Post # 4 ~ Hamburg Rising

Hamburg's Day in the Sun

This post looks at Hamburg itself, a place we might describe today as a boom town, built to ship cotton on the Savannah River.

Shipping cotton, from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1862. LOC.

In my last, I introduced Henry Schultz, the colorful, self-promoting merchant who vowed revenge on his enemies in Augusta, Georgia, and set out to build a rival market-town that would pull in all the trade of back-country SC, GA, TN, and NC. Shultz named his new place after his hometown of Hamburg, Germany. His town grew rapidly for about three decades. An 1891 article in The Atlanta Journal recorded the memories of elderly Augusta merchant William C. Sibley, a contemporary of Henry L. Jeffers. 

Post # 10 ~ Savannah River Rising

Fifteen Feet in One Night
~ Dealing with the Freshet on the Savannah River ~

The NY Evening Post published a report written by a Hamburg train depot manager. Clipped and transcribed from The Evening Post, New York, New York. Tuesday, 1840-06-02, Page 2:

TEXT TRANSCRIPTION:

From the Charleston Mercury, May 29.

DISASTROUS FLOOD. - We scarcely know in what terms to report the terrible freshet that has just visited Augusta and Hamburg. This much is certain, that