Andreas Killian

b:1 December 1702 - d:Bef. 6 January 1788

Andreas Killian is our Pioneer who came to America from Germany in 1732 aboard the ship Adventure. He did not leave his homeland due to religious persecution. He was a lifelong protestant and the villages from where he came were all protestant and had been so for many many years. Perhaps Andreas sought better opportunities and a promising way of life in America. His determination to experience these opportunities for himself and his family pushed him to North Carolina where he settled ca. 1747. He came from an overcrowded Europe to a wild unsettled land.

He raised 12 children and lived during a time of many conflicts, including the American Revolution. He became a successful pioneer and patriarch of industry and ambition in what is now Catawba County, North Carolina.

Andreas Kilian was born in 1702 in Steinbach an der Holzecke, Bavaria. His baptismal record dated on the 1st of December 1702 in Saint Gallus Church in Erzberg is shown below. His baptismal record says his father was a Köbler named Andreas Kilian resident in Steinbach and his wife Dorothea Knaus. Andreas' exact death date has not been determined. It is estimated he died in the three month and two day period between the 4th of October 1787 and the 6th of January 1788.

Andreas’ estimated death is after the previous county court session adjourned on Thursday, the 4th of October 1787 and before the succeeding session convened on the 7th of January 1788. However, it is possible he died before the 4th of October 1787 and the will was not submitted in time to be probated in that session.

Andreas married Maria Margaretha Fischer on the 6th of May 1722 in Feuchtwangen, Bavaria, daughter of Hans Leonhard Fischer and Margaretha née unknown. She was born in 1696 in Thürnhofen, Bavaria. At that time the village was known as Dürnhof. This marriage record provided sparse information about the bride and groom and did not identify the parents, where they lived, their profession or the names of witnesses, as is normal in German marriage records.

Andreas and Magdalena [Margaretha] lived in small villages. Villages were not permitted to have police, a militia, a jail, grain storage, professional guilds or a market place. These privileges were reserved for towns with a town rights charter. The nearest jail was in Feuchtwangen, 17 kilometers away. The building called the Büttelei still exists at Hirten-Gasse in Feuchtwangen, but is now a private house. This is undoubtedly where Andreas and Magdalena were married.

Note: This information and much more can be found in the book 'The Forefathers of North Carolina Pioneer Andreas Killian' By William McCreight (2011) and published by AKDHA.

More information on Andreas Killian and his children and descendants can be found in the book 'The Family of North Carolina Pioneer Andreas Killian (1702-1788)' by AKDHA and published by AKDHA.