The parade was the typical small town type affair, beauty queens, high school band, civic organizations, and local dignitaries. It was a big deal in a small town where being Irish is the norm rather than the exception. The town is populated by honest, sturdy folk whose ancestors left the hard times of Europe to seek better conditions in a new country. 

One of the first immigrants to locate in the area was Charles Stewart, said to be of the Stewart Scottish royalty. Most early settlers came first to North Carolina, and then moved west lured by the availability of land in about 1798.

The country was wild two centuries ago, densely wooded and filled with wild game, bears, wolves, deer and wild cats, a hunting ground inhabited by native Americans until an uneasy treaty set out a dividing line, but failed to eradicate the fear of hostility. Present residents are mostly descended from these early pioneers. In many cases, they still live on the same land that has been in the family for generations.

My earliest known ancestor was born in the newly formed State of Tennessee in the wilderness in 1816. His parents must have come here to settle and raise a family in this primitive land. Did they come from Scotland via North Carolina as so many others did? More questions to ponder and more history needed to help me find answers. These people were survivors who conquered the obstacles to settle the land, the sort of people I am happy to have as ancestors.

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