Artist/Maker

Seutter, Mattheus __Publisher ||Lotter, T. C. __Engraver

Place Made

Date Made

1747

Medium

ink on paper

Dimensions

HOA: 24″; WOA: 20 1/4″ (sight)

Accession Number

2867

Description

This rare map features two separate plates on the same sheet: a town plan of the important Georgia settlement New Ebenezer, as well as a map of the Georgia coast and a representation of New Ebenezer’s water mill. Both plates originally appeared in Samuel Urlsperger’s third volume of Aussfuhrliche Nachtricht von den Saltzburgischen Emigranten, first published in 1747. The comparison of the Ebenezer plan with that of Savannah is close. The Reverend John Martin Bolzius and Reverend Israel Christian Gronau were probably influenced by the plan of Savannah in laying out New Ebenezer.

New Ebenezer was the second settlement by the Salzburgers in Georgia, an improvement over the “Old Ebenezer” first settled in 1734, 21 miles above Savannah. New Ebenezer was established in 1736 on a high ridge called “Red Bluff”. The settlement reached the height of its importance about 1744, and was noted for its silk culture. The town suffered during the Revolutionary War and began a steady decline early in the nineteenth century. Jerusalem Lutheran Church was founded in 1733 and the current church building was completed in 1769 in New Ebenezer. This church building survives and is still in use by the congregation, but there is no other remnant of the town that once stood at the now heavily wooded site.

DESCRIPTION: Map printed in ink on paper. Georgia Coast with inset of St. Simon’s and Jekyll Islands, English and German titles. Two other drawings on paper show plantation arrangement. Indian tribes, rivers, and islands are marked on the map.

REFERENCES: Cumming, Southeast in Early Maps #264-65
Deák, Picturing America 1497-1899… #95

History

The plates that make up this map appeared in Samuel Urlsperger’s third volume of “Aussfuhrliche Nachtricht von den Saltzburgischen Emigranten”, first published in Augsburg in 1747.

Credit Line

William B. Taliaferro Purchase Fund