| Weaver | |
| Native Name: | Pennsylvania German Weber |
| Native Name Lang: | German |
| Origin: | Dutch Republic |
| Country: | United States |
| Region: | Weaverville, North Carolina |
| Founder: | Unknown German linen weaver and refugee from the Holy Roman Empire |
The Weaver family is a locally prominent American family who founded Weaverville along Reems Creek in Buncombe County, North Carolina.[1] [2] [3]
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 John, Frederick, and two other sons in the Netherlands.
John Weaver (1763–1830) was a German-Dutch settler, immigrant, and Revolutionary War veteran who came to the Province of Pennsylvania from the United Provinces in the 18th century with his 3 brothers. Both John and Frederick would settle in the German ethnic enclave of the Shenandoah Valley before heading further south. John would settle in the Reems Creek valley in North Carolina, where his son, Montraville Weaver (1808–1882) would found the town of Weaverville.[4] [5] [6] [7]
Per the Family Tree DNA Weaver DNA Project, the family has the Y-DNA haplogroup J-FTC77280, originating in the Balkans.[8]
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.[9] [10]
John's son, Montraville, became a slaveholder.[11] 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.[12]
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 grandson of Frederick Weaver (1750–1839), John Weaver's brother, Revolutionary War veteran, and slaveholder in Sullivan County, Tennessee.[13] [14] [15]
Frederick Weaver (1750-1839) settled in Sullivan County, Tennessee.[16] [17] [18] A local church, Weaver Union Church, was named for him after he gave land for it's founding.[19] [20]
On the 24th of May 1855, his widow, Catherine, went before the local court to obtain a land bounty on account of her husband's Revolutionary War service:
State of Tennessee Sullivan County: On this 24th day of May 1855, before me an acting Justice of the Peace in and for said County, personally came Catharine Weaver, aged 96 years, a resident of the said County, and made oath in due form of law that she is the widow of Frederick Weaver, deceased, who was a soldier of the Revolutionary War, in Captain John Pemberton's Company & in Colonel Isaac Shelby's Regiment of volunteers, as well as she can now recollect, or ascertained; that she does not now recollect, or can learn, any of the particulars of the said service, save that he was out in the year 1780, and was present at the battle of King's Mountain, in South Carolina; -- & that she cannot state whether, or not, there is any public, or other record evidence of her said husband's service in existence, or not. She has no written discharge, or other papers concerning the same in her possession, or in her knowledge. She states further that she was married to the said Frederick Weaver in said County on the 15th day of August 1782, by the Reverend Mr. Doak, a minister of the Gospel; that her name prior thereto, was Catherine Peters; that her said husband died in said County on the 26th day of May 1839; since which time she has remained a widow -- as may be seen from the proofs hereto annexed.[21]
See main article: article and 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.[22] [23] He was a descendant of Montraville Weaver, founder of Weaverville.[24]
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.[25] [26]
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.[27] [28]