May 19, 2008
Old names tell tales of Iredell’s past
By O.C. Stonestreet
Last week’s column provided some basic Iredell knowledge for newcomers and also about the fact that the first European settlers to call this place home arrived in the late 1740s and were mostly from Northern Ireland (Ulster) and parts of Germany.
Many of both these groups came into America through Philadelphia (then our largest port) or Baltimore. As the best lands got taken by those arriving before them, they had two choices - either settle on the westward frontier or head south into Maryland, Virginia or the Carolinas.
Many opted for the latter and were soon on the so-called “Great Wagon Road” that ran parallel to the Appalachian Mountains.
Some groups came to the Carolinas in one move, while others took their time, settling in say, Virginia for a number of years and then moving farther south. In this area, The Great Wagon Road, our first “interstate,” was basically today’s U.S. Highway 29.
The groups tended to be a bit clannish and, understandably, tended to settle near others of the same background. Thus we had “clumps” of Scots-Irish around what became Statesville and Mt. Mourne and Germans around Troutman and Ostwalt.
The first U.S.Census was conducted in 1790 and has been collected every 10 years since. At that time, there were fewer than 800 surnames (last names) in Iredell, which had been made from Rowan County just two years earlier.
The surnames give clues as to where the people were from.
Many Scots and Scots-Irish (Scots who had lived in Northern Ireland) had names with the familiar “Mc” or Mac” prefix, such as McConnell, McEwen, McKee, McKnight, McLean, McLelland, McLaughlin, McNeely and so forth. There are variations on the spellings also, such as “McLain” for “McLean.”
Many other names are just as Scottish but have no “Mc” or “Mac” about them: Alexander, Andrews, Brawley, Caldwell, Campbell, Chambers, Davidson, Grant, Hill, Montgomery, Morrison, Sharpe, Simonton, Steele, Stevenson or Stephenson, Templeton, Thompson, Wallace, Watt or Watts and so on.
As mentioned last week, most of these people were Presbyterians. Stroll around Fourth Creek Burying Ground (across from First Presbyter-ian Church in Statesville), or in the graveyards of Centre Presbyterian Church in Mt. Mourne or New Sterling in West Iredell or Concord Presbyterian Church near Scotts, and look at the names on the older tombstones.
A word of warning is in order here: Doing family history/genealogy is a disease and there should be a special department of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta just to treat the victims of this dreaded affliction. And I might mention that I am not a certified genealogist.
There are many fine books on genealogy at the local libraries, and the county library in Statesville has files on the more common local names.
We also have the county genealogical society, which usually meets at 7 p.m. the third Tuesday of the month in the local history room of the library in Statesville.
The best single book on the Scots-Irish migration may be Robert W. Ramsey’s “Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier, 1747-1762” (1964).
We tend to forget where we are in Iredell County 260 ago was the American frontier.
Fort Dobbs wasn’t built as a tourist attraction.
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We also have a good many German names around Iredell County.
Some still are very Germanic-sounding, but others have been Anglicized to the point that they are no longer recognizable.
Take the German name “Klein.” In German, “klein” means “small” or “little.” Jacob Klein comes over from the old country. He marries and has children.
“Klein” is what is carved on his headstone, but his five sons end up with different surnames.
Perhaps a son, a traditionalist, might keep the name as Papa spelled it, “Klein.” His brother changes the spelling to “Cline,” while another alters it to the variation, “Kline.”
One changes it to “Little,” which is what it means, while the youngest son adopts the surname “Small.”
Very often, the names were translated years ago. The good German name of “Zimmerman” gets translated to its English equivalent, “Carpenter.” But be wary, there are people of English descent also named Carpenter. Likewise, Schmidt becomes “Smith” and Braun becomes “Brown.”
Some typical German surnames retaining a Germanic sound found here besides Troutman (truthful man) and Ostwalt (east woods), are Blackwelder, Bumgarner, Clodfelter, Overcash, Fesperman, Freeze, Holshouser, Pless, Stutts and Winecoff.
Their original German spellings were Schwartzwalder, Baumgartner, Gladfelder, Oberkirche, Ferstermann, Fries, Holzhauser, Bless, Stutz and Weinkauf.
The names’ meanings were, in order, Black Forest dweller, orchardist, smooth fields, upper church, forester, a Frisian, house in the forest, bald head, supporter and wine seller.
Many names of Germanic origin ended with “hardt”: Barnhardt, Dagenhardt and Earnhardt. Some of their descendants kept the “dt” on the end, some dropped it. Bernhardt meant “strong as a bear,” Degenhardt meant “strong thane,” while Ehrenhard meant “strong honor.”
See if any of these surnames are familiar - you probably know someone with these last names: Culp (Kolb), Byers (Beier), Deal (Diehl), Eisenhower or Isenhower (Eisenhauer), Goodman (Gutmann), Henkel (Henckel), Holsclaw (Holtzclaw), Honeycutt (Hannikot), Kiser (Kaiser), Cloaninger (Klonnigger) and Ridenhour (Reitenhauser).
You guessed it - these are Germanic surnames, also with their original spellings.
As most of the Scots-Irish and Scots were Presbyterian, most of the Germans were followers of Martin Luther. Go look at the tombstones of the older Lutheran churches in Iredell or in Rowan County and you’ll see many of the names mentioned.
An excellent book on the immigration of the Germans to the Carolina piedmont is “Rhinelanders on the Yadkin” by Carl Hammer Jr. (1964). Also helpful is “German-American Names” by George F. Jones (1990).
So today, a Miss Holsclaw marries a Mr. McNeely and no one makes any remarks other than commenting on what a nice-looking couple they are and what nice families they come from.
Two hundred years ago, eyebrows would have gone up over this “mixed” marriage.
