USA > South Carolina > History of the German settlements and of the Lutheran church in North and South Carolina : from the earliest period of the colonization of the Dutch, German, and Swiss settlers to the close of the first half of the present century > Part 9
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tances, would be the very spot where the grave of Rev. Theus can still be seen, and furnishes, furthermore, the name by which that church was known. This house of God must have been de- stroyed during the Revolutionary War, as all traces of the same after that period appear to have been lost; it is not mentioned in the general act of incorporation of all the German churches, passed by the legislature of South Carolina in 1788.
During the years 1759 and 1760, the people of Saxe-Gotha suffered greatly from the ravages of the Cherokee war. During the time that the French and English were at war with each other in the colonies of America, which however did not reach as far south as the Carolinas; the French instigated the Cherokee Indians to make war upon the peaceful settlers of the two Carolinas, who murdered the white inhabitants at midnight, whilst they were wrapped in their peaceful slumbers, and committed atrocities at which humanity shudders. The Congaree and Fork settlements were then mostly exposed to the fearful inroads of the sav- ages, as but few settlers were living further in the interior than the Germans were at that time. Bolzius informs us, that many were compelled to take refuge among the Germans at Ebenezer and Savannah, whilst others fled for safety to Charleston, Purysburg, and other places, until those Indian hostilities were ended, and peace and security was again restored.
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Section 12. The German Settlers from Pennsylvania in Central North Carolina, A.D. 1750.
Had a traveller from Pennsylvania visited, about forty or fifty years ago, portions of the present counties of Alamance, Guilford, Davidson, Rowan, Cabarrus, Stanly, Iredell, Catawba, Lincoln and some others in the State of North Carolina, he might have believed himself to have unexpectedly come upon some part of the old Keystone State. His ear would have been greeted with sounds of the peculiar dialect of the Pennsylvania-German language, familiarly known as " Pennsylvanisch- Deutsch," a language made up of the dialects used in the ancient Palatinate, Würtemberg and other countries bordering along the Rhine, inter- mixed with English words, which plainly indicate that many of their forefathers were some of those Protestant refugees, who fled from the persecutions of Louis XIV, king of France, and were brought to America under the kind and fostering care of Queen Anne of England.
This language, however, has almost become ex- tinet in North Carolina; a few aged persons may still be found, who are fond of conversing in that kind of German with those who are acquainted with it, but in a few more years the last vestige of Pennsylvania-German will be sought for in vain in this State, where once even many of the negro slaves of these Germans spoke no other language.
Family names are to be met with in this section of North Carolina, which are familiar in Mont-
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gomery, Berks, Lehigh and Northampton Coun- ties of Pennsylvania, such as the Propsts, the Bostians, the Kleins (Cline), the Trexlers, the Schloughs, the Seitzs (Sides), the Reinhardts, the Bibers (Beaver), the Kohlmans (Coleman), the Derrs (Dry), the Bergers (Barrier), the Behringers (Barringer), and many others still abounding both in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Our supposed traveller might have worshiped on Sundays in churches, where the services were still conducted entirely in the German language, in which both the Lutheran and German Reformed had equal rights and privileges, and each denomi- nation alternately worshiped therein, as is still the case in many parts of Pennsylvania. The ever-present "Gemainshaftliches Gesangbuch " (union hymn-book) suited to the taste, at that time, of both denominations, would have been found in general use; and, at the centre of one of the long sides of the church, there would have stood the high and goblet-shaped pulpit, with a sounding-board suspended overhead of the officia- ting minister; a few such shaped pulpits may be seen in this State to the present day, but they will soon be numbered with the past.
The farm-yard of these Germans still abounds with fine and well-fed horses, and the old Penn- sylvania four-horse wagon securely housed in the shed between two corn-cribs, with the bow-shaped body suspended above it upon chains, ready to be let down in its position on the wagon, whenever it should be needed.
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In the dwelling-house, and behind a cheerful wood-fire, during the winter season, one might still notice a heavy iron plate placed upon the hearth to protect the back of the chimney, having singular devices cast upon its face, such as no ironworks of modern times are known to mould, with German sentences and "Redting Furniss" (Reading Fur- nace) standing out in relief, indicating that they were cast in the city of Reading, Berks County, at a time when those extensive iron manufactories of Pennsylvania were yet in their infancy, and per- haps brought along to North Carolina with the emigrants from the Keystone State.
On the blank pages of the old German Bibles of those first German settlers of North Carolina, we may frequently find the story of their colonization, stating that they were born in Pennsylvania at such a date, and that they emigrated to North Carolina and settled in such a county of that Province. Besides, all the aged citizens of that section, where the German descendants are located, will tell you that their ancestors came originally from Pennsylvania, and here and there you may meet a family, like the Heilig family, who still keep up a friendly intercourse with some of their relatives in Pennsylvania.
The conclusion then evidently is, in the absence of all State documents on that subject, and the silence of all historians of North Carolina, that the Province of Pennsylvania, and not Germany, furnished North Carolina with the most of her
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numerous German settlers, located in the central and western part of the State.
The cause of their migration from Pennsylvania to North Carolina may be found recorded in Wil- liamson's History of North Carolina, vol. ii, p. 71, which, however, he applies only to their neighbors, the Scotch-Irish settlers : "Land could not be ob- tained in Pennsylvania without much difficulty, for the proprietors of that Province purchased the soil by small parcels from the natives, and those lands were soon taken up;" and at that early period no one ventured to cross the Alleghany Mountains for the purpose of settling there, so the seekers after new homes went southward in- stead of westward, and kept to the east of the range of the Alleghanies, until they found unoc- cupied lands where they could make their settle- ments. Williamson informs us, vol. ii, p. 71, that "Lord Carteret's land in Carolina, where the soil was cheap, presented a tempting residence to people of every denomination."
The eastern portion of North Carolina having been settled at an early date by various colonies of English, Swiss, and German Palatines at New- berne, French Huguenots, and Scotch refugees, and these colonies having, in process of time, located their descendants as far inland as Hills- boro on the northern side of the Province, and the Pedee River on the southern side, with a number of Quakers and Scotch-Irish among them; an en- tirely new class of colonists, the Germans from the Province of Pennsylvania, as above described,
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arranged themselves on vacant lands to the east- ward and westward of the Yadkin River, whilst the Scotch-Irish from the same Province, who had always lived on friendly terms with their German neighbors in Pennsylvania, soon followed them southward, and occupied vacant lands mostly to the westward of the German settlers, along both sides of the Catawba River; these again, Germans and Scotch-Irish, at a later day, formed settlements of their descendants in the western part of the State. This is the brief story of the settling of North Carolina; the different European nationali- ties from which these settlers originated, occupy- ing strips of land across the State mostly in a southwesterly direction, like so many strata of a geological formation.
The Pennsylvania Germans journeyed in much the same manner as did the later colonists to the Western States, before railroads afforded a cheaper, safer and more speedy mode of transportation ; every available article for house and farm use, capable of being stowed away in their capacious wagons, was taken with them; and then the caval- cade moved on, every able-bodied person on foot, women and children on bedding in the wagons, and cattle, sheep, and hogs driven before them; they travelled by easy stages, upon the roads of the picturesque Cumberland and Shenandoah Valleys, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains in some part of Virginia, until they reached the land of their hopes and promise.
It is impossible to date precisely the arrival of
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all those German colonists from Pennsylvania, as they all depended upon themselves for leaving home and journeying southward; they arrived continuously for a number of years in succession, usually leaving home in the fall season, after all the harvesting was over and the proceeds of the year's labor could be disposed of; they arrived at their places of settlement just before the commencement of the winter season. The first arrival of the pioneer train may have occurred about the year 1745, but the large body of these German colonists did not commence to settle in North Carolina until about the year 1750; this may be gathered partly from tradition, partly from old family records in their German Bibles, but mostly from the title- deeds of their lands, which were always dated some years after their actual settlement, affording them time to decide upon a permanent location, and to make some other necessary arrangement, having to run no risk in losing their titles by the delay of a few years.
These German settlers were all industrious, economical, and thrifty farmers, not afraid nor ashamed of hard labor, and were soon blessed with an abundance of everything, which the fertile soil and temperate climate of that portion of North Carolina could furnish them. As they were all agriculturists, they generally avoided settling themselves in towns; uninformed in the ways of the world, ignorant of the English language, and unacquainted with the shrewdness necessary for merchandising, yet well informed in their own
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language, and well read in their Bibles and other devotional German books, they remained at their own country homes, and enriched themselves with the productions of the soil; hence we witness the fact, that very few Lutheran and German Reformed churches were erected in the towns of North Car- olina at that early day; and when, in process of time, it did become necessary to build churches in the villages and towns of the State, it was found exceedingly difficult to get the members from the country to become accustomed to the new ar- rangement.
Inasmuch as these settlers located themselves so gradually, as before stated, besides being di- vided into two denominations, it was some time before they were sufficiently numerous to have a pastor located and permanently settled among them ; sermons and prayers were usually read on Sunday by their German school-teacher, and when- ever they were permitted to enjoy the regular ad- ministration of the preached word and sacraments, which was but seldom, it was afforded them by some self-appointed missionary, whilst their school- teacher usually buried their dead with an appro- priate ceremony from the German liturgy, and, in case of urgent necessity, baptized their children.
Section 13. The Moravians at Salem, N. C., A.D. 1753.
The first colony of Moravians settled in Georgia in the year 1735, under the leadership of Rt. Rev. A.
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G. Spangenberg, a bishop in the Moravian Church, or " Unitas Fratrum," as that Church is sometimes called. This new colony came one year later than the first arrival of the Lutheran Salzburgers at Ebenezer, Georgia, and located itself between Savannah and Ebenezer. The Moravians, how- ever, did not remain long in Georgia; in 1737 a war broke out between the English colonies and the Spaniards, who believed themselves aggrieved by the colonization of Georgia under English government, and regarded it as an encroachment upon their territory; this war was renewed in 1739, and the Moravians, who were conscientiously opposed to taking up arms, were nevertheless compelled to do so, contrary to the promise made them, that they should be exempt from military service ; hence they believed themselves necessi- tated to abandon houses and lands in Georgia, and removed to Pennsylvania, in 1738 and 1740, the peaceful government of the Quakers in that Prov- ince being well suited to their conscientious scruples against war. Here the Moravians now be- gan their settlements at Bethlehem and Nazareth, and likewise their missions among the Indians in different parts of Pennsylvania and New York.
In the year 1751, the Moravians were induced to purchase one hundred thousand acres of land in North Carolina, from Lord Granville, President of the Privy Council of the government of Great Britain ; Bishop Spangenberg was commissioned to locate and survey this large tract of land, and journeyed with some friends, during the month of
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August, from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Eden- ton, North Carolina, where he was accompanied by the surveyor-general, and at first attempted to locate the tract towards the head-waters of the Catawba, New and Yadkin Rivers, but suffered so much from sickness, cold and hunger, that they retraced their steps, and located the tract farther eastward, in the present county of Forsyth, to the east of the Yadkin River. The general deed for the whole tract, containing 98,985 acres, was signed and sealed August 7th, 1753, and re- ceived the name of " The Wachovia Tract," in honor of one of the titles of Count Zinzendorf, who was lord of the Wachau Valley in Austria, and the founder and head of the Moravian Society under its present new organization.
The sources whence the above information is principally derived are the Urlsperger Reports, Life of Bishop Spangenberg, and Martin's History of North Carolina, but the following continued narrative is copied from Martin's History, Vol. I, pp. 28-30, et seq., of the Appendix.
" In order to facilitate the improvement of the land, to furnish a part of the purchase-money, and to defray the expenses of transportation, journey, &c., of the first colonists, a society was formed, under the name of The Wachovia Society, consisting of members of the Brethren's church and other friends. The directors of it were Bishop Spangen- berg and Cornelius Van Laer, a gentleman resid- ing in Holland. The members of it, who were about twenty, received in consideration for the
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money which they advanced, two thousand acres of the land. This society was again dissolved in 1763, having proved very beneficial and answered the intended purpose.
" In the autumn of the year 1753, the first colo- nists, twelve single brethren or unmarried men, came from Bethlehem to settle upon the land. They had a wagon, six horses, cattle, and the neces- sary household furniture and utensils for husbandry with them. After a very tedious and fatiguing journey, by way of Winchester, Evan's Gap, and Upper Sauratown, on which they spent six weeks, they arrived on the land the 17th of November, 1753, and took possession of it. A small deserted cabin, which they found near the mill creek, served them for a shelter or dwelling-house the first win- ter. On the spot where this cabin stood, a monu- ment was erected in the year 1806, with the in- scription, Wachovia Settlement, begun the 17th Novem- ber, 1753. They immediately began to clear some acres of land, and to sow it with wheat. In the year 1754, seven new colonists, likewise single brethren, came from Bethlehem. It was resolved, that on the same spot where the first settlers had made already a small improvement, a town should be built, which was named Bethabara (the house of passage), as it was meant only for a place of so- journing for a time, till the principal town in the middle of the whole tract could be built at a con- venient time. Bishop Bohler, who was here on a visit from Bethlehem, laid, on the 26th of No- vember, the corner-stone for the first house in
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this town, which was appointed for a church and dwelling-house of the single brethren, with prayer and supplication to our Lord that he might pros- per the work. He likewise examined more accu- rately the greatest part of the Wachovia tract, divided it into proper parts for improvement, and gave names to several creeks, which are yet some- times used, and are to be found in deeds and pub- lic records.
" In May, 1755, Bishop David Nitschmann came on a visit from Bethlehem, and on the 11th of the same month the first meeting-house was conse- crated, which solemn transaction was attended with a gracious feeling of the divine presence. Many travellers and neighbors have heard after- wards, in this house, the word of life with joy and gratitude.
"In the year 1758, the Cherokees and Cataw- bas, who went to war against the Indians on the Ohio, often marched through Bethabara in large companies, sometimes several hundreds at once, and the Brethren were obliged to find them quar- ters and provisions for several days. The Chero- kees were much pleased with the treatment they received, and gave to their nation the following description of Bethabara: The Dutch fort, where there are good people and much bread.
"In 1759, the town of Bethany was laid out, three miles north of Bethabara, on Muddy Creek, and divided into thirty lots ; and at the end of the year 1765, the number of inhabitants in Bethabara was eighty-eight, and in Bethany seventy-eight.
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"In the year 1766, the beginning was made to build Salem, the principal settlement of the Unitas Fratrum in North Carolina, five miles to the south- east from Bethabara. Hitherto, all the brethren and sisters who settled in North Carolina came from Pennsylvania, but in this year the first com- pany, consisting of ten persons, came from Ger- many by way of London and Charleston. Salem was laid out the year previous by Frederick Wil- liam von Marshall, senior civilis of the Unitas Fratrum. It was resolved that Salem should be built in the same manner and have the same regu- lations as Herrnhut, Niesky, Bethlehem, and other settlements of the United Brethren, wherein the unmarried men and boys, and the unmarried women and girls live in separate houses by them- selves. The house for the unmarried men or sin- gle brethren was built in the years 1768 and 1769."
Two other settlements were made on the Wa- chovia Tract, named Friedburg and Friedland, during the years 1769 and 1770, each having their own meeting-house and school, which received a considerable number of settlers from Germany and from that part of Massachusetts which is now the State of Maine. Another settlement re- ceived its name, Hope, and was made in 1772, by colonists from Frederick County, Maryland.
During the Revolutionary War, the Moravians again suffered severely on account of their pecu- liar principles not to take up arms personally, and were obliged at times to pay large amounts of money for substitutes for all those who were
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drafted as recruits for the American army, but were, at last, exempted from military service by taking the oath of allegiance and fidelity to the State of Carolina and the United States, and pay a triple tax, which they accordingly did, and re- mained unmolested.
" About eight miles above the Hope meeting- house, and ten miles from Salem, on the west side of Muddy Creek, a meeting-house was built in 1782, by a German Lutheran and Reformed con- gregation, wherein, since the year 1797, divine service is held by one of the ministers of the Brethren's church, every fourth Sunday, in the German language."
In the year 1804, the well-known Salem Female Academy was founded. The building was com- menced the year previous, and has educated a large proportion of the matrons and daughters of the Southern States. "From the beginning of the institution, in May, 1804, to the end of the year 1807, about one hundred and twenty young ladies, from North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, received their education in it, of whom, at the end of 1807, forty-one remained in the Seminary."
This narrative of the Moravian settlement in and around Salem, North Carolina, has been in- cluded in this history, because it is also a German settlement, and was established by a religious de- nomination near akin to the Lutheran Church, with the Augsburg Confession as the basis of their faith. Besides two of the ministers, connected
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with the Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, came from this settlement of Moravians: the Rev. Gott- lieb Shober, ordained by the Lutheran Synod of North Carolina in 1810, and who labored in some Lutheran churches in the vicinity of Salem, N. C., but who also retained in some way his connec- tion with the Moravians, residing all his life in Salem; and the Rev. S. Rothrock, still living and doing good service in the North Carolina Synod.
Section 14. The German Lutheran Colony at Hard Labor Creek, Abbeville County, South Carolina, A.D. 1763 and 1764.
A few years before the Revolutionary War, there occurred a most interesting instance of Ger- man colonization, which added greatly to the growth and strength of the Province of South Carolina, and which, likewise, ought to have con- tributed much to the permanent establishment of one or more Lutheran churches in that vicinity ; however, the facts, as taken from Hewatt's His- tory of South Carolina and Georgia, vol. ii, pp. 269-272, will speak for themselves.
"Not long after this, during the years 1763 and 1764, a remarkable affair happened in Germany, by which Carolina received a great acquisition. One Stümpel, who had been an officer in the king of Prussia's service (Frederick the Great) being reduced at the peace (after the close of the Seven Years' War) applied to the British ministry for a
14
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tract of land in America, and, having received some encouragement, returned to Germany, where by deceitful promises, he seduced between five or six hundred ignorant people from their native country.
" When these poor Palatines arrived in Eng- land, the officer, finding himself unable to perform his promises, fled, leaving them in a strange land without money, without friends, exposed in the open fields, and ready to perish through want. While they were in this starving condition, and knew no person to whom they could apply for relief, a humane clergyman, who came from the same country, took compassion on them, and pub- lished their deplorable case in the newspapers. He pleaded for the mercy and protection of gov- ernment to them, until an opportunity might offer of transporting them to some of the British col- onies, where he hoped they would prove to be useful subjects, and, in time, give their benefactors ample proofs of their gratitude and affection.
"No sooner did their unhappy situation reach the ears of a great personage, than he immedi- ately set an example to his subjects, which served both to warm their hearts and open their hands for the relief of their distressed fellow-creatures. A bounty of three hundred pounds sterling was allowed them; tents were ordered from the Tower for the accommodation of such as had paid their passage and been permitted to come ashore; money was sent for the relief of those that were confined on board.
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" The public-spirited citizens of London, famous for acts of beneficence and charity, associated, and chose a committee on purpose to raise money for the relief of these poor Palatines. A physician, a surgeon, and a man-midwife, generously under- took to attend the sick gratis. From different quarters benefactions were sent to the committee, and in a few days those unfortunate strangers, from the depths of indigence and distress, were raised to comfortable circumstances. The com- mittee, finding the money received more than sufficient to relieve their present distress, applied to his Majesty (George III), to know his royal pleasure with respect to the future disposal of the German Protestants. His Majesty, sensible that his Colony of South Carolina had not its propor- tion of white inhabitants, and having expressed a particular attachment to it, signified his desire of transporting them to that Province. Another motive for sending them to Carolina, was the bounty allowed to foreign Protestants by the Pro- vincial Assembly, so that when their source of relief from England should be exhausted, another would open after their arrival in that Province, which would help them to surmount the difficul- ties attending the first state of cultivation.
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