Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: SOME Descendants of Christopher Gist [Updated 11 JAN 2001]

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SOME Descendants of Christopher Gist [Updated 11 JAN 2001]

Generation No. 3

3. Christopher³ Gist (Richard², Christopher¹) was born Abt. 1705 in Baltimore County, Maryland ¹², and died 25 Jul 1759 in Winchester, ,Virginia ¹³. He married Sarah Howard Bef. 1729 in Baltimore County, Maryland ¹⁴, daughter of Joshua Howard and Joanna O'Carroll. She was born Abt. 1710 in Baltimore County, Maryland?¹⁵, and died Abt. 1756 in Virginia ¹⁶.

Notes for Christopher Gist:
Christopher was a friend and personal guide of George Washington in 1753-54 (twenty years before the American Revolutionary War). He was Sequoyah's grandfather.

He resided at Green Spring Traverse and Adventure. He was a planter, merchant, surveyor, explorer, scout and military engineer. He owned Gist's Lime Pits. He owned a sloop called Two Brothers.

He moved to Yadkin River, North Carolina, c. 1745-1750. He was an explorer for the Ohio Company, 1750-1753.

He moved to Monongahela River, Virginia, 1752. He moved near Winchester, Virginia, c. 1754. He was a guide for British Gen. Braddock during the French and Indian War of 1755. He became an Indian Agent, Southern District, 1757-1759.

He died 7-25-1759 of smallpox while guiding Catawba warriors to Winchester to guard the frontier against the French and other Indians.

The listings of many of the children were taken from will or estate records of the parents. There may have been other children that did not survive a parent or were not mentioned in those records.

see this site for George Washington's journal which mentions Christopher Gist:

http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/journal/index.html

scrapbook items from this page:

http://image.vtls.com/colonial/virtua-basic.html

See Donald Chesnut's page for the transcription of Christopher Gist's Journals:

http://www.users.mis.net/~chesnut/gendef.htm

Ref: p. 562-3, Vol. II, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FRONTIER BIOGRAPHY, (G-O), compiled by Dan L. Thrapp.)

GIST, CHRISTOPHER, soldier, frontiersman (c1706-July 25, 1759). Born in Maryland, he received a good education and became a surveyor by profession and an explorer and frontiersman by inclination. By 1750 he was living in the Yadkin, North Carolina, country near Daniel Boone. October 31, 1750 he was appointed appointed by the Ohio Company to explore the trans-Allegheny as far as later Louisville at the falls of the Ohio River. He visited Shannopin's Town, later Pittsburgh, crossed the Ohio and reached several Indian towns, including Pickawillany, Ohio, near present Piqua where the Picks, part of the Shawnees, lived. After exploring Kentucky to some extent he returned to the Yadkin. The next year he discovered the Blue Stone River, in Mercer County, West Virginia, and Gist's River, in the Cumberland Mountains of present Russell County, Virginia, and Gist's River, in the Cumberland Mountains of present Russell County, Virginia. In 1753 he settled briefly at Brownsville, Philadelphia, returned to Maryland in November, joined George Washington on a mission from Governor Dinwiddie to Fort Duquesne and the two journeyed westward, Gist twice saving Washington's life. Gist was with Washington in the defeat of Coulon de Jumonville. May 28, 1754, and the surrender of Fort Necessity, July 4, 1754. Gist served as scout in the Braddock campaign and took part in the unfortunate battle July 9, 1755, later being made captain of a company of scouts. In 1756 he west south to CHEROKEE COUNTRY, attempting to enlist Indians for the British cause; he was an Indian agent briefly. Gist died of smallpox, in Virginia, on the road from Williamsburg to Winchester. He was an able, intelligent explorer of great courage and persistence and did much to advance the frontier in the trans-Allegheny; his journals have extraordinary value.
(DAB; "Documentary History of Dunmore's War 1774" ed. by Reuben Gold Thwaites, Louise Phelps Kellogg. Madison, Wisc. Hist. Soc., 1905; "Christopher Gist's Journals," ed. by William M. Darlington. Pittsburg. J. R. Weldin & Co., 1893 (1966, xii).

From "For King and County: The Maturing of George Washington, 1748-1760 (HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.: New York 1993) at page 50, by Thomas A. Lewis.

[Thanks Curtis, descendant of Mrs. Edith Gist Vaughn]

"In fact, as [George] Washington would soon learn, [Christopher] Gist had enjoyed a better education, a wealthier family background, and higher social status in the East than had any Washington. The Gist family had figured prominently in the history and commerce of Baltimore. Gist's father, Richard, was one of the commissioners who originally surveyed the town, and the family had accululated a major fortune in the business of wholesaling furs."

"Far from being some simple backwoodsman, [Christopher] Gist was a remarkable synthesis of America's Eastern and Western societies, undoubtedly the first and one of the very few such that [George] Washington would meet. Gist could (and did) don the silks and ruffles of an Eastern planter and take his ease among glittering company in the drawing room of a Philadelphia merchant or a Tidewater baron. On the other hand, he could slip on his hunting shirt and stride without the slightest hesitation into any camp of red or white savages in the Great Northwest, for he was known on the frontier as a man who would travel farther, bear more hardships, work harder, and if necessary fight nastier than any normal man."

More About Christopher Gist:
# Children: 5
# Marriages: 1
Education: See his Journal Online ¹⁷
Military service: Scout for George Washington
Note: Grandfather of Sequoyah

Notes for Sarah Howard:
Colonial families of the United States of America: Volume 1
ISSUE

IV. Sarah Howard, m. Christopher GIST óf Baltimore County, Agent of the Ohio Company, 1750, and explorer of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc., 1750-1752; guide to General Washington and General Braddock. They left issue.

Children of Christopher Gist and Sarah Howard are:

Richard⁴ Gist, born 2 Sep 1729 in Baltimore County, Maryland ¹⁸; died Bef. 1780 in prob. Virginia ¹⁹.

Notes for Richard Gist:
(From Christopher Gist of MD and some of his Descendants, by Jean Muir Dorsey and Maxwell J. Dorsey,) p. 29

Richard Gist, eldest son of Christopher Gist, was about 16 years old when the family left MD. He was with his father when he started the settlement for the Ohio Company in 1753. On April 3, 1769, he was in Bedford Co, PA (later Fayette Co) with his brother Thomas Gist. At this time he applied at the land office in Philadelphia for land. A tract of 322 acres was surveyed for him on October 18, 1770, upon Virginia rights on Pennsylvania orders. He sold this land to his brother Thomas Gist on September 31, 1795.

No record has been found of any heirs of Richard Gist.

BIRTH: Recorded in St Pauls Church Register Vol 1 by Bill & Martha Reamy, pg 6.

More About Richard Gist:
# Children: no record found of any heirs
# Marriages: unknown

+	12	ii.	Violetta Gist, born 4 Jul 1731 in Baltimore County, Maryland; died Bef. 1768 in prob. Virginia.
+	13	iii.	Nathaniel Gist, Colonel, born 15 Oct 1733 in Baltimore County, Maryland; died Abt. 1796 in Canewood Estate, Clark County, Kentucky.
	14	iv.	Anne 'Nancy' Gist, born Abt. 1734 in Baltimore County, Maryland ²⁰; died Aft. 1795 in Clark County, Kentucky.

Notes for Anne 'Nancy' Gist:
"One interesting item that I have read on Nancy is that she may have been a love interest of George Washington in his younger days. Thomas and Nancy's father Christopher had served as a guide to a young George Washington on a trip to meet the French commander prior to the French and Indian war. George Washington was several times a guest in the home of Thomas Gist. One account that I read says that Martha destroyed any correspondence between George Washington and Nancy Gist." - jessieh@adept.net

More About Anne 'Nancy' Gist:
# Marriages: None

Thomas Gist, born Abt. 1735 in Baltimore County, Maryland; died Abt. 1785 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

4. Nathaniel³ Gist (Richard², Christopher¹) was born Abt. 1707 in Baltimore County, Maryland ²¹, and died Aft. 1787 in prob. east Tennessee ²². He married Mary Howard Bef. 1732 in Baltimore County, Maryland, daughter of Joshua Howard and Joanna O'Carroll. She was born Abt. 1714 in Baltimore County, Maryland ^23,²⁴, and died Unknown in Virginia ²⁵.

Notes for Nathaniel Gist:
He resided at Gist's Search, Baltimore Co, MD. He moved to Lunenburg County, Virginia, about 1745-1750 to the part which became Halifax Co. in 1752. He moved to Dan River, Rowan Co., North Carolina, by 1754 where he served as a captain of the militia. His name appears as Gess, Gest, Gist, Guess and Guest in various records of the area. He returned to Virginia in 1756. In 1784, he lived with his son Joshua in western North Carolina (the part which became eastern Tennessee) and probably died there. In December, 1787, Nathaniel and his son Joshua were among those who signed the Petition of the Inhabitants of the Western Country for the separation and erection of a new state (State of Franklin). On the internet, he was listed as deceased 1788. One report said he died in Sevier, Tennessee.

Washington Co, VA
Page 151 - Nathaniel Gist...200 ac...Preemption Warrant #1972...on the waters of Bever Creek, north branch of Holstein River...Beginning corner to Cornelius Carmacks land he now lives on...corner to Richard Moors land he now lives on...June 5, 1782

++++++++
Many researchers have assigned this Nathaniel Gist as the father of Benjamin Gist [1730-1810]. Mrs. Dorsey did not feel there was enough evidence to prove this, and so did not assign Benjamin parents. The birthdates of Nathaniel's daughter Zipporah [b. 1732] and son Christopher [b. 1734] were found in St. Paul's Register, Baltimore. St. Paul's was built in 1702. If Benjamin [b. abt. 1730] were indeed their son, I would expect to find his name in the same register. I think it is significant that Benjamin's name is not found in any Maryland record, Dorsey says his name first appears in a 1750 Lunenburg Co, VA, Tithe List.

More About Nathaniel Gist:
# Children: 6? or more?
# Marriages: 1
Migration: Balt. MD>s. VA>Rowan Co, NC>Halifax Co, VA>Bedford CO, VA>State of Franklin (TN)
Military service: 1745 - Capt. of the Militia, Rowan Co, NC; 1756 - Capt. of Foot, Halifax Co, VA ²⁶
Religion: Mother Zipporah was Quaker, Father Richard St. Pauls Parish, CofE

Children of Nathaniel Gist and Mary Howard are:

+	16	i.	Zipporah⁴ Gist, born 24 Dec 1732 in Baltimore County, Maryland; died Unknown in Stokes County, North Carolina?.
+	17	ii.	Christopher Gist, born 21 Sep 1734 in Baltimore County, Maryland; died Abt. 1794 in Cumberland County, North Carolina.
+	18	iii.	Nathaniel Gist, born Abt. 1736 in Baltimore County, Maryland; died 7 Oct 1780 in King's Mountain, North Carolina.
+	19	iv.	Joshua Gist, Colonel, born 7 Jul 1739 in Baltimore County, Maryland; died 22 Dec 1819 in Henderson County, Kentucky.
	20	v.	Richard Gist, born Abt. 1742 in Baltimore County, Maryland ²⁷; died 7 Oct 1780 in King's Mountain, North Carolina. He married Jemima (_____) Unknown; born Unknown; died Bef. 1802 in Washington County, Virginia.

Notes for Richard Gist:
Washington Co, VA Court, Sep. 18 1782, allowed Nathaniel Gist, heir at law to Richard Gist, 4 pounds and 10 shillings for a rifle lost at King's Mountain, NC. This Nathaniel may have been son to Richard.

More About Richard Gist:
# Children: unknown
Military service: Oct 7, 1780 - Died at the Battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina

vi.

Joseph Gist, born Abt. 1748 in Virginia; died Aft. 1813 in prob. Tennessee.

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