The Spoons begin a new life in North Carolina

Route taken by the Spoons and other Germans into North Carolina

Although it was fast becoming a popular route, the path followed by John Spoon and other members of his party as they headed south from Pennsylvania must have been a rugged and lonely road. The one thing that kept them going was the promise of good farm land available in North Carolina, much of it reasonably priced by the agents of an opportunistic land owner named Henry McCulloch.

A settlement referred to in 1750 land documents as McCulloch Tract 11 was most likely home to the Löffler/Spoon brothers. It covered portions of Orange and Randolph counties (land that later became parts of Guilford County and Alamance County) in which the brothers are listed as residents in the ensuing years.

The trip to North Carolina carried the immigrants through Virginia on the only road south at that time, the Great Wagon Road. It ran through a valley nestled between the Appalachian Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains. This road was first carved through the rugged landscape by wild animals searching for food and attracted to the salt licks in the area. Native Americans later traveled the animal pathway, which became known as the Great Warrior Path because of its frequent use by the Iroquois Indian tribe to assault other bands of woodland natives. Years later, when settlers from Europe began using the overgrown footpath, this became the main route of mass migration south. Foot traffic gave way to simple carts, then two-wheeled carriages, then Conestoga wagons. The Treaty of Lancaster officially recognized this path – which by that time stretched 700 miles and was traveled by tens of thousands -- as the Great Wagon Road in July, 1744.

We don't know whether our ancestors walked, rode in carts or traveled in Conestoga wagons, but somehow they arrived in Big Lick -- which in 1882 became Roanoke, Virginia -- and took the southeastern fork in the road. The final leg of their trip, covering some 80 miles or so, took them to McCullough Tract 11 in the wide-open spaces of northwest North Carolina.

All three Löffler/Spoon brothers arrived in this region eventually. We don’t know exactly when Adam and Christian settled there; perhaps they arrived before John. The names of all three appear in land documents by the 1770s, however.

Our Spoon ancestors ended up on land that is now right on the border of Guilford and Alamance Counties, just a few miles east of Greensboro and just south of Interstate 85. Much of that land was originally part of Orange County. Various surviving land deeds from that time period describe Spoon family property lines in approximately the same area, on land watered by Beaver Creek to the west and Stinking Quarter Creek to the east.

The first mention of John the Immigrant in North Carolina is in the Orange County deed book dated March 29, 1772. It describes the sale of land by “John Spoon and Sarah his wife of Orange, planter, to James McCarrol of same, 60 pounds, 100 acres.” The document was signed by John Spoon in German, probably meaning he used the name Johannes Löffler.

Researchers are not sure when John married Sarah, his second wife. Some believe his first wife, Sally, died before John left Pennsylvania. We are certain, however, that John and Sally had one son, Adam, born in Pennsylvania, and that John and Sarah had at least two children born in North Carolina.

English version of a 1779 confirmation certificate for John “the Younger” Spoon

The first of these was a son, named Johannes like his father but also known as John Spoon. “John the Younger,” as he is referred to by researcher Michael Boyles, was born on July 17, 1766. The German equivalent of his surname used at the time was Löffel, as is seen in a 1779 confirmation certificate. The document, handwritten both in German and English and now in Boyles’ possession, includes the words to the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” along with the inscription, “Come here my children and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. John Spoon, 1779.”

John the Younger was a teenager when his father died. Although researchers are not sure of John the Immigrant’s exact death date, we know from an entry in the Orange County deed book that it happened by 1785, probably earlier. On Sept. 22, 1785, Sarah Spoon received a portion of land from a neighbor as part of an estate settlement. In that document, Sarah is referred to as the widow of John Spoon and a reference is made to “Sarah Spoon and orphan heirs.”

This land is described as being “on the waters of Stinking Quarter.” According to local legend, the Stinking Quarter Creek takes its name from the smell settlers discovered when they arrived to see the carcasses of buffalo left to rot on the shores of the creek by hunters.

An old house near the corner of Kimesville Road and Euliss Road in Alamance County is the renovated former residence of Michael Shoffner, who traveled with the Spoons from Pennsylvania. It was later the home of William Luther Spoon, one of the first civil engineers in North Carolina, and is still owned by members of the Spoon family. Records indicate Shoffner was by far the wealthiest in the group that traveled to North Carolina in 1763. It’s possible that John the Immigrant moved south to work for Shoffner and found he could get his own land grant.

The former home of Michael Shoffner and William Luther Spoon in Alamance County

By 1785, John the Immigrant was dead. No one knows where John Spoon, aka Johannes Löffler, is buried. Boyles believes he may have died in the Revolutionary War.

George Fogleman, who accompanied John the Immigrant on the long journey from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, was another early pioneer in the German migration. Born in Widdern, Germany in 1746, George arrived as a child with his family on the ship Shirley at Philadelphia in 1751. In the first few years following his migration to North Carolina, Fogleman married Catherine Curtis, another German immigrant. On Sept. 3, 1766, the couple welcomed into the world a daughter, named Maria Eva.

Eve Fogleman was baptized on May 26, 1782, the first recorded baptism of an Evangelical Lutheran in North Carolina. Records indicate she spent a happy childhood on what her father called “the old plantation,” which spanned both sides of the Stinking Quarter Creek. In George Fogleman’s will, written in 1785 and executed after his death in 1805, Eve inherited “a spinning wheel, a bed and bed clothes, an iron pot, and as much pewter as I give to either of my daughters when they left me,” plus two cows.

In about 1786 she married John “the Younger” Spoon, son of the man who had been such a faithful traveling companion to her father. Researchers aren’t sure whether they received part of their parents’ land or purchased their own, but apparently John made a good living. According to a family history written by Ruth Spoon Sharp, great great great granddaughter of John Spoon, he “came to Orange County and became the owner of vast lands there that later were carved into Alamance County.”

The intersection of Spoon Road and Highway 62

Ruth Sharp also wrote about fond memories of Sundays and holidays spent at the “old homeplace,” which was sold by the Spoon family in the 1930s. Presumably, this was the same property that had been in the family since John the Immigrant first arrived in the 1760s.

John and Eve and their parents lived during a memorable era of American history. There's little doubt they were affected by, and perhaps even participated in, the Battle of Alamance -- a fight between the militia and rebel farmers upset about the policies of royal Governor William Tryon. That battle was fought in May 1771, just a few miles east of where the Spoon farm was located. Today, a 40-acre battlefield park marks the site of the event.

Tombstone of Eve Fogleman Spoon

A few miles to the northwest lies the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, site of one of the last significant battles of the Revolutionary War.

On March 15, 1781, a group of colonists -- including many local farmers -- valiantly battled the British forces of Lord Cornwallis. Although the British forced the locals into retreat that day, Cornwallis' troops suffered so many losses through gunfire exchanges and hand-to-hand combat that they withdrew to Virginia, where Cornwallis later surrendered in Yorktown.

John “The Younger” Spoon (1766-1849) and his wife Eve (1766-1830) are buried at Low’s Lutheran Church in Guilford County. Members of the Spoon family remain in Alamance and Guilford counties and surrounding areas of North Carolina. All owe a debt of gratitude to the Löffler brothers for making the difficult journey to a land that offered them tremendous opportunities.

Douglas Spoon

December 2003