Blackwelders in America
researched by Mark
B. Arslan
His website is here
http://arslanmb.org/blackwelder/blackwelder.html
Preface
Most, if not all, of the white Blackwelder families in the
USA trace their ancestry to John Blackwelder (Johannes Schwarzwalder) and
Elisabetha Maushardt. This web site is intended to be a compendium of the
research done on this Blackwelder family. Much has been published on this
family in various historical books and family histories, some of it accurate,
some not so accurate. As is often the case with family histories, once
something is in print, it often is considered to be "gospel". It is
my hope that this web site will facilitate a critical examination and
discussion of the facts, legends, and myths surrounding this Blackwelder family
and enable us Blackwelder researchers and descendants to learn more about our
origins and our relatives' contributions to early America. The best way to
separate fact from fiction and to resolve conflicting information is to go back
to the primary sources (see Documenting Your Genealogy Research - Guide to
Citing Sources). These include records of marriages, births, deaths, and
burials, census listings, Bible records, tax lists, probate and land records,
etc. The information in the descendant listings on this web site will include
documentation of the primary sources as much as possible, and transcriptions of
many of those sources will be presented in links below. This is a working
document and not necessarily definitive, since much of it is based upon
information found on the Internet or in published secondary sources. It will be
modified and (hopefully) improved as more researchers provide input and, most
importantly, evidence.
Historical Narrative
The immigrant ancestor of most of the Blackwelder families
in America was John Blackwelder, who was born Johannes Schwarzwalder on 29
January 1684 in Monchweiler, Wurttemberg, Germany. His parents were Jacobus
Schwarzwalder and Margaretha -----. Monchweiler was in Germany's Schwarzwald
(or Black Forest). On 27 November 1708, in Durrn (a town in Wurttemberg, about
60 miles north-northeast of Monchweiler), Johannes Schwarzwalder (a
wheelwright) married Elisabetha Maushardt. Elisabetha, a daughter of Andreas
Maushardt and Barbara -----, was born in 1688 (possibly in Lienzingen, a few
miles to the east of Durrn).
Johannes and Elisabetha had at least six children, three of
whom survived infancy: Johann Adam (born 30 September 1719), Gottlieb (born 8
November 1722), and Anna Margaretha (born 29 Oct 1725). The Schwarzwalder
family were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Durrn. Elisabetha
died in Durrn on 27 March 1734. Johannes remarried there on 7 May 1737 to
Christina, widow of Johannes Keller.
Not longer after his marriage to Christina, they applied to
leave Germany for America and, on 29 March 1738, were granted a permit to do
so. They sailed in the ship Friendship, which arrived in Philadelphia on 20
September 1738. Not long after arriving, they anglicized the surname from
Schwarzwalder to Blackwelder. According to the declaration of importation found
in Brunswick County, Virginia Order Book 3, p. 27, dated 3 April 1746, "John
[Johannes] Blackwelder made oath that he imported himself, his sons, John
[Johann Adam] and Caleb [Gottlieb] and daughters Elisabeth and Margaret [Anna
Margaretha], and his sister Catherine Blackwelder directly from the Marquisite
of Durlach of Germany into the Province of Pennsylvania . . ." There was
no mention of his wife Christina and it is not known if she made the trip to
America or if she died after their arrival. No record of a daughter Elisabetha
has been found in the Durrn church records nor is anything else known about
her.
On 25 August 1742, in Williams Township, Bucks County (the
part of which became Northampton County in 1752), a Johannes Schwarzwalder
married Elizabeth Bernhardt, daughter of William Bernhardt. It is not known
whether this Johannes Schwarzwalder is of the same family that immigrated to
Pennsylvania in 1738.
The Blackwelder family next appeared in Brunswick County,
Virginia in 1744. A patent of land granted to Martin Phifer dated 16 June 1744
described the land as "adjoining Blackwelders". Martin Phifer (son of
Caspar Pfeiffer) married to John Blackwelder's daughter Margaret on 1 October
1745. According to Virginia Land Patent Book 26, pp. 159-160, John Blackwelder
was granted 290 acres of land on 12 January 1747 "in the County of
Lunenburg on both sides of Horsepen Branch of Allen's Creek". (Lunenburg
County was formed from Brunswick County in 1746. The part of that county in
which the Blackwelders lived was subsequently divided into present-day
Mecklenburg County, Virginia in 1764.) John Blackwelder, Caleb Blackwelder, and
Martin Phifer appeared in tax lists of Lunenburg County from 1748 to 1752.
(John Adam Blackwelder's name did not appear in these tax lists.)
On 7 September 1756 (see Lunenburg County, Virginia Deed
Book 4, p. 313), John Blackwelder conveyed his 290 acres of land on Horsepen
Branch of Allen's Creek to Caleb Blackwelder. The deed was signed by John and
Margaret M. Blackwelder. The date of John's marriage to Margaret M.is not
known. Nor is the date of John's death. There was a marriage of a Margaret
Blackwelder in Cumberland County, Virginia on 26 November 1763 to Thomas Wilks,
so presumably John died in southern Virginia between 1756 and 1763.
Margaret (Blackwelder) Phifer and her husband Martin moved
from Lunenberg County, Virginia to Anson (now Cabarrus) County, North Carolina
around 1757. Martin Phifer was living on Cold Water Creek as early as 1758. On
29 October 1760, he was granted 278 acres of land on Cold Water Creek (see
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Deed Book 1, p. 152). (Meckleburg County was
formed in 1762 from Anson County. Then, in 1792, Cabarrus County was formed
from the part of Mecklenburg County where Martin Phifer lived.) Martin died in
1791; his wife Margaret in 1803. They had at least four children.
Caleb Blackwelder deeded the land received from his father
to William Philps on 19 January 1760 (see Lunenburg County, Virginia Fiduciary
Book 4, p. 41). He then moved with his wife Betsey Phifer to Anson County,
North Carolina around 1760. Caleb and his family belonged to the Dutch Buffalo
Creek Lutheran Church, formed in 1745. This was later known as St. John's
Lutheran Church, now located near Mount Pleasant in Cabarrus County, a few
miles east of Concord. Caleb died 1794. He and his wife Betsey are buried at
St. John's Lutheran Church. They had at least eight children. Most of the
Blackwelders of Cabarrus County are descended from Caleb Blackwelder and Betsey
Phifer.
Gravestones of Caleb Blackwelder & Betsey (Phifer)
Blackwelder
Not much is known about John Adam Blackwelder. He married
Catherine ----- (probably in Virginia in the 1740s). On 24 June 1762, he
received a grant of 156 acres of land in Anson County North Carolina (in an
area that soon became Mecklenburg County and then Cabarrus County in 1792).
They had sons John and Charles, and possibly a son Christian, as well as a
daughter Mary. (I am still seeking proof that Mary was a daughter of John
Adam.) Mary was married around 1769 in Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus) County, North
Carolina to John Shaver. (These are my 4th-great-grandparents and their
descendants can be found on my John Shaver website.) On 26 September 1794, John
Adam Blackwelder and his wife Catherine deeded the 156 acres of land on Little
Cold Water Creek (which he was granted in 1762) to their son Charles. The date
of John Adam's death is not known, but letters of administration were ordered
in Cabarrus County for the estate of his wife Catherine on 16 April 1805. Sale
of the property was held in July 1805.
