[1] South Carolina Department of Archives and History (8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, South Carolina), Colonial Land Plats, volume 16, page 557, item 2; found in microfilm drawer 89, reel ST0049 (LDS 22608) (no frame numbers).

[2] The arrival of the Swiss immigrants is reported in the South Carolina Gazette, issue 77, dated 12-19 July 1735. See a transcription of the article here. A full collection of the Gazette on microfilm can be found at the Charleston Public Library, Charleston, South Carolina.

[3] Lothar Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Register”, pages 60-61, death entry 41, and page 63, death entry 72. Dr. Tresp’s version of the Giessendanner register appears in The Carolina Genealogist, Mary Bondurant Warren, editor, in six installments from 1971 to 1975.

[4] Alexander S. Salley, Jr., History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Revolutionary War (Orangeburg, S. C.: R. Lewis Berry, 1898; reprinted by the Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, in 1978). The Giessendanner parish registers are on pages 95-212.

[5] Letter from Swiss genealogist John Hüppi to J. Wayne Hilton, 25 August 1994.

[6] See, for example, A. S. Salley, Jr., History of Orangeburg County, page 30; Peggy Ann Easterling Miller, The Ott Family of Orangeburg District (Orangeburg, S. C.: self-published, 1986), pages 4-7; Effie Norwood Jones, Norwood-Ott and Allied Families (Dallas: self-published, 1954), the first three (unnumbered) pages of her Ott section.

[7] South Carolina Council Journal, volume 1745-1746, pages 144-146 (entry dated 31 July 1746). Click here for a transcription of the entry. Microfilms of the Council Journal may be found at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, in drawers 97 and 98, reels ST0698 through ST0719. This particular volume is found in the second section of reel ST0706.

[8] A. B. Faust and G. M. Brumbaugh, Lists of Swiss Emigrants in the Eighteenth Century to the American Colonies (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1920), volume II, page 27. See also Julian Kelly’s unpublished manuscript “Ott of Orangeburg, South Carolina: The Early Generations” (1994), pages 2 and 10-11.

[9] The 1752 land grant itself has never been found, but a reference to it appears in a lease dated 9 May 1776, in which Melchior of Guttannen’s son “Gasper” (Caspar) leases the full 350 acres of land to David Rumph. See a transcription of the lease here, as given by Orangeburgh genealogist Anne Dodenhoff to J. Wayne Hilton in a letter dated 10 May 1994.

[10] J. Wayne Hilton found a reference in the Oberhasli Amtsrechnung (official accounts of the Oberhasli district) to a fee paid on 15 May 1737 by a “Melchior Ott living in Guttannen”. This is on page 5 of the volume that covers the years 1722 to 1752, which Hilton consulted at the Staatsarchiv in Bern, Switzerland (private communication, 17 October 1996).

[11] J. Wayne Hilton has generously shared the results of his and John Hüppi’s research in a personal communcation dated 17 October 1996. Many of the following references come from Hüppi’s transcription of Ott family records from the two sets of Meiringen parish registers.

[12] On 13 March 1786, Jacob Ott sold to Thomas Clark the same land that was granted to Melchior Ott (of Meiringen) in 1735. See the transcription of the 1786 deed of sale here, as provided by Peggy Ann Easterling Miller.

[13] This brief history of Oberhasli I owe to John Hüppi (letter from Hüppi to J. Wayne Hilton dated 25 August 1994).

[14] Hüppi, transcriptions of Ott family entries from the Meiringen parish registers, page 5.

[15] Hüppi, page 5.

[16] Hüppi, page 2.

[17] Hüppi, page 4.

[18] Hüppi, pages 6 and 13.

[19] Hüppi, page 6. He credits this observation to Benedikt Bietenhard, Lagnau im 18. Jahrhundert (Lagnau, Switzerland: Emmentaler Druck AG, 1988), page 115.

[20] Ruth Ott Wallis, The Descendants of Jacob Ott of South Carolina and Louisiana (Bogalusa, La.: privately published, 1966), page 3.

[21] J. Wayne Hilton, private communication dated 17 October 1996.

[22] Gertrude Schmitzer may have been a descendant or other close relative of the John Ulrich Smith who arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, on 2 October 1752 aboard the Rowand, with an unnamed wife and two children (Barbara, 3, and Johannes, 2); or perhaps of the John “Switzer” who came with his unnamed wife in December 1752 on the Caledonia. (See Theresa M. Hicks, “Arrival of Some Ships and Settlers 1751-1756”.) A Mary Elizabeth Smitzer, possibly the widow of one of these two men, married Benjamin Spurlock in Amelia Township, South Carolina (just north of Orangeburgh), on 12 May 1754 (Tresp, page 16, marriage entry 52).

[23] See the separate article on the “Nine Jacob Otts of Orangeburgh, South Carolina” for references.

[24] Tresp, page 15, marriage entries 29-31: “On Tuesday Septr. 26th [1752] in Orang. Church By Banns, John Nicholas Schuler to Verena Flogg, John Heller to Esther Ott, John Frederick Ulmer to Mary Barbara Shuler, all of Orangeburgh Township, Being Present: John Miller, Henry Rickenbacker, John Harrisperger, Lewis Golsen, etc.”

[25] Tresp, page 31, baptism entry 204: “On Sunday March 17th [1754] in Orangeburgh Church. Ann, daughter of John and Esther Heller; born January 1st 1754. Susceptr. Peter Roth, Magdalene, wife of Peter Murer Jr. & Catharina wife of Hans George Hessy.”

[26] Nancy Norman, of Atlanta, is researching the Heller family; she has found a Johannes Heller of Newberry County, South Carolina, who might be the same person as the John Heller who married Esther Ott. This Newberry John had sons named John and Jacob, according to Nancy Norman (private communication dated 22 September 1998).

[27] Tresp, page 37, baptism entry 301: “On Sunday Decembr 21st [1755] in Orangeburgh Church. Jacob, son of Jacob & Margaret Ott; born August 14th 1755. Suscept. John Heller, Jacob Giessendanner, & Barbara Ygly.”

[28] Private communications from Joop Giesendanner, dated 25 through 29 August 1999. The Giessendanner entries involved are the baptism of Anna Hug (25 December 1739, baptism entry 2), and that of Hans Jacob Danner (5 September 1742, baptism entry 26). In both cases, the names of the witnesses are so faded that neither Salley nor Tresp attempted to decipher them. The name Hans seems clear enough in each entry; however, the surname “Otth”, although it is one possible reading, must be considered very tentative. Images of these two entries may be seen on Joop Giesendanner’s Website.

[29] Hüppi, page 13.

[30] The court clerk’s copy of Rev. John Ulrich Giessendanner’s will appears in the Judge of Probate record book for Charleston County, volume QQ, page 124 (South Carolina Department of Archives and History, microfilm reel CH20). “William Ott” is the court clerk’s rendition of the name of the first witness. I have not been able to locate the original will, if it still exists.

[31] Murtie June Clark, Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1986), page 907.

[32] Tresp, page 56, baptism entry 624: “On Thursday April 17 [1760] in John & Ulrick Oth’s Fort, Elizabeth, daughter of Ulrick and Barbara Oth, born April 9, 1760. Suret: John Oth, Barbara wife of John Giessendanner and Elizabeth Giessendanner.”

[33] Peggy Ann Easterling Miller, Otts in America, page 2. The book does not cite a source for Isaac, but Peggy Miller, in a private communcation dated 15 October 1996, stated that Isaac Ott was mentioned as the owner of land bounding George McMichael. The Combined Alphabetical Index compiled by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History does indeed indicate an Isaac Ott on a land plat for George McMichael dated 30 December 1772. However, an examination of the plat itself shows that the name is clearly Otto (see following note). (South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Colonial Land Plats, microfilm reel ST0050 (AD507), volume 18, page 306, item 2.)

[34] No Isaac Ott appears in the Giessendanner records or the early land records. An “Isaac Otto” took out notices in the South Carolina Gazette for 5, 12, and 19 May 1746, seeking the owner of a stray horse. This is probably the same “Isaac Hottow” mentioned several times in the Giessendanner record; he died on 15 August 1752 (Tresp, page 58, death entry 19), leaving a widow Maria Catherina, seven children and several grandchildren, many of whom also appear in the Giessendanner record, always under the Hottow name. They are probably not Otts at all.

[35] Tresp, page 7, unnumbered marriage entry dated 19 February 1746 (1747 by the Gregorian calendar): “Feb. 19, married Thomas Jones to Elizabeth Davis. Witnesses Samuel Wright, Capt. Thompson. Melchior Ott to Mrs. Anna Barbara Zangerin. Witnesses Peter Maurer, Sr., and Henry & Jacob Friger, Hans Huber, Henry & Jacob Straumann.” Joop Giesendanner corrects the name Friger to Horger.

[36] Tresp, page 29, baptism entry 184: “On Tuesday Decembr. 11th [1753] Administered private baptism at the house of Mary Stehely to Margaret daughter of Caspar & Mary Oth; born Septr. 29th 1753. Present: Melchior Oth, Joseph Kryter, John Negely, etc., etc.”

[37] “Petition of the Inhabitants of Orangeburgh in So. Carolina” (27 May 1749); transcription available online at the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society Website.

[38] Margaret G. Waters, A Preliminary Study of the Colonial Landowners of Orangeburgh Township, SC, 1733-1749 (Savannah, Ga.: Margaret G. Waters, 2002), map 1, pages 32-33.

[39] Click here for a transcription of the 1786 deed of sale, dated 13 March 1786, from Jacob Ott to Thomas Clark.

[40] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, State Land Plats (Charleston Series), volume 15, page 288; found in microfilm drawer 96, reel ST0573 (AD608), frame 663. This plat for 300 acres on Cow Castle Swamp was granted to Jacob Ott on 20 October 1785, five months before Jacob Ott sold his grandfather’s 350 acres (see preceding note). Two other plats, one for Paul Stroman in 1785 and one for Daniel Hesse in 1786, show Jacob Ott as the owner of bordering land on Whitford Stage Swamp. See, in the same plat series, volume 13, page 37, item 2 (reel ST0572 (AD605), frame 797), and volume 17, page 369, item 2 (reel ST0574 (AD608), frame 385).

[41] A listing of the founding members of the Frederician Church appears in a message from Theresa M. Hicks (via Gene Jeffries) to the mailing list of the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society dated 29 September 1996 and entitled “OTT family comments”.

[42] Hüppi, page 5.

[43] Hüppi, page 13.

[44] Hüppi, page 13.

[45] J. Wayne Hilton found a reference in the Oberhasli Amtsrechnung (official accounts of the Oberhasli district) to a fee paid on 15 May 1737 by a “Melchior Ott living in Guttannen”. This is on page 5 of the volume that covers the years 1722 to 1752.

[46] Hüppi, page 13.

[47] A. B. Faust and G. M. Brumbaugh, Lists of Swiss Emigrants in the Eighteenth Century to the American Colonies (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1920), volume II, page 27.

[48] Julian Kelly, “Ott of Orangeburg, South Carolina: The Early Generations” (unpublished manuscript, 1994), page 2.

[49] Newsletter of the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society, volume I, page 10. See also Kelly, page 11.

[50] This comes from a Swiss court record found by Wayne Hilton and translated by Julian Kelly. See Kelly, page 11.

[51] South Carolina Council Journal, volume 1745-1746, pages 144-146 (entry dated 31 July 1746). Click here for a transcription.

[52] Kelly, page 11.

[53] It may be worth noting that the Council minutes for that day (31 July 1746) are inconsistent about the number of Swiss immigrants rescued by Major Pepper. At one point they refer to twenty-five prisoners (but some may have been English); later they describe the “Swiss Protestants” who took the oath of allegiance as “Seven Men, five Women & Children”; they then proceed to name six men, seven women and seven children. The Council clerk’s identification of a wife for Melchior Ott is therefore a bit suspect.

[54] Tresp, page 7, unnumbered marriage entry dated 19 February 1746 (1747 by the Gregorian calendar): “Feb. 19, married Thomas Jones to Elizabeth Davis. Witnesses Samuel Wright, Capt. Thompson. Melchior Ott to Mrs. Anna Barbara Zangerin. Witnesses Peter Maurer, Sr., and Henry & Jacob Friger, Hans Huber, Henry & Jacob Straumann.” Joop Giesendanner corrects the name Friger to Horger.

[55] Tresp, page 5, unnumbered marriage entry dated 3 November 1737: “Nov. 3, publicly married Simon Sanger and Miss Barbara Strowmann.”

[56] Simon “Sanger” witnessed a marriage on 30 November 1742 (Tresp, page 6, unnumbered marriage entry of that date, marriage of John Inabnet to Marguretta Negly). Simon does not appear in the Giessendanner record after that.

[57] Kelly, page 8.

[58] Tresp, page 53, baptism entry 585: “On Sunday August 26 [1759] in Orangeburg. Church. Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Caspar & Mary Otto; born Aug. 4, 1759. Suret: John Otto, Mary Elizabeth Stroman, & Mary wife of Francis Koonen.”

[59] Clara A. Langley, South Carolina Deed Abstracts 1719-1772 (Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1983), volume IV, page 151.

[60] Brent H. Holcomb, Petitions for Land from South Carolina Council Journals (Columbia, S.C.: Brent H. Holcomb, 1997), volume II, page 171.

[61] Click here for a transcription of the indenture from “Gasper” (Caspar) Ott to David Rumph; see also footnote 9 above.

[62] Margaret G. Waters, private communcation dated 25 August 2003. David Rumph, to whom Melchior of Guttannen’s son Caspar sold the land in question, also owned land in this area.

[63] Tresp, page 65, death entry 92: “On Wednesday Evening March 21st [1759] died after Eleven Days Illness and on Friday March 23d was interred in the Plantation of the late Melchior Oth, late of Orangeburgh deceased the Body of Barbara, widow of the said Melchior Oth: Aged 50 years.”

[64] Hüppi, page 13.

[65] Hüppi, page 15.

[66] Hüppi, page 13.

[67] “Petition of the Inhabitants of Orangeburgh in So. Carolina” (27 May 1749); transcription available online at the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society Website.

[68] Tresp, page 14, marriage entry 11 (Miles Riley to Elizabeth Weekly, 22 September 1750), and page 40, baptism entry 333(John Michael Hossleiter, son of John Martin and Anna Margaret Hossleiter, 19 April 1756). The marriage that Caspar Ott witnessed on 4 March 1748/9, between Peter Maurer Jr. and Dorothea Wetstine, appears in neither the Salley nor the Tresp transcriptions of the Giessendanner record. It was deciphered by Joop Giesendanner and may be found on his Web site.

[69] Tresp, page 15, marriage entries 33-34: “On Tuesday Decembr. 19th [1752] In Ditto [Orangeburgh Church], Lewis Golsen to Elizabeth Stehely, Caspar Oth to Mary Stehely, All of Orangeburgh Township. Being present: Benedict Koller, Joseph Kryter, Henry Horger, Junr.”

[70] Tresp, page 29, baptism entry 184: “On Tuesday Decembr. 11th [1753] Administered private baptism at the house of Mary Stehely to Margaret daughter of Caspar & Mary Oth; born Septr. 29th 1753. Present: Melchior Oth, Joseph Kryter, John Negely, etc., etc.”

[71] Tresp, page 37, baptism entry 300: “On Monday Decembr 1st [1755] Administered private baptism at the house of Caspar Oth in Orangeburgh Township to Hans George, son of the said Caspar & Mary Oth; born June 4th 1755. PresentJohn & Rudolff Harrisperger, John Fritchman, Jacob Horguer.”

[72] Tresp, page 46, baptism entry 427: “On Tuesday Septembr. 20th [1757] Administered private baptism in my own House in Orangeburgh to Maria, daughter of Caspar & Mary Oth, born April 8th 1757. Present Lewis Golsen, Peter Stehely.”

[73] Tresp, page 53, baptism entry 585: “On Sunday August 26 [1759] in Orangeburg. Church. Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Caspar & Mary Otto; born Aug. 4, 1759. Suret: John Otto, Mary Elizabeth Stroman, & Mary wife of Francis Koonen.”

[74] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Colonial Land Plats, volume 19, page 12, item 2; found in microfilm drawer 89, reel ST0044 (LDS 22604). Volume 19 is also called volume 7B in some references.

[75] 1790 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 95 (in the “South Part” of the district).

[76] Hüppi, page 13.

[77] Hüppi, page 13.

[78] Tresp, page 33, baptism entry 231 (John Strowmann, son of Henry and Catharina Strowmann, 28 July 1754); page 51, baptism entry 528 (John Horger, son of Jacob and Lovisa Horger, 27 November 1758); page 53, baptism entries 566 (Frederick Murer, son of Peter and Magdalene Murer, 4 June 1759) and 585 (Mary Elizabeth “Otto”, daughter of Caspar and Mary “Otto”, 26 August 1759); and page 56, baptism entry 624 (Elizabeth Oth, daughter of Ulrick and Barbara Oth, 17 April 1760).

[79] Clara A. Langley, South Carolina Deed Abstracts 1719-1772, volume IV, page 151.

[80] Murtie June Clark, Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774, page 907.

[81] Margaret G. Waters, Colonial Landowners of Orangeburgh Township, SC, 1733-1749, map 1, pages 32-33. This map shows the location of the original grant of 150 acres to Simon Zänger, which his daughter Barbara inherited and sold to John and Ulrich Ott.

[82] Tresp, page 56, baptism entry 624 (of Ulrich’s daughter Elizabeth, see below), and page 67, death entries 116 (Catherine, wife of Jacob Koonen) and 117 (John Wolf, age 15, son of Johannes and Elizabeth Wolf).

[83] John Frederick Ott petitioned for land on 2 May 1750, claiming that he had three children but not mentioning a wife. He was granted 200 acres. See Brent H. Holcomb, Petitions for Land from South Carolina Council Journals, volume II, page 132. His surname looks like Ot or Ox in many records, and might originally have been something like Ochs.

[84] The will of John Ott, son of Martin Ott, can be found in the Judge of Probate record book for Charleston County, volume SS (1771-1774), page 113, dated 4 June 1770. The will of his father, Martin Ott, is in volume TT (1774-1778), page 146, and is dated 8 July 1774.

[85] Hüppi, page 13.

[86] Brent H. Holcomb, Petitions for Land from South Carolina Council Journals, volume IV, page 171.

[87] Clara A. Langley, South Carolina Deed Abstracts 1719-1772, volume IV, page 151.

[88] We know about this marriage only because Peter sold the land that his widow had inherited from her grandfather; the relationship is described in the deed of sale. See Clara A. Langley, South Carolina Deed Abstracts 1719-1772, volume IV, page 254.

[89] Magdalena Tapp was still single when she witnessed a baptism on 10 April 1757. See Tresp, page 45, baptism entry 409.

[90] Clara A. Langley, South Carolina Deed Abstracts 1719-1772, volume IV, page 254.

[91] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Colonial Land Plats, volume 19, page 14, item 1; found in microfilm drawer 89, reel ST0044 (LDS 22604).

[92] File 5636 of the Audited Accounts of Claims Growing Out of the American Revolution, cited in Kelly, page 23.

[93] GeLee Corley Hendrix and Morn McKoy Lindsay, The Jury Lists of South Carolina 1778-1779 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980), page 69.

[94] Hüppi, page 13.

[95] Tresp, page 53, baptism entry 566 (Frederick Murer, son of Peter and Magdalene Murer, 4 June 1759).

[96] Tresp, page 56, baptism entry 624: “on Thursday April 17 [1760] in John & Ulrick Oth’s Fort, Elizabeth, daughter of Ulrick and Barbara Oth, born April 9, 1760. Suret: John Oth, Barbara wife of John Giessendanner and Elizabeth Giessendanner.”

[97] Kelly, pages 24-25. Dr. Kelly cites a Frederick Snell Bible owned by Mrs. Charles Stone of St. Matthews, South Carolina.

[98] Murtie June Clark, Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774, page 907.

[99] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Miscellaneous Records, volume 4L, pages 271-272. Part of the land involved was Ulrich Ott’s half of John and Ulrich Ott’s fort.

[100] Bible of William Ott, published 1823, owned by the family of Kathe Hyslop of Texas, and now in the collection of the Polk County Memorial Museum, 514 West Mill Street, Livingston, Texas. Transcription provided by Kathe Hyslop and available online here.

[101] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Colonial Land Plats, volume 19, page 15, item 1; found in microfilm drawer 89, reel ST0044 (LDS 22604).

[102] 1790 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 420 (in the “North Part” of the district).

[103] Murtie June Clark, Loyalists in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1981), volume I, page 200.

[104] This estimate of Barbara’s birthdate assumes that she is in fact the child that Simon Zänger brought with him to South Carolina. A check of the Meiringen and Hasli-im-Grund parish registers might prove whether Simon Zänger had a daughter named Barbara before emigrating. (John Hüppi’s extracts of these records include only people with the surname Ott or its variants.) Barbara’s absence from the register of baptisms performed by the two reverends Giessendanner suggests, but does not prove, that she was born in Switzerland.

[105] A. B. Faust and G. M. Brumbaugh, Lists of Swiss Emigrants in the Eighteenth Century to the American Colonies , volume II, pages 20 and 27.

[106] Clara A. Langley, South Carolina Deed Abstracts 1719-1772, volume IV, page 151. Langley’s abstract includes the summary of chain of title.

[107] Langley’s abstract (previous note) is in fact between “John Geiger ... and Barbara his wife” and the Ott brothers.

[108] An account of the murder trial appears in the South Carolina Gazette, dated 25 April 1761. Jacob Weber, the “god” of the cult, was hanged on 17 April 1761; the other three men who were convicted of murder, including John Geiger, were later reprieved.

[109] Harriet Imrey, a Geiger family researcher, has found that the John Geiger who married Barbara Zänger was associated with Jacob Weber in several land records, and so is probably the John Geiger of the Weberite heresy. Her research also shows that the same John Geiger had children born from 1748 to 1763. If Barbara was the mother of all these children, she must have been born well before Simon Zänger’s immigration in 1735. (Private communication dated 27 January 2003)

[110] Theresa Hicks and Frances S. Osburn, South Carolina Quitrents 1772-1773-1774 (Columbia, S.C.: Theresa M. Hicks, 1998), pages 69, 143, and 189. See also an E-mail message dated 29 September 1996 from Theresa Hicks and Gene Jeffries to the mailing list of the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society, entitled “OTT family comments” and containing some unpublished notes on quitrent records prior to 1772.

[111] Brent H. Holcomb, Petitions for Land from South Carolina Council Journals, volume V, pages 1-2, shows Sibella “Iathe” Schillinger as one of 53 applicants whose petitions for land were read on 4 January 1757. She petitioned for 100 acres, suggesting that she was a new immigrant who qualified as head of household but had no family. Bounty grants were exempt from quitrents for ten years, which explains why Sibella’s land, granted in 1759, does not appear in the quitrent records until 1770.

[112] Theresa Hicks and Frances S. Osburn, South Carolina Quitrents 1772-1773-1774, page 69.

[113] 1790 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 416 (in the “North Part” of the district). See a discussion of the 1790 census data of the various Jacob Otts here.

[114] If the land was granted before 1755, the general rule was 50 acres per household member; in 1755 this was increased to 100 acres for the head of household plus 50 acres for each additional member. Thus Melchior’s grant would have indicated a household of six persons if the grant occurred before the change, or five if after the change. Note that household members were not necessarily family; servants and slaves were counted too. Given our generally poor Swiss immigrants, however, servants were not often an issue. See Margaret G. Waters, Colonial Landowners of Orangeburgh Township, SC, 1733-1749, pages 6-7.

[115] Hüppi, page 13.

[116] Tresp, page 29, baptism entry 184.

[117] Caspar, John, and Peter Ott — three sons of Melchior of Guttannen — signed a petition in 1798 requesting protection of the Caw Caw Creek from “wicked persons [...] stoping or otherwise obstructing the navigation of said Creek.” The petition may be viewed here. Its fifty signatories provide a good snapshot of the residents of the Caw Caw area of Orangeburgh District in 1798. Pages 415 and 416 of the 1790 census for Orangeburgh District show many of the same names as the petition, and it is therefore reasonable to conclude that other names on that page also lived in the Caw Caw area.

[118] Hüppi, page 15.

[119] Hüppi, page 8.

[120] 1790 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 415 (in the “North Part” of the district).

[121] 1810 U.S. Census, Richland District, South Carolina, page 169 (Columbia Town).

[1] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott of South Carolina and Louisiana (Bogalusa, La.: privately published, 1965).

[2] No Ott name other than Melchior appears in South Carolina land or church records before the late 1740s. For a discussion of the early Ott records, see the companion article “One Melchior Ott or Two?”

[3] The Charles Ott Bible is now lost. There are two partial transcriptions of its contents: (1) in Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, page 3; and (2) in the personal papers of Eleanore Ott, copy available in the Ott folder at the Calhoun County Museum, St Matthews, South Carolina. These transcriptions are discussed below. The transcription presented here is that of Eleanore Ott.

[4] Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, especially pages 3-7.

[5] Wallis almost certainly used the translation and transcription of the parish registers of Rev. John Ulrich Giessendanner found in Alexander S. Salley, Jr, History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Revolutionary War (Orangeburg, S. C.: R. Lewis Berry, 1898; reprinted by the Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, in 1978). The Giessendanner parish registers are on pages 95-212. Note that a much better translation and transcription of the Giessendanner registers is available on Joop Giesendanner’s website. Another version of the Giessendanner record appears in Lothar Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” published in thirteen installments in The Carolina Genealogist from 1971 to 1975 (volumes 6 through 23). This article will cite Tresp’s version.

[6] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 17, marriage entry 58: “On Tuesday Decembr 3d [1754] in Ditto [Orangeburgh Church] By Banns, Jacob Ott to Margaret Fichtner, both of Orangeburgh Township. Present: Henry Wurtz, Adam Snell, George Hessy, etc.”

[7] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 37, baptism entry 301: “On Sunday Decembr 21st [1755] in Orangeburgh Church. Jacob, son of Jacob & Margaret Ott; born August 14th 1755. Suscept. John Heller, Jacob Giessendanner, & Barbara Ygly.”

[8] Janette Ott Lowery never published her work, but shared it generously with other Ott researchers. It is most valuable for having preserved copies of old Ott-related Bibles from the Orangeburg area.

[9] South Carolina Department of Archives and History (8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, South Carolina), Colonial Land Plats, volume 16, page 557, item 2; found on microfilm reel ST0049 (LDS 22608).

[10] For a discussion of the children of the two elder Melchior Otts, see “One Melchior Ott or Two?”

[11] Ott family entries from the Meiringen and Guttannen (or Hasli im Grund) parish registers in Oberhasli district, canton Bern, Switzerland, were transcribed and translated by Swiss genealogist John Hüppi in a report dated 25 August 1994 to J. Wayne Hilton of Graniteville, South Carolina. Mr. Hilton has generously shared John Hüppi’s report with the author.

[12] Hüppi, “Meiringen Parish Registers”, page 5.

[13] Hüppi, “Meiringen Parish Registers”, page 7.

[14] Hüppi, “Meiringen Parish Registers”, page 6. John Hüppi’s report is valuable not only for the parish register information, but also for the historical context that it describes.

[15] Hüppi, “Meiringen Parish Registers”, page 7.

[16] Letter (undated) from John Phillip Ott to Edward Stanley Ott. The full text of the letter is shown in “Siberia Ott’s Story”.

[17] The South Carolina Gazette, issue 77, dated 12-19 July 1735, reports on the arrival of a shipload of Swiss immigrants. See a transcription of the article here. That Melchior Ott was on the ship is indicated by his land grant a few weeks later (referred to above).

[18] “Petition of the Inhabitants of Orangeburgh in So. Carolina” (27 May 1749); transcription available online at the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society Website, <http://www.rootsweb.com/~scogsgs/petition.htm>.

[19] Hüppi, “Meiringen Parish Registers”, page 6, and “Hasli im Grund Parish Registers”, page 13. Note that the 1722 marriage is that of Melchior of Guttannen; the other two, in Meiringen, were in 1719. Since we have a (probably) complete list of the children of Melchior of Guttannen, in which no Jacob appears, it is likely that Jacob’s parents’ marriage occurred in 1719.

[20] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 17, marriage entry 58.

[21] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 37, baptism entry 301: “On Sunday Decembr 21st in Orangeburgh Church. Jacob, son of Jacob & Margaret Ott; born August 14th 1755. Suscept. John Heller, Jacob Giessendanner, & Barbara Ygly.”

[22] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 51, baptism entry 540. Rev. Giessendanner left a blank space for the child’s name which he never filled in; the baptism date and the child’s birth date are also blank. The only information is “daughter of Jacob and Margaret Ott.” The previous entry in the baptism registry is dated 15 January 1759, and the next one is 7 February 1759, so the baptism probably occurred sometime in between those two dates.

[23] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Secretary of State Recorded Instruments, Miscellaneous Records (main series), volume ZZ (1789-1792), pages 229-230; found on microfilm reel ST0375A (LDS reel number 194651).

[24] On 13 March 1786, a Jacob Ott and his wife Mary sold to Thomas Clark the same land that was granted to Melchior Ott (of Meiringen) in 1735. See the transcription of the 1786 deed of sale here, as provided by Peggy Ann Easterling Miller. The identification of this Jacob as “Jacob born 1755” is not proven; we shall discuss some difficulties with this identification later in this report.

[25] This story was reported by Peggy Ann Easterling Miller in a letter to the author dated 8 July 1996. She added that she could find no corroborating evidence for this story.

[26] [Need reference for Theodore Fichtner’s 1752 land grant.]

[27] Theresa M. Hicks, “Arrival of Some Ships and Settlers 1751-1756”, <http://www.palmettoroots.org/ShipsList.html>.

[28] Some researchers (including a previous version of the present website) have suggested that Theodore Fichtner had a son, also named Theodore or Johann Theodorius, who married Mary Eberhardt and whose children changed the spelling of their surname to Fetner. However, Ed Fetner, genealogist of the Fetner surname, believes the name derives from Vettiner, not from Fichtner, and that the family lived in what is now Lexington County, South Carolina (well north of Orangeburgh), and not in the Cow Castle area (which is south of Orangeburgh). See Ed Fetner’s message, dated 7 July 2002 and forwarded by me to the Orangeburgh_SC-L mailing list at Rootsweb.

[29] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 15, marriage entry 36.

[30] Credit for this observation belongs with Theresa Hicks, an Orangeburgh genealogist, in a message dated 29 September 1996, forwarded by Gene Jeffries to the Orangeburgh_SC-L mailing list at Rootsweb.

[31] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 37, baptism entry 301.

[32] Bobby Gilmer Moss, Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985), page 744.

[33] Joseph T. Maddox and Mary Carter, compilers, South Carolina Revolutionary Soldiers, Sailors, Patriots and Descendants (no place of publication: Georgia Pioneers Publications, no date), volume I, page 117.

[34] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 53, baptism entry 585.

[35] Peggy Ann Easterling Miller, The Ott Family of Orangeburg District (Columbia, S.C.: privately published; no date, but latest date mentioned in the text is 10 July 1986), page 5.

[36] See the transcription of the deed of sale here.

[37] Jacob Ott received a grant of 300 acres of land on Cow Castle Swamp on 20 October 1785, a few months before selling the land inherited from his grandfather. South Carolina Department of Archives and History, State Land Plats, volume 15, page 288; found on microfilm reel ST0573 (or AD606), frame 663.

[38] The Dukes family Bible was examined and photocopied by Janette Ott Lowery in the course of her research into Ott family history during the 1960s and 1970s. Mrs. Lowery gave a copy of the register to Jo Ann Slaten of Dallas, who in turn provided it to the present author.

[39] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, State Land Plats, volume 15, page 288; found on microfilm reel ST0573 (or AD606), frame 663.

[40] [Need reference for Theodore Fichtner’s 1752 land grant (again).]

[41] Theresa M. Hicks, South Carolina: A Guide to Churches (Columbia, S.C.: Peppercorn Publications, 2003, two volumes), vol. II, page 302.

[42] Bible of W. F. Dukes, Bowman, South Carolina. Copies of the family pages from the Bible were made by Janette Ott Lowery during the 1960s. Images of the family pages can be seen here.

[43] Theresa Hicks and Frances S. Osburn, South Carolina Quitrents 1772-1773-1774 (Columbia, S.C.: Theresa M. Hicks, 1998), page 143.

[44] Bobby Gilmer Moss, Roster of South Carolina Patriots, page 744.

[45] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, State Land Plats, volume 19, page 339; found on microfilm reel ST0574 (or AD608), frame 1083.

[46] South Carolina Department of Archives and History, State Land Plats, volume 29, page 33, item 2; found on microfilm reel ST0578 (or AD611), frame 55.

[47] The images from which this transcription has been taken may be viewed here. The images may not be complete; they lack the line showing the death of Abraham Ott, which nonetheless appears in Janette Ott Lowery’s transcription. I have added this line from Mrs Lowery’s transcription to my own.

[48] During Sherman’s investment of Orangeburgh in February 1865, the courthouse was attacked but sustained only moderate damage. Unfortunately, Orangeburgh District probate papers had been sent to the state capital at Columbia for “safekeeping”; there they were destroyed when Union troops burned the archives.

[49] Henry Young Admr of Johannes Woolf vs. James Carmichael et al., filed in Orangeburg District sometime between July 1811 and January 1812, published in the South Carolina Magazine for Ancestral Research, volume V, number 2 (Spring 1977), pages 108-109.

[50] 1790 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, North Part, pages 394, 416, and 418. The page numbers come from the census images on Ancestry.com.

[51] The petition may be viewed here. Its fifty signatories provide a good snapshot of the residents of the Caw Caw area of Orangeburgh District in 1798. Pages 415 and 416 of the 1790 census for Orangeburgh District show many of the same names as the petition.

[52] Julian Kelly, “Ott of Orangeburg, South Carolina: The Early Generations” (unpublished manuscript, 1994), page 18.

[53] See the section on Melchior of Guttannen in the companion article, “One Melchior Ott or Two?”

[54] Will of Martin Ott, of Craven County, South Carolina; will dated 8 July 1774 (no probate date); in Caroline T. Moore, Abstracts of the Wills of the State of South Carolina 1760-1784 (Columbia, S.C.: R. L. Bryan Company, 1969), page 226. The reference is to the Secretary of State’s Will Book TT (1774-1778), page 146. Martin had another son, John, who predeceased him leaving a wife and two daughters. Will of John Ott of St Paul’s Parish; will dated 4 June 1770 (no probate date); in Moore, Abstracts of the Wills of the State of South Carolina, page 168. The reference is to the Secretary of State’s Will Book SS (1771-1774), page 113.

[55] Theresa Hicks, message dated 29 September 1996, entitled “OTT family comments”, forwarded by Gene Jeffries to the mailing list of the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society.

[56] Ibid.

[57] Ibid.

[58] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, pages 3 and 4.

[59] See, for example, the personal papers of Eleanore Ott, in the Ott folder at the Calhoun County Museum, St Matthews, South Carolina.

[60] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, page 4.

[61] 1830 U.S. Census, St Tammany Parish, Louisiana, page 70.

[62] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, page 9. Mrs Wallis adds Joel Ott as a son of Jacob; we shall deal with Joel below.

[63] Eleanore Ott quoted her uncle, Walter Thomas Ott, as stating that Joel Ott was the son of a “camp grisette”.

[64] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, pages 6-7.

[65] A. S. Salley, Jr, History of Orangeburg County, pages 118-119 (for the marriage of Jacob born 1725) and 157 (birth of Jacob born 1755).

[66] This six-page paper is actually Eleanore Ott’s critique of two previous histories written by two of her uncles, Walter Tate Ott and Charles deVecmon Ott, and is found in the copy of her papers at the Calhoun County Museum in St. Matthews, South Carolina.

[67] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, page 3.

[68] Hüppi, “Hasli im Grund Parish Registers”, page 13.

[69] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 15, marriage entries 33-34: “On Tuesday Decembr. 19th [1752] In Ditto [Orangeburgh Church], Lewis Golsen to Elizabeth Stehely, Caspar Oth to Mary Stehely, All of Orangeburgh Township. Being present: Benedict Koller, Joseph Kryter, Henry Horger, Junr.”

[70] Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” page 29, baptism entry 184 (for Margaret); page 37, baptism entry 300 (for Hans George); page 46, baptism entry 427 (for Maria); and page 53, baptism entry 585 (for Mary Elizabeth).

[71] 1790 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 95.

[72] Ibid., page 415 (for both Johns).

[73] This information is taken from the census images on Ancestry.com.

[74] See Margaret (Jackson) Ott’s application for a pension based on Jacob’s service in the War of 1812, Bounty Land Claim No. 262, Act 1855.

[75] U.S. Congress, American State Papers: Public Lands, volume 3, page 71. Jacob Ott is listed with one claim in St Helena Parish, Louisiana, acquired by purchase and settled in 1807.

[76] American State Papers: Public Lands, volume 3, page 437. Jacob Ott is listed with one claim in St Tammany Parish, Louisiana, not acquired by purchase, and settled in 1812.

[77] American State Papers: Public Lands, volume 3, page 441. Joel Ott is listed with one claim in St Tammany Parish, Louisiana, not acquired by purchase, and settled in 1804.

[78] Jacob and Margaret Ott were among the founding members of the Mount Nebo church in 1813, and continue to be mentioned in church records until 1828. This information comes from Jo Ann Slaten, who researched these records in 1999, in a personal communication dated 2 July 1999.

[79] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, page 131.

[80] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, page 5.

[81] Effie Norwood Jones, Norwood-Ott and Allied Families (Dallas: privately published, 1954). The book has no page numbers, but Joel’s birth date is given on the third page of the “Ott Family” chapter.

[82] 1850 U.S. Census, Washington Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, page 455, dwelling 248, family 248.

[83] 1860 U.S. Census, Livingston Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, dwelling 554, family 554; and 1870 U.S. Census, Livingston Parish, Ward 1, population schedule, dwelling 1, family 1.

[84] American State Papers: Public Lands, volume 3, page 441.

[85] Alton Ott, personal communication dated 1 September 2000.

[86] Eleanore Ott, personal papers; she quotes Walter Tate Ott as expressing this view of Joel’s ancestry.

[87] 1800 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 295.

[88] Jo Ann Slaten, personal communication dated 2 July 1999.

[89] Ibid.

[90] 1820 U.S. Census, St Tammany Parish, Louisiana, page 181.

[91] Mary G. Bryan, Passports Issued by Governors of Georgia, 1785-1820, two volumes (Arlington, Va.: National Genealogical Society, 1959, 1964), volume 2, page 74.

[92] American State Papers: Public Lands, volume 3, page 438. Joel Ott is listed with one claim in St Tammany Parish, Louisiana, acquired by purchase, and settled in 1812.

[93] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, page 4.

[94] 1830 U.S. Census, Washington Parish, Louisiana, page 89; and 1840 U.S. Census, St Tammany Parish, Louisiana, page 158.

[95] 1850 U.S. Census, Washington Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, page 455, dwelling 247, family 247.

[96] Ruth Ott Wallis, Descendants of Jacob Ott, pages 131-132.

[97] 1800 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 281.

[98] All of these appear in the Giessendanner record. See Tresp, “Giessendanner’s Parish Registers,” pages 6, 13, 22, 23, and 27, for some early Jackson references.

[99] Knight’s “data” can be found on LDS microfilm 0935425, “Patron Sheets, 1969-1991,” batch number 7414906. Knight cited Salley’s History of Orangeburg County and unspecified courthouse records in Amite, Louisiana, as his sources of information for the birth dates for the children of Jacob Ott and Margaret Jackson. This is entirely bogus: Salley’s book does not include any Ott information after 1760, and the Tangipahoa Parish courthouse in Amite was established only in 1869. In any event, it is most unlikely (to cite just one absurd example) that Charlotte Ott, supposedly born in 1792, gave birth to her daughter Courtney Rebecca Brumfield at age 65.

[100] 1800 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, pages 281 and 295.

[101] The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Translated out of the Original Greek; and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command (Edinburgh: Sir Hunter Blair and J. Bruce, 1806). The Bible was discovered, and its title and family pages photocopied, in 1994 by Jeanette K. Rowell of Mobile, Alabama, who has generously shared her copy with Ott researchers. The present (1994) owner of the Bible is identified only as “someone in Montgomery.” [scanned image coming soon]

[102] The first line on the family page is torn, and the name of the first child is not legible. Family information and census data indicate that he was Jacob. Only the year of his birth date is legible, and to me it looks like 1798; again, family information gives 1797.

[103] 1810 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina. Data were taken from the census images on Ancestry.com.

[104] 1810 U.S. Census, Richland District, Columbia Town, South Carolina, page 169.

[105] Ott researcher Jo Ann Slaten has suggested that Abraham Ott’s orphaned sons may have been in the household of their grandmother, Ann Green, on the 1810 census.

[106] The ages of the Ott children, as well as Mary Ott’s marriage to John Wolfe, come from the Abraham Ott Bible.

[107] 1820 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, Orangeburgh Parish, page 211.

[108] 1830 U.S. Census, Dale County, Alabama, page 224.

[109] In his application for a pension based on his service in the War of 1812, the younger Jacob (born 1797) stated that he had married “In the year 1823 — Orangeburg, Orangeburg County, South Carolina.” See War of 1812 Survivor’s Pension Claim 29.420. (I am indebted to the late Leo Ott for a copy of this file.)

[110] See 1830 U.S. Census, Dale County, Alabama, page 224; 1840 U.S. Census, Dale County, Alabama, page 22; 1850 U.S. Census, Dale County, Alabama, population schedule, Southern Division, pages 179, 181, 195, and 224A. The surname is sometimes spelled Utt.

[111] Thomas Sydney Ott (1914-1971) of Bowman, South Carolina, corresponded with Jeanette K. Rowell, Janette Ott Lowery, and Leo Ott regarding family history. His arrangements of the early Otts into families were sometimes simplistic, but he had access to a wealth of old family documents, many of which his three correspondants have preserved for present-day researchers.

[112] Leo Ott (1925-2001) sent a copy of (what is probably) Thomas S. Ott’s chart and Victor Leggett Ott’s critique of it to the present author in May 1998.

[113] See Leo Ott’s Rootsweb database, http://wc.rootsweb.com/~leoott.

[114] Jo Ann Slaten believes this “Jb Ott” is really a “Jo Ott” and that his family configuration matches that of John A. D. Ott.

[115] 1800 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 295.

[116] American State Papers: Public Lands, volume 3, page 71.

[117] Mary Bryan, Passports Issued by Governors of Georgia, volume 2, page 74.

[118] 1830 U.S. Census, Washington Parish, Louisiana, page 89.

[119] 1820 U.S. Census, Pike County, Mississippi, page 6; 1840 U.S. Census, Pike County, Mississippi, page 152. David Ott also appears on indexes of Mississippi state censuses taken in 1841 and 1845 (not checked by me).

[120] 1850 U.S. Census, Union Parish, Louisiana, population schedule, dwelling 608, family 608 (widow Mary and son Daniel); dwelling 607, family 607 (son Eli); and dwelling 606, family 606 (daughter Annie Farris).

[121] 1800 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, South Carolina, page 281. This, of course, assumes that we have correctly identified Jacob born 1776.

[122] We shall deal shortly with Jacob’s appearances in the census records.

[123] Information on the sons of Jacob born 1797 comes from Alabama Ott researcher Joyce Ott Bradley, in a personal communication dated 24 September 2000.

[124] 1810 U.S. Census, Orangeburgh District, page 134.

[125] Jacob Ott, Application for a War of 1812 Survivor’s Pension, claim number 29.420; copy provided to the author by Leo Ott.

[126] Ibid.

[127] Joyce Ott Bradley, personal communication dated 24 September 2000.

[128] Jacob Ott, Application for a War of 1812 Survivor’s Pension, claim number 29.420.

[129] Ibid.

[130] 1850 U.S. Census, Dale County, Alabama, Southern Division, population schedule, page 181, dwelling 195, family 195.

[131] 1870 U.S. Census, Clarke County, Alabama, population schedule, Campbells Beat, Wood Bluff Post Office, page 12, dwelling 618, family 621; and 1880 U.S. Census, Clarke County, Alabama, population schedule, enumeration district 33, page 420A, dwelling 55, family 57. On the 1880 census, Jacob is explicitly called the father of “Louis” Ott.

[132] Jacob Ott, Application for a War of 1812 Survivor’s Pension, claim number 29.420.

[133] Ibid.