Paulus Antoni (abt. 1719 - 1805)

Born about 1719 in Germany

Husband of Sophronica (Sechler) Antoni — married 1741 in Pennsylvania,

Descendants

Died 1805 at about age 86 in Burke County, North Carolina, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Gayle Foster [send private message] and Mary Leachman [send private message]

Biography

Birth: About 1719 Germany estimated from age at date of immigration. ^[1]

Immigration: Paul Anthony aka Paulus Antonie was a passenger on the ship Lydia that sailed from Rotterdam to Philadelphia September 1741. He was 22 years old. Johannes Anthony age 32 arrived in America 2 October 1741 on the ship St. Andrew.

Naturalizations: Philadelphia Co., PA Paul Anthony of Upper Hanover Twp. naturalized by affirmation 25 Sep. 1752.

Property: 1771 deeded property to Old St. Paul's Church, North Carolina

Marriage: PAULUS ANTHONI m. Veronica/Sophonica SECHLER, dau of Johannes of Northampton and Montgomery Co., PA. Some children's births are found at Falkner's Swamp Lutheran Church and Goshenhoppen all in Berks Co. Several other children's birth's unaccounted for. PHILIP ANTHONI of Northhampton Co, PA married Anna Barbara Sechler, dau of Johannes, and these two families appear West of the Catawba River in NC in the 1760s. They appear to be brothers and having married sisters. Philip is not found on a ships list. Perhaps under 16. There was another unidentified brother who had at least one son, Philip, whom Paulus reared, who was a RW Pensioner and says he was reared by his uncle. There was a Johannes Anthoni, age 32, on the next ship (St. Andrew) into port who is suspected to be the missing brother.

There are mentions in Lincoln County, North Carolina, records of Paul and Eufronica Antoni and Paul and Fronnie Antoni.

The land of the Old St. Paul's Church was deeded to the church by Paul Anthony and Frony his wife on 20 May 1771.^[2] The deed was proved at January 1772 sessions of Tryon County Court: “A Deed of Sale from Paul Anthony & wife of Rowan County to Christian Churches dated 20 May 1771 for ten acres of land proved by Abraham Anthony an evidence [witness] thereto.”

1768 LAND GRANT Granted John Shuford and Paul Anthony, 37 acres in Tryon County on East side of the South fork of Catawba river on Clarks Creek joining Paul Anthony’s, William Koon’s and William Bost’s lines beginning at a black oak saplin on Paul Anthony’s line by a branch thence with said line West 72 poles to a Spanish oak Koon’s corner thence with his line South 35 East 180 poles to Koon’s other corner black oak thence with Bost’s lines to the beginning. Dated 22nd December 1768. Recorded in Patent Book 20: 398, ^[3]
[Comment by Kathy Gunter Sullivan, 11 December 2020: The 37-acre tract was sold 17 January 1792 by Paul Anthony of Burke County and Daniel Shuford & David Shuford heirs & executors of John Shuford deceased of Lincoln County for £8 to John Bost; Lincoln County, North Carolina, deed book 16: 297, Register of Deeds, Lincolnton.]

Will: Burke County, NC Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, July 1805, "The Last Will and Testament of Paul Anthony proved in open court by oath of William Erwin and Alexander Erwin Jr. Ordered that Letters Testamentary issue to the [unnamed] Executors who are sworn."^[4] Paul Anthony's Burke County estate file shows that Jacob Forney and Fanny Anthony were executors of Paul Anthony's estate.^[5] Note that Fronica and Fanny are diminutives of the name "Veronica."

Colonel George M. Yoder, YODER'S HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF CATAWBA COUNTY; I have a condensed version of this history. The Anthony and Mull families are mentioned. It states that Paul Anthony was the progenitor and pioneer of the Anthony family in this section of the country. It is supposed that he came prior to the Revolutionary War. Two of his sons are buried at Grace Church (Lutheran). The headstones say that John Paul was born in 1755 and Phillip in 1764. Paul Anthony and his wife owned several parcels of land- one where St. Paul's church now stands; one parcel called the "original William Bost land"; also land in Burke County on the Catawba River at the mouth of the Irish creek, where he and his wife died and were buried. Their graves are marked by headstones. There were also two Anthony daughters, one who married Anthony Shull, and one named Mollie who never married (although she had two children). According to tradition, John Mull, a brother-in-law to Henry Weidner, married Mary Anthony, who was either Paul Anthony's daughter or sister.

OLD ST. PAUL'S LUTHERAN CHURCH - The early history of Old St. Paul’s congregation must be told by a piecing together of details from meager sources of information. It is about pioneer Pennsylvania German (Deustch) people who came to the wilderness of the Carolina colony in the 1740s and 1750s. They came here without a spiritual leader. The pastors in Pennsylvania had enough work just gathering the new European immigrants into congregations. Between Adam Sherrills ford at the Catawba River and Weidners place on the South Fork, the Deustch Meeting House was built and was the center of the German settlement. Tied in with the faith of these simple people were all the love and tragedy common to the wilderness and the hardship which they faced made them even more religious.

Their story is told in the Old St. Paul cemetery. Here are, the records of ministers dying serving their congregations, of wives and mothers who died in childbirth, of men worn away by the erosion of labor and of the children reaped by the Angel of Death before they had the opportunity to join the community as participating landholders. This meeting house was built to serve two groups of believers, the Lutheran and the Reformed. They alternated Sundays for services. Some went to both services. These stolid pioneers brought with them their German Bibles and hymnals. Protestant Lutherans and German Reformeds, they built their church and shared it on Sundays, even heard the same pastor on many occasions. It is very natural to conclude that together the two congregations did not comprise more than two hundred souls. Circuit rider ministers visited Old St. Paul's, and it was to become a rest stop for settlers on their way across the Blue Ridge into the West. Without a pastor, these families assembled to worship, sing, pray, and listen to a sermon read from a book.

Their first log structure was erected close to the old cedar trees in the back of the cemetery. It was very narrow and probably held no more than one hundred people. After several years that little log hut was struck by lightning and burned. Then they decided to build a bigger, better structure and put it up on the wagon road. The likely year was 1757, for a reliable report says a German Reformed minister named Rev. James Martin preached to the congregation during his travels in the year 1759. After already using the land for burials and buildings for a goodly number of years, the church leaders went to the effort of recording the deed to the property in Rowan County in 1771.

The land on which Old St. Paul's stands was deeded to the church by Paul Anthony and his wife, Frony, to the two churches "Lutarin" (Lutheran) and the "Presbytarian" (Reformed), and to their heirs forever, to be used for religious purposes only and for no other purpose whatsoever. It was signed by Paul Anthony, and his wife, Frony, made her mark. The land was conveyed for the payment of one pound sterling from each of the parties. The tract was laid out most easily as an east-west, north-south, rectangle straight on the compass points.

Early Pastors who have served Old St. Paul's Lutheran Church: J. Godfrey Arends 1785 to 1807, Phillip Henkel 1805 to 1814, and Daniel Moser 1815 to 1820. The first Lutheran minister in this area was the Rev. Johann Gottfried Arndt. He was a circuit riding minister that was associated with several early churches in Catawba County. About 1786, he moved to Lincoln County where he preached until his death, on July 9, 1807. He became the acknowledged founder of the Lutheran Church west of the Catawba River. During the last four years of his life he was disabled by blindness so that the Rev. Philip Henkel served his congregation. Not until Arndt arrived here did people get rid of a sad superstition of never marking gravestones with their names. For these pioneers wrongly held that the devil would harass them until Resurrection Day if he could identify their location. Immediately after Arndt's pastorate began all graves were inscribed in German with names and personal data. Native German Arndt preached in that language and common speech among these folks remained that way until Arndt grew old and virtually blind.

The assistant pastor called to accompany Arndt on his rounds of serving the eight to ten scattered flocks was young Phillip Henkel. He was born in New Market, Virginia where he grew up speaking English. The veteran circuit rider Arndt died in 1807. The immediate influence of Henkel is evidenced by the usage of the English language on the tombstones in 1808. At some point, it became the custom that the preacher would have a sermon one Sunday every month in both German and English. The church membership grew numerous enough by the 1790s to mother some new congregations in the area such as Grace, Zion, and St. Johns Lutheran.

After the turn of the nineteenth century the Deustch Meeting House became known as "South Fork Church." Many of the church members acquired black slaves, so these people decided to tear down the one-story church and build a two-story church having a slave gallery on the second floor. Probably in 1818 Heinrich Klein (Henry Cline) was given the job of constructing a very plain but practical church. The logs were retained from the one-story church and used in the two-story building. This time the building was ceiled and weatherboarded with sawed planks and hand-made nails. This is the same structure that is still standing today.

As a carpenter, Cline was a genius, realizing a seating capacity in the small structure of 250 people. He used steep narrow stairwells and high steps to the tiers of the balcony achieving a space-saving specialty. The old church has a well executed interior with moldings, and a triple hung window with nine-light sash units. An old German custom was followed, with the men and women seated on different sides of the church. The slaves were in the balcony, and had to climb single file up the stairs. The minister climbed the high, narrow steps to the pulpit, which was originally in the center of the church. For a reminder of the old country a canopy, or sounding board, was placed over the head of the preacher in the pulpit. It was believed that the sounding board would fall on the minister if he spoke a lie. Only the pews in the center had solid backs to seat the church board. The seats downstairs were designed to have an opening for the hoop skirts or bustles which were the ladies fashion.

For some unexplained reason a second deed was drawn for the historic church in 1818 as the third edifice was constructed. It is signed by John Smyre and made out to trustees John Propst and John Wilfong for the two congregations.

16 February 1818, John Smyer Senr to John Wilfong and John Propst, Commissioners appointed to take charge of a Meeting House recently repaired and called St. Pauls Church and all public buildings that may be hereafter established on said Square of Ground hereinafter particularly bounded. The said John Smyer Senr. hath hereby contributed to the use of the public for the express purpose of a Meeting house, grave yard, and Schoolhouse or any other building as may be hereafter agreed to be expedient and by these presents do give grant remise release and set apart all that piece or parcel of land situate in the County of Lincoln . . . containing eight acres. Signed John his x mark Smyer Sen. Witnesses: Elias Smyer, Jacob Lutes. Proved in open court by oath of Elias Smyer at Lincoln County Court April Sessions 1818..^[6]

It was about 1861 when a Colonel Hildebran became angered to the point of murder by the escape of one of his slaves, a big burly Negro. The colonel traced this runaway to the church, where he found him crouched between the pews and is said to have killed him on the spot. The blood stains are still there, it is believed.

After the civil war slaves no longer occupied the balcony so the young men and boys were shifted to that section. They were as bad to carve names in school desks and church pews as youngsters today. In the soft wood of the upstairs seating, initials and even a few names abound!

The church building was shared by the two Lutheran and Reformed denominations until 1901 when the Reformed congregation built their own house of worship three miles south at Startown. A few years later in 1905 the Lutheran congregation split and one group moved several miles south and became known as St. Paul's Lutheran Church at Startown. Since both St. Paul's were on the same mailing route the original came to be distinguished as Old St. Paul's congregation. The old church building was used for weekly services until 1952, when a new brick church was built across the road. The old building is now open on Sunday afternoons for viewing. The years had taken their toll on the old church building and in 1994 a "Friends of Old St. Paul's" committee was formed to completely restore the structure. Old St. Paul's is now preserved as an historic landmark in Catawba County and as a symbol of Christian faith. It is the oldest church in the county, and one of the few remaining log churches in the state. ^[7]

HISTORY OF EARLY LUTHERAN MINISTERS IN CATAWBA COUNTY In 1771, Christopher Lyerly and Christopher Randleman of Rowan County went on horseback through the wilderness to Charleston, S. C., and there sailed for Germany and brought back the Rev. Adolphus Nussman to preach and Johann Gottfried Arndt to teach. They arrived in North Carolina on September 12, 1772. John Gottfried Arndt (Godfrey Arends) traveled west from the Lutheran settlements near Salisbury in August 1776 and gave first communions. It would not be until 1785 that he was made missionary full-time to the region west of the Catawba River. Arndt was a circuit riding minister that was associated with several early churchs in Catawba County. John Gottfried Arndt was born December 11, 1740, in Goettingen; graduated from the Teachers Seminary in Hanover, Germany, and his certificate as a school teacher to North Carolina bears the date October 16, 1772, indicating that he was 32 years old when he came to America. For two years he taught the children of the old Organ Church in Rowan County, and then upon the recommendation of the congregation and the pastor, the Rev. Adolphus Nussman, he was ordained as a minister of the Lutheran Church on the 11th Sunday after Trinity, 1775, by Joachim Beulow, missionary and inspector over North and South Carolina Lutherans. He was the first minister ordained in North Carolina. About 1786, he moved to Lincoln County where he preached until his death, on July 9, 1807. He became the acknowledged founder of the Lutheran Church west of the Catawba River. During the last four years of his life he was disabled by blindness so that the Rev. Philip Henkel served his congregation. He was one of the organizers of the North Carolina Lutheran Synod, and its first president. He is said to have been a Chesterfield in manners; was blue-eyed with fair complexion and auburn hair which reached to his shoulders. He married Hannah Rudisill, daughter of Michael Rudisill, the pioneer. Their eight children were: John, Catherine, Hannah, Elizabeth, Susan, Jacob, Frederick and Mary.

Sources

1. ↑ Gale Research, "Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s,"; citing William P. Filby, editor, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, pp. 211, 300 (Farmington Hills, MI).
2. ↑ Tryon [now Lincoln] County, North Carolina, deed book 1: 523-524, Register of Deeds, Lincolnton.
3. ↑ Tryon County, North Carolina, Land Grant no. 462; North Carolina State Archives file no. 17.
4. ↑ FamilySearch digital image, July 1805 sessions of Burke County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions.
5. ↑ "North Carolina, Estate Files, 1663-1979," Burke County, Paul Anthony (1806); digital images, FamilySearch.
6. ↑ Lincoln County, North Carolina, deed book 28: 256, Register of Deeds, Lincolnton.
7. ↑ Research by Rev. Luther Knuaff Old St. Paul's Church: Catawba County's Oldest By Far" -By Anne Huffman-article in Hickory Daily Record, June 6, 1970 - Reprinted Sunday, March 26, 2006 .

• Margaret Lutes, "Antoni-Anthony Family History."
• Lorena Shell Eaker, The Shoe Cobbler's Kin (1976), Vol. I, pp. 810-811.
• OLD ST PAULS HISTORY mentions Paul & Frony Anthony as land donors - https://www.oldstpaulslutheran.org/Church-History.htm

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Gayle Schell for creating WikiTree profile Antoni-19 through the import of SCHELL NICHOLS ancestors of Gayle 8-2013.ged on Aug 8, 2013.