Among the other families traveling down "The Great Wagon Road" were the Golds  --  a family that would later marry into the Holland family and who would, in turn, marry into the Moore family who would, in turn, marry into the Hamrick family.

We'll cover each of their genealogies as we go along, but it seems well to bring the Golds in at this time because that family has been traced so far back.

We first hear of the Golds in the 1200's when a John Gold was knighted for service to the English throne during battle.

Nowadays, Britons who honor their homeland with all sorts of accomplishments are knighted, but the origin of the honor was on the battlefield.

The Golds continued to serve their homeland's call for many generations and in the early days of the American colonization one of them shipped across the Atlantic and migrated to North Carolina about the same time as did the progeny of George and Nancy Hamrick.

These Golds first settled along the Dan River in Virginia  --  or the south branch of the Roanoke, as it was known in those earlier times  --  where Daniel Gold II and his son Pleasant Gold would establish a ferry service across the river at their farm.

Daniel Gold II had married into the Pleasont family (also known as Pleasant and Plasont), and his future descendant, Pleasont Donald  --  not to be confused with Daniel Gold II's son Daniel Pleasant  --  took it upon himself, to trace the genealogy of the Gold family through fourteen generations in his book, Gold Generations in England and America.

It is because of Pleasont Donald Gold that we know of John Gold and his progeny and he himself is remembered among Edie's many family collaterals because he wrote of his family.

I only mention this for believing that my having seen such acute memory attached to family historians may have unconsciously fed my own ambitions to start these musings.

Pleasont Donald wrote that Daniel Gold III as a young boy helped his grandfather, Daniel Gold II, and his father, Charles Pleasant man their ferry, transporting both colonial and British troops across the Dan.

Kate and Ollie Moore first told Edie and me about Sir John Gold on that winter afternoon forty some years ago while sitting with them in Grandpa Moore's house.

We'll return to the Golds at a later time and in different circumstances.

Among the other early settlers of western Tryon County are found Blantons, McSwaims, Champions, Washburns, Wrays, Suttles, Bosticks, Ledbetters, Doggetts, Conners, Hughes, Magnesses, McBrayers, Webbs, Lovelaces, Williamsons, Hardins, and Pruetts in addition to the Golds, the Hollands, the Moores and Greens

In the fullness of time all of their progeny would comprise a major portion of the future population of Rutherford and Cleveland Counties.

A family of Bridges were among those who consorted with the Hamricks in their early days in Rutherford County.

Much like the Pleasants, the name Bridges can come in many different spellings including Bridger and Bridgers.

It is known that some of the descendants of my Tidewater Virginia  ancestor, Col. Joseph Bridger, moved westward up the James River while the branch that spawned my family moved south to eastern North Carolina.

With so many early colonial families intermixed, it would be of little surprise to find that Edie and I may well have not been the first Hamricks and the first Bridgers to get together.

However, this thought is purely conjecture never having searched or seen any record of where these Rutherford County Bridges came from.

Price Hamrick is said to have been the first of the Hamrick surname to enter the area but it is the third George Hamrick and his wife, Susannah Hamrick, that whom Edie's family trace their roots in Cleveland County.

With each succeeding generation of Hamricks producing their own bevy of children, I won't even try to trace all of those earlier households but, for those so interested, S.C. Jones' 1920 publication The Hamrick Generations is recommended reading. 

Mr. Jones was a relative of Edie's grandparents, Elijah Bly and Galena Green Hamrick, and they supported his efforts to compile a family record by allowing him to stay in their home while finishing his book.

Even though his volume is more a genealogy than a history  --  meaning it names numerous folk but tells few of their stories  --  S.C. Jones is another name we remember today because he took the time and trouble to put what he knew down on paper for the benefit of those who would follow.

Next chapter    Chapter 6, James Young and Catharine (Harding) Hamrick

Previous chapter    Chapter 4, The Tale of the Two Georges

Back to Edie's Family index