Author: Larry Dean Sturgeon
The German name of the above individual was Johannes Frantz Sammet and the English version was Francis Summit.

Francis Summit settled in the Tyron County area of North Carolina in the latter part of the 1700s, later to become Lincoln County and then Catawba County. In modern terms, this area is northwest of Charlotte in the area of the towns of Hickory, Newton, Lincolnton, and Conover and crossed southwest to northeast by Interstate 40.

Francis Summit and his family were apparently the only Summit family in this community. They were a part of a growing German community in North Carolina settling west of the Catawba River and from all appearances were devoted Lutherans from the beginning. As often happened when continental Europeans found themselves in the English colonies, the names took on a variety of spellings as they appeared in English official records, often in not so successful phonetic replications, or in their native language journals and records.

He entered the country through Philadelphia and came to North Carolina about 1769. He was born in February 1741 (as indicated on his tombstone in St. John Lutheran Cemetery) near Conover, North when he came to the United States, such as knowledge of the German language, a willingness to assert the German nature of his name on occasion, owning a German language bible and probably other German language books, and having his tombstone inscribed in old German script. Francis was the son of a Jacob Sammet, who arrived in the port of Philadelphia on September 10, 1753, on the ship Beulah and might be the Jacob Sammet subsequently located in Earl Township in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

Francis Summit settled on about 150 acres of land in the Leepers/Killian Creek area of Lincoln County, North Carolina [then Tyron County] about 1769 on land that belonged to Charles and Robert Abernathy. The deed from Charles and Robert Abernathy to Francis Summit was actually executed and recorded April 1, 1789, but it was not uncommon in those early days for German immigrants to settle on land without the formalities of ownership. Shortly after Francis Summit executed the deed for the Abernathy tract, he obtained another 150 acres or so by grant dated May 18, 1789, from the State of North Carolina abutting his already owned land. His neighbors as noted in the 1789 land grant were John Sutton, John Devault, and George Kominger (probably Cloninger).

Francis Summit was granted 9 pounds, 4 shillings payment out of the North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts effective July 4, 1782, with interest of 14 shillings 6 pence to October 29, 1783, for a total payment of 9 pounds, 18 shillings, and 6 pence for aiding the Continental troops.