In April 1791, President George Washington set out to visit all the Southern states — Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. According to history books, he had no guards and was accompanied only by his valet and carriage drivers. The actual road George Washington traveled in 1791 has long since faded away.
On Thursday, May 12, 1791, he was at Purrysburg, S.C. (now a non-existent town near Hardeeville). Officials of Savannah met Washington at Purrysburg, escorted him to an eight-oared barge, and rowed him down the Savannah River for 25 miles to his next destination, the city of Savannah.
He arrived in Savannah on May 12, 1791, and stayed in Savannah for four days. A grand celebration went on for several days in his honor. He stayed in an inn at the corner of State and Barnard streets and was the center of attention at numerous parties. One dinner concluded with 15 toasts. Another dinner was held outdoors on the back of the Savannah River, was attended by some 200 people and according to Washington’s diary had “a good display of fireworks.”
Gen. Lachlan McIntosh accompanied the president to the site of the 1779 Siege of Savannah. This site today is where the old Roundhouse is located off Martin Luther King Boulevard in Savannah.
On May 14, 1791, a formal ceremony was held at the Grand Lodge in Savannah in his honor. On this day the grand master of the lodge presented President Washington the address of the German congregation of Ebenezer — which is unique in that it is written in Latin. It follows below:
To the President of the United States of America:
Permittas, quaeso, Illustrissime Washington! ut devoti piique animi sensa TIBI declarem, cui contigerit insignis illa felicitas, TE Savannae adeundi, virum, tot tanttisque factis illustrem. Profecto admiratus sum TUAM humanitatem et indulgentiam, qua me homineem ignotum excepisti, qui non ausus essem as TE accedere nisi ab amico optimo certior factus essem, tristem abs TE discedere neminem. Georgia laetatur de TE et Splendidissima praesentia, qua aem exhibarare dignatus es. Diu vivas o Wasington! deliciae americani populi, tuumque nomen, et facta illustra vera posteritas celebrabit. Semper precabor Deum Optimum Maximum, qui TE praesidem harum civitatum constituit, ut omnibus rebus conatibusque Tuis propitius adsit. Accipe hane tenuiorem epistolam, nullo ornatu commendabilem, eadem scripturus eram si faculatate pollerem eleganter scribendi, et ut dignum esse posset insignibus virtutibus et illustrissimis Factis TUIS. Peregrimes, in hanc provinciam missus sum benignissimam doctrinam Redemtoris, quos inprimis quia curae meae condridit sunt, cum omni gente germanica Georgiae Americanae Tuo potentissimo patrocinio magnopere comendo. Ego vero nunquam desinam ardentissimas preces mittere ad Deum benignissimum, pro totius populi Americani salute.
John Earnst Bergman,
Minister of the German Congregation of Ebenezer
Savannah d. 14. May 1791
(Translated)
To the President of the United States of America:
You may allow, I beseech, Most Illustrious Mr. Washington, that I declare feeling of a devoted and dutiful spirit to you, whom that distinguished joy has touched, your coming to Savannah, you, a man, famous because of so many great deeds. I have really admired your humanity and kindness, by which you have made notice of me, a man so unknown, who had not dared to approach you unless I had become more certain by any excellent friend, that no departs from you sad. Georgia is delighted by you and your most splendid presence, by which you have deemed us worthy to exhibit. May you live for a long time, oh Washington! And your name, a delight of the American people, posterity will celebrate your true famous deeds. I always will pray that God Almighty, who established you the president of these states, that he may rather favorably be present for all your affairs and trails. Accept this rather thin unworthy letter. I would write the same thing if I were capable of writing with a more elegant ability, as it would be worthy of your famous virtue and very well-known deeds. I was sent as a foreigner into this province, a very kind doctrine of Redemption, which is the first cause of my care, with every German race of American Georgia I greatly trust in your very powerful patronage. I truly never shall cease to send most ardent prayers to a very kind God, for the safety of the American people.
John Earnst Bergman,
Minister of the German Congregation of Ebenezer
Savannah d. 14. May 1791
From Savannah, Washington traveled a short distance upriver to Mulberry Grove, home of Caty Greene, the widow of General Nathaniel Greene. Gen. Greene had been a Revolutionary War general and was given this plantation for his war service. Washington’s diary records “called upon Mrs. Green (sic), the widow of the deceased Genl. Green and asked how she did (was doing)”.
Washington’s diary records “leave (left) Chatham County on the ‘open road’ (which was the old Augusta Road) and traveled fifteen miles. Lodged at “one Spencers” (this was a tavern and inn near today’s Abercorn Landing. It is believed it was owned by George Ducker, who settled in Georgia in 1758. His tavern was roughly one mile north of the Effingham/Chatham County line).
From his diary: “Monday May 16, breakfasted at Russels – 15 miles from Spencer’s, dined at Garnets 19 miles further and lodged at Pierces 8 miles more in all — 42 miles today.” With all the toasts drunk in the grand celebrations in Savannah, President Washington may have not felt like writing down the events in Effingham County as he had in Savannah. He passed through the town of Ebenezer on the old Augusta Road, but never wrote one word about it. He traveled through Waynesboro and up to Augusta. Several days later the president crossed the Savannah River and headed back to Philadelphia, then the nation’s capital. One of his statements recorded in his diary was: “The road from Savanna (Savannah) is, for the most part, through pine Barrens, but more uneven than I had been accustomed to since leaving.” I am sure he saw many miles of low country and swamps on his journey through Effingham County.
I would like to thank Benny Ferguson of Stillwell who found two teachers who are employed in the Chatham County School System to translate Rev. Bergman’s Latin letter to the president. The two teachers who translated it were: Jim Westcot, world language teacher at Beach High School, and assisted by Virginia Zevli, Savannah/Chatham R.D.E. World Language Specialist. I thank them for their help.
This article was written by Norman V. Turner of Historic Effingham Society.
If you have comments, photos or information to share please contact Susan Exley, who compiles this column, at 754-6681 or email: susanexley@historiceffinghamsociety.org.
