We are not certain when John Pipes Sr. came to North Carolina or why he came here. He last appears in New Jersey in 1751 in local court proceedings, and again in 1758 in local church records. He first appears in N. Carolina in the 1771 Tax List from the Salisbury District of Surry County, He is mentioned in a book about a Baptist minister named George Soelle, who was traveling in the area,.The minister, in his diary, reports that John was living in a very poverty stricken area called Allen's settlement near Deep Creek. Three of his sons are also listed in the 1771/1772 Tax List: Abner, John and Philip. John Sr. Appears on several land records and court records in this area until 1783 when work done by John Hawkins of Lenoir, N. Carolina discovers that John Sr. apparently moved to South Carolina with his wife at the time (see the Hiram Pipes story for a better explanation of this work). The Pipes family was very much involved in this part of the country along with several of their relative families like the Morris family and the Southard family. But after 1796 all but one had moved on. They went to Mississippi, to Kentucky, to South Carolina and the only one left was Hiram Pipes. So most of the Pipes descendants from N. Carolina today have sprung from this one man, Hiram Pipes. John Pipes Sr. died in 1804 in Spartanburg Co., S. Carolina. So, if you are reading this in order you will see that we now have two "well springs" for the Pipes name, the first being Joseph and John Pipes in Pennsylvania and the second being Hiram Pipes in N. Carolina. Click HERE to see the Hiram Pipes Story.
