The lure of North Carolina was quite strong for land-hungry Pennsylvanians of both German and Scotch-Irish stock because land was quite cheap. The success of the Moravians and other pioneers who had resettled in the vicinity of what is now Winston-Salem was an incentive for others to follow. Also, the ancient Indian footpath that led down the Shenandoah Valley had been gradually improved, first as a narrow packhorse trail and eventually as a rough road or series of roads that allowed the passage of heavy wagons. What became known as the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road saw a flood of immigrants. CLICK HERE to see article and map of The Great Wagon Road.

 

I am indebted to Carolyn Buttolph, whose monograph Kistlers of North Carolina helped me appreciate that my branch of the family (Johannes/Hannes Kistler of Albany Township) begat the Kistlers of North Carolina as well as those of Perry County. My Abraham Kistler’s brother, Johan George Kistler, was the first of the siblings to succumb to the Carolina Fever. (To avoid confusing him with his uncle, John George Kistler of Lynn Township, I will call him George. In my book, Across the Blue Mountain, I call him Jorge.) Buttolph speculates that George was contemplating a move to North Carolina early on and it did not sit well with his father because George did not inherit the farm in Allemaengel even though he was probably the oldest son. In any event, sometime around 1784, George took the Great Wagon Road to somewhere south of modern-day Winston-Salem.  

 

Today, US Route 11 roughly follows the historic wagon road from where it crossed the Potomac River at Williamsport, Maryland to Roanoke, Virginia, which was then known as Big Lick. At Big Lick, the road split. George Kistler followed the original road which veered south over the Blue Ridge to present-day Martinsville, Virginia and Salem, North Carolina. The other branch, which became legendary as the Wilderness Road, continued down the Great Valley of Virginia and through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. Years earlier, the extended family of teenage Daniel Boone left Berks County, Pennsylvania and, following the original path over the Blue Ridge, settled at the forks of the Yadkin River north of Salisbury, North Carolina. Sometime later, the intrepid Boone led some of the first settlers through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and still later was enlisted to carve a wagon road through the gap from the Clinch River Valley. This newer path, which eventually connected to Big Lick, was initially called Boone's Trace and later the Wilderness Road.

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Although the timing is uncertain, George Kistler eventually made his way to the vicinity of present-day Lincolnton in Lincoln County. To get there, he probably took a western branch of the Great Wagon Road known as Sherrill’s Path, which came through Ft. Dobbs and present-day Statesville and crossed the Catawba River at Sherill’s Ford, which today lies under Lake Norman. CLICK HERE to see detailed map of various branches of The Great Wagon Road in North Carolina.