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Weaver family (North Carolina)

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American political family
Weaver
CountryUnited States
Current regionSouthern United States
Place of originGermany

The Weaver family is a locally prominent colonial American family that founded Weaverville along Reems Creek in Buncombe County, North Carolina.

Origins

According to family lore, the progenitor of the family was an unknown German linen weaver, surnamed Weber, that fled from the Holy Roman Empire to the United Provinces of the Netherlands due to religious persecution, likely because he was a member of the Reformed church. He married a Dutch woman and fathered 3 sons, including John.

However, a descendant of the Weaver family in Cocke County, Tennessee recorded in 1950 that the family had come from Germany, with the original immigrant Weaver being a man named John George Weaver (Waber or Wärber). John arrived on the ship "Halifax" in 1752, which departed from Rotterdam and arrived in Philadelphia. He settled in Shenandoah County, Virginia. One daughter is listed as living in Cocke County, Tennessee with her husband, Benjamin O'Dell.

The Weaver family would intermarry with the predominantly Anglo-American, notably Scotch-Irish (descendants of Lowland Scots and northern English settlers in Ireland), population of the region.

Per the Family Tree DNA Weaver DNA Project, the family has the Y-DNA haplogroup J-FTC77280, originating in the Balkans.

History

Initial settlement

1899 Weaver family reunion in Weaverville, North Carolina

John Weaver maintained friendly relations with the local Cherokee in the valley and built an Indigenous-style house, before purchasing 320 acres of land to construct a European log cabin as his family's permanent residence.

Slavery and the Civil War

John's son, Montraville, became a slaveholder. Despite the vast majority of Germans in the Antebellum South not using slaves and many being generally opposed to the practice, there was a minority of German slaveholders located primarily in the Shenandoah Valley and other parts of the region.

As a slaveholding family, many members of the Weaver family fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, such as Captain Elbert Weaver (1841–1935), who was Montraville's first son, and Private Abraham Weaver (1832–1913), who deserted in northern Georgia after his unit was slaughtered during Wheeler's October 1863 Raid. Abraham was the son of John Weaver of Cocke County, TN.

Richard M. Weaver

Main article: Richard M. Weaver

Richard Malcom Weaver Jr. was a University of Chicago scholar of English, Anglo-Saxonist, and traditionalist conservative considered one of the founders of modern American conservatism. He was a descendant of Montraville Weaver, founder of Weaverville.

He claimed his home, the American South, was "last nonmaterialistic civilization in the western world", a view espoused by the Southern Agrarian movement which promoted a Neo-Confederate view of Southern history.

Weaverville College (1898)

Places named for the family

Weaver College

Weaver College, founded in 1851 as Weaverville College, was a co-educational Methodist academy located in Weaverville. It was founded on land gifted by the town's founder, Montraville Weaver, and operated from 1873 to 1934 before being merged with Rutherford College to form modern-day Brevard College.

Weaver's Bend

Bend of the French Broad River in Cocke County, Tennessee.

Edward Lee Weaver, member of the Texas branch of the Weaverville Weavers, and a US Navy veteran of the Pacific theater.

Members

  • Richard Malcolm Weaver Jr (1910–1963) – University of Chicago professor of English and political philosopher
  • Zebulon Weaver (1872–1948) – North Carolina congressman
  • William Trotter Weaver (1858–1916) – President of the National Bank of Asheville and businessman who brought electricity to western North Carolina
  • Lieutenant Colonel James Thomas Weaver (1828–1864) – Commander of the 60th North Carolina Infantry Regiment killed during the Battle of Murfreesboro

Sources

  1. Neufeld, Rob. "Visiting Our Past: There will be peace in the valley, Beech shows". The Asheville Citizen Times. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
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  3. Weaver, Pearl M. (1962). The Tribe of Jacob: The Descendants of the Reverend Jacob Weaver of Reems Creek, North Carolina, 1786-1868. Higginson Book Company. pp. 1–5. ISBN 9780740469220.
  4. "Wandering Weaverville: Main Street in the Countryside". Explore Asheville. 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
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  7. Arthur, John Preston (1914). Western North Carolina: A History (1730-1913). Edwards & Broughton Printing Company. pp. 154–159. ISBN 9781570720628.
  8. O'Dell, Ruth (2024-06-29). "Over the Misty Blue Hills: The Story of Cocke County, Tennessee – Access Genealogy". Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  9. Strassburger, Ralph Beaver; Hinke, William John (1934). Pennsylvania German pioneers; a publication of the original lists of arrivals in the port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Norristown, Penn. : Pennsylvania German Society.
  10. Arthur, John Preston (1996). Western North Carolina: A History (from 1730 to 1913). The Overmountain Press. pp. 154–158. ISBN 978-1-57072-062-8.
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  13. Allen, Martha Norburn (1960). Asheville and Land of the Sky. Heritage House. p. 55.
  14. "Slavery in the Reems Creek Valley | NC Historic Sites". historicsites.nc.gov. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  15. Barkin, Kenneth (2008). Kamphoefner, Walter; Helbich, Wolfgang; Vogel, Susan Carter; Gerstäcker, Friedrich; Di Maio, Irene S. (eds.). "Ordinary Germans, Slavery, and the U.S. Civil War". The Journal of African American History. 93 (1): 70–79. doi:10.1086/JAAHv93n1p70. ISSN 1548-1867. JSTOR 20064257.
  16. Newsome, Kaye Allen; Brittain, Jan (2019). "A Personal History of Salem United Methodist Church: This Place is Holy" (PDF). Salem UMC Weaverville. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  17. Taylor, Oliver (1909). Historic Sullivan: A History of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with Brief Biographies of the Makers of History. King printing Company. pp. 178, 226. ISBN 978-0-7222-4854-6.
  18. Sullivan Co, TN - Veterans. Turner Publishing Company. 2002-11-02. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-56311-774-9.
  19. boundary2 (2017-03-30). "Robert T. Tally Jr. — The Southern Phoenix Triumphant: Richard Weaver, or, the Origins of Contemporary U.S. Conservatism". boundary 2. Retrieved 2024-11-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ISI (2014-10-08). "How to Read Richard Weaver: Philosopher of 'We the (Virtuous) People'". Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
  21. Tally Jr, Robert T., ed. (2023), "The Southern Phoenix Triumphant: The Consequences of Richard Weaver's Ideas", The Critical Situation: Vexed Perspectives in Postmodern Literary Studies, Anthem Press, pp. 123–146, ISBN 978-1-83998-835-6, retrieved 2024-11-26
  22. "The Forgotten Strand: Socialism in The Southern Conservative TRADITION, 1850-1950 | PDF | Socialism | Communism". Scribd. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
  23. Bradford, M. E. (2017-12-10). "The Agrarianism of Richard Weaver: Beginnings & Completions". The Imaginative Conservative. Retrieved 2024-11-26.
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  26. Price, Richard Nye (1908). Holston Methodism: From Its Origin to the Present Time. Publishing House of the M.E. Church, South, Smith & Lamar, agents. pp. 409–411. ISBN 9781018679501.
  27. "Places to Stay in East Tennessee". METTC | The Official Website of the Middle East Tennessee Tourism Council. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
  28. "1945 Matagorda County Service Men and Women". www.usgenwebsites.org. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  29. "Weaver, Richard Malcolm, Jr. | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  30. "Weaver, Zebulon | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  31. "Weaver, William Trotter | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  32. Ashe, Samuel A'Court (1907). Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. C. L. Van Noppen. pp. 501–503. ISBN 9780795048227.
  33. "Battle Unit Details – The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
  34. Bubenik, Christo (2023-08-17). "Park Views: W. T. Weaver Park". The City of Asheville. Retrieved 2024-06-08.
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