, put off his Journey to England, being resolved to see them settled before he went. Having informed him that the floods had made it impossible for me to pass the woods by land, he said he would go himself, to show me the country and see what place I would choose. The speaker desired to accompany him, and I did myself the honour to make one of the company. He sent to the Indian King to desire two Indians to hunt for him in the Journey; who not only granted them, but his chief War Captain, Tuskeneoi, out of civility to Mr. Oglethorpe, came along with them to accompany us. We went on board a ten-oared boat to the place where a house was building by Mr. Musgrove, six miles up the Savannah river. "March 16—Having slept well in a tent, which we pitched under the shade of a tree by the river side, last night, I accompanied Mr. Oglethorpe on horseback, and the speaker and others went by water. If you ask how a country that is covered with wood, and cut with rivers and morasses, is passable, I must acquaint you that since the colony was settled, the ways were marked by barking off the trees, to show where the roads should go, and where the rivers were passable. After passing through a morass covered with canes, we came to an unfordable river, through which the Indians swam the horses, and we crossed over upon a great tree, cut down for that purpose. The tree was cut down so as to lie across the river and serve for a bridge. And after riding some leagues in the woods, we passed another river. Night overtaking us, we were obliged to take up our quarters upon a little hill, round a fire with the Indians, who brought us a wild turkey for our supper. "March 17—We continued our journey, and set out by break of day, and at nine arrived at the place where the Salzburgers were afterward settled. From hence I returned to the town of Savannah, through Abercorn, a village newly settled by order of the trustees, upon the Savannah river, near where Ebenezer falls into it." The Reverend Mr. Bolzius described their arrival in his journal in these words: “Savannah, Tuesday, March 12—At the place of our landing almost all the inhabitants of the town of Savannah were gathered together; they fired off some Cannons and cried, huzzah! which was answered by our sailors and other English people in our ship, in the same manner. A good dinner was prepared for us. We, the commissary, and Mr. Zwefler, the physician, were lodged in the house of the Reverend Mr. Quincy, the English minister here. --------------- p. 56 "March 14—Last night we prayed on shore for the first time in the English chapel, made of boards, and used for divine worship till a church can be built; the use of which is allowed us during our stay here. The inhabitants join with us, and show much devotion. The Jews, likewise, of which there are twelve families here, come to church, and seemed to be very devout. "March 15—This day, Mr. Oglethorpe arrived here, and received our Salzburgers and us in a friendly manner, and we dined with him. He being very solicitous that these poor Indians should be brought to the knowledge of God, has desired us to learn their language, and we, with the blessing of God, will joyfully undertake the task. Tuesday, March 26—It is a great pleasure to us that Mr. Oglethorpe approved of our calling the river, and the place where our houses are to be built, Ebenezer." ENCOURAGING THE SILK INDUSTRY From the knowledge previously obtained of the climate of the country just south of the colony of South Carolina, which was to become the Colony of Georgia, it was considered, as already noted, most favorable to the breeding of silk worms and the making of silk. In this work it was thought that women and children, as well as old persons, would be useful, as not a great deal of care and little labor were required in the feeding of the worms. Oglethorpe himself considered it of great importance in the advancement of the colony. Pursuant to this generally accepted belief, coupled with the recently invented machinery by Mr. John Lombe for increased facility in the winding and reeling processes, the trustees early took steps to provide for the fostering of this industry. The fact that they held this opinion brought to .them applications from persons skilled in that business for passage to Georgia. At their meeting on the 14th of February, 1732-3—"Mr. Nicolas Amatis attended the board, and acquainted them that he and Signor Giocomo Ottone, a man of experience in making the silk machines, Jacques Camuse and his wife (both winders of silk) and Camuse's three boys of the following ages—thirteen, four and three, were lately arrived in England, and ready to enter into agreement with the trustees to go and settle in Georgia.” Mr. Amatis was one of the emigrants embarking in the Ann galley, November 16, 1732, and reaching Savannah February 1, 1733. The production of raw silk in Georgia was apparently prosperous for a while, and the business was carried on for many years with fluctuating degrees of success so that on the whole, it did not approach the importance for which its promoters prayed and earnestly desired. Dr. T. M. Harris, in an appendix to his "Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe," pages 391-413, gives an exhaustive account of this matter, prepared by W. B. Stevens, in which he says: "In June, 1734, General Oglethorpe carried eight pounds of raw silk, the first produced in Georgia, to England, which was followed by a small trunk full of the same article, on the 2d of April, 1735, and after being made into orgazine, by the engine of Sir Thomas Lombe, at Derby, who said that it 'proved exceedingly good through all the oper- --------------- p. 57 ations, was sent up to London on the 13th of August, 1735, when the trustees, together with Sir Thomas Lombe, waited on her majesty, Queen Caroline, and exhibited to her the elegant speeimin of Georgia silk. The queen selected a portion of the parcel to be wove into a pattern, and being again waited on by these gentlemen and Mr. Booth, the silk weaver, on the 21st of September, she expressed 'a great satisfaction for the beauty and fineness of the silk, the richness of the pattern, and at seeing so early product from that colony,' and to express her pleasure at such a favourable result, a complete court-dress was made from it, and on his majesty's next birthday she appeared at the levee in a full robe of Georgia silk." Mr. Samuel Augspourger carried to England, in 1739, some of the silk which he obtained from the trustees' store-keeper, Mr. Jones, and it was classed by judges as "equal to any Italian silk, and worth full twenty shillings per pound." During some years a considerable quantity was produced, while at other times the production was, for various reasons, much reduced. In 1746 the president of the Salzburgers wrote to Mr. Martyn, secretary of the trustees: '' The fundamental cause of its stagnation is the unaccountable backwardness of some of our dames and damsels to employ themselves in attending to the worms during the time of feeding;" at one time the falling off was attributed to the fact that "so few were disposed to this culture" to which it was added that "one reason for this reluctance is ascribed to the circumstance that, by ordinary labor, about two shillings may be obtained per day, whereas scarcely a shilling could be earned in the same time by the silk concern.'' One season "nearly half of the silk worms died at Savannah, owing as was then supposed, either to poisoned dew or warm weather," and in 1748 '' small trees were destroyed, and some of the larger ones injured, by the late frost." In 1766 the small amount of silk made was said to be on account of "the badness of the seed, and consequent inferiority of the worms.” THE FILATURE BUILDINGS On the 4th of March, 1751, Mr. James Habersham and Mr. Pickering Robinson, commissioners to promote more effectually the culture of silk, began the erection of a filature in the city of Savannah, and work progressed on it so rapidly that on the 8th of May reeling began. This building stood on the lot bounded by Abercorn, St. Julian, Lincoln and Bryan streets, and was used for the purposes for which it was built until 1774, in which year, on the 19th of January, Sir James "Wright, governor of the province of Georgia, sent a message to the common house of assembly in which he said: "The filature buildings seem to be going to decay and ruin; may it not, therefore, be expedient to consider what other service or use they may be put to?" and the assembly answered, "We shall not fail to consider how it may be expedient to apply the Filature to some public use.'' From that time it was used as a public hall, in which balls were given, and as a place for political gatherings and meetings of all sorts, including those for religious purposes. Finally, it was used as a dwelling-place, when, as such, it was destroyed by fire during the afternoon of March 25, 1839. Numerous advertisements ------------ p. 58 in the old Georgia Gazette announced that meetings would be held "at the Filature." DRAWBACKS INSURMOUNTABLE The business of silk-making in Georgia, though started with the general expectation that it would be the chief industry in the province, failed to reach the point which might have placed it on a paying basis, and it is not at all to be concluded that, if it had been given an absolutely fair trial under the most favorable conditions, it would never have become remunerative. From its inception until it was finally abandoned it was, at all points, hampered by unfortunate circumstances which had a tendency to retard the work and to discourage those who had the matter most at heart. Much was expected, in, the very beginning, from the man Camuse, who seemed to know the business thoroughly and from whom so much was expected in the development of the business; but he proved to be quarrelsome, and could not be depended on, and the disappointment at that point was great. Again, persons who at first took hold with the very highest zeal, soon became despondent, and left off all desire to continue the work. Thus we are told that '' though Oglethorpe gave Mr. Bolzius trees, silk worms, and a book of instructions, yet he confesses that he felt no interest in the business, nor inclination to pursue it."* ______________ * Memorials of James Oglethorpe, by T. M. Harris, p. 395. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/history/other/gms396chapterv.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 17.4 Kb