Hamburg and Augusta ca. 1835

The area on which Hamburg was built was originally deeded to the Chickasaw Tribe of Indians in 1735. Relations between traders, settlers and Indians remained good until the Revolutionary War, when the Chickasaws sided with the British. After the war these lands were promptly turned over to the South Carolina Commissioner of Confiscated Estates, who cut them up into lots and sold them off. See Chapman J. Milling, Red Carolinians, UNC Press, 1940. An 1824 copy of the plat for Chickasaw Lot #17 refers to an original dated 1783. Hamburg was eventually developed on Lots #15 and #17.

Despite the many references to "Fair" and "Leigh" tracts, both of these lands were owned by other names - heirs and assigns - when Shultz came into the play. John B. Covington had married Isaac Fair's widow and participated with Shultz in the fourth shares arrangement described in Cordle's article. The Leigh tract was in the hands of nine different heirs. Shultz was able to gain a foothold in this tract by buying the share of James Hicks. Through this Shultz seems to have been able to force a sheriff's sale of the entire tract, allowing him to gain an undivided interest in the land for Upper Hamburg.

Always in search of cash to further his plans, Shultz mortgaged both of these tracts as quickly as possible. The Fair tract backed a $50,000 loan from the State of South Carolina. On its repossession in 1830, the State sliced what was Chickasaw Lot #15 into four thin strips, each with equal frontage on the river, probably in order to allow the possible redemption of single fourth shares. The Leigh tract, initially mortgaged back to Edgefield District, as well as to others, fell into a long drawn out lawsuit that disrupted property rights through the early 1830's. The property fell entirely out of Shultz's hands in an 1834 blowout auction by James Terry, Commissioner in Equity for Edgefield District.

Tricia Price Glenn at the Edgefield (SC) County Archives has uncovered many references to a Revolutionary War site named "Liberty Hill". Liberty Hill appears to be the bluff directly above the Town of Hamburg, and was still referred to by that name in several 1820's petitions for road improvements. This hill supported an encampment of South Carolina Militia, guarding the river crossing during the British occupation of Augusta in February 1779, and is shown in Plate III in LTC Archibald Campbell's Journal, published by the Richmond County Historical Society 1981.

Many thanks to Tricia Price Glenn who has shared her research into the Chickasaw Lands and Liberty Hill history, which I hope she can spare time to formally publish.