MIGRATION OF THE Plemons/Plemmons Family
By Janet Webb
Thomas Plemin is in Rowan County, North Carolina in the late 1750's.
Rowan County was made 27 March 1753 from Anson County. The people who made up this large tract of land were the Scotch-Irish and the Germans. In the late 1750's and early 1760's the English and Welsh people settled here.
The Scotch-Irish was the ones who took part in the government of the county. They had come down through the Shenandoah Valley by the great wagon road to North Carolina. The Germans, who had difficulty speaking English, stayed home and made good farms. Many of these Germans did not register their land, nor were many of them naturalized. Thus there is not much of a paper trail of records for the German people. Another thing that made it difficult to trace them was the Anglicizing of the names. They arrived into North Carolina by way of the Great wagon road from Pennsylvania and South Carolina and from the coast out of the New Bern area.
John, Peter, and Thomas Plemons are in the Morganton District of Burke County, North Carolina in 1790. There are deed, tax, census, and court records for these families. They lived near the South Fork of the Catawba River. Rock Creek and the Second Broad River are two other waterways that are named in the deed of these men and the Hailey men in the 1780's and 1790's. This appears to locate the area very close to the county lines of Lincoln and Rutherford County where they join Burke County. This is near Highway. NC 18 that is southeast of Morganton, North Carolina.
In 1805, John has moved to Buncombe County, North Carolina. In 1807, Thomas is no longer a resident of Burke County, North Carolina. In 1808, Peter has moved to Buncombe County, North Carolina.
Of the Children of John:
1. John & Cecelia went to Gilmer County, Georgia in 1839 as well as Susan and her husband.
2. In approximately 1811, Peter & Susan Jane lived in an area of Buncombe County across the mountain from Leicester that became Spring Creek, Madison County, North Carolina.
3. Thomas and his wife left Buncombe County North Carolina in the 1820's going to Macon County, North Carolina then to Monroe County, TN.
4. Jeremiah and wife left Buncombe County shortly after he married. They traveled by the route of the French Broad River into Sevier County, Tennessee.
5 . Francis Marion and Louise left Buncombe County and went to Macon County, Cherokee County, North Carolina. In the 1840's they went to Sweetwater, Monroe County, Tennessee, then went on to Apple Grove, Morgan County, Alabama where they were after the Civil War.
6. Laura Elizabeth married John Jackson Tumblinson. They left Burke County. They were in Buncombe County, North Carolina in 1804, Tennessee in 1809, Illinois in 1817, Arkansas in 1818 and went to Texas in 1821 with Stephen Austin, becoming one of the first families in Texas.
Of the children of Peter:
7. Andrew was the only child of Peter to leave Buncombe County, North Carolina. He went into the area that became Madison County, North Carolina in about 1944. This was near his cousin Peter and Peter's wife Susan Jane.
8. It was several generations before any of the other children of Peter and Manervia Jane left Buncombe County, North Carolina.
Of the Children of Thomas:
9. John Jackson Moore moved from Burke County, North Carolina to Buncombe County, North Carolina by 1810. They went to Cole County, Missouri in 1826.
10. Thomas married in Buncombe County, North Carolina and went to Macon County, North Carolina in 1830, then to Haywood County, North Carolina by 1850.
11. After Marah (Polly) married Ahab Mullins, they left Buncombe County, North Carolina in 1811. Nothing else is known of them.
12. Jane died in Georgia.
13. James went to Macon County, North Carolina by 1835.
14. Jacob was in Buncombe County, North Carolina in 1820, Macon County, North Carolina in 1840, Gilmer County, Georgia in 1850 and Murray County, Georgia in 1860.
15. Archibald was in Macon County, North Carolina in 1830, Cherokee County, North Carolina in 1840.
16. William Billy was in Buncombe County, North Carolina in 1835. He took part in the Indian Removal in 1838. In 1840, he was in Gilmer County, Georgia.
These are the starting patterns of the migrations from Rowan County to Burke County to Buncombe County, North Carolina to the western counties of North Carolina, to Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri, Texas and Alabama. In the late 1860's and after, others left to go to the other western states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. In the 1900's the families went to many parts of the country, but they mostly stayed in the south and west. We do have one who went north to Maryland.