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This article was first titled "The 'Dutch'
Intelligentsia of the Savannah River,"
meaning the "German-speaking Intelligent-
sia," but the title appeared redundant after it
was observed that only German-speaking
inhabitants of Georgia actually fulfilled Web-
ster's definition of the intelligentsia as "intel-
lectuals considered as a group or class, espe-
cially, as a cultural, social, or political élite."¹
There were, of course, some quite intelli-
gent men in Savannah, such as Col. William
Stephens, the secretary of the Trustees of the
colony of Georgia, and James Habersham,
schoolmaster turned merchant turned Presi-
dent of the Council. These men, however,
were pragmatic empire builders who wrote
clearly and effectively without flights of fancy
or classical allusions, and neither appeared
interested in knowledge for knowledge's
sake.² Oglethorpe, who had enjoyed a good
classical education,³ was merely a visitor to
Georgia, not an inhabitant.4 One might wish
to add John Wesley and George Whitefield to
the list of Savanah-River intellectuals because
of their voluminous publications, but neither
man settled in Georgia and the writings of
both were mostly functional, being theologi-
cal, inspirational, and promotional.
Perhaps the six leading members of the
Savannah River intelligentsia, in order of
their arrival, were: Johann Martin Boltzius
(1734), Christian Gottlieb Prieber (1735),
Johann Tobler (1737), Johann Joachim Züb-
lin, later Zubly (1744), Johann Wilhelm Ger-
hard de Brahm (1751), and Johann Christoph
Bornemann (1752).
BOLTZIUS
Johann Martin Boltzius, a teacher at the
Orphanage School at Halle, was chosen
along with his colleague Christian Israel
Gronau to minister to a group of Protestant
exiles from Salzburg who settled in Georgia in
1734. After two years in an unfavorable loca-
tion, the Salzburgers moved their town of
Ebenezer to the Red Bluff on the Savannah
River just above Purysburg, the new Swiss set-
tlement in South Caroina. Because of hard-
ships exacerbated by removal of the settle-
ment, Boltzius was forced to take on so many
secular duties that he became a reluctant
Renaissance Man.5 First, as ruler of his little
theocracy, he had to learn the English law of
the land, which he appears to have done
quickly and thoroughly. Next he had to read
technical manuals, mostly in English, on
agriculture, silk raising, mill building, medical
practice, and other skills in order to transmit
this knowledge to his parishioners.6
In addition to keeping a very informative
journal throughout most of his thirty-year
ministry, Boltzius also maintained an active
correspondence with his German and Eng-
lish benefactors, which revealed good insights
into the social and economic situation in his
new home.7Johann Tobler, of whom we shall
hear more, wrote of Boltzius:
I have carried on for some years an edifying corres-
pondence with this gentleman, in which I have
encountered only that which is necessary for
Christianity.
He is a man who is very useful to this country,
and, although he makes no distant journeys into it,
he nevertheless, from time to time sends out edify-
ing books, which are very helpful to one's growth in
humanity.8
Boltzius had an unusual ability to organize
his thoughts, as can be seen in his brilliant
letter to George Whitefield arguing against
the importation of slaves.9
As an accomplished musician who could
write notes and had founded a Collegium
Musicum (music club) at Halle,10 Boltzius
worked hard to improve his parishioners'
choral singing. He was aided in this task when
the new physician, Ernst Thilo, arrived with
his good voice and thorough mastery of poly-
phonic singing. Boltzius keenly wished to
have an organ, as Tobler did up the river at
New Windsor,11 but this wish was never ful-
filled. When Captain Krauss, an artilleryman
who had brought the third Swabian transport
to Georgia in 1752, was about to return to
Europe, some Salzburgers collected money
for him to buy an organ there, but nothing
came of this; and Boltzius was left with only
-30-
THE SAVANNAH RIVER INTELLIGENTSIA:
1734-1780
his choir. While visiting Ebenezer in 1774, the
Lutheran patriarch Heinrich Melchior
Mühlenberg greatly admired the skill of the
choir, which he attributed to Boltzius.12
This music was, of course, not made for
aesthetic or secular pleasure, but only for
glorifying God in heaven: one contrite
woman confessed to having used her God-
given voice to sing worldly songs. Little boys
who wished tojoin the choir had to promise to
bring not only their mouth but also a devout
heart.13 (Imagine the amazement I felt when,
while driving near Metter, Georgia, some sixty
miles from Ebenezer in October 1990 and
listening to a radio concert by a children's
gospel choir, I heard the director remind the
children that they should sing not only with
their mouths but also with their hearts! Could
this precept have been handed down so
long?) When Habersham offered Boltzius
twenty-four arias by Handel, he accepted
them even though they were secular, aware
that he could convert them to religious Paro-
dien, by which he meant contrafacts.14
Boltzius appears to have had little regard
for the visual arts, which were scarcely better
than graven images in his eyes. He made
exception, however, for religious art; and he
distributed to the children little scenes of the
life of Jesus that had been engraved and
donated by Martin Engelbrecht of Augs-
burg.15 Behind the Communion table he
mounted a large picture of the Last Suppe®
donated by the court chaplain Friedrich
Michael Ziegenhagen.16
PRIEBER
By slightly stretching the meaning of
"Savannah River" in our tide, we can include
the Saxon visionary, Christian Gottlieb
Prieber (also written Priber and Pryber), who
came to America in 1735 to save the Red Man
from European encroachment." Because he
dwelled seven years among the Cherokees, he
must have spent some of his time on the
headwaters of the Savannah River, and thus
he belongs on our list.
Like the other germanophone intellectuals
of Georgia, Prieber, a doctor of laws, had
enjoyed a good Latin training, his doctoral
thesis having been in that language.18 His
secret journal, on the other hand, was kept in
French. Prieber petitioned the Trustees to
send him to Georgia in 1735 and they
agreed;19 but, instead of waiting, he made his
way to South Carolina as a British officer.
After taking out a grant for land in Purysburg,
which he never developed, he sold his
belongings and set out in Indian costume for
the Cherokee country in order to organize the
Noble Savages into a commonwealth, to be
called the Kingdom of Paradise, a communis-
tic state which would resist the British by play-
ing the Spanish and French against them.
Hearing of Prieber's seditious actions, the
authorities in South Carolina sent an envoy to
ask the Cherokees to extradite him, but his
hosts would not surrender their honored
guest and tribal member. Foiled in this
attempt, the British bribed some Creek Indi-
ans to capture him on one of his diplomatic
missions to the French and Spaniards, which
they did. Prieber was incarcerated in thejail at
Frederica, where visitors were astounded by
his education and mastery of languages. Even
Oglethorpe was impressed by his involuntary
guest, being surprised to find a man "who in
his dress a perfect Indian, a man of politeness
and gentility, who spoke Latin, French, Span-
ish, and German fluently, and English brok-
enly."20 The French soldier Antoine Bonne-
foy, who had been a prisoner of Prieber's
Indian hosts, also attested that Prieber's
French was fluent.21
Being polylingual, Prieber soon mastered
Cherokee, and it was surely he who translated
the Lord's Prayer into that language for
Ulrich Driessler, the Lutheran minister at
Frederica. Ludowick Grant, an Indian trader,
said of Prieber:
Being a great Scholar he soon made himself master
of their Tongue, and by his insinuating manner
Indeavoured to gain their hearts, he trimmed his
hair in the Indian manner & painted as they did,
going generally naked except for a shirt and a
Flap."22
It is regrettable that Prieber's book did not
survive, for it may well have been a trail
blazer. To judge by what Bonnefoy, Ogle-
thorpe, and others said of this backwoods
philosopher, he may well have preceded
Rousseau, his junior by some years, with his
-31-
ideas on the Noble Savage, the natural rights
of man, the inequality of men, and the social
contract. Verner W. Crane recognizes him as
"a spiritual descendant of Plato of the Repub-
lic, of Sir Thomas More, of Campanella, and a
precursor of Rousseau."23 The similarity
between Prieber's and Rousseau's ideas can
be explained by the fact that they were follow-
ing a common sociophilosophical tradition.24
Prieber, a contemporary of Montesquieu,
reached America before Rousseau wrote any
of his socio-philosophical works.
During Prieber's trial, Oglethorpe sent a
long letter, dated April 22,1743, to the Duke of
Newcastle, Secretary of State, summarizing
the proceedings.25 Most of the letter consists
of a paraphrase of Prieber's journal, written in
French. Oglethorpe found the journal "a little
difficult to understand, the whole being writ-
ten like dark hints for his Memory only."
Prieber proved himself to be not only a
philosophe, but also a true philosopher, when
a magazine next to his cell exploded and
hurled bombs and shells into the air. While
others fled in panic, Prieber remained calm
and composed despite the explosives raining
down around him. Soon after this Prieber
died, thus freeing the British of the need to
convict him.
TOBLER
Johann Tobler, a Landeshauptmann or
governor of the half-canton Appenzell-
Ausser Rhoden in Switzerland, contracted the
rabies Carolinae (the Carolina madness)
after losing his office.26 Finding himself an
exile in 1737, he led a large party of Swiss
emigrants to South Carolina and founded
New Windsor on the Savannah River, more or
less across from Augusta, Georgia. There he
established a plantation, built a fort, opened a
store, served as justice of the peace, and
became relatively prosperous.27
In addition to these mundane pursuits,
Tobler continued his hobbies of mathemat-
ics, astronomy, and almanac writing. His first
almanac was the South Carolina and Georgia
Almanack, published for many years by James
Johnston in Savannah. To compile such a
work, one had to understand not only
mathematics and astronomy but also other
subjects such as agriculture, commerce, for-
eign news and the public's craving for moral-
izing and edifying reading matter. Because of
his first success, Tobler also published an
almanac in Philadelphia, which gave him a
far larger market.28 Because his calculations
were fixed to the year 1800, almanacs using
his calculations continued to be published,
often under his name, in various colonies
long after his death in 1765.29
Of interest to South Carolina historians is a
description of South Carolina that Tobler
published in a Swiss almanac in 1753.30
Although he was obviously writing to encour-
age immigration to South Carolina, he
avoided the exaggerations perpetrated by
Jean-Pierre Puny and other promoters. He
did, however, tend to overlook some of the
hardships of frontier life, such as the danger
of the Indians, who were soon to scalp and kill
one of his sons.
Besides his mathematical interests, Tobler
loved music and owned what seems to have
been the only organ in the Savannah River
valley.31 Tobler must have had an open mind,
or else he was a very good diplomat, for, des-
pite his firm Calvinistic faith, he let Boltzius
persuade him to question the absolutum
decretum (predestination), which Boltzius
was able to do by lending him a book contra-
dicting this serious error.32
De BRAHM
Johann Gerhard Wilhelm von Brahm, orig-
inally from Koblenz or its surroundings, had
been in Imperial service before coming to
Georgia with the second Swabian transport of
1751.33 Von Brahm was from the bourgeoisie
and had earned his nobility through his mil-
itary service, which justified his signing his
first American map with the words "William
Noble of Brahm." While some noblemen to
the manor born may have looked down on
the Verdienst Adel (merit nobility), the self-
made aristocrats were generally socially
accepted;34 and it is significant that von
Brahm was married to a woman of inherited
nobility. It is uncertain whether he left Impe-
rial service because he inclined toward Pro-
testantism or whether he exchanged religions
in order to enter British service. The former
-32-
seems probable because of his inquisitive
religious mind, which eventually caused him
to be considered a Quaker and to write
mystico-theological treatises.
Upon reaching Georgia, von Brahm set out
to find a suitable place for his Swabian
settlers. After examining locations on the
Ogeechee and Altamaha rivers, he finally
placed his party on the Blue Bluff just five
miles above Ebenezer, where he founded the
settlement Bethany.
Because of de Brahm's industry and careful
surveying, Habersham, a good judge of men,
stated that "The Trustees... are not mistaken
in Mr. von Brahm's abilities: He has been at a
great deal of Pains to view the country to fix
on a settlement and has taken plans of all the
Places he has visited, and I look upon him to
be one of the most intelligent men I ever met
with, and will I doubt not make a very useful
colonist."35 Gov. John Reynolds called von
Brahm a "very able Engineer" and a "Gen-
tleman of great Honour and Ingenuity."36 A
modern historian, Charles L. Mowat, has des-
cribed him well in calling him "a man whose
versatility of genius went beyond even that of
the typical eighteenth-century dilettante: a
surveyor, engineer, botanist, astronomer,
meteorologist, student of ocean currents,
alchemist, sociologist, historian and mystical
philosopher."37 Thus we see that almost38
everyone praised this talented man, despite
his sometimes obstinate and overbearing
behavior.
In addition to founding Bethany, von
Brahm, or de Brahm as he soon began calling
himself,39 amassed much land in Georgia and
served Gov. Glen of South Carolina as a mil-
itary engineer. Preserving all the "plans" and
detailed descriptions of the areas he had sur-
veyed, de Brahm compiled a General Descrip-
tion of the Province of Georgia, which followed
an earlier General Description of South Caro-
lina.40 Both of these were included in his
"Report of the General Survey in the South-
ern District of North America," submitted to
the King in 1773. Like Prieber, de Brahm also
compiled a Cherokee-English and English-
Cherokee dictionary.41 Subsequently he pub-
lished navigational aids and performed pio-
neer work in charting the Gulf Stream.42 He
was also credited with writing the "first his-
tory of Georgia."43
As a surveyor and cartographer, de Brahm
deserved all the praise heaped upon him. The
extensive maps he produced in a few short
years were so accurate that they remained
standard for half a century. Unfortunately, de
Brahm often followed accurate and objective
observations with garrulous and, for a mod-
ern natural scientist, rather meaningless
explanations, in which he seemed to exult in
his own verbosity. After describing the grape
culture at New Bordeaux, for example, he
gives the precise measurements of a building,
which, he states categorically, the vintners
must have in order to "govern the outward
Phlogistic motion through the Bung."44 Then
follow thirty lines of pedantic and wordy
explanation that could make sense, if at all,
only to one who believes in the unfailing
power of phlogiston. Similarly, his prolix
medical diagnoses and remedies reveal more
enthusiasm than critical judgment45
Perhaps de Brahm's greatest weakness was
being a perfectionist in an imperfect world,
an idealist and dreamer; he often insisted on
undertaking what was theoretically best, even
if entirely unfeasible. Asked by Gov. Glen to
prepare plans for the fortification of Charles-
ton, he produced grandiose schemes for forts
that would have done honor to any nation in
Europe, but at an expense far beyond the
means of the financially strapped colony of
South Carolina. The same occurred when he
was commissioned to design a fort to block
traffic on the Little Tennessee River. There
he dreamed of a bastion ä la Vaubon, one
able to repel a Grand Armada. Since only
canoes plied the river, a simple stockade
would have sufficed.
De Brahm also tended to exaggerate his
services to the crown. He claims, for example,
to have brought 160 immigrants to Georgia
and to have "joined through his means 160
more."46 Actually, the immigrants had been
recruited by Samuel Urlsperger, the Senior of
the Augsburg ministry and "Reverend Father"
of the Salzburgers; de Brahm had only con-
ducted the one transport of 1751. When he
-33-
described the back settlers of South Carolina
as "chiefly consisting of German Protest-
ants,"47 he must have been exaggerating,
unless the large influx of Scotch Irish
occurred after his observation.
BORNEMANN
A year after de Brahm's arrival, Georgia
received still another intellectual. Johann
Christoph Bornemann was a man of scientific
interests and an acquaintance of scholars like
the physicist Samuel Christian Hollmann of
the University of Göttingen and the scientist-
poet Albrecht von Haller. With the support of
these two gentlemen, Bornemann took his
wife, two children, his parents-in-law, and a
maid to Georgia, where he established a plan-
tation that he named New Goettingen in
honor of his home town.48 On his way from
Göttingen to London and from London to
Georgia, Bornemann kept a most informative
journal. Unfortunately this journal, which so
well describes the landscape and agriculture
of North Germany, stops when the ship
reaches Savannah. All that is stated here
about Bornemann and his family is based on
the autobiographical preface to this journal
and the comments added by his widow after
his death.49
Bornemann's training had been in surgery,
a profession he practiced in the service of
Frederick the Great during the First Silesian
War. Honorably discharged, he returned to
Göttingen. There he was appointed surgeon
to the university, at which he studied under
Hollmann and von Haller. The avowed pur-
pose of his removal to Georgia was to collect
pharmaceutical plants for study at the univer-
sity. Of his letters back home, only four are
known, all written to his benefactor, von
Haller, then an Ammann, or magistrate, in
Bern. These letters, now housed in the Bür-
gerbibliothek in Bern, describe the flora and
fauna of his new home and also describe a
chest of specimens and curiosities he sent to
his European patrons.50
One of Bornemann's letters to von Haller,
that of January 7,1755, is a veritable area study
of Georgia's coastal plain in which he des-
cribes the terrain, climate, flora, and fauna.
He apologizes that he had not studied the
natural sciences as assiduously as he should
have, and he confesses that Boltzius has
already described most of the important crea-
tures. Bornemann's descriptions are, how-
ever, sometimes better.
Boltzius describes the skunk as a kind of
black wildcat that sprays water when a person
or a dog comes too close. He then describes
the nasty stench that penetrates clothing and
lasts a long time.51 Bornemann describes the
same animal as being "about as large as a fox,
black in color, the tips of the ears and tail are
white, otherwise its fur seems to be very pre-
cious." In order to investigate the source of
the stench, which he compared to a mixture
of scorched corn and garlic, he shot one to
dissect it, but the unbearable stench pre-
vented him from doing so and the area stank
for ten days. Bornemann was more successful
in investigating the jaws of an alligator and
the fangs of a rattlesnake.
Boltzius had made many references to the
cattle disease that afflicted the herds of the
Germans around Savannah, but only Borne-
mann, who had also lost some cattle to it,
performed a post mortem on a bovine victim
to study its affected organs. He also per-
formed autopsies on apparently healthy hogs
and found their kidneys full of tape worms.
Like de Brahm, Bornemann was not satisfied
with just knowing what but also wished to
know how and why. It is surprising, therefore,
that he states that honey and wax are softer in
Georgia than in Germany, without recogniz-
ing Georgia's warmer temperature as the
cause.
ZUBLY
Upon finishing his schooling at the lycée in
St. Gall, Johann Joachim Züblin (later
Zubly)52 went to London to petition the Trus-
tees for a ministerial post in Georgia. His
request was denied because of his youth and
the high salary he demanded. Despite this
setback, Zubly had himself ordained there in
the German Reformed Church and then pro-
ceeded on his own to Purysburg, the Swiss
settlement on the Savannah River, where his
"wealthy"53 father David lived.54 Although
unauthorized, Zubly began preaching to his
countrymen in and around Savannah, partic-
-34-
ularly in Acton and Vernonburg, two new
German-Swiss settlements just south of the
city. There he was greatly admired, as William
Stephens noted, for his "Volubility of
Speech."55
The Anglican minister in Savannah, Bar-
tholomäus Zouberbühler,56 was a Swiss from
St. Gall and could therefore preach to his
compatriots in their own tongue, but they
would have none of him because he had
deserted their "Calvinistical Principles" by
taking Anglican orders. Consequently, they
wrote a strong petition in favor of Zubly,57 but
the Trustees would only agree that Zouber-
bühler should give him £10 per annum from
his own salary, which was deemed unsatisfac-
tory to both of the divines.58 Zubly then
preached in several parishes in South Carol-
ina, during which time he married Tobler's
daughter Anna.
In 1760 Zubly received a call to the Inde-
pendent Presbyterian Church in Savannah,
where he attracted the largest congregation in
the colony. On the edge of the city he estab-
lished a plantation, which he named St. Gall
in honor of his native city. He also amassed a
relatively large fortune and operated a ferry
across the river in the area of Ebenezer. Hav-
ing mastered the English language, Zubly
entered politics and championed the Dissen-
ters against the Anglicans, whose church had
become the established church when the
Trustees surrendered the colony to the crown.
In defense of the Dissenters' rights, Zubly
wrote a scathing rebuke to Samuel Frink, the
rector of the Anglican church, titled Letters to
the Reverend Samuel Frink.59
Being a dissenter from the established
church, Zubly also championed the rights of
the colonies against the arbitrary rule of Par-
liament. This champion of the American
cause was appointed to the Second Continen-
tal Congress at Philadelphia, where he
impressed all the dignitaries and consorted
with such men as Benjamin Rush and John
Adams, the latter of whom called him a "warm
and zealous spirit."60 However, since Zubly
refused to favor a complete break with Great
Britain, he was accused of treason. Upon
returning to Savannah, he found himself
exiled with half of his fortune confiscated; he
was unable to return to his church and con-
gregation until 1779, after the British had cap-
tured the city.
Zubly's fame was due to a series of sermons
on freedom, which the more down-to-earth
Habersham declared to be "mere Sophistry,
and ajingle of Words without meaning, unless
to puzzle and blind the Minds of the People,
who are not capable of Judging the Subject."61
These pamphlet-sermons were "The Stamp
Act Repealed," "An Humble Enquiry, Calm
and Respectful Thoughts," and "The Law of
Liberty."62 This last was written in 1775 and
was no doubt a major reason that Zubly was
sent to the Second Continental Congress of
that year.
LIBRARIES
In praising Georgia, de Brahm claimed that
within thirty years there were:
three fine Libraries in the City of Savannah; the fourth
at Ebenezer, and a fifth 96% miles from the sea upon
the Stream of Savannah. In these Libraries could be
had books wrote in the Caldaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Siriac,
Coptic, Malabar, Greek, Latin, French, German,
Dutch, Spanish, besides the English, vide, in thirteen
Languages.63
The library at Ebenezer belonged to the
Salzburgers, the one up the river was owned
by Tobler. Concerning the latter, Henry Mel-
chior Muhlenberg, the Lutheran patriarch,
who was not given to exaggeration, said:
Dr. Zubly has a fine collection of old and new books,
the like of which I have seldom seen in America.
The external appearance of his library and study is
hardly inferior to that of the most famous in
Europe.64
Of the two remaining libraries in Savan-
nah, one surely belonged to Zouberbühler,
who had both the means and the need to
collect books. In any case, it would appear that
the majority of Georgia's libraries were Ger-
man, even though, as de Brahm claimed, they
contained volumes in Caldaic, Arabic, Siriac,
Coptic, and Malabar.65 The only luggage
Prieber carried with him was a chest of books,
and we may rest assured that they were pro-
found and mostly in French.
While the extensive library at Ebenezer
consisted primarily of theological works of
- 3 5 -
Pietist persuasion, it also included technical
books such as a treatise on mill-building. As
Tobler attested, the Ebenezer collection
served as a lending library for all the Savan-
nah valley, and Boltzius and his successors
sent books as far as Charleston, Orangeburg,
and Saxe Gotha.66
LANGUAGE
Most of the Georgia intelligentsia had
studied some Greek, and all them had learned
much Latin, in which they wrote their disser-
tations.67 Like many other Germans of his
time, including Leibnitz and Frederick the
Great, Prieber preferred French to German as
the language of philosophy. It has been noted
that Prieber, de Brahm, and Zubly impressed
people with the many languages they spoke
and that Prieber and de Brahm were the only
intellectuals in Georgia to master an Indian
language. To judge by the English written by
most of the traders, we may be sure that, even
if they had a functional use of the Indian
languages, they had no understanding of
their grammar and nuances. Because the
German intellectuals could speak English,
they were never referred to as "Dutch," except
in the case of de Brahm among the Indians.68
INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY
All the Georgia intelligentsia thought crea-
tively, and an author in the South Carolina
Gazette did well in mentioning Prieber's
"Flights full of Invention."69 Boltzius con-
stantly performed agricultural experiments
and theorized wisely on the economics of a
colonial economy. All of our subjects showed
exceptional intellectual curiosity. They were
not satisfied with just observing phenomena
but wished to discover why they were the way
they were. Bornemann could have had prac-
tical reasons for investigating the diseases
afflicting his cattle and hogs, but it was intel-
lectual curiosity that made him describe and
theorize about the arrowheads and shards of
Indian pottery he plowed up. We have seen
that only the unbearable stench of a skunk
prevented Bornemann from dissecting it to
see how it produced its overwhelming
excretion.
COLLEGIALITY
Because they read the same or similar
books, often in foreign languages, intellectu-
als tend to be members of an international
fraternity who appreciate a foreign savant
more than a domestic businessman. This was
certainly true of the Georgia intelligentsia;
and their learned correspondence, much of it
with European intellectuals, somewhat com-
pensated for their life in what Randall M.
Miller so rightly calls "the barren intellectual
desert of Georgia."70 It is understandable that,
after years among the savages and the uncul-
tivated traders, Prieber seemed to flourish
when he received intellectual visitors like
Oglethorpe in his cell at Frederica.
Except for a feud between Boltzius and de
Brahm, Georgia's intelligentsia enjoyed cor-
dial relations.71 Johann Tobler, who gave his
daughter Anna to Joachim Zubly, was also an
admirer of Boltzius. Of the two ministers then
at Ebenezer, he wrote:
One of them, who is my esteemed friend, is named
Martin Boltzius. He spares no pains to make the
people there happy both in this world and in the
next. There are, to be sure, people who claim that he
meddles too much in secular matters, but who can
please everybody?72
Bornemann also praised Boltzius and gave
him credit for Ebenezer's useful institutions
such as the mills, silk filatures, and mulberry
groves.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion we see that the German-
speaking inhabitants of Georgia were not all
dirt farmers or indentured servants: some few
were better educated, more scholarly, and
more intellectually curious than the leaders of
the English-speaking element; and it is regret-
table that we do not know more about them.
—George F.Jones
University of Maryland, College Park
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NOTES
Abbreviations
CGHS = The Collections of the Georgia Historical Society.
CRG - The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, ed.
Allen D. Candler. Atlanta, 1904 ff.
DR = Detailed Reports on the SalzburgerEmigrants...,
ed. George F.Jones. Athens, GA., 1968 ff.
GHQ = Georgia Historical Quarterly
SCHM = South (Mrolina Historical Magazine
1
Although the word intelligentsia first appeared in
nineteenth-century Russia, it is the best word for describ-
ing a class of educated people with philosophical, literary,
scientific, or artistic interests enjoyed for their own sake.
2
Stephens' witty and informative journal was edited
and published by E. Merton Coulter in his The Journal of
William Stephens, 1741-1745 (Athens, GA., 1958-59), and by
Allen D. Candler as supplement to Vol. IV of his CRG.
Some of Habersham's many letters are published in
CGHQ, Vol. VI, and many of his and of Stephens' appear
throughout the CRG. Habersham's views are well
expressed by the disgust he felt that at the College of New
Jersey (Princeton) his son Joseph had stuffed his head
with "useless Criticisms on Phrases and Words in Latin
and Greek (CGHS, VI, 67)".
3
See Oglethorpe's learned preface to his Some Account
of the Design of the Trustees for Establishing Colonys in Amer-
ica, ed. Rodney Baine and Phinizy Spaulding (Athens,
GA., 1990), pp. 3-10. Oglethorpe had even composed a
Latin panegyric as a youth (GHQ, 32 [1948], 29-31). He
appears to have been quoting a Latin edition of Columel-
la's Scriptures rei rusticae when he advised the Salzburgers
to plant their wheat in such a way to enjoy "duos soles"
(DR, 11:35). Richard C. Boys has shown that Oglethorpe
was a close friend of Boswell and consorted freely with
thejohnson circle in London ("General Oglethorpe and
the Muses," GHQ, 31 [1927], 19-29).
4
Oglthorpe owned a barony near New Windsor, but
never resided there.
5
Boltzius constantly complained that his secular duties
were distracting him from his more important ministerial
duties, yet he seems to show satisfaction with his secular
accomplishments. During the Middle Ages and into the
eighteenth century the church offered almost the only
opportunity for poor boys to achieve an education, and
many took orders in order to satisfy their intellectual
rather than spiritual needs.
6
Jethro Tull, The Horse-Hoeing Husbandry (London
1733); Thomas Boreman, Compendious Account of the Silk
Worm (London 1732); Leonhard Sturm, Vollständige
Mühlen Baukunst— (Augsburg 1718).
7
His journal and much of his correspondence were
published, badly bowdlerized, by Samuel Urlsperger, the
Senior of the Lutheran Ministry in Augsburg, in his Aus-
führliche Nachrichten (Halle, 1735 ff.). The journal has
been, and is being, translated in the DR.
8
Walter L. Robbins, "John Tobler's Description of
South Carolina," SCHM, 71 (1970), 141-161.
9
CRG, 24:434-444. He wrote a similar refutation to
Urlsperger (Ausführliche Nachrichten, 3:30-46).
10
For examples of notation, see DR, 5:310, DR, 11:150.
For Collegium Musicum, see Hermann Winde, "Die
Frühgeschichte der Lutherischen Kirche in Georgia,"
unpublished dissertation, Martin-Luther University, Hal-
le/Wittenberg, 1960, p.159.
11
DR, 7:44.
12
Theodore G. Tappert and John W. Doberstein,
eds.,
The Journals of Henry Melchior Mühlenberg (Philadelphia
1942-48), Vol. II, p. 646.
13
DR, 6:309.
14
DR, 12:116
15
DR, 7:44.
16
DR, 14:192.
17
Verner W. Crane, "A Lost Utopia of the First Ameri-
can Frontier," SewaneeReview, 27 (1919), 48-61; "Historical
Facts Delivered by Ludovick Grant...," SCHM, 10 (1909),
pp. 58-61; Mellon Knox, Jr., "Christian Prieber's Chero-
kee Kingdom of Paradise," GHQ, 57 (1973), 319-331. See
also Mellon Knox, Jr., "Christian Priber and the Jesuit
Myth," SCGM, 61 (1960), 75-81; Newton Mereness, Travels
in the American Colonies (New York, 1916), pp. 239-240,
246-250); and Samuel Williams, Early Travels in Tennessee
(Johnson City, TN., 1928), 149-160.
18
Usu DoctrinaeJuris Romani de Ignorantia Juris in Foro
Germaniae, Erfurt 1722.
19
CRG, 1:218.
20
Knox, "Chr. Prieber," p. 327. Mereness, p. 248 (see
note 17).
21
Bonnefoy called him Pierre Albert (Mereness, p. 247,
see note 17).
22
SCHM, 10 (1919), p. 59.
23
Crane, p. 50 (see note 17).
24
Crane (p. 51) lists several enlightened French writers
who were Prieber's spiritual kin (see note 17).
25
British Public Record Office, Colonial Office
Papers,
Class 5, 655 II 171-171 v. Published in GHQ, 44 (1940),
100-101, and reproduced in CR, 36:129-131 (unpublished).
Z6
The following account is based mainly on Robbins
(see note 8).
27
For a list of his properties, see Leo Scheiben, Einfüh-
rung in die Schweizerische Auswanderungsgeschichte
der Neuzeit, Zurich, 1976, pp. 332-335.
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28
The Pennsylvania Town and Country-Man's Almanack,
published by Sower in Philadelphia.
29
There are nine clusters of almanac titles under
Tobler's name in the bibliographical database RLIN.
30
This almanac, whose many-lined baroque tide begins
Alterund verbesserterSchreib-Calendar, was published in St.
Gall by Hans Jacob Hochreutiner. For the full title, see
Robbins, p. 141 (see note 7).
31
Mentioned by Boltzius, DR, 7:44.
32
DR, 12:5-6, also 32. This was Joachim Lange, Evange-
lische Lehre der allgemeinen Gnade or de Gratia universali
wider Electionem ex Absolute Decreto.
33
For an excellent account of de Brahm, see Louis De
Vorsey, Jr., ed., De Brahm 's Report of the General Survey in the
Southern District of North America, Columbia, SC., 1967.
34
Historians are wrong in sometimes referring to
Johann von Kalb as the "so-called baron" or the "self-
styled baron." Friedrich von Porbeck, the Hessian com-
mander in Savannah during the Revolution, was also a
merit nobleman.
35
CR, 26:319.
36
CR, 27:103 (new ed by Kenneth Coleman, Athens
GA., 1977).
37
Charles L. Mowat, "That 'Odd Being,' De Brahm",
The Florida Historical Quarterly, 20 (1942), p. 323.
38
An exception was Boltzius, with whom he appears to
have had a feud so bad that George Whitefield was called
upon to reconcile them (Alan Gallay, The Formation of a
Planter Elite, Athens, GA., 1989, p. 40). Another exception
was Raymond Demere, the commander at Ft. Loudon,
with whom he clashed (De Vorsey, p. 20).
39
The tide de, being French, was not only more elegant
but also more intelligible, since the British were familiar
with it through ancient Norman names.
40
Both published in De Vorsey, pp. 3-114; 72-166.
41
De Vorsey, pp. 115-131.
42
Atlantic Pilot (London 1772).
43
De Brahm's report on Georgia was published in 1849
in forty-eight copies by George Wymberley-Jones at
Wormsloe (Savannah) with the title History of Georgia.
44
De Vorsey, p. 71. Phlogiston was the component of
flammable materials released by combustion. Conjec-
tured mostly by German scholars, this substance enjoyed
almost universal credance until discredited by Lavoisier
some two decades after de Brahm wrote this passage.
45
Typical of his style is the footnote in De Vorsey, p. 86.
See also p. 143.
46
De Vorsey p. 141.
47
De Vorsey, p. 70.
48
The major source of information about Bornemann
and his family is an unpublished journal of his journey
from Göttingen to London, and then on to Savannah.
The manuscript is in the possession of a descendant,
Andrew Burney of Brooklet, Georgia, who has promised
to donate it to the Library of Congress.
49
A xerox copy of this journal, together with a transla-
tion by Gertha Reinert, is stored at the Georgia Historical
Society in Savannah.
50
These letters, housed in the Bürgerbibliothek in
Bern, are forthcoming in the GHQ.
51
DR, 10:107.
52
Boltzius rendered the name both as Zieblin and Züb-
lin (DR, 4:60,213).
53
Boltzius complained that the wealthy David would
not help his poor brothers Ambrosius and Johann Jacob
(DR, 5:29, 6:174, 7:126).
54
Much of the following is indebted to Randall M.
Miller, A Warm and Zealous Spirit, Macon, GA., 1982; see
also Roger A. Martin, "Zubly comes to America." GHQ,
61 (1977), pp. 125-139; Lilla Hawes, ed. The Journal of the
Reverend John Joachim Zubly..., Savannah, GA., 1989.
Other works about Zubly are given in Miller (p. 7, see note
10) and Hawes (pp. 113-123).
55
E. Merton Coulter, ed., The Journal of William Stephens
1743-1745, Athens, GA., 1959, Vol. II, pp. 199-200. See also
pp. 204, 214, 216, 222, 224, 237.
56
His father in Purysburg spelled his name Zoberbüller
or Zoberbiller (DR, 4:61, 69).
57
CR, 23:483-485; Coulter, Vol. II, pp. 199-200 (see note
44).
58
CR, 25:95,125; CR, 31:52-55, 75,89 (new ed. by Ken-
neth Coleman, Athens, GA., 1986).
59
Published in Miller, pp. 83-94 (see note 54).
60
Cited from Miller, p. 21 (see note 54).
61
CGHS, 6:185.
62
Published in Miller, pp. 31-51, 95-121 (see note 54).
63
De Vorsey, p. 144.
64
Tappert 2:596 (see note 12).
65
The "Malabar" books may have been suggested by
the East Indian reports sent back to Halle by the Luthe-
ran ministers in Malabar, copies of which were found in
the Ebenezer library (Der königlichen Dänischen Mission-
arien aus Ost-Indien eingesandte ausführliche Berichte,
Halle 1735 ff.
66
DR, 12:6.
67
Of our subjects, we know the tides of the dissertation
of Prieber (see note 18) and Zubly, who wrote an Exerdta-
tio Theologica deNubis Virginis (Charleston, SC., 1775).
68
De Brahm relates that the Cherokees called him
Shaeegunsta Dutchee (Samuel Cole Williams, ed., Early
Travels in the Tennessee Country 1540-1800. Johnson City,
TN., 1928, p. 193).
69
Crane, p. 48 (see note 17).
70
Miller, p. 9 (see note 54).
71
It is noticeable that Boltzius is the only one of de
Brahm's acquaintances that did not lavish praise upon
him. Gallay (The Formation of a Planter Elite, Athens, GA.,
1989, p. 40), says that they feuded and that George White-
field was asked to try to reconcile them.
72
Robbins, p. 148 (see note 8).
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