Migration Routes for My Moravian Ancestors

By Fred Coffey

I have several ancestors in old Surry County, North Carolina, who were either Moravians, or had some connection to the routes the Moravians took to get from their original home in Pennsylvania to their new colony at Wachau (Wachovia) in North Carolina. Here’s a map:

This map is a big overview, showing two of the routes they used from Pennsylvania to Bethabara. (Bethabara is one of their three Moravian colonies in the Wachovia tract, the other two being Bethania and Salem.)

I don't know the frequency by which they used each route, but the "Great Wagon Road" seems to be better known. However the Moravian Diaries for 1755 offer the diary kept by a group who used the one called "Moravian Route". You can read their interesting account at:

http://www.ncpublications.com/colonial/Bookshelf/Moravian/pilgrim.htm

This account calls this "Moravian Route" the "lower road". I believe the "Great Wagon Road" is sometimes called the "upper road" in their diaries.

You'll read that it took them more than a month to make the trip. I asked "Google Maps" about this, and it advised that if I stick to Interstate Highways I should be able to drive the 511 miles in 8 hours and 16 minutes. However if I really want to take my best shot at following the Moravian Route, the distance will be about 536 miles and I need to allow 12 hours and 9 minutes.

I have found two maps of the more detailed Wachovia area, drawn by the Moravians, one dated 1766 and one dated 1771. Both are taken from the Records of the Moravians in North Carolina. This is a multi-volume set of books edited by Adelaide L. Fries, M.A., Archivist of the Moravian Church in America, Southern Province. The first of these volumes was published by Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, Raleigh, NC, in 1922. The maps were from Volume #1.

Both these maps are of terrible quality. Following is is the 1771 version (it happens to be the worst quality, but is for me by far the most interesting, for reasons to be discussed).

The green line shows what became the "Great Wagon Road". On this map, the Moravians labeled it the "Road to Pennsylvania", and on the 1766 map they said "To Virginia".

The red line shows the end of what the earlier map called the "Moravian Route". The original Moravian labels are almost impossible to read on the above because of copy quality, but with effort you can finally make out that this particular map has labeled it "Road to Hilsboro". And the 1766 map calls it "Deep River Road", as does the Moravian Diary of 1755. (And a little study of modern maps will show that Hillsborough and Deep River are both well off the map to the right.)

So why do I find this map so incredibly interesting? Because if you magnify (see inset) a small area to the right of Wachovia, and squint a bit, you will see a tiny mark labeled "Rob Walker". Robert Walker is my G5 Grandfather, and the Moravians thought the place where he lived was so important that they should mark it on their map, even though it was outside their "Wachovia"!

I've begged for someone to find the original of this map, but so far nobody has been able to help. So all I have is this terrible version copied from a 1922 book using primitive copy technology!

Robert Walker was well known to the Moravians, and seemed to be well regarded, with many references in their Diaries. And Robert had an "ordinary" (an inn/tavern) at this exact location by no later than July 16, 1768. A very strategic location, to catch traffic entering and leaving Wachovia by one of the major routes?

Unfortunately, Robert didn't open for business soon enough to greet the "Little Pilgrim Congregation" (see above diary) when they approached Wachovia on November 4, 1755. They would have surely stopped, and mentioned it in their diary. Robert (and a brother, David) arrived some time between 1765 and 1768.

Rob Walker was very well known to the Moravians, and appeared frequently in their diaries. See this:

http://www.coffey.ws/FamilyTree/FamilyNotes/RobWalkerAndTheMoravians.pdf

And there's another of my ancestors, who was actually a Moravian, and who also rated many entries in these Moravian Diaries and who traveled one of these roads. And I like to think they MAY have taken the "lower road", and MAY have been greeted by Robert:

The Moravian Diary for Bethabara for November 9, 1767, reported "Yesterday Andreas Volz (that would actually be 'Volk', or sometimes “Fulk”), Joseph Holder, Stauber, and their families arrived from Pennsylvania."

OK, Robert didn't have his bar license until July of the following year, but he was a politician, who would surely extend a warm greeting to a new arrival?

The Diaries reported all kinds of trivia, and I particularly like the one about this Andreas for July 23, 1768: "For some days the weather has been very hot and oppressive, with frequent thunderstorms. As Andreas Volk and his wife were approaching Bethania there was a sharp clap of thunder, the horse reared, the girth broke, and the saddle and Volk fell one way, and his wife fell the other. Neither was hurt."

I don't know what direction Andreas and wife were coming from, but I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Robert Walker got his tavern license just 7 days earlier, on July 16, 1768.

You can also read a lot more about Andreas in the above "Robert Walker and the Moravians" link.

Finally, there was another line of my ancestors hanging about in Wachovia in this time period. This was Jacob Arney (1728-1784) and his son Henry (1755-1830). I think they also got there in about 1767, but that's unclear.

All I know for sure is that Jacob Arney was still in York, Pennsylvania (see the first map above) on 20 Mar 1761, when a daughter was baptized into the German Reformed (Calvinist) church. And his son Henry (age 6) was surely still living with him.

And then on June 3, 1778, the Moravian Diaries show that Henry Arney was in Wachovia getting his son Jacob (born 18 Mar 1778 and also my ancestor) baptized by the Moravians. Henry had married a daughter of the above Moravian Andreas Volk, so that was probably no small influence in their seeking out the Moravians for the baptism. (However, also of note, the biography of the minister who baptized Henry's sister in York, Jacob Lischy, had started out as a Moravian and tended to get into controversy for his sermons implying there were no fundamental differences between the Moravians, the Calvinists, and the Lutherans.)

Again, the "Arney" references in the Moravian Diaries are covered in the above "Robert Walker and the Moravians" link.

So, some genealogists think Jacob Arney (and son Henry) both got to Wachovia in about 1767, but I've seen no evidence. But I can at least imagine they came down the "Moravian Route", and got there late enough to enjoy Robert Walker's hospitality on the way in.