JOHANNES EHRENHARDT AND HIS DESCENDANTS: History of the Earnhardt Family of Cabarrus County, NC & Rowan County, NC

The ancestral home of the Ehrenhardt family is in the German province of Bavaria. The surname Ehrenhardt was first found in Bavaria, where the named emerged in medieval times as one of the notable families of the region. From the 13th Century the surname was identified with the great social and economic evolution which made this territory a landmark contributor to the development of the nation. Saint Erhard of Regensburg was bishop of Regensburg in the 7th Century. He was also known as Abbot Erhard of Ebersheim Munster. He was canonized on the 8th of October 1052, by Pope Leo IX. By the early 17th Century, we find one Herman Ehrenhardt (c1630-1722) living with his family in the German town of Biedesheim in the district of Kirchheimbolanden and in the province of the Rhienland-Palatinate. Hermann Ehrenhardt's grandson Johannes Ehrenhardt (c1689-1767) is the immigrate ancestor of the Earnhardt families in the state of North Carolina.The first Ehrenhardts who were recorded as entering into the Colonies were Christof, age 16, Katharina, age 16, and Maria Ehrenhardt, age 16, who are listed as Palatinates aboard the ship 'Johnson' which arrived in Philadelphia from Rotterdam, Holland on September 19, 1732. (Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Strassburger, Vol. 1, ppl 71-77)The second group of Ehrenhardts are recorded as Hans Jacob Ehrenhardt, age 23, who arrived in Philadelphia aboard the ship 'Glasgow' from Rotterdam, Holland on September 9, 1738. (Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Strassburger, Vol. 1, pp. 204-207). Jacob settled near what later became Emmaus, Pennaylvania. He was born in Morstadt, Germany, near Worms. Jacob Ehrenhardt died in Pennsylvania and his descendants migrated to Ohio and Indiana.The third group of Ehrenhardts to arrive in the Colonies were Johannes Ehrenhardt and son Johan Philip Ehrenhardt, who arrived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania aboard the ship 'Friendship' on November 2, 1744. (Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Vol. 1, p. 356). The signature of Johannes Ehrenhardt on the oath list in Philadelphia was that of an older man with an unsteady hand, while Johan Philip Ehrenhardt's signature was smooth. (Pennsylvania German Pioneers, Vol. 2, p. 375). In the 1740s Johannes and Philip obtained land warrants in Bucks County (later Northampton, then finally Lehigh county) about 10 miles from where Jacob Ehrenhardt settled. (Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, Vol. 24, p. 124). Additional land warrants adjacent to Johannes and Philip were issued to Killian and Jacob Ehrenhardt in the 1750s. When Johannes Ehrenhardt died in 1767, his estate was administered by Johan Jurg (John George) Ehrenhardt, the oldest son then living in Pennsylvania (Northampton County Will and Estate Records). Philip and Killen had moved to North Carolina and obtained Granville grants by 1762.Lord Granville to Killen Aaronhardt for 10 shillings proceeds, 289 acres on both sides of Second Creek in Rowan County, North Carolina. Dated August 28, 1762. Proved April 1763.Lord Granville to Philip Aaronhardt for 10 shillings proceeds, 590 acres on both sides of Second Creek in Rowan County, North Carolina. Dated August 26, 1762. Proved January 1763.The immigrant ancestor of the North Carolina Earnhardts was Johannes Ehrenhardt (c1689-1767) who first married Anna Sybilla Taubin in 1721, in Ilbesheim, a small Rhine River Valley farming community near Kirchheimbolanden in the Pfalz (Palatinate) region of the state of Rhineland-Pfalz.