Display Patriot - P-154366 - Christopher ELROD Jr

Christopher ELROD Jr

SAR Patriot #: P-154366

The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.

State of Service: NC Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service

DAR #: A038054

Birth: 15 Aug 1757 / Rowan / NC
Death: 04 Dec 1827 / Davidson / NC

Qualifying Service Description:

Assisted in delivery of supplies to militia

Additional References:

Fries, Adelaide L.Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, Vol III, North Carolina. Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Company, 1926, pg 1064, 1066, 1142, 1164, 1166
Patriot Graves and Biography Report by Frederick D. Learned, #154907

Spouse: Sarah Douthit
Children: Maria Christine; Sarah; John; Thomas; Jacob; David;

Members Who Share This Ancestor

Date Approved	Society	ACN	SAR Member Info	Lineage via Child
1983-05-05	MO	Unassigned	William L Wood (112619)	Thomas
1984-07-24	MO	Unassigned	Robert Nelson Clark (124328)	Thomas
1997-11-25	TX	227001	Delbert Lawrence Taylor (128153)	David
2005-03-02	NC	21963	Frederick Monroe Waters Jr. (157420)	Maria
2018-11-09	TX	83721	Frank Emil Kucera Jr. (209523)	Thomas
2023-09-08	MI	109024	Christopher James Turek (227784)	John

Burial:

Hope Moravian Old Original God's Acre (aka Hope Moravian Old Original Graveyard)_(C-0107364)

Location:

Clemmons / Forsyth / NC / USA

Find A Grave Cemetery #:

2252479

Grave Plot #:

Grave GPS Coordinates:

36.028380 / -80.348570

Find A Grave Memorial #:

8717683

Marker Type:

DAR

SAR Grave Dedication Date:

Comments:

The original gravestone is badly broken and impossible to read.
At or near the top of a small knoll, the highest elevation in the cemetery and the nearest grave to the western property fence and tree line.
Image taken and provided with permission of compatriot Frederick Learned (NC), member 154907

Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:

Hope Moravian Cemetery, the old cemetery, is located in a different place than the current Hope Moravian Church and cemetery which is located on Hope Church Road. NOTE: There are no new burials here. This is the site of the earliest Hope Moravian Church, which no longer exists. The cemetery has wooden fence posts around it, and there used to be a stapled a picture of the old church on a tree, but it might be gone by now. The graves are Moravian, so they're all the same, simple stones. This makes the cemetery hard to find as it's hard to see from the road. It's located 500 feet north of the end of Copeland Road, just north of the intersection with US 158

Photo: 1 of 1

Author: Frederick Douglas Learned

Christopher Elrod, Jr. was a patriot having served for three years in the Surry County Militia. Moravian Church records show that he was born in North Carolina in 1757. His father of the same name lived in an area then known as the Maryland Settlement, so called because Maryland is where he and others had migrated from. In the year 1772, several English-speaking families emigrated to North Carolina, including Christopher Elrod, Sr. and John Douthit, who were neighbors who had lived in Carrolls Manor, in Frederick County, Maryland, where they had come to know the German-speaking Moravians.

They and others began a settlement in the southwestern part of the Moravian's Wachovia tract on the waters of Muddy Creek. This settlement afterward was named Hope because, in 1780, Christopher Elrod, Sr., and John Douthit founded the Hope Moravian Church. Christopher Elrod, Sr., death occurred on 28 January 1785. He was born on 29 January 1721 in Pennsylvania and was brought up to be a Lutheran.

In 1743, 26th of March, he married Althea (Aaltje) Soelle. The Moravians, including Christopher Elrod, Sr did not want his sons fighting in any military conflict. The Moravians sought relief from the State of North Carolina and were excused from military service if they would agree to pledge an oath and pay a tax equal to 3x the normal amount. Christopher Elrod, Jr. decided instead to enlist, and he served three years from May 1776 to March 1779. So as to not upset his father, he drove wagons that delivered supplies to the troops, but only after his father had paid the 3x tax for a religious exemption for each of his three sons.

The New Hope Moravian Church and its modern-day cemetery stand along the railroad tracks that lie along the east side of modern Highway 158, just south of the modern city of Winston-Salem. However, in the old days, the original Hope Moravian Church and its cemetery were about 1 mile southwest of the new church. As is tradition of all Moravian cemeteries, all headstones lie flat on the ground, men are on the right, and women are on the right, all are buried in sequential order.

From the Moravian Archives, Vol. 4, pg. 1610: Salem Congregation Diary, Nov. 22, 1780 - "The older Elrod has stated that his son, Christopher Jr., will marry elder Douthit's (John) daughter Sarah and that banns will be published next Sunday." In his 1823 Will, patriot Christopher Elrod, Jr. names his children. His wife Sarah had predeceased him, so she is not named.

Sources:

https://www.clemmonscourier.net/2023/03/09/a-dedication-with-honors/
1823 Last Will and Testament of Christopher Elrod, Jr.

Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!

Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.

Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:

Send your submission¹, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space

¹Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.