If we look at the locations of the 1726 patents in the Robinson River Valley, we see that they stretch from the upper end of "Hebron" Valley down along the Robinson River and up along White Oak Run (sometimes called Island Run). If you look at a topological map for the region, you will see that these are the river bottom lands with gently rolling hills. Arguably, this is the best land in Madison County. As the adage says, "The best goes to the first."
In the 1727 patents, there were three English names: Downs, Southall, and Phillips. Only one German name appears: Rucker (The origins of the Rucker family are unknown but the name is to be found in Germany.)
In the 1728 patents, the names include twenty German names: Holt, Rouse, Wayland, Castler, Moyer, Blankenbaker (again three names), Willheit, Carpenter, Kerker, Yowell, Clore, Vinegunt (Winegart?), Thomas, Broyles, Fleshman, Crigler, and Tanner. Some of these names are duplicates of the 1726, as the Germans took up second parcels of land. (I have given the names in a modern form as the spellings in the patents are very confusing.) The English names in the 1728 patents include these eleven: England, Duff, Stonehouse, Evans, Malden (twice), Banks, Taylor, Eddings, King, and Beverley.
Looking at the locations of the 1728 patents, the majority lie around the 1726 patents. A few to the far north lie outside the earliest patents. What we see is that the 1726 patents, almost exclusively German, formed the core around which additional Germans and now some English settled.
In 1729, only a German name, Hoffman, appears.
A little later, the German names, Long, Stoltz, Crees, Bloodworth, Amberger, Ballenger, and again Blankenbaker and Carpenter appear. Still later names include Manspile, Zimmerman, Clemans, Garr, Schlater, Thomas, Tanner, Kains, Vaught, Baumgartner, Weaver, Willheit, and Walk. During this later period, there were about a similar number of English names. All told, by 1732 there had been 68 patents issued to Germans and 33 patents issued to English in the area along the Robinson River. It is granted that if all of Madison County were included, some of which does lie outside the Robinson River Valley, the numbers would improve for the English but the majority of the names would still be German.
It can be concluded that the Germans were first. They expanded outward. As they expanded, the English came in also. The English were encouraged to move out to the "Great Mountains" (as the Blue Ridge Mountains were called then) by the presence of the German settlers.
(02 Mar 06)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.