At the same time my 5x great-grandfather Henry Harman lived
in Rowan County, North Carolina and served on the Committee of Safety
(1774-1775), my 3x great-grandfather, Melchior Trautman lived there, too. I
wonder if they were acquainted.
This is Melchior’s story. He is my father’s direct line male ancestor: Dad Verne Troutman > Grandpa Clint Troutman > G-grandpa Daniel A. Troutman > GG-grandpa Henry Troutman > GGG-grandpa Jacob Troutman > GGGG-grandpa Melchior Trautman.
After the death of his father, Adam Trautman, a tailor in a
Bavarian village called Gross Gumpen, Melchior immigrated to America in 1751
with his mother, Anna Margaretha (Hartmann) Trautman and his half-brother Peter
Trautman and Peter’s young family on the ship Neptune. On arriving in American,
the Trautman men and all German immigrants were required to take an oath of
allegiance to the British monarch. Melchior’s name is found on a list of oath
takers “at the Court House of Philadelphia” dated 24 September 1751. He signed
with an X.[1]
Either on the ship or shortly after arriving Melchior married a woman named Anna. No record remains of this marriage, but family tradition says her surname was Heist; the Neptune ship’s manifest lists several Heist men. Not until years later were women and children named. The 1767 baptismal record of a Lutheran Church in Northampton County, Pennsylvania of their son, Jacob, names his parents “Melcher Troutman [and] Anna” and provides evidence of their residence and religious affiliation.[2]
After about twenty years in Pennsylvania, Melchior and Peter moved their families, probably via the Great Road through the Valley of Virginia, to Rowan County, North Carolina. The Great Road, sometimes called the Great Wagon Road, wasn’t so great for wagons. It was a narrow footpath indigenous peoples had trod, probably following buffalo trails through the valley. That’s how the Harman family found it in 1745. By the time the Trautman family came after 1770, it hadn’t improved much. The additions were that more settlements along the way warranted organized efforts to keep the path cleared. Certain landowners were designated “overseers of the road” for the section passing their property. Nonetheless, only packhorses and folks on foot or horseback could navigate the path, not wagons, not yet. An important stopover place along the way was Fort Chiswell in Wythe County, Virginia. From there, some folks headed westward on the Wilderness Trail and some turned south over the mountains into North Carolina. [3] The Troutman families turned south. It was a long and tiring journey.
During the 1760s as conflict with the British arose over taxation in New England, so it did in North Carolina. The southerners also were soon divided into pro- and anti-British camps. In the outlying regions of North Carolina a contingent of men dubbed “Regulators” objected to excessive fees and taxes and corrupt government officials. The conflict lasted from 1764-1771 when the Regulators were defeated and sent packing. Interestingly, the men who fought against the Regulators later became loyal to the patriot cause and most of the Regulators became Tories.[4]
Henry Harman was surely aware of it all, but where he stood is unknown. Melchior Trautman and family arrived in the aftermath, in time for the start of the Revolutionary War. Having taken an oath of Allegiance to the British crown when they arrived in Philadelphia in 1751, it’s probable that Melchior and Peter Trautman were conflicted over what they should do. As the Committee of Safety (see last week’s post) took control of governing Rowan County, Salisbury’s jail became the place to confine Tories and British prisoners of war. Melchior and Peter’s son, also named Melchior, served the patriot cause by guard duty at the Salisbury Jail.[5]
The town certainly became the center of action after the Battle of Cowpens in early 1781 when Brigadier General Daniel Morgan’s Continentals marched through with hundreds of prisoners. Morgan was soon followed by General Cornwallis and his Redcoats, who camped about the town. You can read more about this excitement here: https://amrevnc.com/salisbury/ . For history lovers, Salisbury is a great place to see the sites and learn about events of the Revolutionary War in North Carolina (also the Civil War).
Melchior, however, didn’t live to witness these events. He died 9 November 1778 and was buried south of Salisbury in the cemetery at Organ Lutheran Church where he was a member; his grave is unmarked.
And about that spelling problem, the first descendant of Melchior's to submit a DAR application spelled the name Melchoir, so that's what he gets in the DAR database. Sort of makes me grit my teeth. Clearly, his early records spelled it "Melchior."
[1] Ralph Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Vol. 2, ( Norristown, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1934) p. 551. This book can be found full text on Hathi Trust.
[2] St. Paul’s [Blue] Church, Church Records (Upper Saucon Township, Lehigh County, PA, transcribed from a copy in Easton Library, 1948), p. 30. This church was and is Lutheran.
[3] See Mary B. Kegley, Finding Their Way From the Great Road to the Wilderness Road, 1745-1796, (Wytheville, VA: Kegley Books, 2008), pp. 7-12.
[4] Regulators of North Carolina, United States History, Britannica; https://www.britannica.com/topic/Regulators-of-North-Carolina
[5] North Carolina: Digital Collections, Home > Troop Returns > Guards of Salisbury Jail [1]; MilColl_Troop_Returns_B5F21_Guards_of_Salisbury_Jail_1779_09; https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062coll26/id/767.
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