Book Report: The History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina

This is the last of the books that I purchased at the NGS Conference in Richmond. Between

these books and the syllabus I am still learning more to improve my research, long after the conference was packed up.

Salley, A. S. (2011). The History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, from its first settlement to the close of the Revolutionary War. 

Westminster, MD: Heritage Books. 

(Original work published 1898).

Introduction

Chapters:

1. The First Settlers

a. Who they were and where they came from

b. The German settlers of Orangeburgh Township; their church & pastor

c. The settlement of Saxe-Gotha; the condition of the settlers; their spiritual advantages and disadvantages

d. The settlers of Barnwell

2. The Giessendanner Record [1740 -1760]

3. The Colonial Period

a. Pioneer Life in Orangeburgh

b. Indian Troubles

c. Heresy in the ’Dutch Fork’

4. The Revolutionary Period

a. The Civil affairs of the Period

b. The Third Regiment of South Carolina Continentals

c. Colonel Thomson’s Order Book – June 24th, 1775, to November 3rd, 1778

d. The Local Militia

e. Various Operations in South Carolina during the War; and their relation to Orangeburgh District

f. The Germans and Scotch of Orangeburgh in the Revolution

Index

This book is useful for me because my Ott family was one of the early settlers to Orangeburg, SC. Melchoir Ott, my 7th great grandfather, b 1699 in Switzerland, arrived in Charleston in 1735, according to this book. The marriage record of his son, Jacob Ott I, to Margaret Fichtner is also included. There are several other records related to the Ott family. I had seen this book in libraries in the past and copied out a few pages. Now I have the full context to search for more clues to the past.

I like to find historical books like this, originally written by someone who was more than one hundred years closer to those events than we are. If this area is of interest to your research, find a copy to read.