The family of immigrant Jacob Gallman lived in Mettmenstetten, canton Zürich, Switzerland. In 1734, they joined a large emigration-party led by de-frocked pastor Moritz Göttschi, with the intent of settling in Carolina. Despite the disapproval of local authorities, and highly-negative press coverage, the group left Zürich on 4 October 1734; they soon discovered that Göttschi had not arranged for the boats to carry them down the Rhine from Basel. A group of 31, including the Gallman family, left the main group to go overland across France and make their own arrangements for getting to Carolina. The group that remained with Göttschi suffered further delays and unexpected expenses, finally arrived at Philadelphia—not Charleston—on 28 May 1735. Pastor Göttschi died on the day of arrival.1
The breakaway group reached their intended destination of Carolina. They sailed from London on the ship William, Capt. William Vitery, and arrived in Charlestown on 7 February 1735, per Jacob Gallman’s letter of 1738 describing the trip.2 Like most Swiss, he used the new Gregorian calendar. The equivalent English date, under the old Julian calendar, was 27 January 1734. The journal of the Upper House of Assembly of the Province of Carolina records a resolution on 6 February 1734/5 to pay the passage of those new arrivals who could not afford the fare, and had not traveled as indentured servants. On the next day, the journal listed the 19 Swissers whose fares were to be covered, including 10 members of the Gallman party. The shipfare paid was £780, 10 shillings SC money, equivalent to five Guineas (£5, 5 shillings Sterling) per passenger. The immigrants were sent to settle the newly-opened interior country at Saxegotha (modern Lexington County, SC), location of an Indian trading-post and a small fort.
Some individual traders had established residence in the back-country before 1735, but this group of Swiss families was the first official colony of settlers in Orangeburgh District. A plat of 350 acres was surveyed for widower Jacob Colerman [sic], and six dependents on 2 February 1735/6, granted on 17 September 1736. Eldest son Hans Heinrich had a separate 50-acre tract surveyed on 7 February 1735/6 for “John Coleman”, granted on 16 September 1738.3
Jakob Gallmann was christened on 23 August 1674 in Mettmenstetten, Zürich. He was the son of schoolmaster Hans Gallmann (1631-1725) and Elsbetha Dubbs (1648-1709). On 28 October 1696, he married Verena Staheli (Stähli) in Mettmenstetten, where all their children were born. He died in Saxegotha SC on 20 October 1738.4
Children:
I. Rudolf, bp. 24 August 1697, died in infancy.
II. Rudolf, bp. 28 October 1698. He was a soldier in France when the family emigrated. He visited Saxegotha in 1769 to claim his father’s inheritance as eldest son. He arrived in Philadelphia on 11 September 1749 on the ship Priscilla.
III. Veronika, bp. 21 Apr 1700, died of a fever on September 1735 in Saxegotha. She married Heinrich Buchmann of Dachelsen, Mettmenstetten, Zürich, who also died September 1735.
IV. Anna, bp. 22 Apr 1701, married 13 December 1729 to Hans Konrad Iringer of parish Uetikon; remained in Switzerland.
V. Hans, bp. 11 February 1703, died 11 April 1706.
VI. Anna [a second Anna], bp. 31 August 1704, married XXX Gallmann; remained in Switzerland.
VII. Hans Heinrich [called Heiri/Harry], bp. 7 March 1706, married an immigrant from the Rheintal in 1737, sister to his brother Heinrich’s wife. The sisters were necessarily daughters of Hans Jacob Geiger, because all of the Rheintaler immigrants of 1737 arrived in a single party, and their identities are known from correspondence about the voyage of the Prince of Wales and from 1737 land records. Hans Jacob Geiger was the only person with three daughters of marriageable age who cannot be proven to have married other people. In addition, the Gallmans and Geigers lived next door to one another, witnessed each other’s deeds and wills…and even loaned one another money. Candidates for the wife (assuming he married the oldest one) are Anna Cathrina (christened 17 November 1711) and Maria Barbara (christened 25 February 1715).6 On 12 & 13 March 1749/50, he gave 100 acres of the 200 then remaining of the Jacob Gallman estate to his youngest brother John “in obedience to his father's dying commands” [SC Deed Book N-3, p. 455]. He died before 16 January 1755, when Jacob Buchmann/Bookman (of Dachelsen, parish Mettmenstetten, and recent SC settler near Saxegotha) wrote home that he lived two hours from Heini and Hans Gallmann...but not Heiri.
VIII. Maria, bp. 20 May 1708, died 28 December 1715.
IX. Heinrich [called Heini/Henry], bp. 24 November 1709, d. 1767-8 in Saxegotha (will signed 25 December 1765, proved 19 February 1768). He married a Rheintaler immigrant in 1737—a daughter of Hans Jacob Geiger (either Maria Barbara, christened 25 February 1715, or Wybehrt, christened 25 September 1718). He had a total of 7 living children by November 1749, when he petitioned for a land grant based on his family-right.7 The youngest child, Gasper [Caspar], was born in 1749, per his Revolutionary War records. Henry Gallman had 6 living children at the time of his 1765 will. After the death of his first wife, he married Elizabeth Geiger, bp. 9 March 1740 in Saxegotha (suggesting a date of ~1755-60 for the second marriage), daughter of his late brother-in-law Herman Geiger and Elizabeth Habluzel. Elizabeth had no Gallman children; she married John Adam Horlbeck in Charleston on 25 February 1769. Her children, listed in her psalter, were John and Henry Horlbeck. She died on 5 November 1802, and was buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Church cemetery.
Henry Gallman was a militia lieutenant during the Cherokee War under Col. Chevillette, and commanded the company assigned to guard the military storehouse at the Congrees [Saxegotha town] in 1759-60.8 His second son Henry Jr. served in the same company. His oldest son John served under Capt. John Morrison’s Company of the Chevillette Battalion. Henry fortified his residence on the Congaree River, near the mouth of Congaree Creek, as Gallman’s Fort in order to provide shelter for local residents during Indian attacks. He was deputized to collect and ship food and military supplies—including swivel-guns—to the forces stationed to the west at Fort Prince George. He also certified claims for reimbursement of goods requisitioned from local residents as military supplies. The records of the Commons House of Assembly during the war years show that several of his expense claims were questioned—and, in fact, that they certainly should have been!9 His two youngest sons, John Conrad and Gasper, fought at the Battle of Stono on 20 June 1779 in Capt. John Ryan’s (Edgefield) Company under Gen. Williamson. Henry Gallman’s military ranks are uncertain. The 1769 wedding announcement of his widow stated that she was the “relict of Maj. Henry Gallman, deceased”. A 1771 land transaction between sons John and John Conrad states that their property was inherited from “Capt. Henry Gallman, deceased.”
Children:
A. John, wife unknown, d. in 1780-82 (killed for Loyalist sympathies); one son Randolph mentioned in brother Henry’s will.
B. Henry, married Esther, no children; will signed 2 December 1776, no probate date.
C. Herman moved to Noble’s/Horn’s Creek in Edgefield District by 1770, where he acquired large properties. He married Lucretia, widow of neighbor Allen Addison, in ~1773. They had no children.
D. John Conrad, married Susannah [probably a Sellars/Sellers, because grandchildren were named Thomas Sellers Gallman or Susannah Sellers Gallman, and neighbor at Horn’s Creek, Edgefield, was Thomas Sellars from Chatham Co NC]. He died 1 March 1829 in Henry Co GA. Children (per will) were Martha (1775, m. James Brown), John, Silas, Dinah (1791, m. Jesse Stanley), Jesse (1793), Haney (1795), and James (1799).
E. Gasper, b. 1749, married Jemima Sellars/Sellers in Edgefield Co SC, d. 19 Aug 1819 in Edgefield. Children (per estate papers) were Elizabeth (1776, m. David Donaldson), Benjamin (1780), Mary (1785, m. Robert Kenny), Harmon (1789), Daniel, Martha (m. John Mosely), Sarah/Sally (b. 1796, m. John Grice), and Susan (1797, m. Edmond McDaniel).
F. Elizabeth, married Gasper Foust/Faust bet. 1765 and 1776, lived in Richland Co SC.
X. Elisabeth, bp. 3 April 1711, married Jacob Spühel from the Thurgau, Switzerland. The Spuhel family had three living children as of Nov 1744. The last date at which Jacob Spuhel is known to be living is March 1752, when Henry Gallman presented a petition for reimbursement on behalf of Jacob Spell, “near 70 years of age”. Surviving children, if any, are not documented. In 1770, a lawsuit was filed against Jacob Spaul and Harman Gallman (3rd son of Henry Gallman), among other defendants. A Jacob Spiel submitted a Revolutionary War claim for supplies (£7.14) to the militia in Orangeburgh District.
XI. Anna Barbara [called Annababeli by her father], bp. 15 January 1713, married “an Irishman” in Saxegotha shortly after her arrival. Her husband, James Hopkins, purchased 150 acres of the Jacob Gallman grant on 14 & 15 November 1737 [SC Deed Book V-V, p. 674]. Their son, James Hopkins Jr., did not survive to maturity. James Hopkins died in early 1738, and Anna Barbara married John Henry Frymouth. John Freymouth was named an executor on the 1758 will of his brother-in-law John Gallman. “John Fremouth and Hannah his wife” were defendants in a lawsuit filed at the Charles Town court of Common Pleas, August term 1769. His 100-acre property was sold for debt. On 16 & 17 January 1769, “John Henry Freymuth, planter of Saxegotha Township, & Hannah (her mark) his wife” sold a different piece of property [SC Deed Book Q-3, pp. 311-316]. The two documents show an extremely-unusual choice by a German-speaking couple to adopt English name-usages during the 18th century. A couple christened Hans Heinrich and Anna Barbara rarely used the first name (saint's-name) at all, were normally called “Henry and Barbara”. It is a mystery why/how they became “John and Hannah”, but this was clearly the same couple, given ownership of the same lands.
XII. Hanss/John, bp. 1 March 1716, will signed 22 April 1758 in Saxegotha (no probate date, taxes on estate paid in 1761), married (1) a sister of Herman Geiger. This may have been the youngest daughter of Hans Jacob Geiger, Margretha (christened 26 April 1724), but her name was not recorded. The 1751 will of Herman Geiger (oldest son of Hans Jacob Geiger) identified his executor John Gallman as his brother-in-law. He married (2) the widow of Herman Geiger, Elizabeth Hablüzel. She is identified as his wife by a deed recorded in Book S-5, pp. 23-26, property sale on 24 & 25 August 1752. He married (3) Margaret ___, named as the wife on his 1758 will. Widow Margretha Gallman married Jacob Faust, son of Henry Faust. John Gallman was working as a tanner in 1738, and was the only child of Jacob Gallman who had not married by the time of his letter to Switzerland. By January 1747/8, John had 4 children, per his petition for land (indexed under “John Gowman”, but identifiable as John Gallman per acreage, length-of-residence in province, and same location/neighbors as the land described in his will). In April 1758, John had two living sons and an unspecified number of daughters. His residence on 100 acres of his father’s land-grant, SW of the Congaree River, was left to oldest son John. The 300 acres across the Congaree was left to second-son Jacob, but to be shared with the child Margaret was expecting in 1758 “Should the child be a boy”. The child was a boy (Henry), and he received his share of the estate.
Children:
A. John, died childless before 1771 (brother Jacob inherited the property).
B. John Jacob, on 1778-79 Jury List for Saxegotha; 1790 census lists 2 free white males aged 16+, 1 male <16, 4 females, 1 slave; on Lexington census in 1800.
C. Unnamed daughters.
D. Henry, b. 1758; Camden District will signed 14 August 1780, proved 5 May 1783; estate to mother Margaret and the Faust half-siblings.
References:
1 Hinke, William John. A History of the Goshenhoppen Reformed Charge, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (1727-1818). Part XXIX of a Narrative and Critical History Prepared at the Request of the Pennsylvania-German Society. Lancaster PA: 1920. Chapter III, pp. 96-111. See http://pages.prodigy.net/reed_wurts/ships/gvcustom.htm.
2 Schelbert, Leo. America Experienced: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Accounts of Swiss Immigrants to the United States. Camden ME: Picton Press, 1996 (Paperback reprint, 2004). Pp. 58-9, 64-70.
3 The most convenient source for verifying dates of plats and grants is through the search engine of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, at www.archivesindex.sc.gov.
4 Records from Mettmenstetten parish courtesy of Herr Hans Ulrich Pfister, Staatsarchiv Zürich.
5 At a time of no vital records, few surviving parish books, and rare mentions of female names on legal transactions, it is usually not feasible to locate primary-source documentation of early marriages. A surviving spouse named on a will is often not the first wife, or the mother of all—or any—of the children. In those cases, the advice of Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four becomes relevant: “Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.”
6 Parish records from Diepoldsau, Au (currently in Unterreinthal district of St. Gall canton) collected by Anne Connell.
7 The text of petitions is available from records of the Council Journals at SCDAH. A more usable source is Holcomb, Brent H. Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals, Volumes I-VII (1734/5-1774). Columbia SC: SCMAR: 1996-1999.
8 Clark, Murtie June. Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774. Baltimore MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.: 1986. Pp. 914 and 909.
9 Lipscomb, Terry W (Ed.). The Colonial Records of South Carolina. The Journal of the Commons House of Assembly. Columbia: SCDAH. Example for 26 Jan 1758: “Four certificates of Henry Gallman Amounting to £2190:3:6 for Supplies to Fort Loudoun & Fort Prince George, Certified by John Chevillette, to be allowed. Which your Committee Can’t help Observing is a vast Sum for Flour & Bacon.”
Please forward all questions, corrections, and additions
for this Gallman Bio to the Corresponding Editor: Harriet Imrey
E-Mail: himrey@ntelos.net
