John Adam Treutlen

JOHN ADAM TREUTLEN. On these lands stood the home of John Adam Treutlen, the first Governor of Georgia after the State obtained independence, being elected in 1777 under the first Constitution of Georgia. A Salzburger, born about 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 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, and a Magistrate in that County. A member of the First Provincial Congress of Georgia, meeting in Savannah, July 4, 1775, he was appointed to the Council of Safety.

During his service as Governor, Treutlen mortgaged his personal property to help defray expenses of Government and of the Revolution. His plantation devastated and buildings burned by the Tories, he moved his family for their safety to Orangeburg District, South Carolina, where he established residence in 1779.

There he was killed by the Tories in 1782. 051-19 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1963