Overview

The history of European settlement in Burke County, NC is foundational to the formation of the United States. The first recorded attempt to colonize the North American interior occurred in 1567 when a Spanish expedition led by Juan Pardo built Fort San Juan on what had been Joara, a regional chiefdom of Catawba tribes who were members of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture. Members of Pardo’s expedition inhabited Fort San Juan for about 18 months before it was razed by Natives and all Spanish soldiers were killed but one, thus terminating the first attempted European settlement in North America. 

Europeans were hesitant to face the harsh conditions of the area again until the 1700’s when Scots-Irish, French, and German farmers started to occupy Indigenous lands under French and British colonization efforts. With the eventual success of the British colonies and the addition of growing numbers of European settlers to the local ecosystem, Indigenous people fell victim to unfamiliar diseases, food shortages, and eventually to governmental displacement and removal.

As Europeans rose to dominance and forged a new country, North Carolina became 12th of the original 13 United States of America (1789) and Burke County was officially established (1877). As of July, 2021, U. S. Census Quick Facts indicate that 86.1% of Burke County’s population identify as White alone, with 81.4% of that group further identifying as White alone non-Hispanic.

European American Culture | As seen Through…Ocie Childers and told to Deb Rose

My name is Ocie Childers. I was born in Catawba County in 1943, but I have lived in Burke County since I was just a few weeks old. It’s hard for me to trace my family’s roots because the records at the Morganton Courthouse were burned many years ago. My understanding, though, is that three Childers brothers (my dad and his two siblings) settled together in Burke County, but I don’t know where they moved from or what year they got here. My mom’s family was from the Lincolnton/Shelby area. When she and dad got married, they decided to stay in Burke County,

My family lived in a home we rented from Duke Power, which, ironically, did not have any electricity. Or running water. The gaps in the wood floors were wide enough to look through. When I was little, I used to sit on the floor by our wood stove and watch a hen play with her chicks beneath the house. The house was way out in the country where the buses didn’t run back then, so I didn’t start school until I was eight years old. My family was not the wealthiest in the world, and when I reached the eighth grade at Icard Elementary, I was old enough to quit school. The situation at home was such that my mom and dad needed help. I decided that my responsibility was to quit school and go to work and try to help my family. And that’s what I did. At first, I babysat for people in the neighborhood because that was all I was qualified to do, but then I realized I wasn’t going to make my fortune that way and began to look for work in the hosiery mills. I worked in those mills for many years, but when my parents grew older and became sick, I became a CNA and cared for them until their deaths.

Being poor like we were, I did feel a lot of people looked down on us. If you don't have clothes like everybody else, you are treated different, even by the kids that are your age. They treat you differently and talk about you and that kind of puts a notion in the back of your mind that you're not as good as everybody else. Well, when I was young and being judged for being poor and not having the “right” clothes or the “right” house, it was hurtful. But when I was older and I got to thinking about it, I thought, well, that experience actually has made me a stronger person. 

One challenge in my life was that because of my education, I wasn't able to get a good job, a high paying job or anything like that. I had to take the menial, low paying job. However, the one thing that I am most proud of is that I was able to become a CNA and take care of my mom and dad at home until they passed away. I had promised them I would not put them in a nursing home and that was one thing I managed to do.

Ocie Childers at work in the garden plot which she leases each year at Morganton’s Community Gardens.

A few of Ocie’s canned foods: Chow chow, pickled corn, green beans, beets and bread and butter pickles.