Leonhart Kegel, a German immigrant, arrived at the port of Philadelphia, PA, in 1732. According to the ship's passenger lists, Leonhart was forty-eight years old at the time of his arrival. He is believed to be the ancestor of thousands of Cagle families in the United States.

Family tradition suggests that Leonhart left his home in Rhenish Palatinate (in the southwestern part of what was West Germany) in the early part of the eighteenth century. He sailed down the Rhine River to Holland, where he joined thousands of other Germans who had been displaced by war and economic hardship and who were awaiting passage to the American colonies. Although his stay in Holland is said to have been lengthy, he eventually booked passage to America in the summer of 1732 on the ship Loyal Judith. This ship was British-owned and stopped first at the port of Cowes, England, before sailing for America, where it arrived at the port of Philadelphia on 25 Sep 1732. The passenger lists indicate that 119 Palatine men and their wives and children arrived on the Loyal Judith. Because the Rhenish Palatinate was chiefly Protestant in religion, it is believed that most of the passengers were Lutherans and Mennonites.

Upon arriving in Pennsylvania, Leonhart Kegel settled in what was originally Philadelphia County, probably in the northern portion which in 1784 became Montgomery County when Philadelphia County was divided. There in 1737 Leonhart acquired his first farm.

Because most of the colony of Pennsylvania was still under control of the Indians in the 1730’s, European settlers occupied only a small area near Philadelphia in the southwestern corner of the colony. By 1750, however, as the frontier was gradually expanding westward, Leonhart moved to a new farm in Lancaster County, in that portion which was to become Berks County in 1752 when Lancaster County was divided. His land lay in Brecknock Township in a hilly region on the headwaters of the Conestoga River overlooking the Mennonite and Amish settlements on the Lancaster Plain below.

The Kegel family, however, did not remain long in southeast Pennsylvania, for by 1755 their names did not appear on the annual Tax List of Berks County--a deletion that suggests the family had moved away from the area. The best genealogical guess is that some time during the period of 1754-1755, they moved southward into the colony of North Carolina, joining the great migration of Germans and Scotch-Irish from southwest Pennsylvania to new lands in western Maryland, the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and the Piedmont of the Carolinas. According to family tradition, the Kegels migrated to North Carolina in a wagon train led by Moravian Brethren, the German-speaking religious group that founded Bethlehem and Lititz, PA, and Bethania, Bethabara, and Old Salem, NC.

After arriving in North Carolina, the Kegel family (with their name now anglicized to Cagle) lived for a brief period of time on the upper Deep River. The precise location of their home has yet to be determined, but is believed to have been a few miles to the east of the Moravian settlement which lay in what is now Forsyth County, perhaps near the modern town of Greensboro in present Milford County. At that early date, however, the entire region was still part of old Rowan County, an immense county which covered the entire northwestern quarter of the state. Consequently, the earliest Cagle records in North Carolina are found in old Rowan County.

In old Rowan County, on the headwaters of the Deep River, in April of 1755, Jacob Cagle was born, perhaps the first Cagle to be born in the South. Jacob himself provided his birthdate and birthplace in an autobiographical statement in his Revolutionary Was Pension Application filed from Warren County, TN, in 1834, eleven years before his death.

By 1764 the Cagles had moved again, this time further downstream on the Deep River into Cumberland County, NC, where they located in the extreme northwest corner of the county in that portion which in 1784 was to become Moore County when Cumberland was divided. In fact, Moore County, NC, might be considered the ancestral home of all the Cagles in the South since it was from there, beginning in the 1790s, their various branches spread into Georgia and Tennessee, and later across the whole South, into the Midwest, and all the way to the West Coast by 1850.

Exactly when and where Leonhart Kegel died has not been precisely determined. Possibly he is buried on or near his old homestead in Berks County, PA. More probably, however, the aged pioneer, who would have been around seventy years old when his family moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, is buried somewhere along the Deep River in North Carolina.

Though there is no complete documentary proof, younger Cagles who purchased land in Cumberland (presently Moore) County, NC, in the 1760s were among the sons of Leonhart Kegel. These men, who were probably born in the 1720s and 1730s, included David Cagle (who died in the 1780s), John “Dutchman” Cagle (who died in 1799), and Henry Cagle, Sr. (who died in 1802).

Using twenty-five years as the generational average, Leonhart Kegel was probably the great-grandfather of the Leonard Cagle who was born c1780 in North Carolina and who was the first documented ancestor of our Delia Cagle Garich. The line from Delia back to Leonard has been verified through census records. However, the line from Leonard back to Leonhart is “educated speculation.”

In 1850, Leonard Cagle, a wagon maker, was living in Chattooga County, GA. He had been married twice. By his first wife, identity unknown, he had at least four sons: Jacob Cagle, Joseph Cagle, John Fullbright Cagle, and Benjamin Cagle. Joseph was the great-grandfather of Delia Cagle Garich.

By his second wife, Nancy, Leonard had at least two children: a daughter, Mary Cagle, and a son, Francis M. Cagle. Nancy was illiterate. By the time of the 1880 census, she was living in Madison County, AL, in the household of her son, Francis M. Cagle, 34.

Leonard’s son Joseph Cagle was born 22 Jan 1808 in North Carolina. A farmer and mechanic, he lived in Floyd County, GA, in 1850. In 1854 he moved to Polk County, AR, to Carter’s Creek near the town of Old Dallas, which was then the county seat. He served as Polk County Treasurer during the 1850s and 1860s.

Joseph and his wife, Elizabeth, had eleven children, the youngest of whom, Leonard G. Pinkney “Pink” Cagle, was the grandfather of Delia Cagle Garich. Ironically, Pink and his wife, Lucinda, appear on the same 1920 census page ass Edward Joseph Garich and his son, P.J. Garich, who would become--respectively--the father-in-law and husband of Delia Cagle Garich.

The other children of Joseph and Elizabeth Cagle were Nancy Cagle, John F. Cagle, Elijah Cagle, Adaline Cagle, David Cagle, Thomas J. Cagle, Joseph(us) S. Cagle, S. Mary Cagle, L. Judson Cagle, and Benjamin F. Cagle. David was a laborer in Polk County, AR. Thomas died in the Civil War. Joseph, whose name was sometimes listed as Josephus, was in Yell County, AR, in 1870. Mary is listed on census records as an “idiot from birth.” Benjamin was in Coryell, TX, in 1880.

Leonard G. Pinkney “Pink” Cagle was born 23 Oct 1856 in Arkansas. On 22 Sep c1877, he married Lucinda Shadrick Francis Williams. A grist miller and broom maker, Pink is listed on the 1900 and 1920 census records in Polk County, AR.

Pink and Lucinda had seven children. The oldest, Walter Cagle, was the father of Delia Cagle Garich. The other children of Pink and Lucinda were Viola Cagle, Bunyan Cagle, Jeff Cagle, Elizabeth Cagle, Earl Cagle, and Dennis Cagle.

Walter Cagle, a blacksmith and casket maker, was born 9 Dec 1878. He and his wife, Joann Harrelson Cagle, had ten children, the oldest of whom was Delia Cagle. On the 1910 census, Delia is listed as “Fidelia Cagle.” When asked about this name, Delia always became agitated without ever giving a direct response to the question. Her daughter, Jeanne Garich Cleveland, remembered, however, that her father would sometimes call her mother “Fido” in more playful moments, although Delia never seemed very amused!

The other children of Walter and Joann were Dona Cagle, Virgil Cagle, Wilburn Cagle, Ferrel Cagle, Ruby Cagle, Helen Cagle, Clara Cagle, Mamie Cagle, and Pauline Cagle.

On 23 May 1923 in Cherry Hill, AR, Delia Cagle married Percy Joseph “P.J.” Garich. Delia and P.J. Had five children, three of whom are still living in 2000. (See Garich Family History.)

[Sources: The Cagle Journal by John G. Cagle; census records 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920; Delia Cagle Garich; family records; L. Jeanne Garich Cleveland]