Michael Hentz Family
Michael Hüntz was a farmer's son from Hörvelsingen (misinterpreted as Gervelfingen by Gerber). In Machtolsheim he married on 23 April 1752, Anna Barbara Örtler, a weaver's daughter from Bermaringen. The couple were married with the foreknowledge of the Lord Dean, on the day after the marriage of their fellow-villager Andreas Dominick. Of them the pastor wrote, "these people likewise made the resolution to go at once to the New World with others. Because there was no longer time for their banns to be proclaimed in the territory of Ulm, marriage was denied them. They came therefore to me, and asked me, in tears, to marry them" (D. H. Yoder: "Emigrants from Württemberg: The Adolf Gerber Lists," in "The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society," Vol. 10, 1945, pp. 103-237).
Michael Huntz and wife left Machtolsheim about the beginning of May 1752 traveling with the families of Johann and Andreas Dominick and traveled to SC on the Caledonia. They arrived in SC in October 1752.
As Michael "Haynes" he was awarded a 100 acre bounty grant near the mouth of Cannons Cr., now in Newberry Co., SC. The "Annals of Newberry" (Chapman, p. 644-5) state that Mathias Hentz lived near the mouth of Cannon's Creek and that his father had lived in the lower German settlement. This account goes on to describe Mathias Hentz' father as having been killed during an incident that describes the heretical Weberite uprising of about 1760.
In 1794 Mathias Hentz was a petitioner for incorporation of St. John's Lutheran Church, Pomaria, SC.
The name of the first wife of Matthias Hentz is unknown. By 1808, Matthias Hentz was remarried to Magdalena Wicker Ridlehuber, d/o Matthias Wicker, who was first married to George Michael Ridlehuber. The children of Matthias Hentz and his first wife are described in Sandra J. Lee's "Newberry County, SC Equity Records, 1818-1844."
The following description of the family of Matthias Hentz is taken from the research of Rosemary Dodd Bowers.
A. David Hentz, b. 23 Sept 1784, d. 2 June 1850, m. Elizabeth Bundrick, b. 3 May 1784, d. 26 Dec 1843, daughter of Charles Bundrick and Agnes Wicker. Both bur. Hentz Cemetery, Pomaria, SC. David Hentz was a Justice of the Peace in 1818 (T. H. Pope, "History of Newberry County," Vol. I).
1. Sara Katherine Hentz, d. 17 Sept 1839 (age 33), m. (as first wife) John Adam Folk, Jr., b. 5 Feb. 1799, d. 5 July 1855, son of John Adam Folk, Sr. and Eve Margaret Dickert.
2. Rebecca Hentz, b. 26 May 1809, d. 18 Jan 1843, m. George Sondley, b. 9 Oct. 1798, d. 13 Nov 1847. Both bur. Bethlehem Church cemetery, Pomaria, SC.
3. Susannah Hentz, d. 4 Apr 1846 (age 34 yrs., 10 mo., 24 days), m. William Reid, d. 19 July 1850 (50 yrs. old). Both bur. Cannon's Cr. ARP Cemetery.
4. William Rutherford Hentz, b. 2 Feb. 1816, d. 28 Feb. 1887, m. 31 Dec 1835, Ann Elizabeth Cromer, b. 31 Jan 1820, d. 11 Oct 1901, daughter of Adam Cromer & Frances Hoard. Both bur. Hentz Family cemetery, Pomaria, SC.
5. Henry Middleton Hentz, b. 23 Feb. 1818, d. 6 June 1852, buried Hentz Graveyard, Pomaria, SC, m. Elizabeth R. Lake, d. 19 Sept 1857 (age 35), bur. Lake Family Cemetery, dau. of Enoch Lake & Elizabeth Buchanan.
B. Katherine "Katy" Hentz m. Michael Wicker, b. about 1796, son of John Henry Wicker and Elizabeth Cromer.
1. Mathias Wicker, b. 16 Feb. 1816, d. 3 Apr 1884, m. Rachel Bedenbaugh, b. 12 Sept 1825, d. 31 May 1892, daughter of Henry Bedenbaugh and Elizabeth Bright. Both bur. Colony Lutheran Church cemetery, Prosperity, SC.
2. Frances Wicker, b. 1818, d. after 1880, m. Levi Livingston, b. 1810, d. after 1880, son of John Livingston and Margaret Maffitt.
3. James Anderson Wicker, b. 26 March 1819, d. 10 Feb. 1864, m. Sarah Kibler, b. 12 Dec 1820, d. 8 June 1879, bur. Livingston Family Cemetery, daughter of Michael Kibler, Jr. and Elizabeth Koon.
4. Thomas Peter Jefferson Wicker, b. 10 Sept 1820, d. 20 Aug. 1896, m. Martha Livingston, b. 11 Oct 1819, d. 12 Jan 1879, sister of Levi Livingston. Both bur. Maffett and Wicker Cemetery, Newberry Co., SC.
C. Michael Hentz, m. Mary "Polly" Sligh, b. about 1790, daughter of John Jacob and Christina Sligh. They moved to Georgia (Annals of Newberry, p. 645).
D. Molly Hentz.
Submitter: Carl Nichols
Updated 3 August 2004