Werts
Annals of Newberry, Part Two by John A. Chapman, page 655-57
The brothers, Henry Werts and John Werts, the ancestors of the Wertses of Newberry, Egdefield and Orangeburg,
at the age of eighteen and sixteen years respectively, were brave and ardent Whigs in the Revolutionary War. They
were of German descent. One incident related of these two brothers shows how much the Tories desired their capture
in order to wreak their vengeance upon them. While the two brothers were at home one day in the summer of 1780,
a party of Tories heard of their presence in the neighborhood and endeavored to capture them. Their coming was
a surprise to the young soldiers and they barely had time in which to escape. They selected as a hiding place,
unique and novel, the hollow banks of Crim's creek, and there took refuge behind the luxuriant grass and the thick
overhanging undergrowth of briar. The Tories searched up and down the creek, thrusting swords and bayonets into
the undergrowth, endeavoring to strike the two brave brothers with mortal wounds. Their search was all in vain.
The young soldiers had a narrow escape, however, for several times the Tories' swords pierced through the undergrowth
in uncomfortable proximity as they crouched in their hiding place beneath the banks of the creek. The brothers
afterwards did valiant service in the Revolution, and were made captains in the early days of the militia.
Captain Henry Werts had five sons, Henry, John, David, Michael and Adam, who all settled on Bush River, and four
daughters, Elizabeth. Mary Magdalene, (who became the wife of Matthias Barre), Catherine and Tena. Henry, the eldest
sun, never married. John married Eve Riser, and their chiluren were Tena, Sarah, Susan, John and \Villiam
lVI. Tena married Peter Hikard and Sarah married Michael Fellers. Susan married Solomon P. Kinard, who was appointed
postmaster at Newberry in 1852. He held the office under the Confederate Government, being also reappointed
after the war.
His surviving children in Newberry are James H. M., one of the proprietors of the Newberry Observer, Melissa, wife
of B. H. Lovelace; William A.; Thomas Edward, an engineer, lives in Georgia ; John A., eldest son, died in 1887;
Mary, eldest daughter, wife of W. H. Blats, died in 1802. William M. Werts, twice married; first Elizabeth, the
daughter of Squire
Samuel Bowers; of their three sons, James, Samuel and William; James and Samuel are living. The daughters are Lavinia,
wife of John Mathis, Leonora Alice, wife of J. W. Hartman, Sallie Eve, wife of Andrew M. Counts, and Bettie, the
youngest, dead. The second wife of William M. was the widow of Levi Wheeler. Edward S., son by this union, is a
teacher in Knoxville, Tenn. Another son, William, died in infancy.
David Werts married Mary Lever. One of their sons, John A., a good man esteemed by all his neighbors, died in 1891,
leaving a widow and three children. Of the family of J. Belton, who has moved away, I know but little. A daughter
is the wife of Braxton B. Davis, who lives in Newberry.
The sons of Michael (who married Susan, daughter of Col. .John Summer of the Dutch Fork), were Michael, who now
(1892) is a successful farmer and true citizen, living at Silver Street; Henry, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Caroline,
and Susan. It appears almost an interminable labyrinth in the ties of the relationship which the compiler endeavors
to trace out in these biographies. Michael married Elizaheth, daughter and only child of David Stephens, a man
noted for independence of thought and more than ordinary intelligence. Their children now living are Alice,
wife of J. Fred. Schumpert; Emma, wife of Dr. Jas. M. Kibler, whose grandfather, Matthias Barre, was the husband
of her great aunt - an instance of the aforesaid labyrinthal tie that binds humanity together; Fannie, wife
of James L. Morehead; Maggie, Clarence and Florence. Henry and Jonathan married sisters, Nancy and Drucilla Spearman,
and their descendants form a thrifty element in the Silver Street section. Eliza was the wife of John Elmore of
Newberry. Caroline was the wife of William B. Reagin, and their living children are James B., John W., Robert T.,
G.
Burton, and Elizabeth C. One son, Henry.W., was killed in the war; one daughter, Susan, wife of J. D. Suber, is
dead. Susan married George Lemg and survives him. Their children were Latimer W. and several others dead, and Geo.
M., living, in Florida.
'l'he elder Michael Werts was thrice married; Adelaide, only child of the second union, was the wife of Thos.
M. Paysinger.
Adam Werts married Elizabeth Hope and left two sons who moved to Edgefield, and another, David, living near Deadfall.
Captain John Werts reared two sons and three daughters, William, Henry, Barbara, Tena and Catherine. William, the
eldest of his sons, married Elizabeth Bowers. One of their sons, the Rev. J. H. W. Wertz (final s changed to z)
was a Lutheran minister and died in 1883. One of his sons, Joseph Quincy Wertz, is also a Lutheran minister and
lives in North Carolina. Several sons of John Werts settled in Edgefield.
Henry, the second son of Capt. John Werts, married Elizabeth Lever; of their sons, Dr. D. H. Wert; now lives
near Slighs, G. Paul, living at the old home place; Edward and W. Anderson, dead; Henry Middleton and Wesley, killed
in the war. Barbara, the eldest daughter of Capt. John Werts, John Berly, who is elsewhere mentioned in these biographies.
Tena married William Kinard and their children were Adam, Keren-Happoch, wife of Capt. H. H. Riser, of Edgefield:
Catherine, wife of W. A. Hipp, whose sons are Moses Q. Hipp and J. J. Hipp; Elizabeth, wife of Major Jacob Epting,
whose children are L. Iraenius, Bunyan O., Julius J., Nannie, wife of G. M. Ables, Dr. Berly R., a physician of
Greenwood, Monroe J., a Lutheran minister, Thomas and Charles.
In the biography of the family of Captain John Werts I find that five of his desendants became ministers of the
Gospel. First, his grandson, that consecrated man, earnest student and powerful preacher, Wm. Berly;
then his great-grandson, J. Eusebitis; contemporary with the elder Berly came another grandson, Rev. J. H.
W. Wertz, who was a pioneer
of the Lutheran Church in building up the waste places, and his son, Joseph Quincy; and in the third generation,
Rev. Monroe J. Epting. Truly they had godly fathers and consecrated mothers.
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