Part IV: The Great Southern Migration

The second generation of the American Poston lineage was fundamentally defined by the economic pressures, geographical constraints, and abundant opportunities of the expanding colonial frontier. John II Poston (born c. 1724), having inherited the lucrative land on Octoraro Creek, married Margaret Baldridge around 1749.²⁶ Margaret was the daughter of William Baldridge and Janet Holmes, connecting the Postons to other established colonial lineages.²⁶ The couple operated the Pennsylvania farm successfully for nearly two decades.

However, the comparative affordability of land in the southern colonies, coupled with the increasingly crowded conditions and rising land prices of the Mid-Atlantic, prompted a massive demographic shift among Pennsylvania farmers.³¹ On September 2, 1766, John II and Margaret Baldridge Poston executed a pivotal real estate transaction that would alter the family's trajectory forever. They sold their 274.5-acre Chester County tract to a buyer named James Smith for the substantial sum of £730.²⁶ The surviving deed explicitly identifies the vendor, stating: “John Poston of the Township of West fallowfield in Chester County in the province of

Pennsylvania yeoman (son of John Poston late of said Township yeoman deceased) and Margaret his wife”.²⁶

Navigating the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road

Following this total liquidation of their northern assets, the family embarked on a rigorous and highly dangerous southward migration. They traveled via Conestoga wagon, traversing the historic Great Philadelphia Wagon Road.³ This thoroughfare, stretching from Pennsylvania down through the Shenandoah Valley and into the backcountry of the Carolinas, was the primary conduit for the settlement of the southern frontier. The journey required immense physical endurance and represented a total commitment to cultivating untamed wilderness.

Documentary evidence tracks the family's progress along this route, marked by tragedy. By early 1767, Margaret Baldridge Poston had died, likely a casualty of the harsh conditions of the migration or frontier life.²⁶ This is inferred from her father William Baldridge's will (dated January 9, 1767), which left his son-in-law John II a mere £5, while other legatees received £50.²⁶ Genealogists conclude this discrepancy strongly suggests John II had already relocated his family deep into the south, effectively removing himself from the immediate Pennsylvania familial sphere.²⁶

John II Poston successfully resettled in Rowan County, North Carolina.²⁶ Between 1769 and 1784, he became a highly prominent civic figure in Rowan County. He first appeared in surviving county records on November 16, 1769, when he was appointed to a jury to survey and lay out colonial roads—a vital public service on the frontier.²⁶ Over the subsequent years, he utilized the capital from his Pennsylvania land sale to acquire over 1,200 acres of land, including a 640-acre purchase on the east side of the Catawba River at the mouth

of Morrison's Creek from James McKnight for £300 on July 31, 1779.²⁶ John II Poston drafted his final will on August 31, 1784, in Rowan County, naming his new wife Margaret, his sons Robert and John, and his daughters Mary, Jean, Margaret, and Elizabeth, before it was proved in court on February 10, 1785.²⁶