Ludwig Lewis RINEHART Sr.

 

LEWIS LUDWIG RINEHART, SR., the father of Lewis Rinehart, head of the family of which this history is written, was born in Germany in the year 1750. With two brothers he came to America just before the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and located at Philadelphia, Penn. The brothers soon enlisted to fight for Independence in the Colonial Army. Relatives have no record of them from that time. They were either killed during the war, or went to some other part of the country at its close. Lewis was a cripple, being "reel-footed" as it was termed, and hence could take no part in the great struggle for freedom. He was married in
Pennsylvania, and at the close of the Revolution, moved to East Tennessee. His wife's name was Barbara, but her maiden name is not known. They raised a family consisting of two sons, George and Lewis,  and five daughters whose given names are not recorded. Of the five daughters, two married men by the
name of Collins, one married a Mosier, one died while quite young, and we have no record of the other one. She seems to have married but her husband’s name is not known. The family settled near Buffalo Ridge in East Tennessee. Lewis, Sr. was a German scholar and the German language was spoken in the family circle. In religion the family was Lutheran. Barbara died in Tennessee early in the 19th century, about 1806. Lewis, Sr. accompanied his son Lewis and family to Morgan County, Illinois, in 1829 and died there in about 1830. About 1780 the stream of immigration from the colonies started westward to Tennessee a body of immigrants from Virginia settled on the banks of the River Holston, in what is now Hawkins County, and formed the nucleus of a rapidly increasing colony, which was mainly recruited from Virginia and North Carolina. The chief settlements were on the Watauga River extending thence to Nolichucky, both streams being tributaries of the Tennessee. These young settlements passed through a period of much trouble, owning to the uncertainty of land titles and the hostility of the Indians, but in spite of these difficulties they soon emerged a populous colony. These settlers though that they had located on lands that belonged to Virginia, but in reality a part of an old North Carolina grant. Accordingly, North Carolina ceded these lands to the federal government in payment of the war debt claims but the government failed to accept the cession. As North Carolina had relinquished its claim and the federal government had not accepted the responsibility, the Watauga settlements consisting of Washington, Sullivan and Greene counties, declared themselves independent from North Carolina in 1785. It was in this new territory, and it was during these stirring times that the Lewis Rinehart from Philadelphia located, and this remained
the ancestral home of the Rinehart family for nearly half a century.

From writings of Henry Rinehart dictated by his mother, Elizabeth,  1893

Copy as written

Marriage Information: Ludwig married Barbara WRAX (Rinehart).

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