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THE HISTORY of ORANGEBURG COUNTY SOUTH CAROLINA
From its first settlement to the close of the Revolutionary War
by A.S. SALLEY, Jr,
member Southern History Association
ORANGEBURG, SC
R. Lewis BERRY, Printer 1898
History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina

Orangeburg County and its county seat, Orangeburg, were named for William IV (1711-1751), Prince of Orange, the son-in-law of King George II. The name was first used in the 1730s for a township on the Edisto River. Orangeburg District was established in 1769, and from 1785 to 1791 it included four counties: Lexington, Orange, Winton, and Lewisburg. The district was reduced in size when Barnwell (1800) and Lexington (1804) districts were formed; parts of Orangeburg also went to form Aiken (1871) and Calhoun (1908) counties. Swiss and German farmers moved into this region around 1735, and English settlers from the low country followed. The battle of Eutaw Springs was fought there during the Revolutionary War on September 8, 1781. It was the last major battle of the war in South Carolina. Large plantations using slave labor were established in Orangeburg in the nineteenth century, and the county became a major producer of cotton. Railroads arrived in the area early; Branchville became the first railroad junction in the state in 1840. Union troops under General Sherman passed through Orangeburg in February 1865.

Orangeburg County was the birthplace of historian Alexander S. Salley (1871-1961),
the author of THE HISTORY of ORANGEBURG COUNTY SOUTH CAROLINA.

Orangeburg was settled in 1735 by 250 Swiss immigrants. By 1760, it had nearly 800 residents. Leaders of the colony hoped its citizens would grow much-needed wheat and corn. Within a few years of its settlement, Orangeburg became a valuable source of food for Charleston.

It is the American Colony where my GIESSENDANNER/HUGG/POU/WOLFE heritage began.

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Settling of Orangeburgh County, South Carolina
(page 39) The story of the settling of Orangeburg, South Carolina is a page in the history of that State that has never been fully written. The cause of this omission can scarcely be accounted for, as ample materials were within the reach of former historians. Certain outlines have been given, but nothing very satisfactory (according to the Author A.S. SALLEY, Jr) had been given.

"The first white inhabitant who settled in this section of the country was named Henry STERLING, his occupation, it is supposed, was that of a trader. He located (page 40) himself on Lyon's Creek in the year 1704, and obtained a grant of a tract of land, at present (present being 1898) in the possession of Colonel Russel P McCORD".

"The next settlers were some three or four individuals, who located themselves at the Cowpens, north-westerly of the low country white settlements; these, and the Cherokee and Catawba Indians were all the inhabitants who had preceded the Germans and Swiss."

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THE STORY
LAWSON visited the Congaree section before any whites had settled there, and this is what he wrote:
"The next morning Santee Jack told us we should reach the Indian (Congaree) settlement betimes that day. About noon we passed by several fair savannas, very rich and dry, seeing great copses of many acres that bore nothing but bushes about the bigness of box trees, which, in their season, afford great quantities of small black-berries, very pleasant fruit, and much like to our blue huckleberries that grow on heaths in England. Hardby the savannas we found the town, where we halted. There was not above one man left with the women, the rest being gone a hunting, for a feast. The women were very busily engaged in gaming. The names or grounds of it I could not learn, though I looked on above two hours. The kept count with a heap of Indian grains (meaning the women were playing some sort of game, and using grain to keep score).

"When the play was ended the king's wife invited us into her cabin. The Indian kings always entertain travelers, either English or Indian, taking it as a great affront (insult) if they pass by their cabins. The town consists of not above a dozen houses - they having other straggling plantations up and down the country, and are seated upon a small branch (later named the Congaree after its Indian inhabitants) of the Santee River. Their place hath curious, dry marshes, and savannas adjoining to it. and would prove an exceeding fine range for cattle and hogs, if the English were seated thereon.

These Indians are a small people, having lost much of their former numbers by intestine broils; but most by the small-pox. We found here good store of Chinkapin-nuts, which they gather in winter, great quantities of, drying them, and keeping them in great baskets. Likewise Hickerie-nuts, which they beat betwixt two great stones, then sift to thicken their venison broth therewith; the small shells precipitating to the bottom of the pot whilst the kernels, in form of flour, mixes with the liquour (juices).

The Congarees are kind and affable to the English; the queen being very kind - giving us what varieties her cabin afforded - loblolly (mire) made with Indian corn and dried peaches. These Congarees have abundance of storks and cranes in their savannas. They take them before they can fly, and breed them as tame as dung-hill fowls. They had a tame crane at one of their cabins that was scarce less than six foot in height, his head being round with a shining crimson hue, which they all have.

These are a very comely sort of Indians, there being a strange difference in the proportion and beauty of these heathen. The women here being as handsome as most I have met withal, being several five-fingered (unknown meaning) brunettos amongst them. These lasses stick not upon hand long, for they marry when very young, as at twelve or fourteen years of age.

We saw at the king's cabin the strangest spectacle of antiquity I ever knew - it being an old Indian squaw, that, had I been to have guessed her age by her aspect, old Parr's head, the Welch Methusalem, (page 42 ) was a face in swaddling clouts to hers. Her skin hung in reaveslike a bag of tripe; by a fair computation, one might have justly thought it would have contained three such carcasses as hers then was. From what I could gather she was considerably above one hundred years old, yet she smoked tobacco, and eat her victuals, to all appearances, as heartily as on of eighteen. At night we were laid in the king's cabin, where the queen and the old squaw pigged in with us.

In the morning we rose before day, having hired a guide the over night to conduct us on our way. The queen got us a good breakfast before we left her; she had a young child which was much afflicted with the colic, for which she infused a root in water, held in a gourd; this she took in her mouth, and spurted it into the mouth of the infant, which gave it ease. After we had eaten, we set out for Wateree Indians".

End of Story

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Hardships of Early Settlers
(page 217) The early settlers of the section of South Carolina that was erected into Orangeburg District in 1768, had many trials and hardships to undergo, such as all settlers in a new and unbroken country have to contend with. The country was infested with wild beasts, birds, and reptiles that were a constant menace either to the settlers or their agricultural interests; savage Indians were all about them, and frequently gave them much trouble; and the seat of all government being at Charlestown, no officers of the law resided among them save the Rangers and a few Justices of the Peace, and from the number of advertisements that appeared in the South Carolina Gazette from time to time, it would seem that the chief duty of the Justices of the Peace in those early days was the advertising of stray animals picked up ("A Stray'd bay mare near 14 hands high, with some saddle spots, branded on the mounting shoulder 3M in one, and on the mounting buttock AS, taken up by Joseph WOOD below Orangeburgh. The owner may have her after making proper application to 'Christian MINNICK, J.P.'" SC Gazette 26 Mar 1753. There were (page 218) no courts of law in that section, but criminals had to be carried to Charleston for trial, and the result of this was that few criminals were brought to trial for crimes committed in that section. But, fortunately, these people were a quiet, industrious people and crimes among them were few. This lack of proper criminal courts of trial led to what is known as "Regulations", in the upper country of South Carolina, in the period just prior to the Revolution, but there is no evidence to show the "Regulation" played any considerable part in Orangeburgh District.

(page 219) "Memoirs" by Tarleton BROWN (his own). After stating that he had moved to SC (now BARNWELL, County) from Virginia with his parents and settled on Brier Creek, opposite to Burton'S Ferry, in 1769, he goes on this: "Having cleared a piece of land, we planted, and found the soil to be exceedingly fertile in the river swamp, producing abundant crops. This country was annoying to the inhabitants - killing the stock and destroying the crops - and were so bold, daring, and ravenous, that they would come into our yards, and before our doors take our sheep and poultry. Indeed, it was dangerous to venture out at night beyond the precincts of our yards unarmed. We used every device (page 20) to exterminate the, and ultimately affected our object by setting traps and poisoned bait.

The forest abounded with all kinds of game, particularly deer and turkeys - the former were almost as gentle as cattle. I have seen fifty together, in a day's ride in the woods. The latter were innumerable, and so very fat that I have often run them down on horseback. The range for cattle was excellent; it was a very common thing to see two hundred in a gang in the large ponds. In any month in the year beeves in the finest order for butchering might be obtained from the forest. It was customary then to have large pens or enclosures for cattle under the particular charge or direction of some person or persons; I was informed by one of those who kept a pen at King Creek, that there had been marked that spring seven calves. Our produce for market was beef, pork, staves, and shingles. There was but little corn planted in that section then; and indeed, there was scarcely any inducement to plant more than sufficed for our own consumption, there being but a few mills in the country, and consequently very little demand for the article.

From the fact of the new and unsettled state of the country, it may readily be inferred that the roads were very inferior; in truth, they were not much better than common bridle paths; and I feel confident in asserting that there were not, in the whole BARNWELL (then part of Orangeburg) District, any conveyances superior to carts of common wood slides. There were a great many wild horses running at large in the forest when we first settled in the district, a number of which were caught and sold by various individuals, who pursued exclusively the business for a livelihood."

Another story of an old gentleman in the area before the Revolutionary War regarding wolf traps. "It was built by digging a large, grave-shaped hole in the ground about ten or twelve feet deep. Then the walls of this pit were secured by means of a snug fitting pen of notched poles built from the bottom of the pit to a level with the surface, so as to prevent the wolf from scratching his way out. A board was then nicely balanced lengthwise over the pit, and a piece (page 222) of fresh meat was suspended over one end of the board, so that if a wolf walked out on the board to try to get the meat he was dumped into the pit, form which he was unable to escape, and where he was killed by the hunters soon thereafter. It was usually the custom to drag a piece of fresh meat about through the woods for several miles, and finally to drag it to the wolf traps, so that wolves might follow the trail and be led into the snare.

Bear were also plentiful in that section in the days of the pioneers, and occasionally one is to be met with to-day (1898) in the Edisto River swamp. Mr WW CULLER (COLLAR), once killed a large bear in a hand to hand encounter. It was near his home in the Limestone Section. He was stooping over a spring when suddenly a little dog he had with him sprang, apparently much frightened, into the spring beside him and splashed water all over him. This caused Mr. CULLER to straighten up suddenly, and just as he did so a large bear clasped the little dog in his embrace. Quick as though Mr. CULLER grabbed old bruin by the long hair on the back of his head, and drawing his hunting knife, gave him a few swift stabs under the foreshoulder and laid him low. He weighed 370-380 pounds.

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Unusual Housing
(page 223) A very unique dwelling house that was built about 1750 or earlier, had its last wall torn down about 1835. "It was about 16 x 20 feet. The sides were built by putting up in line eight fat lightwood posts, with eight or nine feet clear the ground, about two feet apart. Each post and a groove cut in the sides facing the neighboring posts. These grooves ran the entire length of the posts. The spaces between the posts were filled in by sliding into these grooves a wicker (page 224) work of small twigs made somewhat as tick baskets are made. The ends of the house were built up in the same manner, save that a space was left for a door. The outside wall was then plastered over with a plaster made of red clay and the inside was quite smooth and nice looking when plastered with a plaster made of native lime. The floor was made by hewing small logs flat on the upper and under sides and laying them together as a floor is laid, and then putting on a finishing touch with an adz. The roof was made of the same material and then sodded. The door was made of the same sort of boards joined together by wrought nails which KOLLER (W.W. CULLER) himself had made by hand at his own forge. The hinges were made of dogwood and very ingeniously arranged so that the door might wing on them, very much as iron gates revolve on an iron rod. Beneath this structure was a cellar. With such a house as that the settler could defy the elements, the wild beasts and the savage Indians."

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Indian Troubles

Appearing in the South Carolina Gazette 14th Apr 1748, Governor Glen published a proclamation announcing that ---

"George Haig, Justice of the Peace" had been carried off by "French Indians from the Congarees or new township of Saxa-Gotha" and in consequence thereof he recommended tat Council provide two small troops of horse and for building a fort "at the Congarees".
(page 231-232)

The Militia Rangers (of which Jacob GIESSENDANNER was a capt.,) were kept quite busy from about the time of the carrying off of HAIG, 1748, (J.P. George HAIG had been carried off by the French Indians from the Congarees 1748) until the close of the Cherokee War in 1761, embracing a period of more than ten years, there was not a settlement in that portion of the Province that was not exposed to the inroads of hostile savages, and at their hands became the not infrequent scene of bloody tragedies and domestic ruin.
(page 233)

On one occasion LOGAN had been employed, it seems, by the Provincial Authorities in Charleston to go, in with a member of the Board of Indian Trade, to the Cherokee Nation, in search of the precious metals, which were supposed to exist in inexhaustible abundance in that mountainous region. Having set out, and reached in safety one of the middle towns, they there discovered several of their friendly settlement Indians in the hands of a party of Canadian savages, who had captured them near Charlestown, and were carrying them prisoners to their towns in the north.

John GIEGER'S pity was aroused, and, at the head of a body of traders, he succeeded in rescuing the friendly Indians, but this act of kindness afterwards cost him his life.

The following summer, having set out for the Catawba Nation, in company with a half-breed, they were intercepted and captured by several of the very party of Canada Indians a year before, by whom he was carried toward the Great Lakes and finally murdered. A reward was offered by John & Henry GALLMAN for the murders.

On the 7th day of May, 1751, Mrs Mary GOULD appeared at the house of Martin FRIDAY, at the Congarees, severely wounded, and reported to Capt Daniel SELLIDER, of the Saxe-Gotha Company, that on Saturday, the fourth, two Savannah Indians had come to her house, situated about half way between the Congarees and Savannah Town, and after partaking of her husband's hospitality, had suddenly arisen (page 235) in the dead of night and murdered her husband, and her two children, and a young white man who was living with them, and had dangerously wounded her and left her for dead. It is also recorded that Mrs GOULD died of her wounds soon after.

About the same time it was reported to the Governor (GLEN) that a gang of Indians had been killing "horses, mares, and cattle" at the Congarees, and in the more northern settlements, after which they went to the house of John GIEGER, and carried off his Negro boy. Two women, who were the only members of the family at home at the time, tried to save the boy, but were threatened with death by the savages.

In 1754 the Cherokees of the up-country committed several murders, and sacked several stores; whereupon the frontier settlers assembled, and fortified themselves at Ninety-Six, the Congarees and other convenient points. But it was not until 1759 that the Cherokees made any serious outbreak.
(page 234)

The people of Orangeburg Township had, at least, some of the scare of the Indian warfare of this period, for from the GIESSENDANNER Record we learn that several forts (block houses) existed in the Township, and from the wording of the Record we are led to believe that the inhabitants assembled in these forts with their families in times of Indian troubles.
(page 237)

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First Counties in South Carolina
There have existed in South Carolina various territorial divisions. There have been Counties, Parishes, Townships, Districts or Precincts, Election Districts and Judicial Districts. Landgrave Joseph MORTON became Governor of South Carolina in 1682, and one of the first measures required of him was the division of the inhabited portion of the Province into three Counties. (Order of Proprietors, 10 May 1682). BERKELEY, embracing Charles Town (now know as Charleston), extended from Sewee on the North to Stono Creek on the South; beyond this to the northward was CRAVEN County, and to the southward COLLETON County. Shortly afterwards CARTARET County was added to the number. This County included the country around Port Royal; later, about 170, it was called GRANVILLE County.

The territory now embraced with ORANGEBURG County formed parts of BERKELEY and COLLETON. That part of ORANGEBURG East of the Edisto River, with the exception of a narrow strip along that river southward from a point a few miles below the City of Orangeburg, was in BERKELEY County, and that part West of the Edisto, together with the above mentioned strip, was in COLLETON. In 1704, an Act was passed creating Parishes within the several Counties. In BERKELEY County six Parishes were established, but none of them included any territory now (1898) embraced by ORANGEBURG, County.

In 1730, by Royal Authority, eleven Townships were laid off in square plats on the sides of rivers in South Carolina, each containing 20,000 acres. They were (page 2) designed to encourage settlements, and the plan was that each Township should eventually become a Parish. When their population increased to one hundred (100) families, they were to have the right to send two members to the General Assembly. Of these eleven (11) Townships two were laid off on the Santee, (including the branch off the Santee known as the Congaree., one Township was laid on the Pon-Pon River (Edisto), and one Township on the Savannah side, opposite Augusta (GA). These were AMELIA, so called after the Princess Amelia; The Township that was at first called the Congaree, but which was called Saxe-Gotha (later became LEXINGTON, County) by Governor BROGHTON in 1736; the Township was at first called Edisto, but after its settlement by the Germans, Swiss and Dutch in 1735 was called ORANGEBURG, in the honor of William of Orange and New Windsor.

In 1765, the Townships of AMELIA and ORANGEBURG were erected into St. Matthew's Parish by the following Act of the General Assembly of the Province of South Carolina. "AN ACT for establishing a Parish in BERKLEY County, by the name of St Matthew, and for declaring the road therein mentioned to be a public road.

"WHEREAS, several inhabitants of the said County, by their petition to the General Assembly, have represented many inconveniences which they are under for want of having a Parish laid out and established in the said County, contiguous to and including Amelia Township, and prayed that a law may be passed for that purpose; we therefore humbly pray his most sacred Majesty that it be enacted.

"I. And be it enacted, by the Honorable William BULL, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Province of South Carolina, (page 3) by and with the advice and consent of his Majesty's Council and the Commons House of Assembly of the said Province, and by the authority of the same. That immediately from and after the passing of the Act, a Parish shall be laid out and established in BERKLEY County aforesaid, in the following manner, that is to say, by running a line from the plantation of Garrard NELSON on the Santee River, inclusive, to the place where the new road leading from the plantation of Tacitus GALLIARD, Esquire, to the road leading form Charleston to Orangeburgh, intersects the line that divides the Parish of St. George DORCHESTER from St. James GOOSE Creek, and from thence to continue on the said line until it intersects the Four Hole Creek the second time, thence following the said Creek till it intersects the southeast bounds of Orangeburgh, Township, and from thence along the bounds of the said Township to the southward, and where that line reaches Edisto River, up the course of the said River until the north west boundary of the said Township, for the River a northeast course along the line of the Township until it joins the southwest bounds of Amelia Township, and from thence a northeast course till it reaches Beaver Creek; and that the said Parish shall hereafter be called and known by the name of St. Matthew, and the inhabitants thereof shall and may have, use, exercise and enjoy all the rights, privileges and immunities that the inhabitants of any other Parish do or can use, exercise or enjoy by the laws of the Province.

"II. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that a Church, Chapel and Parsonage house shall be built at such places within the bounds of the said Parish, as the major part of the Commissioners hereafter named, shall order and direct; and also, that a Chapel shall be built at such place with the bounds (page 4) of the said Parish as the major part of the Commissioners hereafter last named, shall order and direct.

"III. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the Rector or Minister of the said Parish for the time being, shall officiate in the said Church and Chapels alternately, and shall be elected and chosen in the same manner as the Rectors or Ministers of the several other Parishes in this Province are elected and chose, and shall have yearly paid to him and his successors forever, the same salary as is appointed for the Rector or Minister of any other Parish in this Province, (the Parishes of St Philip and St Michael excepted), out of the fund appropriated or to be appropriated for payment of the salaries of the Clergy in the Province; and the Pubic Treasurer for the time being is hereby authorized and required to pay the same, under the like penalties and forfeitures as for not paying the salaries due to the other Rectos or Ministers of the several other Parishes in this Province; and the said Rector or Minister of the said Parish shall have and enjoy all and every such privileges and advantages, and be under such rules, laws and restrictions, as the Rectors or Ministers of the other Parishes in this Province have and enjoy, or are subject and liable unto.

IV. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid. That Col. Moses THOMPSON, Col. Wm THOMPSON, Wm HOTLY, Thomas PLATT, Tacitus GALLIARD, Timothy DARGON, Robert WHITTEN,Wm FLUD,John BURDELL, Christopher COULLETT and John OLIVER, be and they are hereby appointed, commissioners or supervisors for the building of the Church, Chapel and Parsonage house in the said Parish of St. Matthew, exclusive of that part of the Parish called Orangeburgh Township; and that Christian MINNICK, Gavin POWE (POU), Capt ROWE, Col CHEVILLETTE and John GOVAN, (page 5) or a majority of them be and they are hereby appointed, Commissioners or supervisors for building the Chapel in that part of the Parish called Orangeburgh Township; and they, or the major part of them, are fully authorized and empowered to purchase a glebe for the said Parish, and to take subscriptions, and to receive and gather, collect and sue for, all such sum and sums of money as any pious and well disposed person or persons shall give and contribute for the purposes aforesaid; and in case of the death, absence or refusing to act of any of the said Commissioners, the Church Wardens and Vestry of the said Parish of St Matthew, for the time being, shall and may nominate and appoint another person or persons to be Commissioner or Commissioners in the room or place of such so dead, absent or refusing to act, as tho the said Church Wardens and Vestry shall seem meet; which Commissioner or Commissioners so to be nominated and appointed, shall have the same powers and authority for putting this Act into execution, to all intents and purposes, as the Commissioners herein named.

V. And be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the inhabitants of the said Parish of St Matthew, qualified by law for that purpose, shall choose and elect two members, and no more, to represent the said Parish in General Assembly; any law, usage or custom to the contrary thereof in any wise not withstanding; and that writs for the electing of members to serve in the General Assembly for the said Parish, shall be issued in the same manner and at the same times as for the several other Parishes in the Province, according to the directions in the Act entitled "An Act to ascertain the manner and form of electing members to represent the inhabitants of the Province in the Commons House of Assembly, and to appoint who shall be (page 6) deemed and adjudged capable of choosing or being chosen members of the said House'.

"VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the new road leading from the ferry of Tacitus GALLIARD, Esquire, to the road leading from Charleston to Orangeburgh, shall be, and it is hereby declared to be, a public road, and shall be worked upon and kept in repair by the inhabitants of each Parish through which the said road runs, in the same manner as all the other public roads in this Province are; and that the Commissioners herein before appointed shall also be Commissioners of and for the said road, and all other roads in the said Parish of St Matthew, and shall have the same powers and authority as any other Commissioners in the high roads in this Province have; and in case any of the said Commissioners shall die or refuse to act, the remaining Commissioners shall, from time to time, choose one or more Commissioner or Commissioners in the room of him or them so dying or refusing to act, and he or they so chosen shall have the same powers and authority as the said other Commissioners.

"Rawlins LOWNDES, Speaker,
"In the Council Chamber, the 9th day of August, 1765.
Assented to: Wm. BULL."
By order of the King's Privy Council, Governor MONTAGU published, in the South Carolina Gazette of Monday, February 29th, to Monday, March 7th, 1768, the followings proclamation annulling the above act:

"South Carolina":
'By His Excellency the Right Honorable, Lord Charles Greville MONTAGU, Captain-General, and Governor in Chief, in and over the said Province, &c. &c.
"A PROCLAMATION"

"Whereas the Right Honorable the Earl of Sheburne, (page 7) one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, hath transmitted to me a minute of his Majesty in his most honorable Privy Council, signifying, that an Act of the General Assembly of this Province, entitled, 'an Act for establishing a Parish in BERKLEY County by the name of St. Matthew, and for declaring the road therein mentioned to be a public Road'' together with a Representation from the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations thereupon, having been referred to a Committee of his Majesty's most honorable Privy Council for Plantation Affairs; the said Lords of the Committee had reported as their Opinion to his Majesty that the said Act ought to be repealed; and his Majesty having taken the same into Consideration, was pleased by the Advice of his Privy Council, to declare his Disallowance of the said Act; And pursuant to his Majesty's Royal Pleasure thereupon expressed, the said Act was thereby Repealed, and declared Void and of none Effect: I HAVE THEREFORE issued this my Proclamation, hereby notifying the same, and requiring all Persons whom it may concern, to take Notice and govern themselves accordingly.

GIVEN under my hand, and the great seal of the said Province, at CHARLES TOWN, this 29th day of February, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and sixty eight (1768), and in the eighth (8th) year of his Majesty's reign.

C.G. MONTAGU
By his Excellency's command, John BULL, Province Secretary. God save the KING"

(end of proclamation)

Not withstanding this veto the General Assembly, in April (1768), following, re-enacted the same measure under the same title, with the same preamble: fixed the same boundaries, made the same conditions as to Church, Chapel and Parsonage, and declared the same (page 8) road mentioned in the former Act to be a public road. The only differences between the Act of the 1768, which became permanent, and that of 1765, are to be found in the fourth (4th) and fifth (5th) sections of the Acts. In the fourth (4th) section of the Act of 1768 the following Commissioners or supervisors were appointed for the building of the new Church, Chapel and Parsonage house in the said Parish of St. Matthew, exclusive of Orangeburgh Township; Benjamin FARRAR, Col. Wm THOMSON, Wm HEATLY, Thomas PLATT, Tacitus GALLIARD, Thomas SABB, John BORDELL, John CALDWELL, Robert WHITTON, Wm FLOOD and John McNICHOL. For the building of a Chapel in Orangeburgh Township the following commissioners were appointed; Gavin POU, Capt. Christopher ROWE, Samuel ROWE, Wm YOUNG and Andrew GOVAN.

The fifth section differs from the same section of the former Act in that it provides for only one Representative in the Provincial Assembly instead of two, and further provides that the number of Representatives for St James GOOSE Creek be reduced from four to three in consequence of this allowing of a Representative for St Matthew's Parish. The Act is dated 12th April 1768, and is signed by P. MANIGUALT, Speaker, and assented to by Governor MONTAGU.

In 1768, an Act was passed dividing the Province of South Carolina into seven (7) Judicial Districts of Precincts. NOTE; 18th April 1767, the Legislature passed "An Act for granting to his Majesty the sum of Eighteen Thousand Pounds (18,000 #) current money, to be paid for a general survey of this Province, and for appointing Commissioners to enter into a written agreement with Tacitus GAILLARD, Esquire, and Mr. James COOK, for that purpose. The records do not show if this survey was ever conducted, but James COOK did publish in 1771, a map of South Carolina which showed the boundaries of the Districts laid off by the Act of 1768.

(page 29) For some years previous to 1735 John Peter PURRY, a Swiss gentleman, had been trying to establish Swiss colonies in South Carolina, and had actually established one on the Savannah River at a place called Purrysburg. He gave such a glowing account of the country in a pamphlet, which he freely distributed throughout Switzerland, Holland, North Germany ....... that a great many settlers (page 30) were induced to come to South Carolina. The first ship load for Orangeburgh Township arrived in Charlestown in July 1735, and immediately set out for the Township of Edisto (Orangeburg). The next year another installment of settlers arrived, and in 1737 a third arrived, bring with them a Lutheran Minister, the Rev. Hans (John) Ulrick Giessendanner (Sr). Others arrived later. The vessels which brought them over usually returned with loads of rice, and made profitable voyages. Rev. John U GIESSENDANNER and his nephew and successor, Rev John Giessendanner (Jr), kept a record of the marriage, baptismal and burial ceremonies performed by them, and from this record is learned where many of these settlers came from in the Old Country. The GIESSENDANNERS being from Switzerland.

(page 32) The defeat of the Revolutionary efforts in England and Scotland in behalf of Charles Edward, the "Young (page 33) Pretender", in 1745, caused many of the defeated revolters to flee to America; and among these was Andrew GOVAN, who settled in Orangeburgh Township, where he and his descendants became prominent. The late Wm Gilmore SIMMS used to relate a very pretty little tradition to the effect that the rebel GOVAN was condemned and about to be executed, when his friends wrecked the scaffold upon which he was about to be executed. In the fall of the scaffold GOVAN had a leg broken, but in the confusion he escaped and hid in London sewer for a day or two, when he made his escape and embarked to America. John GOVAN was a kinsman who also came to Orangeburgh about the same time, but he afterwards moved to GRANVILLE Co, SC. Christopher, Henry and Samuel ROWE, and Gavin POU were also Scotchmen who settled in Orangeburgh Township about 1740.

After the English conquest of Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1755, it will be remembered that the French Acadians then captured were cruelly carried off and distributed among the British Colonies to the South. South Carolina got a portion of these Acadians, and some of these were settled in Orangeburgh, Amelia and Saxe-Gotha Townships, and the Townships were paid for maintaining them.

(page 34) An account of the settling of Orangeburgh by the Swiss & Germans
"A trader Henry STERLING, had located himself, and obtained a grant of land on Lyon's Creek in 1704. But it was not until 1735 that this portion of the Province had an considerable number of "whites:. The arrival of the settlers who found their way thither is thus mentioned in the South Carolina Gazette under the date of July 26th ---. 'On Sunday last arrived two hundred Palatines: most of them being poor, they were obliged to sell themselves and their children for their passage (which is six pistoles in gold per head) within a fortnight of the time of their arrival, or else (page 35) to pay one pistole more to be carried to Philadelphia. The most of them were farmers, and some tradesmen. About 220 of the Switzers that have paid all their passages are now going up the Edisto River to settle a Township there. The government defrays them on their journey, provides them provisions for one year and gives them 50 acres ahead (a head). The quantity of corn bought for them had made the price rise from fifteen (15) shillings, as it was last week, to twenty (20) shillings.'
"These persons became the first settlers of Orangeburg Township, which had been laid out in a parallelogram of fifteen (15) miles by five on the North Edisto River, and was called Orangeburg in honer of the Prince of Orange (Wm Charles Henry FRISCO who had married Anne, dau of George II, in 1734; afterwards known as Wm IV.) Germans of the [Lower] Palatinate settled in the Township, but some portion of the settlers were from Switzerland, from the Cantons of Berne, Zurich, and the Grisons, and were Calvinists we suppose of the Helvetic Confession, and Presbyterian in their views of Church government.. Their minister, John Ulrick GIESSENDANNER (I) , came with them, and the register of marriages, baptisms, and burials, commenced by him in the German language, was continued by his nephew and successor, John GIESSENDANNER (II), down to the year 1760. John Ulirck GIESSENDANNER died in 1738 (only 1 year after arriving to America). His nephew, John, by the request of the congregation, went to Charleston for the purpose of 'obtaining orders' from Rev. Alexander GARDEN, the Bishop of London's Commissary, but was persuaded by Major Christian MOTE, whom he met, that he ought (page 36) not to apply to him, but to other gentlemen to whom he would conduct him, who, if they found him qualified, would give him authority to preach. Major MOTE made him acquainted with the Presbytery of South Carolina, who in 1738, gave him authority to preach the Gospel among his German neighbors. This he continued to do, and thus kept up the Church of their fathers unchanged for a season, though he afterwards went to London and took Episcopal ordination. (Journal of Upper House of Assembly, Vol X, 1743-44.)"

(page 44) "From the records of Rev. GIESSENDANNER we learn that there were also a considerable number of mechanics, as well as planters and farmers, among these colonist and the results of this German colonization were extremely favorable to Orangeburg District, in as much as they remained there as permanent settlers, whilst many of their countrymen in other localities, such as Purrysburg, &c., were compelled to leave their first-selected homes, on account of the want of health and of that great success whinch they had at first expected, but the Orangeburg settlers became a well-established and successful colony.

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