Thomovrillc'» Cine Cenlcr it uicd lor all kind* ol communily purpoiei. Originolly it wot a community
church, citablishcd by Charles F. Finch
о» о
memorial to his wife. It was on unusual institution, wos
open every day, and had a library, modern gymnasium and playground.
"He that will work can soon have
a plantation; and poor people are not
to Ik* met here at all. A person can of¬
ten meet with families that have thir¬
teen or fourteen children, nearly all
living. I myself am acquainted with a
planter here, who has had a family of
twenty-three children, born of one
mother, and who, with the exception
of two. are all living and well. . . .
“Among «tiller things, I advise
them not to intermarry with per¬
sons of other nationalities, be¬
cause such mixed marriages are
generally unhappy and sometimes
occasion murder and homicide.
"We ministers are treated with a
respect such as is shown to no other
person. There is no difference in rank
acknowledge here, and yet no one has
ever spoken with me. who did not hold
his hat in his hand."
A Preacher Reports
Lutherans were pious and well
disciplined people.
If the Davidson frontier lacked
many of the luxuries and refinements
of life, the early residents neverthe¬
less fared well at the table. Varied
and abundant were the products of the
land. For example, in 1789, Rev. Ar¬
nold Roschen, arriving from Germany
to preach to the Lutherans, recorded in
his diary that his new neighbors came
to see him;
“The people from all parts of
the country brought us abundantly
flour, com, hams, sausages, dried
fruit, chickens, turkeys, geese,
etc., so much so, that there has
been scarcely any necessity to
spend one farthing for our house¬
keeping up to this time."
And while the borderers generally
were a rough breed, coarsened by a
rn environment, the German settlers
remembered well their disciplined up¬
bringing. And they thrived, too. Said
the good parson:
"Marriages are here performed in
two modes; the one according to the
rules of the Church requires to be an¬
nounced three times; the other is man¬
aged as follows:
"The groom gets a certificate from
Salisbury, rides, accompanied by his
THE STATE. February 17. 1962
friends, with the bride to the minister,
or. if none is in the place, to the
magistrate, where the marriage lakes
place. The first question of the minis¬
ter is. Whether he has taken his bride
without her parents' knowledge? —
this occurs frequently — and whether
the parents have given their consent.
If one has stolen his bride and has a
certificate from Salisbury, then the ob¬
jections of the parents avail nothing.
"I'pon the whole, in this free
country, a son, whenever he has
arrived at his tw enty -first y ear,
and daughter as soon as she is
eighteen years old, is no longer
under the parent's control. Per¬
sons generally marry very young,
because they need not he much
concerned for the future.
The frontier minister was a real
power for the first settlers were deeply
religious. They often had itinerant
preachers to minister to them, but held
services whether a preacher was avail¬
able or not. the services often led by
the schoolteacher or elders of the
church.
I he Jersey church in the lower sec¬
tion of the county was founded about
1753. It now is Baptist, but has served
several denominations, and once was .1
Church of England.
The German Palatinate immigrants
built Pilgrim Reformed German Pres¬
byterian Church on Leonard's creek in
1 756. and the congregation is still thriv¬
ing. hirst services were held under a
brush arbor. Later (1787). this Pilgrim
Church was shared jointly with the
Lutherans for many years.
Then in 1820 a second Lu¬
theran congregation, with differ¬
ent affiliations, was organized, and
it also used the old Pilgrim church
building, along with the Reformed
congregation.
(Continued on page 2J)
The Wc»t Oovidwn High School
