The Shoemaker Ade and the Georgia Salzburgers
January 10, 2024
Image of “Plan von Neu Ebenezer”, 1747, by Matthaeus Seutter (1678-1756) shared courtesy of the Huntington Library at https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll4/id/10698
German-speaking Protestants at Ebenezer in the Colony of Georgia
In 1731, the Catholic archbishop of the independent principality of Salzburg in present-day Austria issued the Edict of Expulsion for its twenty thousand Protestant citizens. Propertied Protestants were given three months to leave Salzburg. Non-propertied Protestants were given eight days.
In 1734, with the support of the Protestant English King George II and the Trustees of the Colony of Georgia, a group of Salzburgers were transported to Charleston, South Carolina and then to Savannah, Georgia. In Georgia, the Salzburgers founded the town of Ebenezer on Ebenezer Creek, approximately twenty-five miles up the Savannah River. After a difficult beginning, the settlement was moved in 1736 to a site on Ebenezer Creek that was closer to the Savannah River. The second settlement was also called Ebenezer or New Ebenezer.
Between 1734 and 1752, Salzburgers and other German-speaking Protestant refugees arrived in Georgia and the other English colonies. At Ebenezer, the term “Salzburger” came to denote all of the German-speaking Protestant immigrants that were sent to the settlement, not just those from Salzburg.
Salzburger Monument of Reconciliation
erected in 1994 in Salzburger Park, Savannah, Georgia.
Image courtesy of Melissa R. at Foursquare.com, 2013 at https://foursquare.com/v/salzburger-monument/4f3bce5ae4b09bd62755f618?openPhotoId=51a3c23be4b016c450769b4c
Historical marker at the Salzburger Monument of Reconciliation in Savannah, Georgia.
Image courtesy of Mike Stroud, 2008, Historical Marker Data Base at https://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=18297Make it stand out
1738: The Ades Immigrated to Ebenezer in the Colony of Georgia
My father’s 5 x great-grandparents, Hieronymus Solomon Ade (1705-1754) and Margaretha Ade (1706-unknown), and their young son, Johann Heinrich (1735- about 1831), were part of the great wave of German-speaking Protestants who immigrated to the English colonies in America in 1738.
Given the choice to convert to Roman Catholicism or emigrate, the Ades left their home in Tubingen, Baden-Wurttemberg in present-day Germany and traveled to Rotterdam, Netherlands. From Rotterdam, they sailed as part of a group of about 200 German Protestant refugees to London on the Adventure with Captain James Shields. In July 1738, the group sailed as the Third Palatine Transport from London to Savannah on the Two Brothers with Captain William Thomson. (During this time period, Palatine was a general term used Germans.)
The Two Brothers arrived in Savannah on October 7, 1738. To pay for their passage, Solomon and Margaretha had contracted with Captain Thomson to work in Georgia. In Savannah, Thompson sold their labor contract to Governor James Oglethorpe, who represented the Trustees of the Colony of Georgia. Solomon Ade was a shoemaker by trade, and Oglethorpe sent him to the Salzburger community at Ebenezer, where his skills were badly needed.
In a letter dated June 11, 1740, Harman Verelst wrote to the Reverand Johann Martin Boltzius that the Trustees of the Colony of Georgia had paid 7 pounds each for 11 5/6 servants that had been sent to Ebenezer in January 1739. (The Ades, as stated in the previous paragraph, arrived in Savannah on October 7, 1738. The transcription of Verelst’s letter stated that they were sent to Ebenezer in January 1738 but it was, in fact, 1739.) Verelst went on to state that the servants were to repay their passage to Georgia through labor that was to benefit the settlement at Ebenezer.
List of servants sent to Ebenezer in the Colony of Georgia in January 1739 from Trustees Letter Book, 1738-1745, Colonial Records of the State of Georgia. Image courtesy of the University of Georgia Press, Digital Publishing at https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/read/974a5e37-a9fc-405c-ba45-b1f7be2d2991/section/915e59aa-a0cb-49c9-bb6e-c42138a48d77#page_149
Most of what we know about the Ades at Ebenezer comes from the letters of the Reverend Johann Martin Boltzius. Boltzius served as the head Lutheran minister at Ebenezer from 1735 to 1765. He also served as the settlement’s administrator and wrote letters frequently, which included dated entries that described people and events in the settlement. He regularly corresponded with the Reverend Samuel Urlsperger in Augsberg, Bavaria in present-day Germany. Urlsperger later included Boltzius’ letters in Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America. Scholars who have examined the original letters have noted that Urlsperger sometimes heavily edited or deleted whole passages from Boltzius’ correspondence.
Excerpts from Rev. Boltzius’ Comments in the Detailed Reports about the Shoemaker Ade
1739
On Thursday, February 15, 1739, Rev. Boltzius noted that a group of Germans had arrived at Ebenezer the previous day. “Solomon Adde a Shoemaker aged 30, Margaret His wife aged 32, and John his Son aged 3” were among the arrivals who were named in the records of the Trustees of Georgia. (Verelst, p. 149)
Three months later, on May 15, 1739, Reverand Boltzius wrote that the shoemaker Ade had been ordered to leave Ebenezer and return to the Lord Trustees in Savannah to finish his labor contract. Boltzius explained that it was for the good of the community that “this wicked and offensive and harmful man” be sent back to Savannah. (Boltzius 1739, p. 94)
1740
It’s not clear whether or not Ade left Ebenezer and returned to Savannah. However, on Wednesday, January 16, 1740, Boltzius wrote that Ade had asked for his family to be accepted at Ebenezer again:
A severe sickness has brought the shoemaker Ade to a recognition of his disorderly life, and he has resolved to convert himself to God. In order to have a better opportunity for this he is earnestly requesting us to accept him and his wife and children again; and he has made this request not only to me but also to one of the leaders of the congregation. We need a shoemaker; and, if it were true that he wished to use our place to restore his soul, then we would like to do what we could for him. The difference between here and other places he can almost grasp with his hands. (Boltzius 1740, p. 19)
1741
In 1741, Boltzius described his meetings with Ade in several letters to Urlsperger. In an entry dated Wednesday, February 4, 1741 he detailed Ade’s difficulties in the community and with his wife. Here is an excerpt:
As long as he has been married to his wife, he has sinned through disputes, quarrels, and beatings which he, it is true, has recognized as sins and promised to correct; but, notwithstanding our many beseeching admonitions, he was again induced to the same offenses by which he was prevented again yesterday from visiting the prayer hour, which, by God’s blessing, would have been as beneficial to him as to other people. (Boltzius 1741, p. 53)
Three days later, on Saturday, February 7, Boltzius wrote about a dispute between Ade and another man that he had helped them work out. He also counseled Ade about his relationship with his wife “even if she should exceed the barriers of her duty”. (Boltzius 1741, p. 55)
Boltzius wrote again about the shoemaker’s apparent “annoyance and vexation” on Thursday, April 9, 1741. (Boltzius 1741, p. 141) He had heard through Margaretha, Ade’s wife, that he wasn’t happy and wanted to return to work in Savannah. The reverend visited him and, after pointing out that he should be more concerned with spiritual rather than business matters, convinced him to stay in Ebenezer for the good of his family. Boltzius ended his comments on Ade by writing:
Such people always behave like this, and we gladly give in to save their souls. They closely watch the Salzburgers and always know to use them to their worldly advantage according to their evil minds, and they accuse us of being prejudiced. (Boltzius 1741, p. 141)
In his entry for Thursday, May 14, 1741, Rev. Boltzius noted that Ade, the shoemaker, was planning to attend services and that he had discussed his spiritual needs with him. Eight days later, on Friday, May 22, he wrote that Ade had asked him to write a letter to his elderly mother in Tubigen. He told Boltzius that she was a widow and that he had been a disappointment to her. He had left Tubigen without telling her and now wanted to make amends for all of the troubles he had caused her. He even offered to pay for her passage to Georgia.
Boltzius, in his entry for June 1, 1741, noted the people gathered at his house for prayer and the distribution of linen and calico cloth, books, and other items sent to Ebenezer from Protestants in Europe. Margaretha and Hieronymus Salomo Ade were listed as attendees. The names of Solomon and Margaretha’s young sons, Johann Heinrich and Friedrich Ade, were included in a list of children who were given clothing, small knives, and other donated items sent from Europe. Johann Heinrich had immigrated to Georgia with his parents at the age of three. Friedrich was apparently born some time after their arrival at Ebenezer.
The reverend’s last entry about the Ades in 1741 was made on Thursday, July 9. He wrote:
The N. [shoemaker Adde] and his wife do not yet recognize the state of their own souls and suffice themselves with external means of grace rather than lay a solid foundation for their Christianity through repentance and faith. Therefore I advised them not to overlook the foundation, for which purpose they should kneel diligently before our omnipresent and merciful God and follow the directions of the little booklet Dogma of the Beginning of Christian Life. Because much listening and reading but little praying are more pernicious than useful, I showed them the right way. (Boltzius 1741, p. 292)
1742
In his notes for Wednesday, January 6, 1742, Reverand Boltzius listed items that had been sent from Germany. After a prayer service of thanks and praise at his house, these donations were given out to members of the community. Solomon and Margaretha and their two children were given “Cobbler’s equipment, 10 Sh. Sterl. for her, also for the boys a shirt”. (Boltzius 1742, p. 10)
On Tuesday, February 23, the reverend stated that the shoemaker Ade wanted to buy part of a plantation for him and his wife to work. Baltzius remarked that Ade was, at this point, a very changed man and a man of God. On Friday, November 5, 1742, Boltzius gave thanks for the harvest and recorded the amount of corn, beans, sweet potatoes, and rice grown by each individual. Ade harvested (measurement not given but presumably in pounds): corn 20, beans 24, sweet potatoes20, and rice 1 1/2. (Boltzius 1742, p. 221)
1743
No entries for Ade in Detailed Reports from 1743.
Solomon Ade/Addie in the Colonial Records of Georgia
1743
It was recorded in the Colonial Records of Georgia that on December 23, 1743 at a meeting of the President and Assistants of the Colony of Georgia in Savannah, Solomon Addie had applied for an allowance given to all persons who had completed their contracted time of service but were not employed by the Colony. It was acknowledged that Addie had completed his four years of service. However, it had been decided at a previous meeting on October 12, that funds were not available to pay out the allowance to qualified applicants. Therefore Addie would have to wait until the funds were allocated.
South Carolina
Failing to receive a land bounty or the above-mentioned allowance due to Solomon in Georgia, he and Margaretha moved to Charleston, South Carolina with their two sons. They received a 200 acre land bounty between the Broad and Saluda Rivers in 1746. In the late 1780s, their granddaughter, Barbara Addy, married George Wheeler.
German Origin of the Surname Ade
In his 1998 family history A Wheeler Family in the Dutch Fork, my father stated that the Ade surname was French in origin. His theory was that Solomon Ade’s forebearers might have been French Protestants who fled to Baden-Wurttemberg after the Edict of Nantes, which provided legal protection for French Protestants, was revoked in 1685.
Further research, however, has revealed that the name Ade has several identified areas of origin in Europe, one of which is Germany. Taking into account that our Ade ancestors emigrated from Baden-Wurttemberg in present-day Germany, it is possible that they, as well as their surname, were German in origin rather than French.
Sources
Carol Ebel, "Johann Martin Boltzius," New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Sep 29, 2020; website post, New Georgia Encyclopedia (https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/johann-martin-boltzius-1703-1765/ : accessed 10 December 2023).
Georgia Legislature, “At a Meeting of the President and Assistants for the Colony of Georgia in the Town of Savannah On ffriday the twenty-third Day of Decem’ 1743”, Colonial records of the State of Georgia, Vol. VI (Atlanta, Georgia: Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1904), p. 89, entry for Solomon Addie; digital image, Hathitrust.org (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015039780351&seq=95&q1=Addie : accessed 3 January 2024).
Harmen Verelst (location may have been London, England) to the Rev. John Martin Bolzius (Ebenezer, Colony of Georgia), letter, June 11, 1740; published in Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, Volume 30: Trustees Letter Book, 1738-1745 (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1985), Coleman, Kenneth, ed., p. 149, entry for Solomon Adde, Margaret Adde, John Adde; digital images, University of Georgia Press, Digital Publishing (https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/read/974a5e37-a9fc-405c-ba45-b1f7be2d2991/section/915e59aa-a0cb-49c9-bb6e-c42138a48d77#page_149 : accessed 1 January 2024).
James Barlament, "Salzburgers," New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Oct 19, 2016; website post, New Georgia Encyclopedia (https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/salzburgers/ : accessed 10 December 2023).
Johann Martin Boltzius, Reverand (Ebenezer, Colony of Georgia) to the Reverand Samuel Urlsperger (Augsburg, Bavaria in present-day Germany), reports with dated entries, entries dated Thursday, February 15, 1739 and Tuesday, May 15, 1739; published in Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emmigrants Who Settled in America, Volume VI, 1739 (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1981), Samuel Urlsperger, ed. (pub. betw. 1735-1751), translated and edited (1981) by George Fenwick Jones and Renate Wilson, pp. 24 and 94; digital images, University of Georgia Press, Digital Publishing (https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/projects/detailed-reports-on-the-salzburger-emigrants-who-settled-in-america-f479f7d4-96c2-42eb-9755-40978f246f1a : accessed 3 January 2024). Notes: Index lists references, with page numbers, to Solomon and Margaretha Ade and their children.
Johann Martin Boltzius, Reverand (Ebenezer, Colony of Georgia) to the Reverand Samuel Urlsperger (Augsburg, Bavaria in present-day Germany), reports with dated entries, entry dated Wednesday, January 16, 1740; published in Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emmigrants Who Settled in America, Volume VII, 1740 (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1983), Samuel Urlsperger, ed. (pub. betw. 1735-1751), translated and edited (1983) by George Fenwick Jones and Don Savelle, p. 19; digital images, University of Georgia Press, Digital Publishing (https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/projects/detailed-reports-on-the-salzburger-emigrants-who-settled-in-america-c3308768-4486-4cae-91a4-4561196e2392 : accessed 3 January 2024). Notes: Index lists references, with page numbers, to Solomon and Margaretha Ade and their children.
Johann Martin Boltzius, Reverand (Ebenezer, Colony of Georgia) to the Reverand Samuel Urlsperger (Augsburg, Bavaria in present-day Germany), reports with dated entries, entries dated February 4 and 7, April 9, May 14 and 22, June 1, July 9, 1741; published in Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emmigrants Who Settled in America, Volume VIII, 1741 (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1985), Samuel Urlsperger, ed. (pub. 1735-1751), edited (1985) by George Fenwick Jones and translated by Maria Magdalena Hoffmann-Loerzer, Renate Wilson, and George Fenwick Jones, pp. 53, 55, 141, 192, 203, 228, 292; digital images, University of Georgia Press, Digital Publishing (https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/projects/detailed-reports-on-the-salzburger-emigrants-who-settled-in-america-b10b3edc-cf8c-4ba7-b753-e3323a802787 : accessed 3 January 2024). Notes: Index lists references, with page numbers, to Solomon and Margaretha Ade and their children.
Johann Martin Boltzius, Reverand (Ebenezer, Colony of Georgia) to the Reverand Samuel Urlsperger (Augsburg, Bavaria in present-day Germany), reports with dated entries, entries dated January 6, February 23, November 5; published in Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emmigrants Who Settled in America, Volume IX, 1742 (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1988), Samuel Urlsperger, ed. (pub. betw. 1735-1751), edited (1988) by George Fenwick Jones and translated by Don Savelle, p. 10, 49, 221; digital images, University of Georgia Press, Digital Publishing (https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/projects/detailed-reports-on-the-salzburger-emigrants-who-settled-in-america-f6bd2819-08a8-4f3a-ab29-1d289317b11a : accessed 3 January 2024). Notes: Index lists references, with page numbers, to Solomon and Margaretha Ade and their children.
Klaus Wust, “The Emigration Season of 1738 - Year of the Destroying Angels”, no date; research paper pdf, pp.23 (general use of “Palatine) and 30 (Cpt. Thomson and the Two Brothers), Loyola and Notre Dame Library in Maryland (https://loyolanotredamelib.org/php/report05/articles/pdfs/Report40Wust21-56.pdf : accessed 10 January 2024).
Patrick Hanks, ed., Dictionary of American Family Names, 1st Ed., entry for Ade, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 2006 online), digital images, Oxfordreference.com (https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195081374.001.0001/acref-9780195081374-e-259?rskey=wgcdFy&result=259 : accessed 3 January 2024).
Shane Runyon and Robert Davis. "Ebenezer," New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Oct 19, 2016; website post, New Georgia Encyclopedia (https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/ebenezer/ : accessed 29 December 2023).
Thomas Ellis Wheeler, A Wheeler Family in the Dutch Fork, (Gulf Breeze, FL: Self-published, 1998), p. 3.