Captain Peter Hedrick came to America from Palatinate, Germany, in 1738, lived in North Carolina from 1755 to 1760, and took up 1465 acres of land on Four Mile-Branch. He was a patriotic officer in the Revolutionary War, and Tories burned his buildings and stole his property. He was one of the founders of Beck's Reformed Church and was remembered as a community leader, a man of God, and a friend of man.