EARLY HISTORY OF THE CURRENT FAMILY
-- Scottish Roots
(Credits for the following
information come from a researcher by the name of John Ladd. His
relationship to the Current Family is unknown.) I cannot validate the accuracy
of the following information.
The Current family was
originally Scottish. In the early 1600's they migrated from Scotland to Northern
Ireland where they leased a farm near the town of
Ballymena in County Antrim.
Outside of growing food for the family table, the farm was entirely devoted to
raising sheep. They established a mill for the weaving of woolen cloth and this
grew into a prosperous industry. They blended with the Irish and soon became
what is known as Scotch-Irish.
When James I became King of
Scotland in 1603, he transported large numbers of Scottish Presbyterians into
Northern Ireland. His purpose in so doing was to use the influence of
these stable people to hold down the turbulent Irishmen, with whom he had
problems. In Ireland these Scotsmen leased small farms and developed an industry
weaving linen and woolen cloth.
In the early 1700's their
100-year leases began to expire and their landlords demanded higher rents.
About the same time the English passed legislation that forbid them from
exporting their woolens to England. Also, they were being taxed to support the
Anglican Church, which they resented.
These people, who had merged
with the Irish and became known as Scotch-Irish, began to migrate to America in
large numbers. As a race, they had qualities that made them highly suitable for
frontier life. They were intelligent, large, angular with jutting chins, and
forceful personalities. They had strong wills, a sense of practicality, self
reliance and physically were hardy with great endurance. Accustomed to fighting
in Ireland, they were extremely bold and became excellent Indian fighters. Many
of our leading citizens were their descendents, including President Andrew
Jackson, James Polk, Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson.
On arrival in America these
people, as well as heavy influx of Germans from the Rhine Valley and Southern
Germany, initially settled in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. About 1750
they began to trek southward into the Piedmont of Virginia and the Carolinas.
This was due to the fact that the northern colonies were becoming heavily
settled and they had to go to the southern interior to find land that was open
for settlement.
The earliest settlement of the
South was confined to the coastal tidelands, except for a few adventurous
souls. These Colonial Settlers, who were predominantly English, wanted to make
America as much like England as possible. They wanted to maintain class
distinction and privilege and as a result developed the large plantations on
which slavery flourished.
Both the Scotch-Irish and
Germans were advocates of Democracy, as we know it today. Because they had been
oppressed, they believed in freedom and social and political equality. They
hated what the plantation owners stood for and had a strong contempt for the use
of slave labor. The use of slaves did not fit their style of diversified
farming and they also had large families, which provided them with an abundant
supply of willing and also ambitious labor. On moral grounds, their churches
frowned on slavery.
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