Wachovia was the area settled by Moravians in what is now Forsyth County, North Carolina, US. Of the six 18th century Moravian "villages of the Lord" established in Wachovia, today the town of Bethania and city of Winston-Salem exist within the historic Wachovia tract. The historical tract was somewhat larger than present-day Winston-Salem and somewhat smaller than present-day Forsyth County. History Wachovia's early settlers were mostly German-speaking people who shared a common Germanic cultural background. In 1752 Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb "Brother Joseph" Spangenberg led an expedition to locate the area where the Unitas Fratrum, or Moravian church, intended to begin the Wachovia settlements. Members of the Moravian Church in Europe purchased of land in the backcountry (middle/western area) of North Carolina, from John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville. The land in North Carolina was purchased on behalf of the Moravians by John Henry (Johann Heinrich) Antes, who had also served as agent on behalf of the Moravians in the purchase of the tract which became the city of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He also served as Baumeister ("construction manager") of the first buildings which still stand in Bethlehem's historic district. were purchased by Johann Steinhauer, leader of the Moravian church in Riga, Latvia. "Wachovia" is a Latinized form of the German name Wachau. It was chosen as the name of the North Carolina Moravian tract to honor Count Zinzendorf, Moravian patron and bishop whose family estate was located in the Wachau region northwest of Vienna, along the Danube River between the towns of Melk and Krems. Bishop Spangenberg and the surveying team in 1752 strayed into the mountains of western North Carolina, coming down through what is now Wilkes County (viz. "Moravian Falls" etc.) on their way to the Three Forks of Muddy Creek. It was this mountainous landscape in the Carolina back country along the Catawba, Little, New and Yadkin Rivers that suggested the Wachau region in Lower Austria. Twelve Moravian Single Brethren traveling from Pennsylvania, most from the Christiansbrunn farm near Nazareth, arrived in Wachovia in 1753, forming Bethabara, in Hebrew meaning "House of Passage", a transitional congregational settlement founded November 17, 1753. In July 1756, during the French and Indian War (1754–1763), a wooden stockade was built around the central-most area of the Moravian settlement, and Bethabara became a place of refuge for settlers from across the region, with many refugees living near the Bethabara Mill, numbering 120 by