Rev. John Martin Boltzius

Rev. John Martin Boltzius

• Gender: Male
• Birth: December 15, 1703 - Forst, Lower Lusatia, Saxony, Germany
• Death: November 19, 1765 (61) - Saint Matthews Parish, New Ebenezer, Georgia
• Burial: Jerusalem Lutheran Church Cemetery, Rincon, Effingham County, Georgia, USA
• Parents: Martin Boltzius and Eva Rosina Müller
• Spouse: Gertraud Kroher - married 5 Aug 1735 - Saint Matthew's Parish, Georgia, United States

Children:

1. Samuel Leberecht Boltzuis
2. Gotthilf Israel Boltzius
3. Christiana Elizabeth Boltzius
4. Catherine Margaret Bolzius

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Johann Martin Boltzius (December 15, 1703 – November 19, 1765) was a German-born American Lutheran minister. He is most known for his association with the Salzburger emigrants, a group of German-speaking Protestant refugees who migrated to the British colony of Georgia in 1734. They founded the city of Ebenezer, Georgia to escape persecution in the Archbishopric of Salzburg and other Roman Catholic authorities for their religious views.

Biography

Extracted from https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/jo...

Johann Martin Boltzius (sometimes spelled “Bolzius”) was senior minister to the Salzburger community at Ebenezer for three decades (1735-65) and was largely responsible for its success. He was a vigorous opponent of slavery during the formative years of the Georgia colony.

Education and Early Career

Boltzius was born on December 15, 1703, in Forst, Germany, southwest of Berlin. His parents, Eva Rosina Muller and Martin Boltzius, earned a modest living as weavers. Young Boltzius won a theology scholarship to the University of Halle (later Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg) in Halle, Germany. There he studied Lutheran Pietism, which emphasized salvation by grace, strong ethics, vigorous pastoral leadership, and social compassion. Boltzius then briefly served as inspector of the Latin School of the Francke, or Halle, Orphanage Foundation, an institution that provided charitable services and encouraged Protestant education.

Gotthilf August Francke, cofounder and professor of the University of Halle, selected Boltzius to serve as senior minister to the Salzburg Protestant refugees who journeyed to Georgia in the fall of 1733 to escape the repressive policies of Catholic archbishop Count Leopold von Firmian. A younger associate, Israel Christian Gronau, accompanied Boltzius.

To cement relations with their new charges, Boltzius and Gronau married two Salzburg sisters in the Georgia settlement.

Salzburger Community

… Boltzius openly admired James Edward Oglethorpe, who represented the Trustees’ authority in Georgia, and readily accepted his selection of Ebenezer as the Salzburger settlement. But the first few years proved fraught with problems. Residents experienced crop failures. They succumbed to malaria, dysentery, typhoid, and other ailments. Infants rarely survived the first few months. At first Boltzius interpreted the hardships as forms of religious testing, but over time he blamed Oglethorpe for selecting a poor location. In 1736, when Georgia’s leader insisted that the Salzburgers remain at their original settlement for defense purposes, Boltzius confronted Oglethorpe with a harsh but successful ultimatum: either they receive permission to relocate to the Red Bluff on the Savannah River, or they would disband and leave the colony. Oglethorpe allowed the Salzburgers to move to the Red Bluff, where they established New Ebenezer.

Expansion and Slavery

… Boltzius vigorously opposed slavery as a violation of his Christian values, work ethic, economic pragmatism, and enlightened sense of rational reform. The colony’s proslavery group, the Malcontents, angrily accused Boltzius of tyrannically forcing his opinions upon the Salzburgers. They sought to remove him by writing letters of complaints to British and German supporters of the New Ebenezer settlement. The effort proved divisive, and for a time Boltzius feared that the Malcontents might take his life. By the late 1740s Boltzius reluctantly concluded that he must accept slavery or risk losing the Salzburg settlement because of a labor shortage. He compensated by looking upon slavery as a new field in which to spread Christianity. In time, he too enslaved Black laborers. …

Later Career

… As he grew older, Boltzius lost much of his eyesight and continued to suffer from malaria contracted earlier in his Georgia career. When Gronau died in early 1745, Boltzius began to delegate his responsibilities among Lutheran assistants sent by supporters and civil appointees of the Trustee and royal governments. In 1751 he received a 500-acre grant near Goshen, southeast of Ebenezer, which he called Good Harmony, but he never made a serious effort to develop it. He claimed that the Salzburgers required his energy and time more than did a plot of ground. He died at New Ebenezer on November 19, 1765. The community suffered from the absence of his guidance and firm direction.

Source: Ebel, Carol. "Johann Martin Boltzius." New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Sep 29, 2020. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/jo...

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The Rev. John Martin Bolzius / The Rev. Israel Christian Gronau Marker

In this cemetery are buried the Rev. John Martin Bolzius and the Rev. Israel Christian Gronau, ministers who came to Georgia with the first company of Salzburgers. In March 1734, the Rev. Mr. Bolzius was Superintendent of the Latin Orphan House at Halle, on the Seale, and the Rev. Mr. Gronau was a tutor in the same institution, when the Salzburgers arrived in that city on their way to Georgia, in November, 1733. Both these good men gave up their positions at Halle in order to accompany the Salzburgers as their pastors.

Through all the trials and hardships of the early years of the Salzburger settlement in Georgia, these faithful ministers served them as pastors, teachers and friends, and the Colony as well as the community of Ebenezer, owed much to their efforts and instruction.

The Rev. Mr. Gronau died January 11, 1745, and was buried in this Cemetery.

The Rev. Mr. Bolzius died November 19, 1765, at the age of 61 years and 11 months, and was buried in this Cemetery.

Erected 1957 by Georgia Historical Commission. (Marker Number 051-4.)

Source: Rincon in Effingham County, Georgia — The American South (South Atlantic) https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=7631

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References

1. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/M3HJ-GMX
2. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/123129567/john-martin-bolzius the location of his burial spot is not known, as there is no marker.
3. < Historical Marker erected by the Georgia State Historical Commission >
4. Ebel, Carol. "Johann Martin Boltzius." New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Sep 29, 2020. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/jo... cites
   1. Codrina Cozma, “John Martin Bolzius and the Early Christian Opposition to Slavery in Georgia,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 88 (winter 2004): 457-76.
   2. George Fenwick Jones, The Georgia Dutch: From the Rhine and Danube to the Savannah, 1733-1783 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992).
   3. George Fenwick Jones, The Salzburger Saga: Religious Exiles and Other Germans along the Savannah (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984).
   4. George Fenwick Jones, “The Secret Diary of Pastor Johann Martin Boltzius,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 53 (March 1969): 78-110.
   5. Samuel Urlsperger, Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America, 8 vols., ed. George Fenwick Jones (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1968-85).
   6. Renate Wilson, “Public Works and Piety in Ebenezer: The Missing Salzburger Diaries of 1744-1745,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 77 (summer 1993): 336-66.
   7. George Fenwick Jones, ed., Henry Newman’s Salzburger Letterbooks (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1966; resissue, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2021).
   8. P. A. Strobel, Salzburgers and Their Descendants (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1953; reissue, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2021).
   9. -Barlament, James. "Salzburgers." New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Oct 19, 2016. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/sa...
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Martin_Boltzius Cites
   1. Runyon, Shane A.; Robert Scott Davis (March 8, 2005). "Ebenezer". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   2. Trodahl, Joann (October 2014). "The Salzburger Story and Its Legacy In Rincon, Georgia". Kennesaw State University. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   3. "The Expulsion Of The Salzburg Exiles 1731/32". Pfaender. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   4. "Berlin nach Forst (Lausitz) - Google Maps". google.de. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
   5. Ebel, Carol. "Johann Martin Boltzius (1703-1765)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 15 September 2014. Web. 18 February 2015
   6. Herz, Dietmar & Smith, John D.. "'Into Danger but also Closer to God': The Salzburgers' Voyage to Georgia, 1733-1734." The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 80.1 (1996): 1-26. Web.
   7. Jackson, Edwin L. (December 2, 2003). "James Oglethorpe (1696-1785)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   8. Cashin, Edward J. (March 10, 2003). "Trustee Georgia, 1732-1752". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   9. Hammond, Geordan (2009). "Versions of primitive Christianity: John Wesley's relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737". Journal of Moravian History. 6: 31–60. doi:10.2307/41179847. JSTOR 41179847. S2CID 248825006.
   10. "Ebenezer Townsite and Jerusalem Lutheran Church". National Register of Historic Places Collection. December 4, 1974. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   11. Cozma, Codrina (Winter 2004). "John Martin Bolzius and the Early Christian Opposition to Slavery in Georgia". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 88 (4). Retrieved 2 November 2016.
   12. Barlament, James (November 3, 2006). "Salzburgers". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   13. Arnsdorff, Francis Tannie (April 2013). "Ebenezer and the Salzburgers' Separatist Identity in Colonial Georgia". Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History. 3, no. 2. Archived from the original on 2015-10-13. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
   14. "Lutheran Church of the Ascension (Founded, 1741)". Georgia Historical Society. June 16, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
   15. Leffler CT, et al. (2017). "Ophthalmology in North America: Early Stories (1491-1801)". Ophthalmology and Eye Diseases. 9: 1–51. doi:10.1177/1179172117721902. PMC 5533269. PMID 28804247.
   16. Urlsperger, Samuel and George F. Jones (1968) Detailed Reports on the Salzburger Emigrants Who Settled in America (Athens: University of Georgia Press)
6. Boltzius, Johann Martin (1750) Reliable Answer to Some Submitted Questions Concerning the Land Carolina (The William and Mary Quarterly, 14. April 1957, pg. 257–59) http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6591/
7. Jones, George Fenwick (1984) The Salzburger Saga: Religious Exiles and Other Germans along the Savannah (Athens: University of Georgia Press) ISBN 9780820306896
8. < Jerusalem Lutheran Church website >
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer,_Georgia Ebenezer, also known as New Ebenezer, is a ghost town in Effingham County, Georgia, United States, along the banks of Ebenezer Creek. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as Ebenezer Townsite and Jerusalem Lutheran Church in 1974.
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effingham_County,_Georgia#Adjacent_co... Effingham was among the original counties of the state of Georgia, created February 5, 1777 during the American Revolution from the colonial parishes of St. Matthew and St. Phillip.