First Families of Orangeburgh District, South Carolina
Yssenhut, Hazelwood (Eisenhut, Issenhut, Heizenhood, Isenhood, Heselwood, Yessenhoot, Ussenhut)
1a. JOHANNES EISENHUT was born 1 Jul 1685 in Gais, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, CH, to Hans Eisenhut, ratsherr (councilor) of Gais, and his first wife Barbara Sonderegger. Johannes died in 1742 in Carolina.[1]
Commercially published Swiss genealogies do not specifically identify this Johannes Eisenhut[2]. However, a Eisenhut family history privately published by Werner Eisenhut-Blatter in 1988 documents the family back into the 1400’s in Gais, originating with Hans Eisenhut, documented in 1475 as Landvogt im Rheintal[1].
Johannes Eisenhut was surveyed a plat for 200 acres adjacent Peter Fauré on 17 Sep 1736[3]. The amount of land indicates that three others were in his household when he received his grant. These were Abraham, Anna, and Margaret Eisenhut.
1b. ANNA EISENHUT was born 22 Apr 1715 in Gais to Abraham Eisenhut (brother of Johannes) and his first wife, Anna Schläpfer. Anna was the niece of immigrant Johannes Eisenhut and the half-sister of immigrant Abraham Eisenhut[1]. Ann Yssenhut was married to John Fairy on 5 Feb 1743[4, 5]. This John Fairy is not the founder of the modern Fairey family, but an earlier immigrant often identified as John Farree.
1c. ABRAHAM EISENHUT was born on 29 May 1720 in Gais, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, CH, to Abraham Eisenhut (brother of Johannes) and his second wife Cathrina Heim[1]. The Gais parish register shows that immigrant Abraham Eisenhut was the nephew of immigrant Johannes Eisenhut and the half-brother of immigrant Anna Eisenhut.. Abraham Eisenhut died after 1778/79 in Orangeburgh, SC[2]. He married MARY DATTWYLER, daughter of MELCHIOR DATTWYLER[6,7,8]
Parish records and colonial land grants and deeds document Abraham Eisenhut as founder of the Yssenhut and Hazelwood family names in Orangeburg. As Abraham"Hazelwood" he was the father of Margaret, who married Joseph Duke and introduced the Hazelwood name to the Dukes family for many generations. Eisenhut was the common Swiss spelling.
Abraham was the nephew of John Hysenhoeds, who was surveyed a plat for 200 acres adjacent Peter Fauré on 17 Sep 1736[3]. This is confirmed by a deed. On 10 May 1751 "Abraham Husenhoods, laborer," and his wife Mary sold the land originally granted to "the uncle of said Abraham" to Henry Felder, cordwainer[9]. Similarly, it is a memorial for land sold to Henry Felder that establishes Abraham and Mary as heirs of Melchior Dattwyler[3].
Abraham Heisenwood's first petition to the Council for land in his own name, read 4 March 1747/48, indicated that his household consisted of himself and his wife, plus two children, none previously granted land. He further explained that he had been a settler in the province for 12-13 years at that time[10]. He therefore arrived in South Carolina in about 1735-36, with his uncle John. In 1748 Abraham was surveyed 200 acres bounded on the northwest by Joseph Hasfort's land, and on the southwest by John Hearn's land[11].
Petitions for subsequent grants were made citing three additional children on 4 Mar 1754[12] and four additional children on 5 Feb 1767[13]. These petitions were granted [14, 15, 16, 17]. The 1754 petition is the first occurrence of the "Hazelwood" spelling, which was used very infrequently thereafter and became standard only in the Dukes family, which commemorated Abraham in the use of the name "Hazelwood" for Dukes children for generations thereafter.
In 1778/79 Abraham Isenhood appears as one of the 29 Grand Jurors below Orangeburg[18].
Children of Abraham Eisenhut and Mary Dattwyler are:
b. ABRAHAM YSSENHUT, born in Orangeburgh District, SC, 29 Sep 1747[4, 5].
c. JOHANNES YSSENHUT, born in Orangeburgh District, SC, 31 May 1750[4, 5].
d. ISAAC YSSENHUT (twin), born in Orangeburgh District, SC, 26 Dec 1752[4, 5].
e. JACOB YSSENHUT (twin), born in Orangeburgh District, SC, 26 Dec 1752[4, 5].
f. MARIA YSSENHUT, born in Orangeburgh District, SC, 3 Oct 1754[4, 5].
g. JOHN YSSENHUT, born in Orangeburgh District, SC, 7 Apr 1757[4, 5].
The six children were with Mary Dattwyler.
This total accounts for only six of the nine children mentioned by Abraham in testimony to the South Carolina Council in land petitions. An Elizabeth Hazelwood is said to have married George Summers, and is certainly a child of Abraham Eisenhut. Also, a Peter Whisenhunt was a loyalist and a member of Col. John Fisher's Regiment, Orangeburgh Militia, Captain Christian House's Company, in 1780, and could have been another child of Abraham Eisenhut. John and Jacob "Hazelwood" were also listed in the same unit[19].
1d. MARGARET EISENHUT, married Joseph Dukes about 1749. Her date and place of birth are unknown. Oral tradition identifies her as a daughter of Abraham Eisenhut, and she was certainly one of the four members of the household of immigrant Johannes Eisenhut in 1736. Since the immigrant Abraham Eisenhut was only 16 at the time, it is not possible that she was the daughter of that Abraham Eisenhut. Margaret was old enough to marry in 1749; her first child was born in 1750[4, 5]. However, it is possible that she was a daughter of the older Abraham Eisenhut, father of the immigrant of that name and of immigrant Anna Eisenhut. This is unproven, since Margaret does not appear in the Gais parish records, and she could have been a daughter of some other family member.
REFERENCES:
1. Eisenhut-Blatter, Werner. 1988. Stammliste des Geschlechts der Eisenhut von Gais (Kanton Appenzell-Ausserrhoden). St. Gallen: privately published. [available at the Salley Archives, Orangeburg, SC]
2. Sprenger, Anton. E-mail message to Lynn Shuler Teague on 28 Aug 2003.
Dobler, Alfred. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Familienforschung. Zentrale-Auskunftsstelle. E-mail message to Lynn Shuler Teague on 29 Aug 2003.
3. SC Archives, Colonial Plats (John Hysenhoed), Ser. S213184, Vol. 0009, Pg. 00429, Itm. 02.
4. A. S. Salley, Jr., The History of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, 1898, pp 105, 107, 124, 127, 136, 138, 151, 169.
5. Joop Giesendanner, "The Book of Record, Orangeburgh, SC". http://www.xs4all.nl/~sail/.
6. SC Archives, Colonial Plats (Meicher Sackweiller), Ser. S213184, Vol. 0019, Pg. 00337, Itm. 01.
7. SC Archives, Colonial Grants (Melchior Sackweiller), Ser. S213019, Vol. 0034, Pg. 00532.
8. SC Archives, Colonial Memorials, Ser. S111001, Vol. 0012, Pg. 00063.
9. Register of Mesne Conveyance (Charleston County Deeds) Book LL. p. 344.
10. Holcomb, Brent, H. 1996. Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals. Volume I: 1734/5-1748. Columbia: SCMAR. p. 309
11. SC Archives, Colonial Plats (Abraham Heizenwood), Ser. S213184, Vol. 0004, Pg. 00429, Itm. 02.
12. Holcomb, Brent, H. 1998. Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals, Vol. IV: 1754-1756. (Columbia: SCMAR), p. 31.
13. Holcomb, Brent, H. 1999. Petitions for Land from the South Carolina Council Journals, Vol. VI: 1766-1770. (Columbia: SCMAR), p. 54.
14. SC Archives, Colonial Grants (Abraham Hazlewood), Ser. S213019, Vol. 0007, Pg. 00202.
15. SC Archives, Colonial Plats (Abraham Hazlewood), Ser. S213184, Vol. 0009, Pg. 00107, Itm. 01.
16. SC Archives, Colonial Grants (Abraham Hazlewood), Ser. S213019, Vol. 0015, Pg. 00117.
17. SC Archives, Colonial Memorials, Ser. S111001, Vol. 0009, Pg. 00411, Item. 04.
18. "The Jury Lists of South Carolina, 1778-1779, Orangeburg District." p. 66.
19. Clark, Murtie June. 1981. Loyalists in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War. Vol. I: official Rolls of Loyalists Recruited from North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc.), pp. 199, 207.
Other references to this surname are found in OSGSG Newsletters: Vol. 1 #12 p. 57, Vol. 5 #8 p. 144, Vol. 5 #3 p 51 & 52, Vol 6 # 1 P. 15 & 16.
Information provided by Lynn Shuler Teague, September 11, 2003, December 20, 2008, August 7, 2009, August 19, 2016.