CAROLINA CRADLE Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, /;'47-1762 On the eve of All-Souls' Day I heard the dead men say Who lie by the tottering tower, To the dark and doubling wind At the midnight's turning hour, When other speech had thinned: "What of the world now?" The wind whiffed back: "Men still Who are born, do good, do ill Here, fust as in your time: Till their years the locust hath eaten, Leaving them bare, downbeaten; Somewhiles in Springtide rime, Somewhiles in summer glow, Somewhiles in winter snow:— No more I know." —Thomas Hardy CAROLINA CRADLE Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762 ROBERT W. RAMSEY The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill © 1964 by the University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-8078-0934-1 ISBN 978-0-8078-4189-1 (pbk.) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 64-22530 12 II 10 09 08 IJ 14 73 12 II To my father, whose profound understanding of the history and people of piedmont Carolina helped make this work possible This page intentionally left blank INTRODUCTION The records of Rowan County, North Carolina, date as far back as 1752. These ancient land grants, deeds, wills, mar- riages, and church and cemetery records contain the history of the northwest Carolina frontier, the doorway to the South and West. Rowan County originally included practically all of central and northwestern North Carolina and extended westward to the Mississippi River, having no western boundary line. While the vast amount of public and other records are in existence in this region, there is no information here to indicate whence these settlers came and why they came. From a historical standpoint, these facts are vital and badly needed. No one has ever taken the time and made the effort to dig out the facts contained in thousands of pages of courthouse and other perti- nent records. No historian has ever gone back into the records at both ends—at the source and here in the area between the Yadkin and the Catawba rivers. As a beginning, a deep and intensive study would need to be made of the courthouse and other records in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia to ascertain when these early settlers arrived from Europe, where they settled, what they did, and what became of them. Their story has been hidden in the many church, state, and county records from New Jersey to North Carolina. Over two hundred years have passed since these settlers began their journey to the south. The records that they left have never before been explored by a skilled and resourceful historian and researcher who knew how to find the records and how to arrange and evalu- ate them. Great skill, patience, perservance, knowledge, and in- telligence, coupled with a deep personal interest, were necessary to present the facts and to establish them by documentary evidence. After two hundred years, this volume will now record for all Vlll INTRODUCTION time the needed facts that persons of this and later generations will need and want to know. Dr. Robert Ramsey has done a magnificent service to North Carolina and to the nation. The work represents many years of hard labor, study, travel, and research in those places where the facts were recorded. Only by the wide use of actual records can the historical accuracy of such a volume be achieved. Dr. Ramsey has done what was needed and what was necessary in this respect. Since his family back- ground is here in the land of the "Carolina Cradle," he has a deep personal interest in his subject. As a result of Dr. Ramsey's years of effort, it is now possible for the student, the historian, the librarian, and the genealogist to read the story of the evolution of the northwest Carolina frintier. In a speech at the Rowan Public Library, at Salisbury, N. C., in April 1964, Dr. Hugh Lefler, a native of the area and one of the outstanding historians of the United States, paid a high tribute to the work of Dr. Ramsey. Dr. Lefler stated that the research for the volume Carolina Cradle was of the highest order. He said that Dr. Ramsey's book was one of the really outstanding works on North Carolina that had been written. The appendices and bibliography to the volume consist of 34 pages of material that are filled with a wealth of information, giving actual records or abstracts of data used in the volume. Many names of Quakers, Presbyterians, Baptists, and other denominations, both in North Carolina and those colonies that furnished the early settlers, are given. Passenger lists from ships with origins of sailings, destinations, and dates are listed in detail. Difficult names spelled in many various ways are made clear. North Carolina courthouse records are, in an understanding way, tied in with the records from those colonies in which the settlers of the northwest Carolina frontier originated. The volume includes fully and completely the names of the early families that settled between the Yadkin and the Catawba, with maps showing the exact places where they settled on the frontier. These maps show the streams, churches, and land- marks of the frontier area. There are eighteen chapters in Dr. Ramsey's volume. Each deals with some vital aspect of the northwest Carolina frontier and its settlement. For instance, in chapter three there is a list of the first settlers in the area between the Yadkin and the Catawba that includes such names as James Carter, Morgan Bryan, Edward INTRODUCTION IX Hughes, Samuel Davis, Robert Gamble, John Dunn, George Forbush, William Linville, Thomas Gillespie, John Holmes, Thomas Bell, James Cathey, George Cathey, John Cathey, James Graham, Richard Graham, John Graham, Felix Kennedy, John Withrow, John Brandon (senior and junior), Richard Brandon, William Brandon, John Lock, Matthew Lock, John Davidson, George Davidson (senior and junior), David Templeton, James Templeton, John Sill, Alexander Osborne, Walter Carruth, Jane Carruth, Adam Carruth, James Marlin, James Mackilwean, John Brevard, Robert Brevard, William Sherrill, Abenton Sherrill, and Adam Sherrill. There are forty others whose names should probably be included in the above, but no evidence has been dis- covered to show that they were in North Carolina before June, 1749. The names of Cowan and Barkley would be among these. Historians, genealogists, libraries, schools, and colleges as well as the general public will find this volume an invaluable source of information. They will find it a reference work that will give facts that will be found in no other work. The index makes it easy to locate any given item. The maps and charts giving the names and places of settlement of the early families is a most valuable part of the work. Among the valuable and interesting chapters of the book are those which tell about "The Forks of the Yadkin," "The First Settlements," "The Germans of Present Rowan County," "The Western Settlements, 1752-1762," "The Irish Settlement," "The Scotch-Irish Migration," "The German Migration," "The Establishment of Salisbury," "The French and Indian War," and other pertinent information. In order for the reader of the volume to easily understand the text, Dr. Ramsey has included many pages of maps, old docu- ments, and charts which give a clear picture of the meaning of each subject covered in the book. One of the outstanding features of this volume is the inclusion of great numbers of notes, gathered from countless original sources as well as other sources where advisable. These notes give details and list the sources of the information given, enabling those who desire more about any given subject to know exactly where to look for additional information. This volume by Dr. Ramsey will give a new conception to the history of North Carolina. It shows the importance and the great influence of the North Carolina frontier upon the growth and development of our nation. The records of the early settlers X INTRODUCTION who came here and then moved on to the west will remain here in the "Carolina Cradle" and in those states that gave these settlers to the northwest Carolina frontier. Dr. Ramsey has made a great and lasting contribution to history by gathering these records and including them in this volume. Its importance extends far beyond the borders of North Carolina. William D. Kizziah PREFACE Historians have long been fascinated by the concept of the American frontier. Countless books and monographs have been written in an effort to explain, define, justify, or otherwise ex- pound upon the term. Notable among these efforts have been Frederick Jackson Turner's The Frontier in American History, Frederick L. Paxson's History of the American Frontier, G. P. Garrison's Westward Extension, Thomas D. Clark's Frontier America, and Ray A. Billington's Westward Expansion. Many able historians have recognized in their works that the frontier was really synonymous with the people who occupied it. Chief among these have been M. L. Hansen's The Immigrant in American History, H. J. Ford's The Scotch-Irish in America, A. B. Faust's The German Element in the United States, Louis B. Wright's Culture on the Moving Frontier, W. P. Webb's The Great Plains, and Lois Kimball Mathews' The Expansion of New England. Clearly, much has been written about the frontier. And yet, the writing has been largely general in nature, particularly with regard to the colonial period. With the exception of great land speculators and other key figures in the development of land companies, remarkably few individuals are identified and assessed.