MICHAEL HENTZ
And
His Affiliation With
The Weberites,
A Religious Sect
at
Saxe Gotha, SC
1761
Copyright 2000.
All Rights Reserved.
On 23 February 1761 Michael Hans (Hentz) met his fate at the hands of Jacob Weber and his followers known as the "Weberites" at the German-Swiss settlement, Saxe Gotha, South Carolina. Seven Weberites were arrested and taken to Charlestown where they were tried for the murder of Michael Hans (Hentz) and Captain John George Smithpeter. At a trial of the General Sessions Court on 31 March 1761 Jacob Weber, Hannah Weber, John Geiger, and Jacob Bourghart were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. On 21 April 1761 officials hanged Jacob Weber at Charlestown. Governor Bull petitioned William Pitt for pardons for the other three. (Sources: South Carolina Gazette, Confession of Jacob Weber, and Governor Bull's Letter.)
To date this researcher has uncovered only two items in the historical record in which the name Michael Hans appears. The first listing for Michael Hans appears on the list of soldiers who served in the Cherokee War Company of Captain Lewis Golson, 1759-1760, under Colonel John Chevilette's regiment. . John Geiger, convicted and later pardoned for the murder of Michael Hans, served as Ensign under Captain Golson. John Kleckley, purchaser of Captain John George Smithpeter's property, also served in this company during this time period. [Source: J. Skottowe Wannamaker, Wannamaker, Salley, MacKay and Bellinger Families; Charleston SC; Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co.; 1937; pp 113-116; original on file at S.C. Historical Commision.] The second time the name, Michael Hans, appears in the historical record is on 21 April 1761 in the South Carolina Gazette's account of the trial of Jacob Weber and his followers at Charlestown as his having been murdered on 23 February 1761 by the Weberites.
In 1765 Reverend Charles Woodmason wrote an account of the murders but did not name the victims. The victim described below may be Michael Hans (Hentz). Woodmason stated: "Lately they took another extraordinary Step. For, after deluding a Rich Planter, wasting his Substance, and perverting his Understanding One of their Teachers pretended to work Miracles, and declared that He had Power equal with Christ and that God had given Him Authority even to raise the Dead--And that to evince his Assertion, He would raise the first Dead Body they should meet with. The bigotted Planter had not such strong Faith, but that he called on Him to realise His Assertions. This Nonplus'd the Villain, and put Him on a Scheme, how to deceive his Votary and bring Himself off. So one of the Fraternity was procur'd, and properly tutored to counterfeit Himself Dead, and to revive on certain Prayers and Breathings being utter'd over Him. Accordingly this abominable Farce was play'd. The fellow lay as Dead--The Pretended Prophet, prays, anoints, exercises, and calls on the seemingly inanimate Wretch to Arise--But whether the fellow kept his Breath so long as to suffer Suffocation, or the Exorcist made his Conjurations too long, Certain it was, That the Wicked Wretch was really gone, and (by playing the Fool too well) was with great difficulty recover'd." (See Woodmason's Account.)
In 1774 Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg recorded in his journal the following: "Finally, the three leaders fell to quarreling among themselves, that is Jacob Waber and Schmidt Peter fell out with the third man. They decided that he was not properly exerising the office of the Spirit, that he was neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. The band assembled and dug a pit in the forest. They then placed a mattress on the bottom of the bit, threw the man upon it, filled up the pit with more mattresses and trampled upon them until the man was suffocated and dead. Soon afterwards Waber [Weber] quarreled with so-called Schmidt Peter. He declared him to be the dragon (Satan) and had him chained to a tree. The members of the band surrounded him, struck him with their fists, and beat him until he fell to the ground, and finally they danced around him and trampled upon his throat until he had enough (until he was dead.) (See Rev. Muhlenberg's Account.) Neither Muhlenberg, Rev. Christian Theus, or Rev. John Nicholas Martin named Michael Hentz (Hans) in their accounts.
John A. Chapman recorded an account of witchcraft relative to the death of Michael Hentz (Hans) in The Annals of Newberry inTwo Parts in 1974 on pages 644-645, He stated that the father of Matthias Hentz, who lived in 1760 near the mouth of Cannon's Creek on Broad River, "was accused of witchcraft and suffered the penality of death at the hands of fanaticial neighbors by being smothered between feather beds." He states: "It is probably that the father of Matthias Hentz was the man who was murdered by the fanatic Weaver [Jacob Weber] and his followers on the Saluda. The story is told by Hazelius, and also by Bernhein in his history of the Lutheran Church. Weaver [Jacob Weber] was arrested, taken to Charleston, tried, convicted of murder, and was hanged.
On 20 December 1753 a Michael Hatz (Hentz) filed a Petition for land. The South Carolina Council Journal recorded on pages 17-18 on Tuesday, 1 January 1754 the following: "The Petition of Michael Hatz humbling setting forth That about 4 years ago your Petitioner came in a ship Consigned to Col'l Beal on the Encouragement given to foreign Protestants and was bound to Mr. William Backshel for four years but part of which time he did serve George Beringer Esq'r, Mr. Backshel having made over his time to him, and he is now discharged by the said Berringer as by the annexed indentures appears and having a wife and two Children viz William Michael 3 1/2 years old and Jacob 1 year and 1/4 old for whom not any Land has been assigned, prays to lay out 200 acres of vacant land near the Congress [sic, Congarees], free of Charges and that he may have his majestys Bounty of Provision. Charles Town, the 20th of Decem'r 1753. Michael Halz [sic]. The prayer thereof was granted."
The following day, 2 January 1754, a petition of Jacob Weber was granted by the South Carolina Council also for 100 acres of land on the Congree [sic, Congaree] River or the waters thereof. He stated that he had two children for whom he had never had any grant of land.
The above grants of land to Michael Hentz and Jacob Weber could serve as evidence that Michael Hentz and Jacob Weber probably knew one another, that both lived at the Congarees (Saxe Gotha), and that Michael Hentz and Michael Hans are one and the same man.
John A. Chapman, The Annals of Newberry in Two Parts, stated: "After the murder of her husband the widow [of Michael Hentz] left the Saluda and removed to near the mouth of Cannon's Creek on Broad River, where she became the mother of Matthias Hentz. This is related as a probability only. Mathias married and became the father of two sons: David and Michael. Michael moved to Georgia where he left numerous descendants, among them John, the husband of Caroline Lee Hentz, the celebrated authoress. John is the only one of the named, who ever sought or obtained public office. He served as County Sheriff and a member of the Legislature."
[Lee Gandee stated in a footnote of his book, Strange Experience, that Chapman reported in The History of Newberry County, SC. that "when Jakob Hentz's wife learned of her husband's fate, she took refuge with her own family on Little River, and in due time bore a son, from whom the excellent Hentz family of Newberry County all descend.)" Historical records name the victim of the Weberites as Michael, not Jacob, Hans.
"David Hentz left two sons, William R. and H. M., and three daughters, Mrs. John Adam Folk, of Pomaria; Mrs. Wm. Reid, of Cannon's Creek; and Mrs. George Sondley, of Bull Street. H.M. Hentz died in 1852, leaving an infant son, Wm. J. [Hentz] Wm. R. Hentz died in 1877, leaving four sons, D. J.; T. M.; Wm. A., and Dr. E. O.; and one daughter, Mrs. P. M. Derrick." He states that the male descendants of David Hentz lived on lands he had owned and within five miles, except for one great-grandson who lived in Texas. Chapman added: "I take pleasure in adding that so far as is known no Hentz has ever been arraigned before a court or sued on a debt."
In The Dutch Fork, A Catalog of Early Land Records, a land record contained a notation regarding David Hentz. The deed was filed in the Newberry County Deek Book K on page 25, that on 13 December 1752 Ulrick Sleigh obtained 300 acres of land on Cattail Branch of Cannon's Creek. He stated that he came to South Carolina on the ship Cunliff, with his wife and four children: Eva Catherin Sleigh (age 18), Creda Sleigh (age 15), John Jacob Sleigh (age 5), and Margaretta Sleigh (age 3). Jacob Sligh inherited the land at the death of Ulrick Sleigh. At Jacob Sligh's death the land was divided among his widow Christiana Sligh (as her one-third dower right), Adam Leitzey, and David Hentz. It is not known what relationship existed between David Hentz and Jacob Sligh.
The 1790 United States Census records that Mathias Hentz resided at Dutch Fork in Lexington County (1 - 2 -2 )The 1790 Census for Orangeburgh District records the name Mathais Henns with one white male 16 years or older, 2 free while males under 16 years, and 2 free white females, including heads of families, and no slaves or other free persons in the household. These are probably one and the same Matthias Hentz. If in fact Michael Hentz, father of Mathias Hentz, is the same man as Michael Hans, then what became of his children, William Michael and Jacob?
A name appears among the founders of the Appii Forum church at Cedar Creek that could either be interpreted as Jacob Nertz or Jacob Hentz. Many of the Weberites removed from Saxe Gotha's Dutch Fork to Cedar Creek around 1761 after the murder of Michael Hans and John George Smithpeter. (See Appii Forum.)
By far the most fictionalized account of the unfortunate death of Michael Hentz (Hans) by the Weberites was written by Lee Gandee in his book, Strange Experience, Autobiography of a Hexenmeister, on page 297 of the chapter entitled "The New-Found Eden, Carolina." Gandee wrote: "Among the settlers, as it happened, was a young man named Jakob Hentz or Heinz, known for his staunch Lutheranism and his godly life. His wife was pregnant with her first child, and they lived at a considerable distance from Saxe-Gotha, west of Little Mountain. He had gone to the Trading Post on the day of the fire, and was riding home past the mountain when he saw the fire and heard the drums and commotion. He decided to go spy on the ceremony to learn if it were as abominable as he had been told, but when he came near, he was discovered and hauled into the firelight. Had he been one of the 'Brethren,' certainly Cudjo would not have allowed him to be harmed. But Hentz was known as an avowed enemy of the white God and his people, and Cudjo was afrad that the Voodoo ritual would be reported. So instead of sacrificing a white goat, he called for the blood-basin and cut Hentz's throat. Then he sprinkled the worshippers, poured out the remaining blood as an oblation, and had the body cut in pieces and carried in a procession to be thrown into the flames as a burnt offering to the new God. The Voodoos were delighted with the sacrifice for not even to Damgallah or Aida Wedo had they ever been given a human being to sacrifice, and human blood is much more powerful than that of a goat in working magic."
James Everett Kibler, Jr. in A Dutch Fork Calendar, pages 106-108, discussed the Weberite heresy and murders with much the same tone as Lee Gandee. Kibler wrote: "Eventually, a man named Michael Hentz came upon a band of Dauber's followers practicing animal sacrifice in the forest. Some historians think the service may have been a combination of voodoo ritual and the celebration of the Winter Solstice, marked in Germany by bonfires on mountaintops. At any rate, the 'spy' Hentz was captured and became a part of the voodoo ceremony as a human sacrifice. Hentz's body was dismembered and thrown into the ceremonial fire. Waber [sic] was frighted that he would be blamed for the murder, so declared Dauber to be Satan, had his followers dig a hole in the forest and smother and trample him under mattresses. His body was then thrown in a fire. Meanwhile Waber [sic] and Schmidtpeter were quarreling. The result was that Waber [sic] had Schmidtpeter chained to a tree and the members of his congregation surrounded, beat, and trampled upon his throat until he was dead. This event occurred in February 1761." To date this researcher has not found any historical documentation for the above practices. History suggests at Hentz was smothered between two featherbeds and that Smithpeter was beaten to death by the Weberites.
No historical documentation supports that anyone named Cudjo was involved in the Weberite heresy and murders or that Dauber was named as Satan nor that Dauber was actually murdered. The South Carolina Gazette named only Michael Hans and John George Smithpeter as victims of the zealot group. Likewise Dauber was not named as Satan. Muhlenberg recorded that the title " Old Serpent" or Satan fell unfortunately upon John George Smithpeter. No factual documentation has been found to support the story of voodoo practices or human sacrifices. This researcher has found no historical documentation to support Lee Gandee's and Kibler's fictional accounts of the Weberite heresy. Rumors of witchcraft do not witchcraft make, as we have learned from research into the Salem Witch Trials of colonial Massachusetts.
Contrary to Gandee and Kibler, Chapman argued against the practice of witchcraft by the Weberites in his account of the Hentz family as follows: "If this be true, and even this is doubtful, it is the only case of the kind where the penalty of death for witchcraft was ever inflicted in South Carolina, by authority of law or without it; --while in enlightened New England in the Province of Massachussetts, between the years 1645 and 1695 many persons were put to death after due process of trial at law. In 1640 four persons were put to death in Massachusetts, in 1688, one woman was executed for witchcraft in Boston. 'Then,' says the historian 'commenced at Salem that dreadful tragedy which rendered New England for many months a scene of bloodshed, terror, and madness and at one time seemed to threaten the subversion of civil society. In the year 1692 the frenzy of the colonists reached the highest pitch of extravagance. Suspicions and accusations of witchcraft became general among them, and on this fanciful charge many were put to death.' (One historian says as many as twenty.)' Persons accused of the imaginary crime of witchcraft were imprisoned, condemned, hanged, and their bodies left exposed to wild beasts and birds of prey. . . Children ten years of age were put to death; young women were stripped naked, and the marks of witchcraft sought for on their bodies with unblushing curiosity. . . The prisons were filled, the gibbets left standing, and the citizens were appalled. Under this frightful delerium the miserable colonists seemed doomed to destruction by each other's hands. The more prudent withdrew from a country polluted by the blood of its inhabitants, and the ruin of the colony is inevitable.' The reader will please bear in mind that none of these victims were burned at the stake, they were only hanged. The New Englanders are very touchy on that point."
To date no proof has been discovered that establishes that Jacob Weber and his followers practiced witchcraft or voodoo or that the celebrated any ancient traditions of observing the solstices.
