Beavers, swan, geese, and deer were plentiful in the neighborhood of the Yadkin. During the stay of the explorers at Sapona town a party of the Toteros, "tall, likely men," came down from the west "having great plenty of buffaloes, elks, and bears with other sort of deer amongst them." One of the Indian doctors acquainted Lawson with a large quantity of medicines that were produced in those parts.11

After remaining several days at Sapona Lawson's party made a two days trip to the westward. The country became more mountainous and many streams were crossed. At a distance of some thirty or forty miles west of the Yadkin they reached the town of the Keyauwees, situated five miles northwest of a rocky river called the Heighwaree. Near the town was another stream. The land was "more mountainous, but extremely pleasant and an excellent place for the breeding (of) sheep, goats, and horses or mules." The valleys were very fertile. The village of the Keyauwees was encircled by high mountains, and large cornfields adjoined the cabins of the savages. No grass grew upon the high cliffs and the growth of trees upon them was sparse. The earth in this region was of a reddish color, which Lawson said signfied the presence of minerals.

The Keyauwees received the travelers with hospitality. Lawson lodged at the house of Keyauwees Jack, a Congaree Indian, who had obtained the chieftainship through marriage with the queen, for among the Indians descent was counted on the female side. The Keyauwees were unique in that most of them wore mustaches or whiskers-a habit rarely practiced by Indians. 12

Two or three days were spent with the Keyauwees. Most of the members of Lawson's party desired to go straightway to Virginia, but he was determined to continue his course to the coast of North Carolina. He and one companion, therefore, bade farewell to the rest of the group. On the third day's journey, after passing over many waters and through rich lands, they reached the Haw River, whence they made their way to the coast of the province.18

Lawson did not penetrate the wilderness as far westward as the Catawba nation. Nor did he learn anything of the powerful Cherokees who lived beyond the mountains and who at a future date were to make incursions into the settlements, bringing devastation and destruction with them. The Saponas, Keyauwees, and Toteros combined with several small tribes and removed to Virginia soon after Lawson's departure. After dwelling in Virginia, a few miles north of the Roanoke, for twenty-five years, they returned to Carolina and lived with the Catawbas.14

CHAPTER II

THE SETTLEMENTS AND BOUNDARIES OF ROWAN COUNTY The exact date of the appearance of settlers in Rowan County cannot be determined. We have already seen that long before the cabin of a permanent settler was erected traders from Virginia frequented the region in order to barter with the Indians. The chief contributors to the population were the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians from the north of Ireland, the Germans, usually known as Pennsylvania Dutch, who adhered to the tenets of the Lutheran and German Reformed Churches, and the Moravians, or United Brethren, from Moravia and Bohemia. From time to time men belonging to no one of these groups came to the frontier, but such settlers formed a small part of the total number of inhabitants.

The Scotch-Irish were the most active and probably the most numerous part of the population. These people were Scotch in blood, being descendants of the Scotch whom the English rulers had placed on the confiscated lands of Irish rebels in the Province of Ulster, in north Ireland, during the seventeenth century. To distinguish them from the natives of Scotland they have received the name of Scotch-Irish.1 Some forty years prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War they began to flock to America. Foote, in his "Sketches of North Carolina," assigns their migration to three causes, namely: religion, politics, and property.2 Disabilities were imposed upon them because they were not members of the established church of Ireland; they desired more political liberty than they enjoyed in the old world; and the ease with which land could be obtained in America was a third powerful incentive to their coming hither.

Some came to Charleston and pushed into the frontier country from that place, but most of them landed in Pennsylvania and, after making some settlements in that province, turned southward, and by 1739 located in the Valley of Virginia. The administration in Virginia was constantly opposed to religious freedom. Earl Granville disposed of his lands in Carolina upon favorable terms, for he desired to increase their value by rapid settlement. Therefore, influenced by the inviting nature of the climate and soil, the peacefulness of the Catawba Indians and the laxity of North Carolina laws in comparison with those of Virginia on the subject of religion, the Scotch-Irish passed through the vacant lands in Virginia, in the neighborhood of their countrymen, and made homes for themselves in western North Carolina. As early as 1740 a few families were located on the Hico, Eno, and Haw rivers in the territory just east of Rowan.

By the year 1745 the Scotch-Irish had established themselves in the fertile and well-watered area between the Yadkin and the Catawba, and previous to 1750 their settlements were scattered throughout the region from Virginia to Georgia." The ScotchIrish settled mainly in the country west of the Yadkin. Among these immigrants were the Nesbits, Allisons, Brandons, Luckeys, Lockes, McCullochs, Grahams, Cowans, Barrs, McKenzies, Andrews, Osbornes, Sharpes, Boones, McLauchlins, and Halls. The Scotch-Irish have ever been known as a religious, brave, and liberty-loving people. Among other families from the British Isles who appeared in Rowan at an early date we find the names of Cathey, McCorkle, Morrison, Linville, Davidson, Reese, Hughes, Ramsay, Brevard, Winslow, Dickey, Braley, Moore, Emerson, Kerr, Rankin, Torrence, Templeton, Houston, Hackett, Rutherford, Lynn, Gibson, Frohock, Smith, Bryan, Little, Long, Steele, Bell, Macay, Miller, Blackburn, Craige, Stokes, Caldwell, Dunn, Gillespie, and many others.

The Scotch-Irish were soon followed by another stream of immigrants-the Germans who had previously located in Pennsylvania. The route which the German and Scotch-Irish settlers took in making the overland journey from Pennsylvania to western North Carolina is described by Colonel Saunders as follows:

On Jeffrey's map, a copy of which is in the Congressional Library at Washington City, there is plainly laid down a road called "the Great Road from the Yadkin River through Virginia to Philadelphia, distant 435 miles." It ran from Philadelphia through Lancaster and York to Winchester, thence up the Shenandoah Valley, crossing the Fluvanna River to Looney's Ferry, thence to Staunton River, and down the river through the Blue Ridge, thence southward, crossing Dan River below the mouth of Mayo River, thence still southward near the Moravian settlement to the Yadkin River, just above the mouth of Linville Creek and about ten miles above the mouth of Reedy Creek.9

The Germans did not extend their settlements quite so far west as the Scotch-Irish did. They were industrious and economical in their habits and formed a valuable part of the population. As the laws were written and expounded in English and all public business was transacted in that language, the Germans were incapable, in most instances, of participating in public affairs.10 The process whereby they were naturalized was the taking of several oaths prescribed by law and the repeating and subscribing of the test. The test, as entered on the court records of the county, was in this form:

I, A. B., do believe in my conscience that there is not any transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the elements of bread and wine at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever. 11

Among the early German settlers appear the names of Bernhardt, Heilig, Meisenheimer, Beard, Mull, Rintelman (Rendleman), Layrle (Lyerly), Kuhn (Coon), Friese, Eisenhauer, Suther, Winecoff, Cress, Walcher, Harkey, Savitz, Henkel, Moser, Braun (Brown), Lingle, Fisher, Berger, Lippard, Peeler, Holtzhauer, Kluttz, Roseman, Foet, Shupping, Beam, and Buin.

Other settlers from Virginia and the north came by a route further east that passed through the section now embraced by Caswell County.12

Immigrants poured into the western country very rapidly. In 1751 Governor Johnston informed the Board of Trade that settlers flocked into the province daily, mostly from Pennsylvania and other parts of America, but some from Europe. Many thousands had then come in and settled mainly in the west so that they had almost reached the mountains. In 1746 Matthew Rowan estimated that there were not more than one hundred fighting men in the entire western part of the province between Virginia and South Carolina. Seven years later he thought that there were then at least three thousand fighting men in the same territory, and stated that their numbers were increasing rapidly. These settlers were for the most part "Irish-Protestants" (Scotch-Irish) and Germans.13

These settlers, coming as they did in groups, locatd in neighborhoods to themselves, forming respectively Scotch-Irish and German communities, scattered throughout the wilderness, and maintaining their own customs, speech, and characteristics, and largely transmitting them to posterity.14

About 1750, Quakers from the north located at New Garden, in what is now Guilford County, and from time to time were joined by others of that sect so that a distinctly Quaker settlement was formed there. 15

The bitter persecutions which they suffered in their native lands of Moravia and Bohemia for the sake of their religion and the desire to preach "the pure gospel of love" to the inhabitants of America and to preach to the Indians prompted the Moravians to seek homes in the western world. The Moravians were well known for their thrift and industry, and Earl Granville, who desired to people his grant in North Carolina with worthy settlers, made them a liberal offer. 16

In the autumn and winter of 1752, Bishop Spangenberg, who was sent by the Unitas Fratum, or Moravian Church, to select a