Settling the
Western Frontier
Indian Troubles
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Settling the Western Frontier
Indian Troubles
Our early ancestors who came to the southwestern Piedmont in North Carolina faced not only the formidable task of clearing forests, building homes and establishing farms, they also had to deal with the Indians. Indians who claimed the land on which they were settling.
From 1750 to 1768 they were living among two major tribes: the Cherokee and the Catawba. The Cherokee's claimed a boundary line along the Catawba River. Everything to the west was theirs. The Catawba claimed land along the east side of the same river. Besides fighting the white settlers, in the mid- eighteenth century, they were fighting each other for their native territory.
The worst Indian problems occurred in 1760-1761, during the French and Indian War, when the Crown government in North Carolina officially declared war on the Indians. This was just as many of the Germans were coming from Pennsylvania to establish settlements west of the Catawba River. For a sense of how the early settlers were affected by this conflict, see The Story of the Painted Tree, a story which has passed down through several families for many generations.