John Adam Treutlen

The home of John Adam Treutlen once stood near this site. Following Georgia's independence from Britain, John Adam Treutlen was elected in 1777 as the first Governor under the newly created Constitution of Georgia. Born into a Salzburger family around 1733, John Adam Treutlen came to Georgia at an early age with his widowed mother and brother. He was placed under the care and tutelage of Pastor John Martin Bolzius and became a teacher at Ebenezer school and a leading official of Jerusalem Church. Treutlen represented St. Matthew's Parish in the Commons House of Assembly, was a colonel in the Effingham Militia, a Magistrate in Effingham County, and a member of the First Provincial Congress of Georgia, which met in Savannah, July 4, 1775. Following his service in Georgia, Treutlen moved to Orangeburg, SC, in 1779, where he served on South Carolina's Assembly from 1781-1782. In the spring of 1782, his home was set afire, and he was killed by political adversaries.