“Several books have been written, Of the Family Funderburk. The name was changed, Tradition is told, for in the days of old, it was the noble Von-Der-Burg. And the stories tell, of brave knights that fell.For in the Crusades, it’s said, some lay wounded, others slain dead. In that German land, this noble band, Our ancestors they did trod. The Cause they fought, was God. these were our kin, these fierce, fighting men. But before this came about, They were forest people of the Mount, Mountain folk, they came to be, to escape the tax man, and be free. It’s even been said, in the book I read, Twas of Noah’s fourth son, Our beginning came. After the great mighty rain. The story went on, told about, this certain man named Devault. Twas from him, We came to be, He left the Rhine to escape the enemy, Shipwrecked on the voyage at sea, Though rescued and took along, to pay his passage, he was in bond. Twas from this men of yesterday, came the Funderburks of today. Noble professions some have took, people of God, with the holy book, Most seemed to be humble men, ever since the race began.”
Wanda Funderburk
The Von Der Berg family origin is in Germany. The name changed after their immigration to the colonies, becoming both Funderburk and Funderberg or Funderburg. ‚Hans Devauld (Funderburk), at age 14, left his home in Leipzig, Germany with parents and six brothers and probably two sisters. They boarded ship, „The Golden Beaver“ at Hamburg on the North Sea, and sailed for America. Devauld’s ship was wrecked off the coast and all family lost, but him. He was rescued by a ship carrying German immigrants, and brought to Charleston, SC, and sold as indentured servant to a planter to pay passage. This may have been at Orangeburg, where a colony of Germans had settled earlier. After some years, he „skipped bond“ and headed north over the Charleston-Salisbury inland road…so, he moved northward to (what is now) Lancaster County and became associated with Titus Laney, an Irish immigrant settled on Wildcat Creek. In 1755, when he was 30, he married Titus’s daughter, Catherine Laney, who was 15. (Devauld relocated to a German settlement on the Haw River, but returned to Lancaster County, SC, settling on upper Great Lynches Creek). Hans Devauld and Catherine Laney Funderburk were the parents of Mary Funderburk who married Conrad Plyler, John Funderburk married Mary Larriman, David Funderburk married Catherine Rape, Elizabeth ? Funderburk, Catherine ? Funderburk, Abel Funderburk, Joseph Funderburk married Molly Stuckey, Jacob Funderburk married Barbara DeLaney, Henry Funderburk married Polly Rape, Sarah Funderburk married Jesse Hayes, William Funderburk, and George Washington Funderburk married Sally Scott. (Funderburk Castles and Conquests by Guy B. Funderburk, 1975). In the early 1800’s some of the Funderburks began moving over into Chesterfield County. They became one of the most prominent families in the northwestern section of Old Store District and at one time owned and operated the „Funderburk Mine“ on Lynches River.