Helen,
You sent your inquiry to Diane; however, I believe you intended it for me
since I think I am the
only Lee on the list. She thought so too, and forwarded it on to me.
I had posted the CAGLE Gedcom to the list sometime back, then lost most
of my work, and
finally was able to retrieve it. There were a lot of errors in the work,
so I removed it and now
I will re post it when I am certain it is as correct as I can possibly
make it.
There has been quite a lot written about Leonhart Kegel, but we don't
know where he was born.
We do know where he was immediately prior to his departure for America.
The following information
is what I have on Leonard, also added recently, speculation as to his
place of birth.
Birth of Leonhart KEGEL, German immigrant to America. The year of 1984
marked the 300th anniversary of the birth of Leonhart Kegel (Leonard
Cagle),the German immigrant who arrived at the port of Philadelphia in
1732. According to the ships passenger list, Leonhart was 48 years old
at the time of his arrival; thus, it would appear that he was born during
the year 1684 (or in the later part of 1683). He is believed to be the
ancestor of thousands of Cagle families in the United States. According
to oral traditions preserved in many Cagle families around the nation.
Leonhart Kegel left his home in the Rhenish Palatinate (in the SW part of
what is now West Germany) in the early part of the 18th Century, and
sailed down the Rhine River to Holland. There he joined thousands of
other Germans,displaced by war and economic hardship who were awaiting
passage to the American Colonies. His stay in Holland is said to have
been very lengthy, but eventually he found passage to America in the
summer of 1732 on the ship "Loyal Judith". This ship, British-owned,
stopped first at the ports of Cowes, England, and then sailed for
America, arriving at the ports of Philadelphia on (Monday) September 25,
1732. The passenger list show that 119 Palatine men, plus their wives and
children, arrived on the vessel. The Rhenish Palatinate was largely
Protestant in Religion, and it is believed that most of the ship's
passengers were Lutherans and Mennonites. Source: Cagle Journal
Introductory Issue just before January 1985.
Leonhart KEGEL, upon arriving in Pennsylvania, settled in old
Philadelphia County, probably in that northern portion which in 1784 was
to become Montgomery County, when Philadelphia County was divided, and
acquired his first farm there in 1737. In the 1730s most of the colony of
Pennsylvania was still under the control of the Indians, and European
Settlers occupied only a small area in Philadelphia in SE corner of the
colony. By 1750, however, the frontier was gradually expanding
westward, and Leonhart Kegel moved to a new farm in Lancaster County in
that portion which in 1752 was to become Berks County when Lancaster was
divided. His land lay in Brecknock Township, in a hilly region on the
headwaters of the Conestoga River, overlooking the Mennonite and Amish
settlement on the Lancaster plains.
The earliest settlers of Brecknock Township, where of Welch origin;
however, they were few in number, and by the year 1750 the township was
settled primarily by Germans. The Township lies in the heart of
"Pennsylvania Dutch Country" of Southwest PA, and the striking stone
houses, bank barns, and carefully ordered fields, which characterized the
culture of the area, are very much in evidence. The rich limestone soil
of Lancaster County, in some areas, has supported cultivation since 1709.
However, the less fertile sandstone soil of the Furnace Ridge area,
where Leonhart Kegel's land was located, was settled somewhat later in
time with early land warrants dating from 1730s and never supported as
large a population as did Lancaster Plain.
By the year 1750, when Leonhart acquired his land. The better land in
Lancaster and Berks Counties were already taken, leaving only land of
lesser fertility to be homestead by new comers. According to records
found by the editor of the Cagle Journal in Pennsylvania State Archives
at Harrisburg, PA, in 1750 Leonhart Kegel applied for a Land Warrant for
his 146.5 acres #15 of land in Lancaster County, warrant number A-28-211;
his name was spelled "Keagel" on his Land Warrant. The land was duly
"assigned and allotted" to him on November 9, 1750. This was a tract of
unsettled land, owned by Commonwealth of PA, under the control of the
Penn family, the descendant of William Penn. Leonhart Kegel did not
follow through on his Warrant and gain permanent title to this tract of
land, because in 1754-55 his family left PA and moved southward into
North Carolina. Eventually, in 1791, the land which Leonhart thus
vacated in PA was re surveyed and divided into three tracts, and claimed
by new owners, 1805, 1812, and 1867.
In 1750, at the time Leonhart's Land Warrant, old Lancaster County, PA
covered a much larger area than it does today. Leonhart's name did not
appear on annual Tax list for Berks County. This would indicate the
family of Leonhart Cagle did not remain long in their Mountain Cove in
Berks County, PA, for by the winter of 1754 (he was 70 yrs old), they
removed to the upper Deep River in the Piedmont of (what is now Guilford
Co.), North Carolina, where they settled permanently.
Oral tradition is they joined a Wagon Train of Moravian Brethren, the
German-Speaking religious sect. A group which founded Bethlehem and
Lititz, PA, and Bethania, Bethabara and old Salem NC. They made their way
through Maryland, Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and on to North
Carolina, along with the Kegel family (with their name now Anglicized to
"Cagle").
The first permanent Moravian Settlers on the Wachovia tract were twelve
single brethren, who arrived in NC, from Bethlehem, PA, in the fall of
1753. Beginning in 1753, the Moravians began their annual wagon trips.
The Moravian were strictly a religious group that embraced persons of
various racial origin, though the official language of the Moravians was
German. The Moravian diary and records of 1750s make reference to many
non-Morovian German families who migrated to North Carolina in the
company of the annual Moravian Wagon Train. Although the Cagles are not
mentioned specifically by name in these records, there is reason to
believe that their arrival in NC occurred in fall of 1754. one reason for
this belief is the fact that Jacob Cagle, (grandson) 1755-1845 by his own
statement, indicated
he was born in North Carolina in April of 1755, thus showing that the
Cagles were in NC not later than spring of that year. This fact, captured
with the knowledge that the Moravian made their annual trip to NC in the
fall of each year, this would suggest that the Cagles arrived in the fall
of 1754. The Cagles lived for a brief period of time on the upper Deep
River; the precise location of their home has yet to be determined, but
it is believed to have been a few miles to the East of the Moravian
settlement which lay in what is now Forsyth Co. perhaps near the modern
town of Greensboro in present Guilford Co. At that early date, however,
the entire region was still part of old Rowan County, an immense county
which covered the NW quarter of the state. Thus, the earliest Cagle
records in NC are found in old Rowan County. It was in old Rowan County,
on the headwaters of Deep River, that Jacob Cagle, 1755-1845--perhaps the
first Cagle child in "South" was born in April of 1755. (Jacob himself
provided his birth date and birthplace, in the autobiographical statement
in his Revolutionary War pension Application of 1834, filed from Warren
County, Tennessee.
By 1764, however, the Cagles had moved again, this time further down
stream on the Deep River into Cumberland County, NC, where they located
in the extreme NW corner of the county in that portion which in 1784 was
to become Moore County, when Cumberland was divided. In fact, Moore
County, NC, might be considered the ancestral home of all the Cagles in
the South, since it was from there, beginning in the 1790s, that their
various branches spread into Georgia and Tennessee, and later across the
entire South, into the midwest, and all the way to the West Coast by the
year of 1850.
As yet, it has not been determined precisely when and where the death of
Leonhart Kegel, the German immigrant of 1732, occurred. It is possible
that the aged pioneer, who would be some 70 years old when his family
moved from PA, to North Carolina is buried somewhere on or near the Deep
River in Moore County in North Carolina. It is believed, though without
complete documentary proof at present, that the younger Cagles who
purchased land in the Cumberland, present Moore County, NC in the 1760s
were among the sons of Leonhart Kegel. These men, who were probably born
in the 1720s and 1730s, included Johan Theobald Dewalt "David" Cagle b.
1728, John "Dutchman" Cagle (died 1799), and Henry Cagle, Sr. (died
1802).
It is known John "Dutchman" Cagle lived in Oley Township Berks County,
PA, when Leonhart Kegel/Cagle occupied Alsace Township nearby in Berks
County, PA, and is thought to be one of the sons of Leonard.
Much of this information has been extracted from the Cagle Journals of
John G Cagle, printed in a series January 1995 to December 1995.
I was just browsing around and entered our Leonhart into an IGI search
and came up with a Leonard Cagle, born 1684 in Plattling, Niederbayern,
Bayern Germany. This is a new one on me, is anyone familiar with this
location, it is obviously our Leonhart. It is possible
he was born here and later moved to Sembach, Obermehlingen, Germany.
If you need anything else let me know. Be happy to share anything I have
learned. If anyone else on the list has anything to add, please
do so with a copy to the list, so we may all learn.
Lee Cagle
Okla City
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