George Peter (Utz) Ouzts, I

George Peter Ouzts is the only son of Anna Catharina (Eva) GILBERT and Johann Dietrich Utz (now Ouzts) of Hoffenheim Germany.

George Peter Utz, age 8, and Elizabetha Catharina Jacobina (Maria) Utsin, age 4, landed at Charles Town (now Charleston), SC on Oct 15, 1766 aboard the ship Belfast Packet from Belfast, England. Their mother died enroute to America and was buried at sea. Dietrich had arrived at Charles Town in the ship Britannia from Rotterdam, Holland, on Oct 5, 1766.

Dietrich married Dorothea SAMBLIN, also an emigrant on the same ship, on November 25, 1766 in St. John's Lutheran Church, Charleston, SC. They had five children in Charleston, Newberry and Edgefield Districts.

George Peter Ouzts married Elizabeth HARLING, also born in Germany, in 1787 in Edgefield District, SC. They had fifteen children: John Calvin, David, Henry, Margaret (died young), Jacob I (died young), Elizabeth, Martin Luther, George, Peter II, Jacob II, twins Abram and Aaron, Isaac, James Daniel, and Benjamin. The thirteen children who survived to adulthood are the Patriarchs and Matriarch of the thirteen Ouzts Family Lines.

Family history is that Peter Ouzts served his new country in the American Revolution and carried a British shot to his grave. His name however, does not appear on the muster rolls of any unit. He has been given a Daughters of the American Revolution No. 506826.

At the time of his death in 1829, Peter had amassed 1,251 acres (2 sections or square miles) of land and 11 Negro slaves(5 male - Classa, April, Charles, William and John, and 6 female, Tessey, Milly, Susan, Caroline, Beckey, the sixth name unknown). The value of his estate was assessed at $8,991.18.

At the death of Peter's wife, Elizabeth in 1847, as directed by Peter, the sums of $50 each were paid to Little Stevens Creek Baptist Church and to Sleepy Creek Methodist Church (now McKendree Methodist Church) to dig water wells.

H. C. Ouzts, OFA