Correll ~ Rowan County, NC

Early mention of the Correll surname in Rowan County, North Carolina ~

History of the German Reformed Church in North Carolina
Welker, George Wm. (George William), 1817-1894
Volume 08, Pages 727-757

The Mt. Zion Church (Savitz's Church ) is about ten miles south of Salisbury, on the line of the North Carolina Railroad, near China Grove Station. This was, in its foundation, known as the “Savitz” Church, which was a union church, the joint property of the Reformed and Lutheran people. No doubt a rude place of worship was established here long before a regular ministry was obtainable, and an organization followed in the time of Suther or Loretz, about 1761. Already in 1745-'50 all this region was peopled by the flood of immigration from Pennsylvania, as was that on Dutch, Buffalo and Second creeks.

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INFO ABOUT MT. ZION ~

Mount Zion Reformed Church in southwest Rowan County traces its roots to a German Settlement in the area dating back to the mid 1700's. Historical records show a congregation, first known as Savitz's Church was meeting for worship in 1755. The first crude log structure used for worship was later replaced with a larger, log building painted red.

Tradition has it that an overly emotional person, wanted to rid the church of evil spirits symbolized by the red structure, set fire to this building. Shortly after the fire a more suitable building was erected through a joint venture of Lutheran and Reformed members. This building was used jointly until 1836 when the Lutheran members moved a few hundred yards away and constructed their own building.

The Reformed members continued to use the building until 1844 when they purchased a four-acre tract of land and constructed a more modern brick building that served them until 1876. In that year this building was demolished to make room for a larger facility. As this building got underway, hard times set in, delaying the completion of this project. The congregation had been given an eighty-five acre tract of land in 1846 to be used for a parsonage. This land had to be sacrificed to meet the obligations of the new building. Members and friends joined in to hand-make the bricks, and the new building was made ready for occupancy by 1881, when Dr. Paul Barringer became the pastor.

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About 1845 the old log Savitz Church became both too small and uncomfortable, when the two congregations removed each a short distance and erected brick houses of worship, having the railroad and the old grave-yard between them. Within the last few years the Reformed Church becoming too straight for the worshipper's comfort, has been taken down and a new one built in its stead, and is now, perhaps, the finest country church in Western Carolina; and here the children of the Reformed, under a succession of men of God, have kept the Reformed faith.

The Bechlers, Deihls, Corihers, Corrells, Yosts, Schuppings, Caspers, (German Immigrants)with others, revere the memory of their forefathers. After Loretz and Boger, the early pastors, followed Lerch, Lantz, Ingold, Fetzer, Cecil, Ingle, Trexler, and now there comes Barringer, who has already had need to rebuild two churches and make them larger. In the cemetery near the Mount Zion Church is the last resting-place of one of its beloved pastors, Rev. Samuel J. Fetzer, whose memory is precious to those who enjoyed his ministrations. Another congregation was represented on the floor of Classis at its last meeting, an offshoot of Mount Zion and Mount Gilead, that had been organized at Enochville, and is now under the oversight of the Rev. Paul Barringer, the pastor of the Western Rowan charge.

The German immigration to America grew out of the fearful results of the thirty years' war that had desolated their native land and made existence there intolerable. After this came the French invasion of the Rhine territory. By this the grand home of the Palatines, who were Protestants, was made a houseless waste. For these sufferers the new world opened an asylum. William Penn gave the heartiest and freest invitation to his colony. Queen Anne of England offered a refuge and means of succour. Thousands left their native land by way of England to reach a home in the wilderness. Most of these were aided to reach the colony of Pennsylvania, which for a time seemed to become largely Germanized. Among them were also Huguenots (French Protestants), who on the revocation of the edict of Nantes had fled to Germany and now came with their co-religionists to America.

This influx of Germans, Swiss and French into Pennsylvania began about 1707. Many had come over previous to this and as early as 1682. During the period from 1727 to 1775 the archives of the colony of Pennsylvania record the names of more than 30,000 persons who landed at the port of Philadelphia. It is from this colony that the German immigrants to North Carolina to a great extent came.

A colony of Palatines and Swiss founded New Berne in 1710, whose history may be had in any North Carolina history. We shall confine ourselves to the immigrants from the colony of Pennsylvania to the Carolinas. The most valuable lands in Pennsylvania east of the Alleghanies were taken up. The Proprietors of Carolina offered very advantageous terms to settlers. The resources of salubrious climate and unrivalled fertility of soil, that made it a very paradise, soon attracted these industrious people hither. At this time one-third of the population of the Province of Pennsylvania were Germans.

Their overflow into North Carolina was so profuse, that in 1785 the Germans from Pennsylvania alone numbered upwards of 15,000. Of the 30,000 names given in the State archives of Pennsylvania, a very large number can be found to-day among the Germans of North Carolina, and one who goes from the region populated by the Germans in North Carolina to Eastern Pennsylvania will find almost every familiar name in the counties of Berks, Schuylkill, Northampton, Lebanon, Dauphin, etc., in that State.

~ Now, if only we can connect our line of Corrells to the earliest German settlers in Rowan County, North Carolina.....Back to the researching, folks!

Maybe a road trip is on the horizon.....

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