May 12, 2008

The names and faces of Iredell County

By O.C. Stonestreet

We at the R&L and the Mooresville Tribune just did an all-hands-effort to examine Iredell County’s growth. The bottom line is that the county is growing and changing at a rate not expected by anyone.

Population growth is caused by two processes. One, of course, is to have more births than deaths. The other is to have more people moving in than moving out. I guess when you think of it, that’s two ways of saying the same thing.

I thought it might be good to share a bit about Iredell County with our newcomers.

All counties have their eccentricities and Iredell is no different. If you live here, you need to be aware of some of them.

Some basics first. Iredell County was created out of Rowan County —the county to the east of us — in 1788. The area was first settled, after American Indians, by an influx of Scots-Irish, Germans and English, beginning in the late 1740s. By the first U. S. Census in 1790, there were also blacks living here, almost all of whom were considered property. Just when and by what routes they arrived in this area needs to be researched.

The majority of the Scots-Irish (Lowland Scots who had been living in Northern Ireland) were Presbyterian and most of the Germans were Lutherans.

The Troutman area was settled by Germans. The community took its name from the Troutman family. The name “Troutman” has nothing to do with fishing, as one might first suppose, but is an Anglicized spelling of the German name “Trautmann,” meaning “honest man” or “truthful man.” Changing name spellings from one language to another can be tricky business.

Another example of a name problem can be found in the eastern part of the county in Cool Spring(s). The school there has always been called Cool Spring (no “s”), but some of the businesses have an “s” at the end. It is Cool Spring United Methodist Church, but Cool Springs Volunteer Fire Department; Cool Springs Mulch and Stone, but Cool Spring Center.

Just to make things more interesting, the address of the Cool Spring School, and the mailing addresses of many in the community, is Cleveland, N.C., which is located in Rowan County.

While talking about this neighborhood, there is a house of worship named Fifth Creek Presbyterian Church. So what, you say. Well, the creeks were cleverly numbered and so named as people headed westward from Salisbury, the county seat of Rowan County. Therefore, First Creek, comes first, then Second Creek, Third Creek just a bit westward of Salisbury, and so on.

Then there is Fifth Creek and the church named after the creek, but both are closer to Salisbury by a good margin than is Fourth Creek Presbyterian Church, now known as First Presbyterian Church, Statesville. Someone must not have been good at math or geography. By the way, Statesville’s original name, because of its location, was “Fourth Creek Community.”

Like Cool Spring(s), the correct form of the name problem also applies to the school and community between Mooresville and Troutman. Some say it’s “Shepherd” and others say it is properly “Shepherds” or even “Shepherd’s.”

Near Shepherd(s) is the community of Oswalt, named for the Ostwalt family. Ostwalt is German for “east wood.”

Church names also can lead to confusion. There is a Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Troutman, but also one of the same name in Statesville, not to be confused with Trinity Episcopal Church or Trinity United Methodist Church.

Likewise, there is a Prospect Presbyterian Church near the county line in southern Iredell and a New Prospect Baptist Church in the northern part of the county.

Mooresville has a Broad Street United Methodist Church as does Statesville.We won’t even go into how many First Baptist churches there are in the area. Two, however, deserve special mention.
Statesville has two First Baptist churches. One is located on Garfield Street and the other is located on Davie Avenue. To avoid confusion, we here at the R&L cleverly refer to them, respectively, as First Baptist Church, Garfield Street, and First Baptist Church, Davie Avenue.

There are 16 townships in Iredell. The one in the southwestern corner is the Davidson township, named for the Davidson family, staunch Scots-Irish, and not far across the county line in Mecklenburg County is the town of Davidson and the college of the same name. Davidson township, however, is in Iredell.

To further complicate the matter, there is a Davidson County (home of Lexington barbecue), two counties east of us, also named for the same family which produced the Revolutionary War hero, Gen. William Lee Davidson.

Statesville is located in Statesville township, but Mooresville, at least most of it, is located in Coddle Creek township. Troutman is located mostly in Fallstown township and partly in Barringer township.
Oh yes, and while we’re at it something needs to be said about James Iredell, the gentleman for whom the county is named.

James Iredell (1751-99) was an Englishman who moved to the coast of North Carolina and married the daughter of the royal governor. He became a lawyer, then a judge and sided with the rebels during the War for Independence. After the war, he was appointed by George Washington to be a Justice on the very first United States Supreme Court.

Our county was named in his honor. One thing, though, James Iredell never saw, crossed or visited the area named for him. James did, however, have a son, James Iredell Jr., who became governor. Following in his father’s footsteps, he likewise never saw, traveled across or visited his namesake county.

By the way, there is another Iredell in North Carolina — it’s a hamlet near Wilmington. There is also an Iredell, Texas. We are, however, the only Iredell County in the U.S. The Iredell name is interesting in its own right. The first part of the word is a variation of “Ayr,” the name of a river in southwestern Scotland. “Dell” is a valley, as in the nursery song, “The Farmer in the Dell.”

“Iredell” then means “Valley of the River Ayr.” The breed of dog, the Airedale, is believed to get its name from the same words.

The least we could do is make the Airedale the official dog breed of the county.