Gus & Dortha Family Reunion

ChatGPT Merged the two separate photos posted at Family Search posted by cousin Phil James.  The result is above. 

Gustavus Adolphus Rivenbark (23 December 1869 – 27 January 1938) MWB5-NZM & Dorothy "Dortha" Davis Rivenbark (14 March 1879 – 8 February 1950) MWB5-NZ7 are my Great Grandparents, both having left this earth prior to my arrival.  I should also note that this also includes Aunt Mamie, Aunt Bessie, Aunt Doll, and Uncle Alther. My greatest blessings were from Grandma Quinn, herself a daughter of Great Grandpa Gus and Great Grandma Dortha, Great Uncle Bennie, Great Aunt Nellie, Great Uncle Fred, Great Uncle Otto, Great Aunt Lela and Great Uncle Henry.  All great people and the line I am most familiar with.  My deepest thanks to Uncle Bobby G. Williams, then to the Right Reverend Frederic Augustus Rivenbark and then to all the other Rivenbark kin. Uncle Fred, Uncle Bobby Aunt Nellie's son and of course my dearest Uncle Henry and his wife Great Aunt Tempie Warrick Rivenbark and all the flowers she bore, Jennie Rose, Iris, Pansy and of course Uncle Gene the leader of this Rivenbark Clan today. Great Uncle Henry and Great Uncle Tempie loved my grandmother "Marny" as they affectionately knew her.  I surely do love and miss her humor, so much more today.

So, it is no surprise that all my endeavors to know more about the Rivenbarks and their DNA stems from Uncle Bobby and his quest to understand where his ancestors came from and how they came up with Rivenbark surname.  It is as he said to me, the surname and word for that matter only shows up as being from Pender County, North Carolina.  It is me that discovered that they arrived in New Bern with Baron von Graffenried to New Bern at the turn of the 18th century as Riefenberg and Riefenberger.  It is with great happiness my DNA Study into the Rivenbarks of North Carolina by Audrey Frady Rivenbark's Research along with her dutiful keeper of the records and explorer Bobby G. Williams.  

So using DNA I have been able to confirm the geographic locations the Rivenbark line.  Within this lineage there are Riefenberg families that were a part of the Swiss Colony founded by Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg as New Bern, Craven County, Province of Carolina.  The Riefenberg settlers would quickly abandon the areas to the east of New Bern moving southeast of New Bern, or approximately east of what today is known as James City.  Due to poor land quality for agricultural purposes, these pioneers explored areas close by and ultimately settled land in what would later become Pender County at Rockfish Creek on the Duplin County border. Genetic data can be verified by Christoph Reifenberger’s DNA, whom at one time published this information on www.reifi.de, but it has been abandoned. The then homepage for von Christoph Riefenberg was reifi.de and he is the DNA tester and perfect genetic match to the Rivenbark's of North Carolina based on an early test kit abandoned at Family Tree DNA when I first founded the Rivenbark Surname Project that today has but 1 member left in the administratorless group, there were only three west coast in California that were offspring of another line of Gus and Dortha Rivenbark.  Again, unfortunately the only remnants of the test are their results and location where they were once receiving mail. The search revealed many Rivenbarks residing in California during the 1970's. 

Uberreifenberg of Schmitten and the paradox of where they emmigrated to is being investigated presently.  If you are interested in confirmed Royal Knights of this area you can Google Cuno/Kuno von Riefenberg and Walther von Riefenberg the only known Knights of Riefenberg. It is very well documented within the manuscripts of Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg, otherwise known as Christoph de Graffenried that he himself was a Swiss Palatine gathering settlers from the poor German and disenfranchised Swiss among others that sought evacuation from their homelands for protection against religious persecution. Many of these persons in the New Bern settlement were comprised of several thousand Swiss Palatines, German Lutherans and Palatines that included many Bernese settlers.

Christoph was a Swiss & British Peer authorized to settle new lands in Carolina. Christoph is credited with funding, transporting and then founding the new English Colony at New Bern in the Province of Carolina in 1710.  The colony was formed at the confluence of the Trent River and the Neuse River at the home of the Tuscarora.

After severe hardships in their own countries, the group was willing to try starting over again, this time in Carolina. He sailed with the colonists to Carolina in 1710. On the sea voyage the settlers were attacked by French privateers who stripped them of everything they brought with them. Whereas, on a similar voyage of nearly 3000 German Palatines departing London for New Amsterdam they were nearly decimated with one-third being laid to rest during the sea voyage, or shortly thereafter. As the contingent arrived to New Amsterdam led by John Lawson was doomed from the onset of the endeavor.  John Lawson is most famous in North Carolina.  He lived from 1674c – 1711.  He was an English explorer, naturalist and writer. He played an important role in exploring, then exploiting the interior of colonial North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, publicizing his expeditions in various books. He founded two settlements in North Carolina: Bath and New Bern, both at the point of landing along the coast.

During the settler’s first season, their crops did not perform well. Von Graffenried quickly returned to Europe to obtain supplies and additional settlers. He returned to the colony unscathed. Additionally, with a lack of food and supplies, there was great tension between the settlers and the Tuscarora Indians of the Neuse River region.

The Tuscarora are an Iroquoian-speaking people, closely related to the Five Tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy based in central and western New Amsterdam or what became New York. The settlers had unwittingly planned their new settlement on the site of an old Tuscarora village. That still stands as the Tuscarora Region of Craven County not far to the northwest of New Bern today.

In 1711, von Graffenried and the settlers evicted a group of Tuscarora from nearby lands without payment, and von Graffenried had now assumed the title "Landgrave of Carolina." Retaliatory raids by the Tuscarora, under Chief Hancock, led to many casualties for the new settlers.

During the summer of 1711, von Graffenried, John Lawson and an unidentified African slave ventured up the Neuse River in hopes that they would be able to locate a suitable native grape to hybridize with his native European ones.  It was not long after that the when the Tuscarora captured von Graffenried, John Lawson, and the enslaved African. While in captivity, John Lawson and von Graffenried were given three separate trials, each held at different Tuscaroran villages. In one trial the men were found not guilty.  The two remaining trials produced unanimous judgements as guilty of crimes against the Tuscarora. The verdict of the Tuscarora was then passed and they both were sentenced to Ritual death.  However, upon much discussion spanning several weeks, the leaders decided von Graffenried would be released. The notation is that he wore such fine clothes they had mistook him for the Governor of Carolina. In this instance, believing Graffenried was the Governor, they pardoned him and his slave. It is also stated that the chief told them of their impending attack being mounting against all the settlements of the Virginians that were in their lands.  The following day, the Tuscarora Priests began their ritual torture of John Lawson.  Von Graffenried was released only with the promise and condition that no new European settlements should be made in this region without first obtaining sanction by the native chiefs who lived upon and cared for these lands.  When he finally reached New Bern, he found it totally abandoned and in flames.

Unbenounced to Graffenried, a group of almost 500 were escaping up the Trent River into what today is about Comfort, Jones County, North Carolina. It is a short and quick route by water although very shallow at the head of the Trent.  Once reaching Comfort, the Northeast Cape Fear River is only a few miles away and flows to the Cape Fear and down to Wilmington.  This is evidenced within a map created by Edward Moseley in 1733, we see Mosley's indication of a Palatine Settlement near to Rockfish and the Little Rockfish Stream and Creek that encompassed both sides of the creek where the north side became Duplin and the south side remained in Pender Counties as they do today.  I believe that these are the lost descendants of all Rivenbark lines worldwide.  

In my experience, this is exactly the timeframe where the old German pronunciation of the surname changes from Riefenberg to Rivenbark. You must realize that it was the Irish and Scottish Gaels that were already present along the Trent, as my ancestors were owning large tracts in Comfort, Jones County, just a few steps from Duplin where the sons of Loftin Quinn owned even more along the Northeast Cape Fear River Headwaters.  I note that the Quin's had previously owned land in Old Dobbs and Old Edgecombe before they were extinct counties, or severely diminished to modern day devices.

It has been said by others without any evidence that these men knew of good lands suitable for farming and had little to no fear of the native inhabitants that were already scarce there.