The Bryan Settlement
Above is a detail of an antique map of the Moravian’s Wachovia Tract showing the Bryant’s Settlement to the southwest. More images below.
Robert Alvin Crum copyright 22 May 2024
Historians provide memories of people, places, and events, and without their stories, so much would be lost in time. Around 1747, land speculators and early settlers were moving into the western part of the British Colony of North Carolina, and they established a settlement in the Forks of the Yadkin on both sides of a prominent crossing known as the Shallow Ford. Their initial land grants spanned thousands of acres in what are now the counties of Forsyth, Yadkin, and Davie. Dr. Robert Ramsey wrote in Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier 1747-1762 that, “The most prominent of settlers in northwestern Carolina before 1752 was Morgan Bryan,” and this place that was almost lost to history was named after him and called the “Bryan Settlement.”
Most of these early land speculators and settlers came from the British Colonies of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. They were looking for more and cheaper land that wasn’t available in the colonies in which they lived. At this time, they couldn’t move west, because the land to the west of the mountains was claimed by the Empire of France. Therefore, they moved south to western North Carolina where the Earl of Granville was selling off large tracts of land cheaper than what could be found in other British colonies.
It’s almost impossible to find all the names of the first settlers of the Bryan Settlement, but the families among them include Morgan Bryan, James Carter, Samuel Davis, George Forbush, Edward Hughes, Jonathan Hunt, William Linnville, Squire Boone, and more. The names of Morgan and Martha Bryan’s children whose families also migrated into North Carolina with them in 1747 were Eleanor, Samuel, John, William, James, and Thomas, and they also brought with them granddaughters Martha Bryan, Rebecca Bryan, and Mary Curtis.
They migrated out of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and headed south. It was a rocky trail through Virginia, and the Bryans had to clear sections as they went. For a brief time, this was known as the Bryan Road in Virginia. Later, it was referred to as the Carolina Road but eventually became known as the Great Wagon Road. They followed the road out of Virginia and into North Carolina where it wound through present day Stokes and Forsyth Counties. The road curved southwest along a ridge above the Yadkin River to the east of the Shallow Ford. There, Edward Hughes established a tavern where he could provide service to all those following the Great Wagon Road and would frequently stop before fording the Yadkin. The Bryans crossed the Yadkin River from the east side to the west at the Shallow Ford and entered this land to be among the first white settlers. Many of the children of these early settlers would marry and continue to expand their land holdings.
Morgan Bryan initially bought eleven tracts of land totaling 3,838½ acres, and most were later sold to his children. Eight of these tracts were in the Forks of the Yadkin, but three were on the north side of the Upper Yadkin River at Mulberry Fields and Reddy’s River. The grants and indentures are dated 1752, and Morgan made the first five sales to his sons in 1753. Most of Morgan’s children began buying more land where they chose to build their homes.
In 1750, Squire and Sarah Boone also brought their extended family to North Carolina. Squire’s two 640-acre Granville Land grants were perfected in 1753. The Boone children would intermarry with the Bryans, Carters, Linvilles, and other families, and they too would purchase and settle on lands in the Bryan Settlement.
Many of these first families were Quakers or members of the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania, but when they moved to North Carolina, most abandoned that faith and some even declared themselves to be members of the official church of state, the Anglican Church. (Also referred to as the Church of England.) Some of the Boones became Baptists, and a few of the Bryans became active with the Moravians.
In 1752, Bishop Spangenburg led the Moravians into the Colony of North Carolina in search of land to establish a large community. He was unable to purchase some land he wanted on the Upper Yadkin River, because Morgan Bryan had already surveyed and acquired it three to four years earlier. As the Moravians moved east in search of additional land, they found the Bryan Settlement already occupied the west side of the Yadkin River. The Moravians had to cross the Shallow Ford to acquire land to the east of the Yadkin River, and it became known as the Wachovia Tract. Today, this is the location of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The 1750’s saw rapid population growth in the Settlement as more families arrived from the northeast. The Bryan and Boone families moved into North Carolina at a peaceful time with the hopes of farming, hunting, and even earning a livelihood as land speculators. They also were heavily involved in the North Carolina colonial government of Rowan County. However, things quickly changed in 1754, when conflict began with the French and Indian War, but violence escalated in the Carolinas with the Cherokee War from 1758 to 1761. Many of the Boones left and took shelter at this time in Virginia and points farther north. The Bryans stayed, and Morgan Bryan, Jr. served as the militia captain while brother Thomas was his ensign. Bryan brothers Samuel, John, William, and James also served in the militia during this Cherokee war.
After the French & Indian War, the land west of the mountains was acquired by the British from the French. The British colonists, especially many in the Bryan Settlement, began to turn their attentions to new land on the west side of the mountains.
The parents who led their children into the Bryan Settlement began to die off and were buried there. Morgan Bryan died in 1763, and his wife Martha died the previous year in 1762. Squire Boone died in 1765, and his wife Sarah died in 1777.
Much like their parents, the Boones, Bryans, and related families began moving west to speculate on the purchase of new lands. In 1775, the Boones and related families made a successful attempt to settle at and helped establish Fort Boonesborough. At the same time, the four Bryan brothers, Joseph, Morgan, William, and James, established Bryan’s Station near present day Lexington, Kentucky. The Bryans would frequently travel back and forth between Bryan Station and the Bryan Settlement.
There is an entry in the Moravian’s Salem Diary of 1779 on October 3 that states, “Six more families passed on their way to Kentok; it is unbelievable that such a crowd of people as are going thither will be able to support themselves. Several hundred went with the Bryants recently.” (The Moravians usually spelled the Bryan name with a “t” on the end.) In the fall of 1779, Daniel Boone also led another large migration out of the Bryan Settlement and into Kentucky.
Most of the Boones, Bryans, and related families led America’s first great migration west. By the end of the 18th century, the large area they once inhabited that was known as the Bryan Settlement faded into history.
Sources:
Anson County, North Carolina Deed Records, Wadesboro, North Carolina.
Belue, Ted Franklin, Editor, The Life of Daniel Boone by Lyman C. Draper, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, 1998.
Bryan, Jr., John K., “Morgan Bryan,” Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 Volumes edited by William S. Powell, The University of North Carolina Press, copyright 1979 – 1996.
Clark, Walter, ed., The State Records of North Carolina, 16 Volumes, Winston, Goldsboro: State of North Carolina, 1895-1907.
Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1753, Chapter VII, p. 383.
Draper, Lyman Copeland, Draper Manuscripts, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
Fries, Adelaide Lisetta, Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, 1752-1771, Vol. 1, Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina, Reprinted 1968.
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Kamper, Ken, A Researcher’s Understanding on the Boone Family Move to North Carolina, No. PK17.0211, February 2017.
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Manuscript Collection, The State Historical Society of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri.
McMurtry, David C., Seven Sons and Two Daughters of Morgan Bryan (1671-1763): “Irish Immigrant” and Some of Their Descendants, Mil-Mac Publishers, Lexington, Kentucky, 2009.
McMurtry, David C., Bryan, David Randall, and Weiss, Katherine, Morgan Bryan (1671-1763: A Danish Born “Irish Immigrant” and Some of His Antecedents and Descendants, Mil-Mac Publishers, Lexington, Kentucky, 2007.
Ramsey, Robert W., Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwest Carolina Frontier 1747-1762, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1964.
Rowan County Deeds, Rowan County Records, Salisbury, North Carolina.
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Saunders, William L., ed., The Colonial Records of North Carolina, 10 Volumes, Printers to the State, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1886-1890.
Spraker, Hazel Atterbury, The Boone Family, The Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont, 1922.
Stimson, R. Kyle, The Great Philadelphia Wagon Road in Forsyth County, N.C. 1750 – 1770: Historic Roads of Forsyth County – Volume One, copyright 1999 by R. Kyle Stimson.
Surry County Deeds, Surry County Records, Mt. Airy, North Carolina.
U.S Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935.
Weiss, Kathryn H., Daniel Bryan, Nephew of Daniel Boone: His Narrative and Other Stories, Self-published by Kathryn H. Weiss, Forbestown, California, 2008.
Weiss, Katherine, Morgan Bryan, Senior’s “Original Eleven” Anson (Rowan) County North Carolina Land Grants, Katherine Weiss, Forbestown, California, 2006.
