Individual Details

Resided in Philadelphia, PA on 18 Sep 1733. Resided in Balcony Falls, Rockbridge Co., VA in 1741.

List of foreigners imported in the brigatine Pennsylvania Merchant of London, John Stedman, Master, from Rotterdam. Qualified Sept. 18, 1733.
SALING, Johan Peter (The original list is herewith given)
Men's Names: SALING, Pieter
Women's Names: SALING, Maria
Children's Names: SALING, Catrina, SALING, Elizabeth
SALLING-- A mist of romance attaches itself to the name of John Peter Salling. That individual lived in the heroic age of American history, and therefore it is not strange that some embellishment has crept into the narrative contained in the columns written on border history. It is represented that Salling explored the Valley of Virginia as early as 1726, had a long and most eventful captivity among the red men, and after his restoration was the pathfinder who drew the attention of John Lewis and others to the "New Virginia" beyond the Blue Ridge. Accepting the family tradition as being more trustworthy than the rhetorical tales we have alluded to, we arrive at the following as the most probable statement of the whole matter.
John Peter Salling was a weaver by trade, and was one of the few Germans who settled in Tuckahoe. Hearing of the new country beyond the mountains, and being of a venturesome turn, Salling went on a journey of exploration. He was so well pleased with the beautiful bottom just above Balcony Falls that he did not think it worth his while to go further. He returned to his home at or near Williamsburg and took steps to secure a morsel of this choice land. This was probably in 1741. It could scarcely have antedated the coming of the McDowells, since it would have been
imprudent to make a solitary settlement forty miles from other people. Salling's earliest patent was not issued till 1746. A transfer of a portion of his land names 1741 as the date of patent, but no such deed appears to be on record. It would seem that the year of settlement rather than the year of patent is the one mentioned in the conveyance. We know that Salling was living here at the time of the McDowell battle in December, 1742. And since this incidental mention indicates that he was then at home, it would not seem that he was captured earlier than the following spring. While Salling and a companion were prospecting on the Roanoke, the former was taken by the Cherokees and remained a prisoner until 1745. He was being sent to France as a spy, the struggle know in
America as King George's was not yet having come to a conclusion. The French vessel was captured by a British cruiser, and Salling was put ashore at Charleston, South Carolina. He now made his way back to Virginia, perfected his title to his land, went to live on it, and was not again disturbed.
Traditions agree that during his captivity, Salling was carried as far as the Mississippi and in some way fell into the hands of the French. The more florid account adds that a squaw of Kaskaskia adopted him as a son; that he several times journeyed down the Father of Waters, and was purchased by the Spaniards as an interpreter; that he was taken to Canada, redeemed by the French governor, and turned over to the Hollanders, of New York.
Henry Ruffner states that John Salling had a brother, Peter Adam Salling. This may have been the case, but Doctor Ruffner is incorrect in saying John was a single man. He had a wife named Ann, and at least five children. If there were two Sallings, it was the other who was a bachelor. John Salling, the only pioneer named in the records, had business dealings with the McDowells. That he was a man of force and consequence is manifest from his being commissioned an officer of
militia. His will is dated Christmas day, 1754, and his death occurred shortly afterward, while he was still in the prime of life. He appears to have had no near neighbor of his own nationality. He spoke broken English, and his two daughters married Henry Fuller and Richard Burton.
His sons, John and George Adam, had removed to North Carolina by 1760, probably because of the new Indian war, and only the third son, Henry, remained at Balcony Falls. The will, however, mentions an infant grandson of the name of John Salling. It also speaks of one Peter Crotingale as a tenant on one of his farms. The personality was appraised at $194.64, and it included four houses, four sheep, and twenty-two hogs. The last of the Sallings in Rockbridge was Peter A., who died without issue in 1856.
Source: A History of Rockbridge County, Virginia
by Oren F. Morton, published in 1920.
Transcribed and submitted by: "Marilyn B. Headley" , 1997
In sincere appreciation of this extraordinary service the Provincial Council of Virginia honoured Johann Peter Saling and his comrades of the expedition so rich in dangers, adventures and privation by granting them in 1748 30.000 acres of land beyond the North Mountains. For a few years only the 'White Indian from the Palatinate' was able to enjoy the farm he built on this land. The hard life of the frontierman in the wild country soon asked its price: Johann Peter Saling died in 1755. His name was forgotten - quite unjustified I think - as this Palatinate was one of those pioneers, who prepared the way to the west for the American nation.

by Karl Scherer in: Three Hundred Years of German Immigrants in North America 1683 - 1983.