Salzburgers, Ministers, Citizens, Soldiers

Three Generations of the Heidt Family

The Founding of the Georgia Colony

Georgia was the last of the 13 original colonies, founded in 1733. Its first settlement, situated on high ground above its namesake Savannah River, was laid out in a grid pattern centered around its still-iconic squares, the better to organize, govern, and defend the town. Initially intended as a haven for British debtors and poor, it became a sanctuary for a diversity of settlers. Georgia’s charter banned lawyers, slavery, liquor, and Catholics – the latter out of concern that their loyalties might lean toward Spanish Florida. Within twenty years each of the four became accepted.

Salzburg

Salzburg, today one of the largest cities in Austria, brings to mind images of “The Sound of Music,” the compositions of Mozart and Haydn, Baroque architecture, and the city’s annual music festival. Following the Protestant Reformation Germanic Salzburg experienced years of religious and class conflicts. In 1731 its Catholic ruling prince/archbishop expelled some 20,000 citizens, mostly Lutherans, who would not profess the Catholic faith. The majority resettled in Holland and Prussia. King George II of England, himself a German duke and a Lutheran, welcomed these Salzburgers and offered anyone willing to risk the sea voyage a place in the fledgling Georgia Colony.

Georgia Salzburgers

A small group of Salzburgers arrived in Savannah in March 1734, founding the town of Ebenezer about 25 miles upriver. A second group arrived in December. They were model citizens, and according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, “their qualities of piety, modesty, and industriousness were rooted in the Salzburgers’ spiritual traditions, which emphasized personal conviction and community activities.” The first settlement was not ideal, and when a third transport arrived in 1736 they resettled in a more practical nearby site “on the high bluffs above the Savannah River. By the fall of 1737 many farmsteads had been established. In 1740 the Salzburgers built the first water-driven gristmill in the colony, and stamping mills for rice and barley stood beside two sawmills, as Ebenezer’s lumber became a valuable commodity for the Georgia colony. The Salzburgers also established the first Sunday school in Georgia in 1734 and the first orphanage in 1737.”

Emanuel Heidt (1814-1889) and Frances Grayson (1821-1858) – Generation One

Emanuel Heidt, grandson and great-grandson of Salzburg refugees, was born in Springfield, Georgia in 1814, about eight miles inland from the “New Ebenezer” settlement. As a young man he moved to Savannah, where he met and in 1836 married Frances L. Grayson, only daughter of Capt. John R. Grayson and Frances Harvey. Emanuel was a planter, a Methodist preacher, a successful clothing merchant, and a state assemblyman. After the death of Frances in 1858 Emanuel married a recent widow. Between the new couple the 1860 Federal Slave Schedule listed 48 enslaved persons, a somewhat surprising revelation considering Emanuel’s Salzburger heritage and his calling as a preacher.

Civil War Soldiers and Methodist Ministers – Generation Two

Frances and Emanuel had eight children, two of whom died young, three of them males that came of age at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. Emanuel outlived all but two.

• James Evans Heidt (1838-1864) was married by his father Emanuel in November 1860, and was a clothier when he enlisted in the 1st Georgia Infantry (Olmstead’s), which served in Savannah and Charleston for the bulk of the war. James and his wife Catherine Clinton had two girls, both of whom died as children. In 1864 the 1st Georgia was sent to Atlanta to defend Sherman’s incursion into Georgia. James was mortally wounded on July 30, and died at home September 7. His obituary focused on his trust in God throughout his short life.
• John Wesley Heidt (1841-1909) was an unmarried law student and schoolteacher in 1860. He served in the Chatham Light Artillery at Ft. Pulaski, then in Olmstead’s 1st Georgia early in the Civil War. John earned both a law degree and a doctorate of divinity. He was appointed Solicitor General of the eastern Georgia Circuit Court as a young man, then became a respected Methodist pastor, and finally president of La Grange Female College, Southwestern University, and Reinhardt University successively in the 1880s and 90s. John married in Leila Villard 1864.
• Ann Eliza Heidt (1843-1877) attended Wesleyan Female College in Macon before the war, “The first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women” according to their website. Ann married dry goods merchant Thomas J. Jaudon in 1860.
• Charles Ballou Heidt (1845-1879) was a student West Point when the Civil War began. According to his obituary, “He came immediately home, and joined the Southern army, though but sixteen years of age.” As an unmarried railroad engineer Charles died suddenly of typhoid fever in 1879. “His uniform cheerfulness and good spirits was the general remark of everyone, and it is said he was never in a bad humor in his life.”
• Daniel Gugel Heidt (1850-1915) married Julia Neidlinger in 1874. Daniel made his living as a liveryman.
• Tallulah Grayson Heidt (1855-1919) also married in 1874, like James by her father, to fellow Methodist minister Julian Jordan.

U.S. Army Officers and Notable Marriages – Generation Three

A January 1909 newspaper article reads: “Dr. John W. Heidt well deserves the unique tribute he received from Mr. [William H.] Taft when he called upon the President-elect [and former Military Governor of the Philippines] on Tuesday last…. An ex-Confederate soldier, Dr. Heidt enjoys the rare distinction of having given to the Unites States army four gallant sons. Two have attained the rank of captain, and have rendered signal service in the Philippines, one is now a lieutenant in the service, and the fourth is a student at the Military Academy at West Point. Said Mr. Taft: ‘I am most agreeably surprised that he is the father of the sons whom I have known so well, and so favorably and who have served their country so gallantly in times of peril, when they displayed as much bravery as their father when he wore the gray.’ ” ¹

Rev. John Wesley Heidt and Leila Villard had six children – four career officers in the United States Army and four with notable marriages.

• Carobel Villard Heidt (1865-1937) in 1896 married Justice Andrew E. Calhoun, for many years presiding judge of the Criminal Court of Atlanta. Carobel was a family historian who recorded many of the facts from this post.² She and Andrew had four children.
• John Villard Heidt (1869- 1948), merchant and insurance broker, married Alice Edith Shearhouse in 1923.
• Col. James Villard Heidt (1873-1953) in 1919 married Clara Hotze, the American niece of an Austrian Habsburg Count. The Habsburgs were Austrian Catholics, and though more research must be done this is indeed an ironic union for a Salzburger descendant. James “served with the 1st Cavalry “Rough Riders” in the famous charge up San Juan Hill.” ³ Awarded two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars, James is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
• Col. Grayson Villard Heidt (1875-1945) His 1906 marriage to Grace McKinley, the orphaned niece and adoptive daughter of President William McKinley who once served as White House hostess, was a major society wedding, officiated by his father John. Grayson met Grace as a young officer in the Philippines. A news article tells of a near-death escape during combat there in 1902.⁴ He was also wounded in World War I. Grayson and Grace are buried at Ft. Sam Houston in Texas.
• Lt. Col. Gulielmus Villard Heidt (1876-1958) Fought in the Philippines and Panama, wounded in combat in France in 1918. Like his brother James, Gulielmus is buried at Arlington.
• Maj. Emanuel Villard Heidt (1887-1941) apparently did not serve overseas. In a lesser society wedding he married Marjorie McKinley Morse in 1913, a great-niece of former President McKinley.

¹ “Mr. Taft’s Tribute to Dr. Heidt,” The (Atlanta) Jeffersonian, Jan 14, 1909 pg 3.

² Miller, Annie Elizabeth (ed.), “Our Family Circle” (1931 J.W. Burke, Macon GA) pg. 297-299

³ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/49051438/james-villard-heidt

⁴ “Field Glass Saved His Life,” Savannah Morning News January 23, 1902 pg. 9