Among the pioneers

During the 18th Century, when colonial America put out a welcome mat to European immigration, some 250,000 Scots-Irish people landed at Mid-Atlantic ports in search of the fulfilling lives and livelihoods they couldn’t find in their homeland. Many families piloted covered wagons south and west through Maryland and Virginia and then settled in bucolic church-centered communities along the Piedmont Carolinas’ creeks and rivers on unceded territory once inhabited by natives of the Catawba Nation. The David Rea family was among the pioneers, arriving here from Pennsylvania in 1763, just as Mecklenburg County was formed and the continental French and Indian War concluded.

The Reas originally purchased 306 acres from a British Lord, immediately donating six acres for the construction of Providence Presbyterian Church. David later fought in the Revolutionary War, and victory resulted in the transfer of his mortgage note to the University of North Carolina. The family with 10 children eventually owned 550 acres of farmland and pastures that they loved and worked for generations. Though some family land was sold in the 1960s in the vicinity of modern Rea Road, 187 prime acres on Providence Road was retained, giving rise to Charlotte Golf Links in 1992. Two decades later, another opportunity arose to turn the former fairways and woods into a special community – a community where businesses could grow and 21st Century families could follow the echoes of history and establish their own legacies on cherished family land. Welcome to the engaged and vibrant community of Rea Farms.