EFFINGHAM COUNTY, GA - BIOS  Rahn Family

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by:  Bill Mallory wmallory1@cox.net

Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm

RAHN FAMILY

During the early 18th century, a large number of
pioneers came to America from the Palatinate and
adjoining provinces of the southern Rhine River valley,
in what is now western Germany. The region was a
patchwork of many semi-autonomous minor duchies and
principalities, with allegiances toward Catholic,
Calvinist or Lutheran beliefs varying from place to
place.

Johann Georg Rahn, son of Simon Rahn and his wife
Catherine, was born about 1700 in Prussia, or in a
province of western Germany that was controlled at the
time by the King of Prussia. Georg married Anna
Elisebetha Rirkelin, daughter of Jacob Rirkelin and
Catharina Darat, from the town of Hassloch in the
Palatinate region. The couple lived in the Hassloch
area for a number of years, and raised their five
children there. However, by the mid-1730s, Georg and
Anna had decided to join the sizable exodus of
Palatines leaving for America, perhaps due to
continuing conflicts with Catholic rulers. They made
their way down the Rhine, paying tolls and customs fees
to every petty lord along the route, probably reaching
the port of Rotterdam with few remaining funds. The St.
Andrew’s Galley took the family across the sea to
Philadelphia in the summer of 1737. The Rahn family
settled somewhere near that bustling city, and they
remained in Pennsylvania for generations, as members of
the cultural group that came to be called the
“Pennsylvania Dutch”. An interesting story relates that
two of Georg and Anna’s grandchildren married each
other, even though they were cousins. The marriage
produced a son, Francis Rawn Shunk, who became governor
of Pennsylvania in 1845 (the Pennsylvania Rahns soon
changed the spelling of the family name).

Conrad Rahn was born in the Hassloch area of Germany in
1718, and migrated to Pennsylvania in 1737 with his
parents, Johann Georg Rahn and Anna Rirkelin. However,
he and his younger brother, Casper, returned to Germany
during the 1740s, probably to encourage other
Protestants to come to America. It seems reasonable to
believe they went back in order to bring other
Lutherans to the new land, as was customary at the
time, in spite of the dangers of sea voyages. 

Upon returning to their native country, they must have
sought out Protestants in the province of Swabia, a
territory near the city of Ulm on the upper Danube
River. While in that region, Conrad met and married
Anna Barbara Paulitsch, daughter of Johann Phillip
Paulitsch and Anna Magdalena Paulitsch, who were
members of a Lutheran sect living there. This religious
group had decided to accept an invitation by the
Salzburgers to join their colony in Georgia. 

Once again, the Rahns made their way down the Rhine to
Rotterdam, and across the North Sea to Dover, England.
Conrad, Casper and Anna Barbara and her parents then
sailed for America aboard the Charming Martha, with
about sixty other new colonists. Having now crossed the
Atlantic Ocean three times, Conrad finally arrived in
Savannah in the fall of 1750, after another two months
at sea, and settled in Georgia with his family. 

It was customary among the Salzburgers to establish
small villages along the Savannah River, so when these
first colonists from Swabia arrived, they were granted
lands on the north side of Ebenezer Creek, just
upstream from the main town of about 1,500 colonists at
Ebenezer. This region had been reserved for the Uchee
Indians, but they were few and soon left to join other
tribes to the west. The new district was named Bethany,
and Conrad and Anna Barbara quickly became leading
citizens in that community, as evidenced by the number
of times they were called upon to serve as witnesses at
baptisms and other important church functions. 

About 320 German settlers were eventually located at
Bethany. They mostly lived and worked on small tracts
with little slave labor. Their houses were constructed
of sawn lumber, as the Salzburgers had set up the first
sawmill in Georgia on Ebenezer Creek. Unlike most early
settlers, they never built log homes. A church and
school were erected, and a cemetery was established at
Bethany. 


Conrad’s brother Casper settled farther up the Savannah
River for a few years, but eventually left to reunite
with his parents in Pennsylvania, and later to become
grandfather to the governor of that state. It is
recorded that Conrad visited his family in Pennsylvania
in 1752, but the trip was harrowing and difficult, and
he nearly lost his life. Conrad was the only member of
his family to settle in Georgia; the others remained in
Pennsylvania.

During his lifetime, Conrad acquired several hundred
acres at Bethany, plus additional lands farther
upstream in what is now Burke County. He farmed this
sandy land and raised cattle and other livestock. He
and Anna Barbara were active in the supportive
religious community into which they had been welcomed.
They were productive and had eleven children, only
seven of whom reached adulthood. The Ebenezer community
prospered during the 1750s, becoming one of the more
successful ventures of Georgia’s colonial period. The
colonists were highly industrious, and were assisted by
slaves after 1753. Lumber and barrels were exported to
the West Indies and Charleston from the Salzburgers’
two sawmills on Ebenezer Creek. Mulberry trees were
planted and silk worms were brought in to live off the
tree leaves. The cocoons spun by the silk worms were
gathered and a silk industry thrived for a while, but
eventually failed. Labor costs were high and mulberry
trees did not do well in the humid coastal climate. The
other experimental crops of peach trees and cotton were
more successful in the coming years. Between 1767 and
1769, with great devotion and commitment, the
Salzburgers erected Jerusalem Lutheran Church at
Ebenezer. It always remained the focal point of their
culture. The walls of the church are twenty-one inches
thick, built of bricks they made by hand from local
clay. It is the oldest church building in America with
an active congregation, and is the oldest structure in
the state of Georgia. Although the town of Ebenezer no
longer exists, the church remains active to the present
day, and parishioners come to services from miles
around. Also, the Salzburger Society operates a museum,
housed in an adjoining brick building that is a
reproduction of the original orphanage. The museum
contains a few items donated by a member of our family.

During the colonial period, Conrad served as an officer
in the Georgia Militia, reaching the rank of captain in
1770. He also served as a trustee for the Ebenezer
church. Conrad died in 1777, during the early years of
the American Revolution. He may be buried in the
cemetery at Bethany, or perhaps in the main cemetery at
Ebenezer. The early Salzburgers marked their graves
simply with wooden slabs, which soon disappeared in the
humid climate. Conrad’s lands were willed to his four
sons, and his cattle to his daughters. Women did not
often own land in those days. Conrad left his home
place to his eldest son, Matthew, provided it remained
Anna Barbara’s home for the rest of her life.

Matthew Rahn (anglicized from Matthias), son of Conrad
Rahn and Anna Barbara Paulitsch, was born in 1754, most
likely at the Rahn home in the Bethany community on the
Savannah River. As a youth, he probably helped build
the new Jerusalem Church at Ebenezer. Prior to the
Revolution he served beside his father, as a lieutenant
in the Bethany Company of the Georgia Colonial Militia.
Occasionally, these military units were needed to fend
off Indian tribes to the west, and to guard against
Spanish incursions from Florida.

When the Revolution began in 1775, Matthew and his
brother Jonathan became patriots and fought against the
British, with Matthew serving as a sergeant in the 1st
Georgia Battalion. Many others in the colony remained
loyal to the king, as allegiances were strongly
divided. The British captured Savannah, and Ebenezer
was occupied from 1779 to 1782, since it was an
important town on the main road to Augusta. Matthew may
have taken part in military expeditions down to the St.
Marys River to stop British forces attempting to invade
from their stronghold at St. Augustine. He most likely
was actively engaged in the numerous raids against the
British in the region between Savannah and Ebenezer.

The British devastated most of the coastal low country
economy during the war, and many areas never recovered,
including Ebenezer. What they could not steal, they
destroyed. The British plundered and burned the homes
of patriots at Ebenezer, and used the new church as a
hospital, and then as a stable for their horses. They
contemptuously burned the pews, hymnals, bibles and
library. Yankee soldiers did much the same thing eighty
years later, during the Civil War.

Ebenezer went into decline after the Revolution,
although it had been named the capital of Georgia for
about two weeks in 1782. Mills had been destroyed,
cattle stolen, and the British took away many slaves
when they left. The close-knit German community began
to disperse, and many people drifted away to seek
better lands farther inland, but Matthew and most of
his siblings stayed in the area. He farmed and became a
civic leader in the community, serving as Clerk of the
Effingham County Circuit Court, and as president and
trustee of the Ebenezer Church congregation in the
1790s. The church members remained devout to their
conservative beliefs, and conducted worship services in
German until 1824.

When George Washington passed through the area in 1791,
visiting Savannah and the nearby home of Nathaniel
Greene, Matthew is said to have served as one of his
escorts through the county.

The estate of Matthew’s father was settled in 1785,
perhaps upon Anna Barbara’s death, and the remaining
lands Conrad had acquired were sold, along with some
sheep and two slaves. Salzburgers did not usually own
many slaves, as they were somewhat opposed to the
institution, but often found it beneficial to use their
labor. Matthew married and raised five children;
however, his wife, whose name is unknown, died about
1800.

At the advanced age of forty-eight, Matthew then
married a young widow, Hannah Elizabeth Hoffman
Dolwich, who was about twenty years old. She was the
daughter of Daniel Hoffman and Maria Reiser (although
she is often cited as being the daughter of Daniel’s
brother, Jacob, who settled his brother’s estate).
Salzburger women appear to have come closer to
achieving some level of equality than women in other
cultures of the time. They were certainly quite active
in Ebenezer society and could own property. Her widowed
mother granted Hannah ownership of her father’s land,
and when Hannah and Matthew were wed in 1802, he signed
a written contract that gave her legal control over her
house servant. The couple then proceeded to produce
twelve children over the next twenty years.

Matthew’s property was probably situated somewhere near
Springfield, not too distant from Ebenezer. The humid
swampy region had always been subject to various
“fevers” and other health problems. Malaria, typhoid,
dysentery, smallpox and other diseases were often
prevalent. The deaths of children were not at all
unusual. Negroes in the coastal areas sometimes
referred to newborns as “look-sees”, who were looking
to see if they wanted to stay. Hannah’s last two
children died in infancy, and Matthew and two other
children died not long thereafter. Over a period of
seven years, from 1817 to 1824, Hannah buried Matthew
and five of his children. Matthew was laid to rest
among Rahn kin in the main cemetery at Jerusalem Church
in Ebenezer. His will directed that their eight slaves
be hired out to support his wife and surviving children
from his two marriages. The headstone on his grave
identifies him as a Revolutionary Soldier.


Copyright 2001- William Mason Mallory