The Lutheran Observer
October 6, 1893

THE SALZBURGERS
Their Persecutions, Migrations and Settlement in Georgia

By Sylvanus Stall
transcribed by Mary Katherine May
of QualityMusicandBooks.com

The Salzburgers, in the early spring of 1734, in a little colony, settled in Georgia, about twenty-four miles north of the city of Savannah, on the banks of a river of the same name, in what is now known as Effingham County.  As the history which eventually prepared the way for the immigration of the Salzburgers, and their settlement into Georgia, leads back to a period several centuries prior to the Reformation, we will need to turn our eyes to a people, who, in the valleys of Piedmont, were known as the Vallenses. 

This people had exposed the corruptions of the Church of Rome, and consequently exposed themselves to severe persecutions.  In order to escape the dangers to which they were exposed, and to enjoy the freedom of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they were compelled to forsake their native land, and secrete themselves in the most inaccessible mountains of Dauphine, in France, and the Alps of Switzerland, and the Tyrol.  Here, for about a century, they remained unmolested in their worship, and even enjoyed opportunities of communicating the Scriptures and the saving doctrines of the gospel to the inhabitants of these mountain regions.

However, about the year 1620, they were discovered by the Roman Priests, and were subjected to the most inhuman tortures.  Anthony Bassus, one of their preachers, was decapitated and his head nailed to his pulpit.  Another minister was whipped to death.  In short, all the faithful shepherds of this pious flocks, who fell into the hands of the priests, were inhumanly murdered. 

No less cruelly did they treat the lay members of these churches.  Many were dispatched by setting fire to the gunpowder with which their mouths had previously been filled; others were driven into the houses and barns, and suffocated by the smoke, or were burnt to death.  Nevertheless a seed remained, who, evading the vigilance of their enemies, faithfully adhered to the gospel, amidst great poverty and constant fear of death. 

Those who survived this persecution retreated into the secluded valleys of Teffereck.  Here they remained undisturbed, maintaining their religious principles amid great poverty and distress, but still with unshaken confidence in God, though they knew not how soon they would be exposed to the new forms of cruelty and death. 

At the expiration of about seventy years, (during which time Protestantism was supposed to be extinct in the Archbishopric of Salzburg), a whole congregation of Christians was discovered to exist, and it was ascertained that it had maintained its organization and regular worship for more than a half a century. 

Teffereck is a valley of Salzburg, on the borders of the Tyrol, in the district called Windisch Matrev; and in its solitudes and in the depths and darkness of its ravines, true faith seemed long to have found a safe retreat.  The people had no minister or public instructor of any kind, but met together by night, in thick forests or in  the mines, for mutual edification, by singing and prayer; reading of the Scriptures, Luther’s and Spangenberg’s sermons, the Augsburg Confession, the Shorter Catechism, and other good books.

They were, however, eventually apprehended, and the severest persecutions were at once begun.  They were refused employment.  Their property was taken from them.  Many were induced to flee with their wives and children, leaving their possessions behind them.  In many cases, under the pretence of giving the children a religious education, parents were compelled to flee, leaving their offspring in the hands of their persecutors. 

In two years, beginning with 1684, not less than six hundred children are said to have been wrested from their parents.  The Protestant states of Saxony and Brandenburg soon interfered and greatly modified the violent character of the persecution.  After period of forty years had again passed in comparative peace and quiet, a persecution more cruel and extensive than any which had preceded it, was begun by Leopold, Count of Firmain and Archbishop of Salzburg. 

Having discovered that many of his subjects had forsaken the faith of Rome, he resolved either to reduce them to submission or expel them from his dominion.  This took place between the years 1729 and 1732.  The Bishopric of Salzburg at that time comprised a population of one hundred and fifty thousand souls, many of whom, if we are to judge from the large number who sought refuge in other countries, must have been influenced by the Protestant faith.

This Bishopric, which then formed the most eastern district of Bavaria, is now included in Upper Austria, and was called Salzburg from the broad valley of the Salza; the residents of this region were consequently called Salzburgers, after the name of the principal city.

Count Leopold resorted to every cruelty, and when torture failed, the unhappy victims were fortunate if they could escape by flying to Protestant countries.  Twenty thousand found an asylum in the Prussian dominions, many too up their abode in Wurtemberg, Baden, the city of Augsburg, and other free cities in Suabia, while others emigrated to Holland and England, where their wants were ministered to and their sufferings alleviated.

While these scenes were being enacted about Salzburg, God was preparing the way to lead this people to a home of unrestricted religious liberty in the New World.  In 1732, Charles the Second granted a charter to twenty-one of his English subjects, constituting them “The Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America.”  The design of this enterprise sought not only to provide a home for indigent Britons, but also to furnish “a refuge for the distressed Salzburgers and other Protestants.”

No sooner had this colony been begun by the arrival of General James Oglethorpe, who landed in Georgia on the 20 of January, 1733, than steps were taken to bring the Salzburgers into possession of the benefits which had been contemplated. 

Pastor Urlsperger, of Augsburg, applied to the “Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge,” in London, for assistance for the persecuted Salzburgers.  His communications were received with favor, and the society was moved, because of the distress and sufferings of this people, to render them every assistance in their power.  Money for the needy, and clothing for the destitute, was sent for distribution, and also an invitation for fifty families to remove to Georgia. The Trustees of the colony promised them free transportation to America, the means of support until they should be able to live upon the productions of their own land.

The necessary arrangements having all been completed, the first company of emigrants began to prepare for their journey.  These were from the town of Berchtolsgaden and its vicinity.  “On the last day of October, 1733”, says the historian, “the evangelical community—well supplied with Bibles and hymn-books of devotion—after a discourse and prayer and benedictions—cheerfully, and in the name of God, began their pilgrimage.”

History need not stop to tell what charities cheered them on their journey, what towns were closed against them on their journey, what towns were closed against them by Roman Catholic magistrates, or how they entered Frankfurt on the Main, two by two in solemn procession, singing spiritual songs.  As they floated down the Main and between the castled crags, the vineyards and the white-walled towns that adorn the Rhine, their conversation amidst hymns and prayers, was of justification and of sanctification, and standing fast in the Lord.

At Rotterdam they were joined by two preachers, Bolzius and Gronau, both disciplined in charity at the Orphan House in Halle.  A passage of six days carried them from Rotterdam to Dover, where several of the Trustees visited them, and provided considerably for their wants.  In January, 1734, they set sail for their new homes.  The majesty of the ocean quickened their sense of God’s omnipotence and wisdom; and as they lost sight of land, they broke out into a hymn to his glory.  The setting sun after a calm, so kindled the sea and the sky, that words could not express their rapture; and they cried out, “How lovely the Creation! How infinitely love the Creator!  When the wind was adverse, they prayed; and as it changed, one opened his mind to another on the power of prayer, even the prayer of ‘a man subject to like passions as we are.’

As the voyage excited weariness, a devout listener confessed himself to be an uncoverted man; and they reminded him of the promise to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at the word.  As they sailed pleasantly, with a favoring breeze, at the hour of evening prayer, they made a covenant with each other, like Jacob of old, and resolved, by the grace of God, to cast all the strange gods which were in their hearts into the depths of the sea.

A storm grew so high that not a sail could be set; and they raised their voices in prayer and song amidst the tempest; for the love that Lord Jesus as a brother, gave consolation.  At Charleston, Oglethorpe bade them welcome; and in five days more, the wayfaring men, whose hope was beyond the skies, pitched their tent near Savannah.

It now remained to select for them a tract on which to locate this little colony.  The party which was sent out for observation, accompanied by some Indians, penetrated nearly thirty miles into the interior, when they found a location which was selected as the site of their future home, where the little “corps of observation,” as seems to have been their custom on all occasions, united in invoking God’s blessing upon the selection which had been made, and where, “after singing a psalm, they set up a rock which they found upon the spot, and, in the spirit of the pious Samuel, named the place Ebenezer (the stone of help), for they could truly say, ‘Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.’”

The site of this, their first town, was about four miles below Springfield, the county seat of Effingham county, in a region of hills and plains, which subsequently proved to be by no means fertile.  The unproductive character of the soil, and the unnavigable nature of the stream upon which the Salzburgers located, rendered it necessary, after a period of two years to abandon their first choice, and they removed to a high ridge on the west side of the Savannah river, not far distant from Ebenezer creek.

Here their new city was laid out with adequate reservation for a church, a parsonage, an academy, the Orphan Asylum and the public storehouse.  Owing doubtless to the want of means and the scarcity of materials, no church was erected for several years; funds had, however, been sent from Germany for the erection of an Orphan Asylum, and as that building was among the first to be erected, it was for some period used as a place of worship.

In the year 1735, another colony of Salzburgers arrived, and in the following year, another reinforcement of Salzburgers swelled the number of inhabitants at Ebenezer to two hundred.  A subsequent immigration arrived in 1741, when it appears from a statement made by Benjamin Martin, Secretary of the Trustees of the Georgia colony, that over twelve hundred German Protestants had reached the Georgia colony.

In the first years of their settlement there were difficulties of a serious nature.  Among the emigrants there were but few mechanics.  They were unable to erect a saw and grist mill, though the water power for both was at hand.  There was no boat in the colony, and no carpenter to build one; and as the provisions had to be transported from Savannah to Ebenezer, and as they could not always secure the loan of the Government boat to bring their supplies to the settlement, they were frequently obliged to carry the necessaries of life on their backs for a long distance.

The boards supplied by the Colonial Government were insufficient to provide shelter for all, especially after the arrival of the second party, numbering fifty-seven persons.  Among these new-comers there were, however, several mechanics, whose skill in the use of tools brought great relief, while they remained in the first location, and was of great service in the construction of the new town, to which they subsequently removed.

Scarcity of provision compelled them to remain in a state of dependence upon the bounty of the English nation for a period longer than was at first contemplated.  Sickness decimated their ranks, and in the absence of any physician, and a necessary supply of medicines, death wrought its accustomed work.

As the years rolled by, they experienced all the vicissitudes attendant upon the settlement of a new country, but gradually their indomitable energy and tireless industry brought the great forests into subjection, and the soil, by no means abundantly productive, was brought under a state of cultivation, which made it yield the necessaries and even the luxuries of life.

Churches and schools were built, homes were established, peace and harmony in a great measure prevailed, and the people enjoyed the great blessings which they had sought in this Western World.

For a short time Ebenezer was made the county seat, but was, however, found to be not sufficiently central, and in 1799 Springfield was made the seat of justice, and has continued so to the present time.  In the war of the Revolution, the Salzburgers took decided stand in favor of the cause of liberty, and in the struggle which ensued they took an active part.

In the disasters of the war, both their church and their homes suffered alike; but when peace again prevailed, they soon resumed their usual quiet industries, increasing both in numbers and material prosperity.  As a people they were devout and pious, and their influence was decidedly in favor of practical and experimental godliness.

In 1808 the legislature granted permission to the congregation to sell their glebe land, and the money was placed on interest for the payment of the current expenses of the church.  The colonists gradually acquired the English language, and in 1824 it was adopted by the congregation in and about Ebenezer.

Gradually the inhabitants of Ebenezer removed into the surrounding country, until now the church is left almost alone, to mark the site of the village in which the ancestors of the present generation once lived.  While some removed beyond the confines of the state, yet many remained within its borders, and perhaps most continued in Effingham county, now comprising an area measured by 30 miles in length and 16 in breath, nineteen-twentieths of whose white population are the lineal descendants of the Salzburgers.

Much has been said in praise, and justly too, of the Pilgrim Fathers, who abandoned the endearments and comforts of their native land, on account of their attachment to the gospel, yet in ardent piety, Christian heroism and energetic devotion to the cause of Christ, our own Salzburgers will not suffer in comparison with them.  They were willing to suffer imprisonment, exile, and even death, rather than surrender their religious principles, which they held so dear, and by which all their actions seemed to be controlled.

Their history presents a most beautiful example of patient endurance and untiring zeal in the service of God.  The prevalence, however, of the German language among them, and the preservation of their records in their native tongue, have deprived them of the position in the annals of our country to which their trials, their virtues and their influence properly give them a claim.