he story of our name really begins back in the very early 1600’s when groups of Scottish families began to leave the southern lowlands of Scotland, making the short journey across the North Atlantic to settle in the northern province of Ireland, known as Ulster. In the 1700’s these Scottish settlers and their descendants, now known as Scots- or Scotch-Irish, or preferably, Ulster Scots, began making their way to the New World.

The Scots-Irish immigrants first landed in New England; from there they migrated to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and down the “Old Wagon Road” to the Carolinas.

In 1772, one of these Scots-Irish immigrations took place under the leadership of the Reverend William Martin, who organized five ships and brought 467 families from his congregations throughout the Ulster province of Northern Ireland to Charleston, South Carolina. From there, the group moved inland and northward, settling in the Piedmont areas of South and North Carolina. Back in Ulster, Rev. Martin had been minister of the Kellswater Reformed Presbyterian Church, named for the area of the province commonly called Kellswater.

These people had a passionate love of liberty, no tolerance whatever for spiritual or political tyranny. It is said that “they bowed down to the earth in adoring worship before Jesus Christ, but they would be ground to powder before they would bend the knee to any other being or thing on earth or under it. In their spirit of independence...and their passionate devotion to liberty – civil and religious – they reached the highest levels of heroism.” They provided from among their population twenty-five Generals and about a third of the Revolutionary Army. The nearby Battle of Kings Mountain was a Scots-Irish battle where a militia of mainly Scots-Irish Presbyterians defeated an English army twice its size.

We are proud to honor the heritage and spirit of these pioneering immigrants who had so much influence on our part of North Carolina and the entire nation by naming this new community “Kellswater Bridge.” The street names in Kellswater Bridge are from geographical sites in the province of Ulster or are family names from the passenger logs of the five ships led by the Reverend Martin.

Our signature entrance bridge is not only a beautiful welcome into the community, but is symbolic as well. We see bridging the history of the pioneer settlers in our area with new settlers, establishing homes and community. We see a bridging of different neighborhoods and architectural styles within the development. And we see a wonderful bridging of the “generation gap” as our residents get to know each other within the safety and beauty of the tree-lined streets, sidewalks, front porches and parks of this traditional
neighborhood.