McCallister's McAlisters (and some other good families)

The Dellinger Family

There is so much misinformation on the web regarding the Dellinger family in America, that I almost hesitate to say anything here at all. But I must, I suppose.

Three Dellinger brothers, born in Oberacker, Baden, Germany, came to the American colonies between 1738 and 1750. By 1752, they were located in then Anson County (now Lincoln County) North Carolina, and buying land there. These three brothers were Martin, Valentin, and Phillip Dellinger. Faithful to the gospels, the Dellinger descendents were fruitful and multiplied, occasionally without the benefit of marriage. And that has been part of the problem tracing my exact lineage in this family.

According to a note dictated by Charles Abell McCallister in 1937, his grandfather was Moses N. Dellinger of North Carolina, and Moses’ mother’s name was Katey. No mention is made of Moses’ father, and apparently with good reason. A privately published manuscript by Sanford E. Dellinger, reprinted by the Bartow County Georgia Genealogica Society, 1962, entitled The Dellinger Family in Georgia says that Moses Dellinger was orphaned as an infant and was raised by his grandfather Henry. This is untrue. Another story is that our Moses was the son of one Phillip Dellinger and Catherine Stroup. That is also untrue. That family did indeed have a son named Moses but moved to Missouri before 1820. In Missouri, that Moses married Hannah Crites, not our Mary Magdaline Stroup. Katey or Katherine Dellinger, mother of our Moses, probably descends from one of the original Dellinger brothers, but her lineage is uncertain. For sure, Henry Dellinger was not her father and thus, not the grandfather of Moses N. Dellinger.

Regardless of the real story, our Moses Nathaniel Dellinger grew up in Lincoln County North Carolina, and married Mary Magdaline Stroup there on 4 September 1820. They had one child, a daughter named Jane, in September of 1821. Mary Magdaline died 9 days after childbirth. In 1822, Moses Dellinger remarried, this time to Manerva Copeland and with whom he raised 10 children. Jane Dellinger, from his first marriage, was evidently cared for by Moses’ mother Katey who lived next door (1830 Census). Moses was an iron worker and a millwright. Lore has it that he was indentured to Jacob Stroup. By and large, researchers have debunked that myth but we do know that Moses worked closely with him. About 1842, Moses, with second wife and children, joined Jacob in Cass (now Bartow) County Georgia. He established his home at the confluence of Stamp Creek with the Etowah River. Moses became a leading citizen of the area, and even today, a city park in Cartersville Georgia bears his name. He died in 1872 is buried with wife Manerva at Macedonia Church cemetery (one of three such named cemeteries in the county) on the banks of Lake Allatoona.

On 20 August 1843, Moses’ daughter Jane Dellinger, married James McAlister in Lincoln County North Carolina. Jane and James are my Great Great Grandparents. They had six children, but I can account for only five. Jane Dellinger McAlister was still alive in 1880 and living with her son and daughter in Union County Kentucky. But when and where she died and is buried is unknown.

Special thanks goes to Kathy Sullivan and Ann Dellinger, both of North Carolina, for their great and unstinting help in reuniting Jane and James with our family.

The double-pen log cabin with "dog-trot" at the top of this page is representative of the type of housing that the early Dellingers may have constructed for themselves in North Carolina. This house however, has no relationship to the Dellinger family per se.