NEWS

​Settlement in the western piedmont of North Carolina owes its existence to an ancient Indian trail sometimes called the Great Warrior’s Trail. The trail, now known as the Great Wagon Road, eventually extended 800 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Augusta, Georgia, with occasional trails branching off in different directions. It is responsible for the settlement of North Carolina cities like Winston-Salem, Salisbury and Charlotte.

By 1720, Pennsylvania was becoming crowded with an influx of Scots Irish and German Palatines, and many Pennsylvania residents wanted to go south for cheaper fertile land. In addition, the governors of Maryland and Virginia began to award land grants in the piedmont to those who were willing to recruit other migrants. In 1744, the Iroquois settled their claims to the trail through the Shenandoah Valley, and the road to migration opened.

Traffic increased until 1756, when the French and Indian War started, and did not pick up again until it was over in 1763. As settlements grew, traffic began to go both ways. Settlers sent such things as pelts, livestock, and agricultural produce north, and in return received necessities like salt, firearms, and iron. Trading towns like York and Lancaster in Pennsylvania, Hagerstown in Maryland and Winchester, Virginia were vital to this trade. By the time of the Revolutionary War, the road was the busiest in the colonies.

In the early days, the term “road” was a misnomer, applying to only the portion above Staunton, Virginia. Since the original narrow trail had been used mostly for foot traffic, the earliest settlers came by horse or pack train. By 1765, the trail had improved enough to allow horse-drawn vehicles to use it. As years went by and carts, herds of cattle, and Conestoga freight wagons began to traverse it, it widened and became less treacherous. [These Conestoga wagons, originally from Pennsylvania, would later become a feature of western expansion.]

However, travel still necessitated fording or ferrying across rivers. Washouts and fallen trees were common obstacles. Mud, dust, and animal waste clogged the road, and any inns that opened, while they provided water for livestock, offered only very basic food and sleeping quarters.

The pattern of migration is clear in the histories of the early planters in southern Iredell and northern Mecklenburg counties. Most, while of Irish descent, had first lived in other colonies. Two of the earliest arrivals were John Brevard who came from Maryland in 1746 and Henry Potts (great-grandfather of Davidson’s W.G. Potts) who arrived in North Carolina from Pennsylvania before 1748. George Davidson, while born in Ireland in 1728, had first lived in Pennsylvania, arriving in North Carolina by 1750.

Alex Osborne, who was born in New Jersey, lived in Pennsylvania before arriving in North Carolina by 1753. Joseph and James Byers arrived from Pennsylvania around 1760. James Franklin Houston, born in Ireland in 1747, lived in Virginia around 1760 and had settled in North Carolina by 1774. While information about when they arrived in North Carolina is scarce, James Kerr was born in Virginia, and Adam Torrence in Pennsylvania. Many of these men served with distinction in the Revolutionary War.

During the war, the Great Wagon Road proved vital to colonial efforts. It provided key supplies to the Piedmont, where Scots Irish settlers were strongly opposed to British rule and eager to overthrow it. The British, under Cornwallis, traveled from Camden, South Carolina through Charlotte, Salisbury, and Salem in an attempt to destroy American forces and smother civilian opposition. Encountering stiff resistance, they were unsuccessful. Among early Patriots in southern Iredell and northern Mecklenburg counties were many emigres from the north, including General William Lee Davidson.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the Great Wagon Road had become less important. Railroads were appearing in the East, and the population was moving West rather than South. Echoes of it still remain, however, in the routes of U.S. 30 through Pennsylvania, and U.S. 11 and Interstate 81 through the Shenandoah Valley.