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Early Settlements in the Yadkin Valley
The following information is from "A Delicious Country: Yadkin Valley, 1670-1770," written by Jim Daniel and published by the Davidson County Historical Museum in 2006. As other chapters become available online they can be accessed through 'Related Links' to the right.
Origin of Yadkin Valley & Geology of Davidson County
Native Americans/Archaeology
European Settlement of North Carolina
Motivation for ImmigrationAcquiring Land in the Yadkin Valley
Early Settlements in the Yadkin Valley
Living on the Yadkin Valley Frontier
In Search of Daniel Boone
The first settlers in the Yadkin Valley had their pick of land to choose from. Not surprisingly, they chose land according to their estimation of its fertility and access to water, particularly navigable streams. Again, as you’d expect, the first to come chose the better land, testifying by their choice to the order of their arrival. Further, they tended to settle around others who had come from the same area… perhaps even people they had known in another colony or others of the same nationality or religious affiliation. Long before there were towns or villages, these clusters of settlers were known by their location or by the names of one or more of the more prominent settlers. Among the earliest settlements in the Yadkin Valley were:
- The River Settlements (The Jersey Bottoms)
In a previous section there was mention of the Coxe Affair that contributed to many of the residents from Hopewell, New Jersey abandoning their lands and homes and eventually migrating to North Carolina. Several of those residents hired an agent to find new land for them. That agent found what they were seeking in Henry Eustace McCulloh’s “Tract #9” which lay along the Yadkin River, just above the Trading Ford in the Swearing Creek region. At least one account1 claims that the land there was “10 square miles of the best wheat land” in the South.
In early 1746, Thomas Smith acquired lands along Swearing Creek2. Jonathan Hunt would build a mill there. John Titus and Robert Heaton soon followed, becoming with the others the earliest known settlers of the Jersey Bottoms. Benjamin Merrill would also join them, as would Benjamin Rounsaville3. Each of these had been a resident of Hopewell, New Jersey. Each had been displaced by Daniel Coxe’s questionable land practices4.
Present day Jersey Church owes its origin and its name to these settlers. The church began as a joint congregation lacking either a building or pastor. It originally served Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Baptists alike… for all were present among the New Jersey immigrants. With the coming of ministers the mixed congregation divided, leaving the old congregation site on the Trading Path5 to the Baptists.
The Bryan Camp settlement lay on both sides of the “shallow ford” near present day Lewisville in Forsyth county. It took its name from its founder, Morgan Bryan, who had already established a reputation for guiding families to new lands in the backcountry of Virginia and Carolina. Although advanced in years and facing conflicts with Lord Farifax’s land agents over his Virginia lands, Bryan led his family and others to the Yadkin Valley, arriving in either 1747 or 1748.
Bryan would settle his family to the west of the Yadkin near Deep Creek, while others who accompanied him took up land on both sides of the shallow ford where the “Wagon Road” crossed. Among these latter were James Carter, Edward Hughes, and William Linville.
Bryan’s son Samuel would become a noted Tory leader during the American Revolution. His granddaughter, Rebecca, would marry a young Yadkin Valley farm boy named Daniel Boone.
The Irish settlement took its name from the large number of Scotch-Irish who peopled it. Located along the headwaters of Second Creek in Rowan County, it had settlers by 1748. Among these were James and George Cathey, George Cathey, Jr., and John Brandon. It deserves notice as it was one of the earliest settlements in the backcountry that was not located directly on or along a river.
- Bethabara, Bethania and the Moravians
At the invitation of Lord Granville, Moravian Bishop Spangenberg came to North Carolina to search for 100,000 acres of land where he hoped to establish a congregational town where the Moravians might be relatively free from outside influences. His search led him to the Yadkin Valley where he found a tract of over 98,000 acres within Lord Granville’s holdings. In August of 1753 the Moravians purchased that land, naming it Wachovia.
From the beginning the establishment of the new Moravian community was carefully planned. First a group of selected bachelor men would come to build an agricultural foundation. Others would follow as soon as the new community could support them.
The original settlers were chosen according to their ability to contribute to the success of the founding of the community, which was planned to be totally self-sustaining with no reliance placed on outsiders. Their first settlement was named Bethabara6.
Among the initial trades and skills that the Moravians thought necessary to send to Bethabara were: a millwright and carpenter, a shoemaker and cooper, a tailor, a surgeon, a gardener, and a baker. Most of these men were also farmers7.
The first few Moravian settlers arrived in November of 1753, taking up residence in a cabin abandoned by Hans Wagner, an earlier settler. From that limited beginning, Bethabara grew until it became overcrowded. Although they had received no directives to begin another village, in 1759 Moravian Bishop Spangenberg personally chose a spot for a new town to relieve the situation at Bethabara. The new town was named Bethania.
The Wachovia settlement would continue to develop, albeit slowly, as the attention of its directors was distracted by events elsewhere8. In 1766 construction of Salem, a central commercial town9 was begun. Bethabara and Bethania declined in importance, as Salem became the center of Wachovia and home to its main church.
- In the Forks of the Yadkin
The area between the Yadkin River and the South Yadkin began to fill up after the surrounding areas. The explanation for this later settlement lies, perhaps, in the rockier soil. Nonetheless by 1752 English, Welsh, and Rhineland German settlers10 were coming into the area. Like the settlers before them, few were direct immigrants. Most were removed from the colonies to the north.
The Rhineland Germans were mostly Lutherans or Reformed. They formed congregations, and then upon the later arrival of ministers, built churches. The others seem to have been a mixture of Quaker, Anglican, and Catholic stock.
The coming of the French and Indian War in 1754 brought strife to the Yadkin Valley. Raids by hostile Cherokee drove many of the settlers eastward toward more settled areas or into the eastern parts of Virginia11. Governor Dobbs estimated that as many as 2/3 of the populace had left the area12. The flood of immigration was reduced to a trickle.
With the resumption of peace and the end of the Cherokee War in 1760 rapid settlement resumed while many of the refugee settlers returned. Many of the newcomers were Rhineland Germans who would settle along second creek on the west side of the Yadkin. A group of Dutch settled along the Uwharrie River while English Quakers chose the area that is now Guilford and Randolph Counties, establishing a meeting at New Garden.
Between 1745 and 1770 the Yadkin Valley had gone from nearly totally uninhabited to a well-settled district with towns established at Salem and Salisbury.
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Notes:
1 C.L. Hunter, “Sketches of Western North Carolina,” 1877, pg 7.
2 Ethel Stroupe, “First Families of Jersey Settlement,” from the Rowan County Register, Vol. 11, no 1, February 1996.
3 Benjamin Rounsaville and Edward Hughes operated the first known public ferries in the Granville District, petitioning for licenses in 1753. Rounsaville’s Ferry was near the Trading Ford while Hughes’ was near the Shallow Ford.
4 Perhaps reflecting their prior experience with colonial proprietors and land agents in New Jersey, Jonathan Hunt, Benjamin Merrill, Benjamin Roundsopher (sic) and others were charged on October 13th , 1755 with “assault & riot” in preventing a survey party from re-surveying some of the McCulloh tracts. Merrill’s continued experiences with questionable practices by land owners and government would lead to his being one of the Regulator leaders hanged at Hillsborough in 1771….but that’s another story.
5 Present day Jersey Church sits on a hill above Jersey Church Road, which marks the route of the Trading Path on its way to the lower ford on Pott’s Creek.
6 Historical Bethabara Park in Winston-Salem occupies much of the site of the Moravian’s original settlement. A visitor center, museum, reconstructed stockade, cabins, and garden help tell the story.
7 In her “Artisan in the North Carolina Backcountry,” Johanna Lewis notes that the Moravians had unwittingly mirrored the trades already present in Yadkin Valley at the time. Among the other early settlements she found records of three millwrights, three blacksmiths, two tailors, a shoemaker, a tanner, a saddler, a carpenter, and six weavers. Lewis concludes that their presence in both the Moravian and non-Moravian settlements indicates that these trades were those thought most necessary for a frontier community.
8 Among distraction were raids on the North Carolina and Pennsylvania frontiers during the French and Indian War and the death of Count Zinzendorf, leader of the Moravians.
9 The central town would be named Salem. Winston-Salem’s “Old Salem” is a nationally known village-Museum portraying the life of the Wachovia Moravians in the early 1800’s.
10 In his study of the northwest Carolina frontier, Robert Ramsey notes that the Forks settlements were notable for the lack of Scotch-Irish. Carolina Cradle, Robert Ramsey, UNC Press, 1964, pg. 73.
11 Among those leaving the Yadkin Valley to find safety in Virginia were Daniel and Rebecca Boone.
12 In his history of Rowan County, James Brawley notes that the number of taxable in the county in 1759 was estimated at 1,531 but by 1759 that number had dropped to 800. Op. Cit. pg. 10.
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