1779 confirmation certificate of John Spoon, who was born in 1776
Although it was fast becoming a popular route, the path followed by John Spoon and other members of his party as they headed south must have been a rugged and lonely road. The one thing that kept them going was the promise of good farm land available in North Carolina, much of it reasonably priced by the agents of an opportunistic land owner named Henry McCulloch. A settlement referred to in 1750 land documents as McCulloch Tract 11 was most likely home to the Löffler/Spoon brothers, since it covered portions of Orange and Randolph counties (land that later became parts of Guilford County and Alamance County), in which the brothers are listed as residents in the ensuing years.
The trip to North Carolina carried the immigrants through Virginia on the only road south at that time, the Great Wagon Road. It ran through a valley nestled between the Appalachian Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains. This road was first carved through the rugged landscape by wild animals searching for food and attracted to the salt licks in the area. Native Americans later traveled the animal pathway, which became known as the Great Warrior Path because of its frequent use by the Iroquois Indian tribe to assault other bands of woodland natives. Years later, when settlers from Europe began using the overgrown footpath, this became the main route of mass migration south. Foot traffic gave way to simple carts, then two-wheeled carriages, then Conestoga wagons. The Treaty of Lancaster officially recognized this path – which by that time stretched 700 miles and was traveled by tens of thousands -- as the Great Wagon Road in July, 1744.
We don't know whether our ancestors walked, rode in carts or traveled in Conestoga wagons, but somehow they arrived in Big Lick -- which in 1882 became Roanoke, Virginia -- and took the southeastern fork in the road. The final leg of their trip, covering some 80 miles or so, took them to McCullough Tract 11 in the wide-open spaces of northwest North Carolina.
All three Löffler/Spoon brothers arrived in this region eventually. We don’t know exactly when Adam and Christian settled there; perhaps they arrived before John. The names of all three appear in land documents by the 1770s, however.
Our Spoon ancestors ended up on land that is now right on the border of Guilford and Alamance Counties, just a few miles east of Greensboro and just south of Interstate 85. Various surviving land deeds from that time period describe Spoon family property lines in approximately the same area, on land watered by Beaver Creek to the west and Stinking Quarter Creek to the east. Originally a part of Orange County’s greater boundaries, the land is now for the most part in Guilford County, which has a rich history of its own.
Established in 1771, Guilford County actually was settled primarily in the late 1740s and 1750s. The county originally encompassed a large northwestern portion of North Carolina. It extended from the Virginia-North Carolina border south about 75 miles, a huge chunk of land roughly 50 miles wide. At that time it included what is now Randolph County, which separated in 1779, and Rockingham County, which separated in 1785. Today its central metropolitan area is Greensboro, a city of more than 155,000. In the Revolutionary War era, Guilford County and neighboring Orange County was part of a vast wilderness inhabited by perhaps a few thousand hardy souls.
The first mention of John the Immigrant in North Carolina is in the Orange County deed book dated March 29, 1772. It describes the sale of land by “John Spoon and Sarah his wife of Orange, planter, to James McCarrol of same, 60 pounds, 100 acres.” The document was signed by John Spoon in German, probably meaning he used the name Johannes Löffler.
Researchers are not sure when John married Sarah, his second wife. Some believe his first wife, Sally, died before John left Pennsylvania. We are certain, however, that John and Sally had one son, Adam, born in Pennsylvania, and that John and Sarah had at least two children born in North Carolina.
The first of these was a son, named Johannes like his father but also known as John Spoon. “John the Younger,” as he is referred to by Boyles, was born on July 17, 1766. The German equivalent of his surname used at the time was Löffel, as is seen in a 1779 confirmation certificate. The document, handwritten both in German and English and now in Boyles’ possession, includes the words to the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” along with the inscription, “Come here my children and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. John Spoon, 1779.”
John the Younger was a teenager when his father died. Although researchers are not sure of John the Immigrant’s exact death date, we know from an entry in the Orange County deed book that it happened by 1785, probably earlier. On Sept. 22, 1785, Sarah Spoon received a portion of land from a neighbor as part of an estate settlement. In that document, Sarah is referred to as the widow of John Spoon and a reference is made to “Sarah Spoon and orphan heirs.”
This land is described as being “on the waters of Stinking Quarter.” Boyles, who has walked the shores of this creek many times, insists it does not stink. It is definitely there, however, and the locals know this was once the site of the old Spoon homestead.
As Boyles describes it, “From Highway 62 (heading south from U.S. 85) near E.M. Holt School, turn onto Kimesville Road. Travel about three miles, turn left onto Euliss Road, go a half-mile and cross the south prong of Stinking Quarter Creek. Look to your right. That’s it. But don’t expect an old house – that’s long gone.”
According to Boyles, an old house near the corner of Kimesville Road and Euliss Road is the renovated former residence of Michael Shoffner, who traveled with the Spoons from Pennsylvania. Boyles’ grandparents lived in that house at one time. He says records indicate Shoffner was by far the wealthiest in the group that traveled to North Carolina in 1763. He speculates that John the Immigrant moved south to work for Shoffner and found he could get his own land grant.
By 1785, John the Immigrant was dead. No one knows where John Spoon, aka Johannes Löffler, is buried. Boyles believes he may have died in the Revolutionary War. Boyles says there is a tombstone bearing the name of John Spoon, “native of Germany,” at Low’s Lutheran Church cemetery in Guilford County. He is not certain John is actually buried there, for if John was killed in combat, this could simply be a commemorative grave marker.
Even if this is the case, the “original” John Spoon left to his descendants a legacy of perseverance and religious conviction that is seen in many Spoon family members in the generations that followed.
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