Hentz Family Annals of Newberry, Part Two by John A. Chapman, page 644-46 About the year 1760 Matthias Hentz lived near the mouth of Cannon's Creek on Broad River. There is a tradition in the family that his father, who lived in the lower German Settlement, was accused of witchcraft and suffered the penalty of death at the hands of fanatical neighbors by being smoth­ered between feather beds. If this be true, and even this is doubtful, it is the only case of the kind where the penalty of death for witchcraft was ever inflicted in South Carolina, by authority of law or without it - while in enlightened New England, in the Province of Massachusetts between the years 1645 and 1695 many persons were put to death after due process of trial at law. In 1640 four persons were put to death in Massachusetts, in 168S, one woman was executed for witchcraft in Boston. "Then," says the historian, "commenced at Salem that dreadful tragedy which rendered New England for many months a scene of bloodshed, terror and madness, and at one time seemed to threaten the subversion of civil society. In the year 1692, the frenzy of the colonists reached the highest pitch of extravagance. Suspicions and accusations of witchcraft became general among them; and on this fanciful charge many persons were put to death".......(One historian says as many as twenty.) "Persons accused of the imaginary crime of witchcraft were imprisoned, condemned, hanged, and their bodies left exposed to wiJd beasts and birds of prey. Children ten years of age were put to death; young women were stripped naked, and the marks of witchcraft sought for on their bodies with unblushing curi­ogity. The prisons were filled, the gibbets left standing, and the citizens were appalled. Under this frightful delirium the miserable colonists seemed doomed to destruc­tion by each other's hands. The more prudent withdrew from a country polluted by the blood of its inhabitants, and the ruin of the colony seemed inevitable." The reader will please bear in mind that none of these victims were burned at the stake, they were only hanged. The New Englanders are very touchy on that point. To return to Hentz. It is probable that the father of Matthias Hentz was the man who was murdered by the fanatic Weaver and his followers on the Saluda. The story is told by Dr. Hazelius, and also by Bernheim in his history of the Lutherarl Church. Weaver was arrested, taken to Charleston, tried, convicted of murder and was hanged. After the murder of her husband the widow left the Saluda and removed to near the mouth of Cannon's Creek on Broad River, where she became the mother of Matthias Hentz. This is related as a probability only. Matthias married and became the father of two sons: David and Michael. Michael moved to Georgia where he left numerous descendants, among them John, the husband of Caroline Lee Hentz, the celebrated authoress. John is the only one of the name, who ever sought or obtained public office. He served as County Sheriff and a member of the Legislature. David Hentz left two sons, Wm. R. and H. M. and three daughters, Mrs. John Adam Folk of Pomaria; Mrs. Wm. Reid, of Cannon's Creek; and Mrs. George Sondley, of Bull Street. H. M. Hentz died in 1852, leaving an infant son, Wm. J. Wm. R. Hentz died in 1877, leaving four sons, D. J.; T. M.; Wm. A., and Dr. E. O.; and one daughter, Mrs. P. M. Derrick. The male descendants of David Hentz are all now living on lands he owned and within five miles of them-except one great-grandson whose home is in Texas. I take pleasure in adding that so far as is known no Hentz has ever been arraigned before a court or sued on a debt.