Regarding the Carolina settlements > >Donna - they did. I will probably get some arguments about this but I >think we can say the area referrred to is what is now roughly the >Western third of North Carolina. I think the Moravians started it; some >of them came to what is now Forsythe County starting in the early 1750s >and founded Old Salem (now part of the city of Winston-Salem). > >Other Pa Germans who were not necessarily Moravians settled in the >surrounding area, and for some reason not clear to me, a lot settled in >what is now Rowan county (between Winston-Salem and Charlotte if you >look at a map). > >Why? Well, I think they were already starting to run out of desirable >land in some parts of PaDutch country - they had so many children, it >was undesirable to subdivide farms too many times. Then I guess there >was 'go west, young man', even then. Adventure. Some thought the >climate was better. In the case of the Moravians there seems to have >been some religious motivation - to convert the Indians. ... Why 18th century German immigrants chose to move to this area, I do not know for sure. The reasons listed above are certainly very compelling, but I have an additional idea to consider. Everyone is no doubt acquainted with the infamous settlement in the Schoharie Valley of New York. That settlement was part of a naval stores project run by the British government, and that project had a sister settlement in the Carolinas. The Carolina settlement of Palatines began about the same time as the New York settlement, ca. 1710 (perhaps a bit earlier, my memory on the subject is poor). I wonder if this naval stores project was one of the early motivators. It may have "seeded" the German colonization of the area. Future German immigrants may have felt more comfortable moving to an area where there were already some German settlers. Perhaps someone has more detailed info on this settlement. My recollection is that the Carolinas settlement met with better success than the New York effort (it could hardly have been less successful!). Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------- David N. Blauch, Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry, Davidson College POB 1719, Davidson NC 28036 Tel. (704) 892-2308 FAX (704) 892-2709 dablauch@davidson.edu home page: http://www.chm.davidson.edu/dablauch/dablauch.html