1535944

JOHANN ADAM EPTING and BARBARA OSIANDER EPTING

TRAVEL TO AMERICA

by Theodore (Ted) Epton

The Eptings Hear Stories About America

In 1744 John Jacob Riemensperger an immigration agent or "Newlander. " offered to make a trip to Germany in order to bring back some Swiss countrymen. He asked the provincial administration to pay the passages of the expected immigrants, but nothing came of his application until he renewed it yearly in 1748 after the close of the War of the Austrian Succession. He was then promised payment of his own passage to England, one shilling sterling a head for all foreign Protestants whom he should get to settle in South Carolina, and fifteen guineas for the purchase of clothing for himself. In April of the same year he announced that he had forty letters from German settlers in Saxe-Gotha addressed to friends and relatives in Switzerland and the Palatinate and that he was ready to depart.

Having arrived in the Palatinate, Riemensperger set about distributing pamphlets in Heidelberg on the Neckar, and in other cities and villages on the Rhine. These fliers described the colony of South Carolina in the most glowing terms. They extolled the fertility of the soil, the wholesomeness of the climate, the integrity of the colonial government, and the safety and well being of the colonists. And as if that wasn't enough, they described the opportunities for becoming wealthy: These claims were corroborated by the testimony of "witnesses" who had been there and seen for themselves, and of the letters which John Jacob brought with him from Saxe-Gotha. No wonder that John Adam and Barbara Epting and their friends were enthusiastic. But they had heard disparaging reports as well. They knew that conditions in the British colony were not as ideal as all that for a German-speaking alien. Swiss and Palatine Germans had been leaving for America in large numbers since 1709. (1) They had written back about the bad conditions and poor treatment, (2) the hundreds that died on the ocean voyage and (3) they discouraged others from coming over. You can imagine the heated debates and disputes on street corners, in church halls, and at the market place, that preceded the final decision of our forebears to emigrate.

(1) The so-called "Massen-auswanderung der Pfalzer" -the great exodus of the Palatines -by far the largest emigration of colonial times from any continental country to America.

(2) Christoph Saur noted that in the years 1750 and 1755 two thousand corpses were thrown into the sea. on the ship on which Heinrich Keppele, the first president of the German Society, emigrated two hundred and fifty persons died.

(3) Gottlieb Mittelberger. a schoolmaster and organist of Wurttemberg. came to America in 1750. He returned to Germany four years later after living in New Providence. PA. He wrote an account of his travels. He said, "The most important occasion for publishing this little book was the wretched and grievous condition of those who travel from Germany to this new land and the outrageous and merciless proceeding of the Dutch man- dealers and their man-stealing emissaries, -I mean the so- called Newlander." Mittelberger, as well as Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, described the tactics of these "detested traffickers," how they delude the poor Germans wi th glowing des- criptions of the "Elysian fields which seed themselves with- out toil or trouble, " and tell the people "he that goes as a servant becomes a master." Mittelberger declares that his countrymen in Pennsylvania implored him "with tears and uplifted hands to make this misery and sorrow known in Germany, so that not only the common people, but even princes and lords, might learn how they had fared, to prevent other innocent souls from leaving their fatherland, persuaded thereto by the Newlanders , and from being sold into a like slavery. "

The Trip Down The Rhine

Now began John Adam and Barbara’s long and careful preparations for the trip -the settling of accounts and debts, being screened by the authorities; the hard-to-make decisions over what was most important to pack in the trunks (they were sure not to forget the family Bible and catechism.) (4) In the selection of provisions for the long river excursion to Rotterdam; visiting friends and kinfolk who were saying behind (even the strongly constituted among them wept when they thought that~ perhaps they would never meet again) .Many of those who were not emigrating declared that they would come to America some day. The local pastor led devotions and prayed that God would preserve His pilgrims. The voyagers then set off down the street, their borrowed horses and wagons laden with baggage. Clusters of neighbors stood at doorways and windows and waved to the travelers as they passed. There were forty-two men, women and children in the party. As they traversed their section of Heidelberg, the Eptings took a last lingering glance at the familiar sights. The wagon train made its way to the waiting riverboat docked ten miles away at Mannheim.

(4) This Bible still exists and is in the possession of Epting descendants in Little Mountain, S.C.

Wir Reisin Nach Amerika

Then commenced the melancholy boat trip down the Rhine towards the Netherlands. They watched the familiar and beloved Rhineland slip away forever. Rotterdam. England.: Like an index finger, the Rhine River pointed the way for these distressed Palatines to a new start, a new life. John Adam Epting did not know it at the time, of course, but he was to return briefly to Heidelberg in 1763.

When the Rhine became the Nieuwe Maas, our pilgrims knew they were getting close to Rotterdam. After they docked at the city harbor, many Dutch stevedores transferred the trunks and satchels from the riverboat into the hold of a ship. The ship captain, a Hollander who spoke German, told John Adam that there would be a delay of a few days while he got his quota of channel-crossing passengers. So the Eptings took a cook's tour of this bustling port city. They saw some windmills and big bridges, and visited the market place where they stopped at several stalls that displayed books, almanacs, and religious tracts in many languages, and at a shop that sold, among other curiosities, rugs and carpets of peculiar design from the Orient.

The Channel Crossing

At last they set sail. On the first day of the crossing to England a heavy fog settled down upon the sea. Barbara remembered that they could not see ten feet from the ship. But with the coming of the next morning the sun broke through. Bits of azure sky appeared. and it was enough to uplift many an "orphan" on board. And the superstitiously inclined thought it signaled Godspeed. The end of this leg of the journey found them at the English seaport of Cowes.

While the Eptings and the others waited patiently at the seaport for a ship to transport them to the colonies, their agent and spokesman Riemensperger asked the crown that (if it pleases his Majesty) his party of Carolina-bound "Wuerttembergers" be at liberty "to go higher up into the Country where land is better, and tho' nearer the nations of Indians, your Majesty intends to have a Fort in that part of the Country anyway. Besides, they have no objection to settle near the Indians." He probably had in mind the Crims Creek section, since that region was already well known to him. The crown discouraged his suggestion, probably preferring that the immigrants accept grants in safer Saxe-Gotha Township. But as we shall see later, the South Carolina governor and council met Riemensperger's request by issuing the grants "above Saxe-Gotha." What is more, the warrants, in addition to providing the usual bounty, carried the ten-year exemption from quit rents normally offered only to the township residents.

The Ocean Voyage

The Griffin was a sail ship and the immigrants were crowded into it. They slept on shelves which were called berths, one above the other, in some places up to four in a tier. The ceilings of the ship were all so low that John Adam had to move about cautiously so as not to knock his head.

There were days when the winds were high and the ocean was rough. For hours on end the ship pitched and tossed, and nearly everyone became very sick. When they felt well enough and when the sea was calm they talked about America. They discussed their plans and exchanged ideas. But they also thought of their old homes and the dear friends and relatives they had left behind in the Rhineland. In a word, they were homesick. They worried over the long, hard voyage ahead, and the coming hardships in a strange, new land. There would be no shelter until they built their cabins out of the wilderness. There were no mills where they could buy timber. They would have to cut down the trees and shape their own boards. The children talked about the Indians who lived wild in the forests and who they heard were very savage and cruel. They played a game they invented called "scalp the Indian" (the Indian always lost) though they had no notion of what an Indian looked like. John Adam formed a friendship with several freemen on board, and it was in one of their long discussions that they agreed to do what they could to obtain adjoining tracts of land and move in as a group. In that way they could help each other where help was needed. This was the origin of John Adam Epting's "colony of Palatines" referred to in the Annals of Newberry and other Dutch Fork literature.

John Adam also talked to several men who had "sold their freedom" for passage money to America. He knew that many of his countrymen went to America contracted under the system of indentured servitude because they could not afford the fare or if they started out from home with enough money to pay the ship captain. It was spent by the time they boarded ship at the English port of embarkation. John Adam knew all this. He had gone through it himself. Riemensperger had described the journey to them as an easy and cheap one. The poor pilgrims found that in fact it cost a lot more than they had imagined possible. The long journey down the Rhine, the tolls at its innumerable custom houses, and the detention (which seemed calculated) at Rotterdam and England, exhausted their means and left them in debt to the shippers.

John Adam and Barbara heard stories, some of them hard to believe, of how some ship captains in Rotterdam made money on the German immigrants. He heard tell of the Stedman’s, an English firm which owned many of the channel-crossing vessels, -of their reputation for cruelty in their handling of the immigrant traffic. One man told of how he had filled his chest with food and medicines, clothing and money. But it was stowed in another ship at Rotterdam. He was compelled to buy provisions from the captain and so fell into debt.

In comparing notes on the voyage, John Adam and Barbara came to realize that they and their friends had been receiving better treatment from the captain and crew, and only because they were paying passengers. The redemptioners complained about how unfeelingly they were handled because the captain had to bother about selling them for the passage money. The indenture system, of course, permitted these poor Germans to meet the otherwise prohibitive cost of the ocean crossing by pledging their future labor. But they accepted this form of white slavery because it eventually led to a freehold or good wages and provided a chance to live as they pleased. That was more than they had in the Old World. They were the poor class at home and would always have remained in that condition, had not the system of indenture offered them the possibility of improving their lot in life. (5)

(5) This was a peak year for German immigration, when over six thousand emigrants from Wurttemberg, Zweibrucken, Mannheim. the "Pfalz" and other German states found homes in America.

All of the passengers had suffered from the steady diet of hardtack and "salt horse" (corned beef or pork) and from being continually cold, wet, and seasick. The women and girls complained of never being able to bathe or change into clean clothes, but this did not bother the boys at all. What they minded most were the cramped quarters and lack of space below deck to "fool around". Every inch of space was crammed with traveling gear.

There were deaths on the voyage. No one seemed to know (perhaps they did not want to remember) how many had died. Probably more than the ship company would care to admit. Young George Epting was the hapless victim of a disease that struck him at the end of the first month on the water. An elderly man from Baden died that same day. The bodies were wrapped in an old piece of canvas sail and, after a brief prayer from the ship's captain, were dropped into the ocean. There was always a certain number that died. They were the statistics of sea travel in those days. Contagious diseases, poor diet, and impure food and water were largely to blame. Meanwhile, the Griffin’s supply of food and drinking water were almost depleted and the passengers were on starvation rations for six days before they reached Charles Town.

The German Pilgrims Arrive At Charles Town

When the Griffin landed at Charles Town, John Adam and his family their friends and the others who made up the one hundred and thirty two passengers who had paid for their passage (the freemen) were allowed to disembark. The memorable date was October 17, 1749 Those who could not pay had to remain on board until they were sold by the captain of the ship and released by their purchasers. John Adam bade farewell to these bonded men and noticed that quite a few of them were ill and enfeebled by the grueling journey and poor diet. John Adam and Barbara wished that they could be of more help and comfort to them. Stories circulated about how the heal thy ones were preferred and bough t first, and so the sick and wretched had to remain on board for several weeks or longer. And these often died, whereas if they could have been removed from the germ-infested ships immediately and tended to, they might have recovered and remained alive (6).

(6) The redemptioners were sold for five or six pounds sterling and had to work from three to five years under the indenture. After their legal discharge from servitude they obtained the King's bounty and tracts of land, the same as John Adam and the other free settlers. Numerous accounts of the trials and hardships of the redemptioners are set forth in the Urlsperger Repor-ts. See also Got-tlieb Mit-telberger's "Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750."

John Jacob Riemensperger was quite pleased with his "shipload of' German Protestants, ..but complained that many he had contracted for were lost to Pennsylvania because of' governmental bungling and indifference. Historian Robert L. Merewether thinks that the Charleston shipload was part of' six hundred Wurttemberg Lutherans for whom Riemensperger had vainly sought aid from the British government. The ocean voyage had taken eight weeks. The list of "paid" passengers is recorded in Council Journal Volume XVII, pages 661-663 (7). The Assembly paid Riemensperger the agreed-upon sum of money for delivering the 132 free and indentured German Protestants to South Carolina. It was "ordered that 250 acres of land be laid out to John Adam Epting at or near Saxe-Gotha Township." Dr. Merewether tells us that John Adam and ten others chose to settle on Crims Creek above the Saxe-Gotha township line on the advice of Riemensperger.

(7) The thirty four heads of families who were able to pay for their passage aboard the Griffin were Johannes Kuller, Michael Kalfiell, Georg Ludovick Finck, George Hipp, Hans Michael Swagert, Johannes Rich, Johannes Circus, Johannes Jacob Leitzeit, Christopher Saltzer, Johannes Freyer, Frederick Mach, Andreas Emmerk, Andreas Cranmer, John George Watchter, John George Buchheart, Andreas Swachlerbach, John Conrad Beck, John Titerly, Conrad Buchmiser, John Curner, Verner Almer, John George Lapp, Michael Looser, George Gottlieb, Johan Adam Epting, Nicholas Presler, Nicholas Dirr, Andreas Rift, Christopher Ramenstein, Margaret Burkmayer, Joseph Vorsner, Christopher Henry Hoppold, Clemens From, and Evea Knoll.

Perhaps we should pause briefly in our narrative and pay respects to our peripatetic Mr. Riemensperger (8). Though he may have labored solely for self-aggrandizement, he was nonetheless instrumental in bringing into existence the Dutch Fork communities .He was after all in no small measure responsible for transplanting the Epting clan to these shores (whether it was to the benefit of this country I leave open to argument).

(8) And I do mean well-traveled. He settled Germans at Sandy Run, Hard Labor Creek, Orangeburg, Saxe-Gotha, and made several trips back to the German Palatinate and Switzerland

Perhaps I have dwelt overmuch on the redemption and their problems. They were so large a part of the German colonial migration that the effects of the system of indentured servitude they represented were felt by everyone directly or indirectly. Mr. Jacob Folk, who married John Adam's daughter and whom we will meet later, was a redemptioner who served an apprenticeship as a tanner.

Pioneer Life On Crims Creek

The newly arrived immigrants were exhausted, irritable and sick from the long period of close confinement. The Eptings grieved over the loss of their son. Barbara was homesick, frightened and overwhelmed by the work that lay ahead. But it was good to feel the solid earth under one's shoes. John Adam Epting paid the ship fare for his family out of his own funds, and no doubt underwent a sizeable "rip-off" on the Rhine River excursion, and at the extended stopovers in Rotterdam and England. So it is doubtful that he had a lot of money in his purse after he and his family were free of the ship, unless he was as well off as family tradition would have us believe. In any event, money would have been of little use to them on the frontier, at least in the beginning. Much more important for the present were the supplies and provisions they received from the provincial treasury and commissary for setting up housekeeping in the wilderness. The inventory of items received included a cow, a calf, a breeding sow, farm equipment, timber cutting and shaping tools, 350 pounds of meat, 200 pounds of rice, 1 bushel of salt, and 8 bushels of corn. Having arrived in the New World in late October, Herr Epting and his party removed directly to Granby Village (free transportation) in Saxe-Gotha Township (now West Columbia). By early spring they were clearing the forest at Crims Creek and were moving in supplies.

The settlers located their lands from grants that they obtained from the royal government. Each family received 100 acres to the head of a family and his wife, and 50 acres for each child. These were known as headrights under English law, and were also called bounty grants. John Adam had obtained bounty of 250 acres. He and the ten other heads of families that settled on Crims Creek as a group had headrights for 47 persons.

Meriwether, discussing the arrival of settlers in 1752 and later on the lands west of Broad River, particularly of those whose plats were found on high ground, concludes:

There is a hint that these were Wurttembergers, following Hans Adam Epting and his fellows who had come there three years before.

In early spring of 1750 John Adam and all the able-bodied men of his .'colony" went into the Crims Creek wilderness to inspect their claims. Roads leading to the settlement area were poor, being old Indian trails. They saw "savages," who were often hostile, and venomous snakes. Both hazards were novel to these European villagers and city dwellers. Their land was thick with first-growth trees. But in spite of the many difficulties, they were not discouraged. They had come too far and staked their last farthing on this venture in America ever to let a little hard work and danger stop them. They had overcome the first and most hazardous obstacle the three thousand miles of perilous ocean that separated the old home from the new. This second great challenge they would take in their stride. Although the settlers had received free land, money, and tax exemptions from the King and colonial government, they knew that these gifts were not given entirely from the goodness of the administration's heart. These German frontiersmen had to bolster the Low Country merchant and plantation owner's sense of security by peopling the no man's land between Indian territory and civilization, and thus act as a buffer against Indian attack.

The able-bodied men had to remove many trees to make room for cabins. The trees were used as logs for the buildings and for fence posts and rails. The men then had to clear more land so that they could lay in some crops. After planting, our pioneers returned to Granby and conveyed their families to their first permanent homes in America. At the end of the first summer they had many things to be thankful for. They now had homes and shelters, however crude, to protect them from inclement weather, unfriendly Indians, and wild animals. They had raised enough corn to last them through the next winter. One of them could write to his brother in Germany, "I have been busy and made a brave dwelling-house and under it a cellar fit to live in and have so much grain such as Indian Corn and Buckwheat that this winter I shall be much better off than what I was last year." The Indians were giving them no trouble.

At first the settlers in the Fork were scattered thinly. In the beginning this quickened the feeling of loneliness and caused yearning for the Fatherland and for kinfolk left behind. But more immediately it made it difficult to defend against attacks from the Indians, and it caused problems in getting needed supplies to their homes. Until the settlers became entirely self-sufficient, equipment and foodstuffs had to be wagoned in from the Congarees store over poor roads. Barbara had to make clothing (coarse by our standards), blankets and soap. John Adam made many of his own tools. The loom, the anvil, and the tannery were home industries.

The Eptings worked hard and had few, if any, luxuries. They were after all pioneers, facing the same hardships (save for the bitter cold weather) experienced by the first settlers at the New England colonies. Indians prowled around their cabin in the beginning, more out of curiosity than to cause trouble, but with enough surprise to cause Barbara and the children to jump almost out of their collective skins. Wildcats screamed and wolves howled in the night. There were accidents and sickness. Yet with all these hazards there were no doctors to treat them and no forts near enough to protect them.

There were few families in early 1750, but starting after 1750 new German bounty settlers moved in from Saxe-Gotha Township, having found all farmable land in that area taken up. People were also arriving from Pennsylvania in large numbers. They staked out the land north to Cannons Creek. Along with this increase in settlement came "safety in numbers" and more and better roads. There came to be twice as many Germans as English in the Fork, and the two languages were spoken in what came to be known as the "Dutch Fork."

But with "safety in numbers" came the need for community functions and services beyond the primitive courts for civil protection, schools for the three R's, and churches for the nourishment of the soul. A small group of settlers might be satisfied for a while with holding worship services in a residence or outbuilding under the direction of a pious layman (who would read a sermon or devotional essay from whatsoever books comprised the library of the settlers). But a large Lutheran community would soon feel the need of a formal church structure served by an ordained clergyman who would preach the Word and administer the sacraments.

By the middle 1750’s the hardest of the hard times was over. The Crims Creek settlers now had plenty of food and clothing and knew that so long as they continued to work hard they would maintain their self-sufficiency. That was the most important thing they wanted. They proved that they could live in comfort on what they could raise in the field and barnyard, and what they could hunt in the forest. Not a great deal happened after the settling-in period that would interest us here. The Epting children grew to adulthood learning the customs, habits and language of their parents who were still unmistakably German in their customs, habits and language. Adam Frederick was born in 1752, the first Epting born in America. The Epting children were raised in the log cabin that John Adam built. This cabin was not the most beautiful place in the world, but it was sturdy and comfortable, and remained the family "Erbschaft" even after the time that one by one the children married of~ and set up housekeeping elsewhere. John Adam Jr. lived in the home after his parents died, and the property stayed in Epting hands until the last descendant, Captain George Epting, moved to a property near Little Mountain shortly before the Civil War.