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GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS 311
was sadly dilapidated. But the Germans set themselves to work. Fresh life was
infused into the little community upon the arrival of the Rev. John Ernest Bergman,
a clergyman of pronounced attainments. The parochial school was revived, the popu
lation began to increase, the church was substantially rebuilt, and much of the
damage wrought by the British was in the course of time repaired. But the lost
prestige of the little town of Ebenezer was never fully regained. The mills remained
idle. The culture of silk was revived only to a limited degree; and, after a brief
interval of growth, the old settlement began visibly to take the downward path.
GEORGIA JEWS IN TEE REVOLUTION.—It was Israel Zangwill who coined the fine
aphorism that since the time of the Exodus' freedom has spoken with the Hebrew
accent. Though wedded to pursuits of peace, the Jews of Georgia were not slow to
resent the oppressions of England. The spirit of liberty burned int the hearts of
these gentle people and overmastered the commercial instinct. Mordecai Sheftall,
born in Savannah, December 16, 1735, became one of the most zealous of the patriots.
The royal proclamation which appeared in the Georgia Gasette, of July 6, 1780, pro
scribed him as a " Great Rebel," in a list which included the signers of the Declara
tion of Independence and two generals. When the theater of war shifted to the
South, in 1779, Mordeeai Sheftall was commissioned by the Provincial Congress to
fill the office of Commissary General of Issues for the State of Georgia. His son,
Sheftall Sheftall, became his deputy, and together they furnished supplies to the
soldiers. The large sums of money received and disbursed by them show that to
the fullest extent they possessed the confidence of the state authorities.
When Savannah fell into the hands of the British in 1779, the Sheftalls were
captured, put on board a prison ship, and transported to Antigua in the West Indies.
At first they were consigned to a common jail where they suffered great privations
and indignities, but they were afterwards released on parole. With other prisoners
of war, they were brought at a later period to Sunbury. Here, in a most singular
manner, the charter of the Union Society was saved from extinction. It was pro
vided in the charter that unless a meeting was held annually for the election of
officers, the charter itself was to "be forfeited. Mordecai Sheftall remembered this
provision. With three of his fellow-prisoners, who, by a fortunate coincidence, hap
pened to be members of the Union Society, he managed to hold a meeting1 before
the time limit expired. This took place under a tree which is said to have been the
birth-place of the first Masonic Lodge organized in Georgia. By virtue of this timely
rescue, the tree became known as Charter Oak. When exchanged, Mordeeai Sheftall
was appointed by the board, of war in Philadelphia, a flag master to carry funds
and provisions to General Moultrie for the destitute inhabitants of Charleston. It
is needless to say that he faithfully performed the trust.
After the Revolution, he was the victim of shameful ingratitude. From his own
private resources, he had spent large sums of money for the support of the Georgia
troops. When there were no funds on hand, he went into his own pocket for the
necessary means; but most unfortunately when the British entered Savannah the
commissary was sacked and many of his vouchers destroyed. Impoverished by the
war and broken in health, due to his prison life, he applied to the general govern
ment for reimbursement of expenditures; but the demand was not honored. Some
time in the '50s—more than half a century later—his heirs presented a claim to the
Legislature of Georgia; but the watch-dogs of the treasury managed to pigeon-hole
the resolution. To quote the terse comment of Mr. Abrahams: "Ingratitude is not
confined to individuals."
The old patriot died at his home in Savannah on July 6, 1797, and was buried
in the old Jewish cemetery which his liberality had set apart to the people of his
race. The year before he died, his fellow citizens of Chatham honored him with a
seat in the General Congress which convened at Louisville, then the capital of the
state. Sheftall Sheftall practiced law in Savannah until 1848. As long as he lived
he continued to wear Colonial knickerbockers; and because of his peculiar style of
dress which he refused to alter, in conformity with popular taste, he was called
"Cocked-Hat Sheftall." On the occasion of the visit of President Monroe to
Savannah in 1819 he was an honored guest at the banquet. Dr. Moses Sheftall, his
son, became an esteemed citizen of Savannah, a surgeon in the Chatham Eegiment,
and a judge of the Inferior Court. When Washington became chief magistrate of
the nation, in 1789, Levi Sheftall, then president of the Hebrew Congregation, of