Huttendorf Heritage

 Huttendorf Heritage
I’ve never been to the country of Germany, but the roots of my family started in the soil of a town in the southern part that country. From those who researched my family’s history, my ancestors lived in the town of Huttendorf. They ran a butcher shop there. On a sign over the door of the shop was the head of a calf, they were so proud and it was so important to them that it was included in the family crest. The Kolb (Kalp) coat of arms was drawn by an heraldic artist. Documentation for the Kalp coat of arms can be found in Siebmacher’s Wappenbuch. In their language describing the Coat of Arms used the terms *Ein Kalbskopf, translated “The head of a calf.”
The last name was sometimes changed in the translation and Americanized to Culp and Kalp, while others retained the De Kolb or De Kalb spelling.
Their original name was Kalb. I was always told that there was a baron in the clan and found out that it was in gact Baron Johan Dekalb. He was born June 29, 1721. Johan was trained by the French military rising to the rank of brigadier-general. He was famous in America’s history. Baron De Kalb played a prominent role in the French and Indian War. He was sent by France as a spy to observe the temperment of the colonists toward the British. Two decades later, he accompanied Lafayette to support the American cause against Great Britain. In 1777 Johan entered the colonies at Charleston and made his was to Philadelphia. The Continental Congress made him Major-general.
In April 1780 De Lalbwas ordered to leave Morristown, New Jersey to the relief of Charleston, South Carolina, but the city fell to the British while he was marching south. At Deep River, North Carolinahe he joined Generel Horatio Gates. On August 14 they marched against the British at Camden. The British drove Gates from the field, but De Kalb remained in battle. His gorse was shot out from under him. Before he got up, he was shot three times and bayonnetted repeatedly.
He reportedly said to a British officer who volunteered to help the Baron, “I than you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for: the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man.”