300th ANNIVERSARY OF THE Birth of Leonhart KEGEL, German immigrant to America. The year of 1984 marked the 300th anniversary of the birth of Leonhart Kegel (Leonard Cagle), the German immigrant who arrived at the ports of Philadelphia in 1732. According to the ships passenger list, Leonhart was 48 years old at the time of his arrival; thus, it would appear that he was born during the year 1684 (or in the later part of 1683). He is believed to be the ancestor of thousands of Cagle families in the United States. According to oral traditions preserved in many Cagle families around the nation. Leonhart Kegel left his home in the Rhenish Palatinate (in the SW part of what is now West Germany) in the early part of the 18th Century, and sailed down the Rhine River to Holland. There he joined thousands of other Germans, displaced by war and economic hardship who were awaiting passage to the American Colonies. His staying in Holland is said to have been very lengthy, but eventually he found passage to America in the summer of 1732 on the ship "Loyal Judith". This ship British-owned and stopped first at the ports of Cowes, England, and then sailed for America, arriving at the ports of Philadelphia on September 25, 1732. The passenger list show that 119 Palatine men, plus their wives and children, arrived on the vessel. The Rhenish Palatinate was largely Protestant in Religion, and it is believed that most of the ship's passengers were Lutherans and Mennonites. Source: Cagle Journal Introductory Issue just before January 1985. Leonhart [1] KEGEL, upon arriving in Pennsylvania, settled in old Philadelphia County, (probably in that northern portion which in 1784 was to become Montgomery County, when Philadelphia County was divided), and acquired his first farm there in 1737. In the 1730s most of the colony of Pittsylvania was still under the control of the Indians, and European Settlers occupied only a small area in Philadelphia in SE corner of the colony. By 1750, however, the frontier was gradually expanding westward, and Leonhart Kegel moved to a new farm in Lancaster County (in that portion which in 1752 was to become Berks County when Lancaster was divided). His land lay in Brecknock Township, in a hilly region on the headwaters of the Conestoga River, overlooking the Mennonite and Amish settlement on the Lancaster plains. The earliest settlers of Brecknock Township, where of Welch origin; however, they were few in number, and by the year 1750 the township was settled primarily by Germans. The Township lies in the heart of "Pennsylvania Dutch Country" of Southwest PA, and the striking stone houses, bank barns, and carefully ordered fields, which characterized the culture of the area, are very much in evidence. The rich limestone soil of Lancaster County, in some areas, has been supported cultivation since 1709. However, the less fertile sandstone soil of the Furnace Ridge area, where Leonhart Kegels land was located, was settled somewhat later in time with early land warrants dating from 1730s and never supported as large a population as did Lancaster Plain. By the year 1750, when Leonhart acquired his land. The better land in Lancaster and Berks Counties were already taken, leaving only land of lesser fertility to be homesteaded by new comers. According to records found by the Editor of Cagles Journal in Pennsylvania State Archives at Harrisburg, PA, in 1750 Leonhart Kegel applied for a Land Warrant for his 146 0.5 acres #15. of land in Lancaster County (Warrant number A-28-211); his name was spelled "Keagel" on his Land Warrant. The land was duly "assigned and allowed" to him on November 9, 1750. This is a tract of un-settled land, owned by Commonwealth of PA, under the control of the Penn family (The descendant of William Penn), Leonhart Kegel did not follow through on his Warrant and gain permanent title to this tract of land, because in 1754-55 his family left PA and moved southward into North Carolina. Eventually, in 1791, the land which Leonhart thus vacated in PA was re-surveyed and divided into three tracts, and claimed by new owners, 1805, 1812, and 1867. In 1750, at the time Leonhart's Land Warrant, old Lancaster County, PA covered a much larger area than it does today. Leonhart name did not appear on annual Tax list for Berks County, this would indicate the family of Leonhart Cagle did not remain long in their Mountain Cove in Berks County, PA, for by 1754 (he was 70 yrs old) not later than winter, they removed to the upper Deep River in the Piedmont of (what is now Guilford Co.), North Carolina, where they settled permanently. Oral tradition states that they joined a Wagon Train of Moravian Breathers, the German-Speaking religious sect a group which founded Bethlehem and Lititz, PA, and Bethania, Bethabara and old Salem NC. They made their way through Maryland, Shinandoah Valley of Virginia, and on to North Carolina, the Kegel family (with their name now anglicized to "Cagle"). The first permanent Moravian Settlers on the Wachau tract were twelve single brethren, who arrived in NC, from Bethlehem, PA, in the fall of 1753. Beginning in 1753, The Moravians began their annual wagon trips. The Moravian were strictly a religious group that embraced persons of various racial origin, though the official language of the Moravians was German. The Moravian diary and records of 1750s make reference to many non-Morivian German families who migrated to North Carolina in the company of the annual Moravian Wagon Train. Although the Cagles are not mentioned specifically by name in these records, there is reason to believe that their arrival in NC occurred in fall of 1754. one reason for this belief is the fact that Jacob Cagle, (grand-son) 1755-1845 by his own statement, indicated that he was born in North Carolina in April of 1755, thus showing that the Cagles were in NC not later than spring of that year. This fact, captured with the knowledge that the Morivians made their annual trip to NC in the fall of each year, this would suggest that the Cagles arrived in the fall of 1754. The Cagles lived for a brief period of time on the upper Deep River; the precise location of their home has yet to be determined, but it is believed to have been a few miles to the East of the Moravian settlement (which lay in what is now Forsyth Co.), perhaps near the modern town of Greensboro (in present Guilford Co.), At that early date, however, the entire region was still part of old Rowan County, an immense county which covered NW quarter of the state. Thus, the earliest Cagle records in NC are found in old Rowan County. It was in old Rowan County, on the headwaters of Deep River, that Jacob Cagle, 1755-1845--perhaps the first Cagle child South was born in April of 1755. (Jacob himself provided his birthdate and birthplace, in the autobiographical statement in his Rev. War pension Application of 1834, filed from Warren County, Tennessee.) By 1764, however, the Cagles had moved again, this time further down stream on the Deep River, into Cumberland County, NC, where they located in the extreme NW corner of the county (in that portion which in 1784 was to become Moore County, when Cumberland was divided). In fact, Moore County, NC, might be considered the ancestral home of all the Cagles in the South, since it was from there, beginning in the 1790s, that their various branches spread into Georgia and Tennessee, and later across the entire South, into the midwest, and all the way to the West Coast by the year of 1850. As yet, it has not been determined precisely when and where the death of Leonhart Kegel, the German immigrant of 1732, occurred. It is possible that the aged pioneer, who would be some 70 years old when his family moved from PA, to North Carolina is buried somewhere on or near the Deep River Moore County in North Carolina. It is believed, though without complete documentary proof at present, that the younger Cagles who purchased land in the Cumberland (present Moore) County, NC in the 1760s were among the sons of Leonhart Kegel. These men, who were probably born in the 1720s and 1730s, included David Cagle (Died 1780s), John "Dutchman" Cagle (died 1799), and Henry Cagle, Sr. (died 1802). It is thought John "Dutchman" Cagle lived in Oley Township Berks County, PA, when Leonhart Kegel/Cagle occupied Alsace Township near by, in Berks County, PA, and was the son of Leonhart Cagle, and John moved to NC in 1750s and died in 1799 in the NW corner of Moore County, NC. It thought the old immigrant Leonhart/Leonard Cagle; died after 1755, has not been determined his place of death, PA or NC. Source: John Cagle Journal Little Rock, AR, starting with introductory issue and spreading over a 12 part series from January 1995, up to December 1995. By: LaMona Joyce "Waldron" Phillips Great-great-granddaughter of Henry Marion [6] Cagle & Jane E. Lloyd.