I have been following the posts lately regarding this topic. While I am not trying to fan the fire or to beat a dead horse, I still have questions about this controversy. Having grown up in Cleveland County (and having all my family still living there), I know quite a few people in this family. Yes, you will find that most of the Hamrick descendants living in Cleveland County still hold onto the theory S.C. Jones presented in the "Hamrick Generations" book regarding Hans George Hamrick being the father of the Hamrick clan there. Perhaps there are some good reasons for this that we are closing our minds to? I certainly cannot refute the Patrick Hamrick theory as I have not done the diligent research that many of you have done regarding this, yet I still have to wonder why I have never seen the name Patrick used in the Hamrick descendants of Cleveland County. We see the name George used repeatedly, but never Patrick (to my knowledge). The other question that remains in my mind is......WHO AND WHERE ARE the descendants of Hans George Hamrick? I hope we all remain open-minded about this issue and continue to search for the truth. This summer I had the priviledge of having access to the private papers of Fay Webb Gardner, wife of Governor O.Max Gardner (former NC governor). Mrs. Gardner started the first DAR chapter in Cleveland County, so she had a very keen interest in genealogy and her heritage. Mrs. Gardner also was a Hamrick descendant, so among her papers were notes she had made regarding her Hamrick heritage. Her notes indicated Hans George Hamrick to be her ancestor. There were also some newspaper clippings, one regarding the Hamrick Family. Unfortunately, the date was not on this clipping, so I do not when this appeared in the newspaper. At the top of the clipping it says "Cleveland County Centennial", so I would assume this article appeared in a special edition of the newspaper. It is a fairly old yellowed clipping. I will send the article in two parts so it will not be rejected by Rootsweb due to excessive length. HAMRICK FAMILY FOUNDER CAME FROM GERMANY History Traces Family to Hans George Hamrick A family tree of the Hamrick generations in Cleveland and Rutherford Counties reveals to genealogists that thousands of limbs and branches are so mixed and intertwined with a dozen other leading family trees that nearly everyone is "cousin". The family name of Hamrick has for years led all other family names in numbers in Shelby and Cleveland County and still is ahead of the Beams, Blantons, Bridges, Greenes, Hoyles, Roberts, and the ever-present Smiths, Browns and Jones. According to two sources, a book 'The Hamrick Generations" by the late S.C. Jones and a book "Life Values in the New South", by the late W.C. Hamrick, all the present generations of Hamricks in Cleveland and Rutherford counties are descendants of one Hans George Hamerick (Hambrick, Homrick, or Hamrick) who came to this country from Germany in 1731 as a poor immigrant farmer who was seeking religious freedom. French armies had laid the lower Rhine River valley in waste and the rulers persecuted the Protestant elements horribly, so Hamrick joined a shipload of refugees in Rotterdam and sailed for America and landed in Philadelphia where he later married and worked. Several years prior to the war for Independence, Charles, Benjamin and George Hamrick, sons of Hans George migrated to Cleveland County, North Carolina, the county then being Tryon, later Rutherford. Soon the name became Hamrick, or in some cases Hambrick and the hard-working industrious farmers began the task of earning their bread and of following the Biblical injunction of "replenishing the earth". One prominent member of the Hamrick family, Attorney Fred D. Hamrick of Rutherfordton, believes, after considerable investigation, that several members of the Hamrick family may have originated in Ireland, but the exact origin is not clear. Dr. W.C. Hamrick in his book says his father, Streeter Hamrick, the son of Moses Hamrick, the son of Price Hamrick, the son of Charles Hamrick, the first son of immigrant Hans George. Streeter had six sons whose descendants have organized and hold a reunion in the Poplar Springs - Beaver Dam community each year. It was said of Streeter Hamrick that when his sons married he gave each of them a mule, a pig and a straight-backed chair to begin their carrer, and that each of them went to work and carved our fortunes in farming, trading and textiles. At one time the combined wealth of the six sons exceeded four million dollars. The brothers were Marshal Newton, Sidney Hill, John Calhoun, LeanderSheppard, Alonzo Marion, and Wiley Cicero, and all lived their entire lives in this county with the exception of Dr. Wiley Hamrick who moved to Gaffney to build the Hamrick Mills there and a textile fortune. With the death of John C. a few days ago only Alonzo M. remains. All have lived to a ripe old age, the total for the six almost reaching 500 years. (To be continued in Part Two)