Email From Adrianne kee46@email.msn.com to HUNSUCKER-L@rootsweb.com
Email Dated June 13, 2000

By Bruce W. Barnes, PHD
Akron, OH

Scholars who study the role of German settlers in the history of NC are
usually quite familiar with the early settlements of New Bern and Salem and
the large German population in early Orange, Rowan and Anson counties.
Cabarrus County, 1 {} however, is often neglected in these studies.  A
primary reason may rest in the fact that many such studies concentrate on
the period before the American Revolution, and Cabarrus was not been formed
until 1792.  However, another reason is probably because its place names
give the impression of other than Teutonic influence.  Both Cabarrus and
Concord (the county seat) 2 are of French origin, while the large
municipality of Kannapolis, which was not established until the twentieth
century, has a Greek sound to it.  Mount Pleasant 3, a town settled about
1750, is an English name.  Why, then, did William H. GEHRKE discuss at
length the German influence in Cabarrus Co. in his excellent master's thesis
at the University of NC in 1934?  He wrote:

"In 1792 the Dutch side of Mecklenburg was set off as Cabarrus County.
Since 1795 the new county had 588 free polls, 4 {} the dominating majority
of the inhabitants must have been Germans.  Thus at the close of the 18th
century, Cabarrus was the "most German' county in NC." 5 Who were the
"Dutch" of German settlers, and why in the 18th century did they settle in
what today is Cabarrus CO?  I believe that the  German-speaking people
came because they were seeking cheaper land to farm, which in those times
meant better economic conditions.  Demographers describe this as push and
pull.  Bad or poor opportunities tend to push people out, while good economic
conditions elsewhere tend to pull people into that area.

One must look back to the late seventeenth and early eightieth centuries to
understand the conditions which resulted in the migration of Germans to the
colony of Carolina.  Zeitgeist is the German word that means "the spirit of
times."  It is not easy for the average person to acquire this feeling when
looking back at either Europe or the American colonies as they were in that
time.  Recently, for example, while looking over family documents with one
of my aunts in a search for my family's past, she commented: "Look at the
X's.  Surely they could write their names, couldn't they?"

The 18th century in Europe and America was hardly different from the Middle
Ages.  Although there was great scientific inventions, they had little
effect on the majority of the people.  Printing and paper had been invented,
and the use of the vernacular was making its beginning.  Nevertheless, the
great mass of people in the eighteenth century were illiterate, as there was
no national systems of education, free, compulsory, and secular. 6 {}

There was international trade, as ships from Europe sailed all over the
world.  Articles were still made by hand and were transported by animals on
the land and by sailing vessels on the seas.  This commercial revolution
produced little change in the life of the average man.   The majority of the
people were still peasants and artisans. 7 {}

Religious freedom was still not known in Europe.  The people conformed to
the religion of the King in their part of the World.  The people were taxed
for the support of the established church. On the continent of Europe the
Governments were monarchial, and the modern western European nations as we
know them had not come into being. 8 {}

In the 18th century, Germany did not exist as a nation.  It was a
conglomeration of duchies, cities and small states ruled by different
factions or nations.  The Duchy of Hanover, for example, came under the rule
of George I and his son, George II, much preferred Hanover to England as a
place of residence.  George III, however, was more British in outlook than
either his father or grandfather, although he did marry a German girl,
Charlotte Sophia (1744-1818) 9 {}, of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in
1761.  Germany was not to be a united country until 1871, when it consisted
of 25 states--four kingdoms, five grand duchies, 13 duchies and
principalities, and there free cities plus Alsace-Lorraine. 10 {}

How did the Germans come to settle in the Piedmont of NC?  My search for the
answers to these questions has come about in recent years, although several
writers in past years have written excellent accounts about this migration.
11 {}

When I was growing up in Lexington and Concord, NC, I never thought about
the names of nationalities until I entered high school.  My childhood
friends had last names like BOST, SUTHER, EBERHARDT, BARRINGER, GOODMAN and
WIDEHOUSE.  My mother's name had been FAGGART, and an uncle who lived next
door had this same surname.

I used to work for my mother's uncle, doing odd jobs.  he was a prolific
talker, and I had heard of his exploits as a naval man during the WW1 and
later on as a policeman in Concord NC.  One day, he really caught my
interest by telling me about our family tree.  His story recited something
like this:  "We are all flathead Dutchmen.  A long time ago, two brothers
came over her from Rotterdam to Philadelphia.  They later settled in what is
now Cabarrus County." He added that his "relations spoke a broken English"
when he was a boy.

It was years later before I found out the real story behind what my uncle
had said that day.  The ancestors on my mother's side of the family, who
were Germans from Waldorf, Baden, 12 came from Rotterdam to Philadelphia on
the ship name "Two Brothers" in 1751. 13 {}  I later became a history
teacher, and the lesson I learned from the above has been valuable.
Despite, the lack of facts in the story told by my mother's uncle, he told
it in such an interesting way that he inspired in me, at an early age, a
love of history.

.......next GERMAN MIGRATION --EUROPE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES

 

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