A Letter from Bill
Dear cousins,
I was very pleased to receive a long-awaited book in the mail the other day. This book, by the late Mark Smith, is entitled "Lifting High the Cross for 200 Years: St. John's Lutheran Church". St. John's is in present-day Catawba Co., NC, and had members of the Jacob, Sr. and Andreas Fulbright lines. I have extracted a couple of new pieces of Fulbright information from the book. I list these records as follows:
p. 50--John Perkins, Jacob Fulbright, and Bernet Siegman witness the original deed for the church (Lincoln Co. Deeds, Book 9:200-202).
p. 63-64--(from Paul Henckel Notebook, Hen-ckel Family Papers, Perkins Library, Duke Univer-sity) "Following persons were confirmed and united in St. John's Church Lincoln County North Carolina on 18th of August 1804." The list of 60 names includes: Jacob Vollbrecht, Barbara Vollbrecht, Susana Vollbrecht, Elisabeth Vollbrecht, and Daniel Vollbrecht. (There are also
several surnames of those who later intermar-ried with Fulbrights.)
Page 66--Johannes Eisenhauer, Johan-nes Stein, Christoph Siegman were listed
as Elders, and Jacob Vollbrecht, Bernhard Siegman, and Johannes Schmidt were listed as Deacons of St. John's North Carolina Synod Minutes, 1810).
Page 74--Jacob Fullbright mentioned as being one of those who adapted to using English script by the first decade of the 1800s.
Page 91--among the signers of a peti-tion to the 1816 Synod requesting the ordination of David Henckel (or St. John's would withdraw) was Jacob Ful-bright.
Page 10~105--a similar Memorial (petition) was presented to the Synod in 1819, and signed by Jacob Fulbright and Andrew Fullbright.
Page 119112--St. John's continued to steadfastly defend David Henkel, and sent a letter dated 8 January 1820 to the Synod in Rev. Henkel's defense. Among the signers: John Fulbright, Wm. Fulbright, Jacob Fulbright, and Andrew Fulbrig[ht].
I also read about a devastating flood that swept through the Catawba Co. area in 1814, apparently causing particularly heavy damage along Lyle's Creek. This date corresponds with the movement of Jacob Sr. to Haywood Co. and Jacob Jr. to Cape Girardeau Co. Might this disas-ter have precipitated them to move? Just another speculation!
While these records don't really help us a lot with sorting any of our early Fulbrights, they do provide a little more concerning their lives. The book makes for some fascinating reading!
----Bill Eddleman