Person:Samuel Gist (1)

Orphaned as a child, probably before age 10.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Young, Paul, and Brown County Genealogical Society (Ohio). The Gist settlement book. (Georgetown, Ohio: Brown County Genealogical Society, 199-?).

   Some notes:
   
   Gist owned large tracts of land in Virginia. In his will Samuel Gist freed his slaves. Many legal battles ensued. His land in Virginia was sold to pay for land for the freed slaves to live on in Ohio. The freed slaves eventually settled in Brown, Highland, and Adam Counties, Ohio. Eagle township, Brown County, Ohio is one placed they lived. Fairfield/Penn township, Highland County, Ohio is another place. Some moved to Darktown, Five Points, New Vienna, Hillsboro, Leesburg, Samantha, Georgetown, Ripley, and Manchester, Ohio.

2. ↑ Marcano, Ray. "Dream for Freed Slaves Goes Astray". Dayton Daily News. Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio, United States. 26 January 1986, page 1, column 1.

   Hanover County, Virginia was one of the places that Samuel Gist owned land.

3.   Marcano, Ray. "Gist Settlement Resident Begins Paying off Delinquent Land Taxes". Dayton Daily News. 10 April 1987. page 3, column 3.
4.   Gilliland, Jeff. "$1,000 Reward for Stolen Marker". Wilmington News Journal. Wilmington, Clinton, Ohio, United States. 4 May 2013.
5. ↑ Morgan, Violet. Folklore of Highland County. (Greenfield, Ohio: Greenfield Printing and Publishing, c1946)
   pp. 123-126.

   Some notes from Morgan's 1946 work:
   
   The Gist Settlement in Highland County, Ohio is in Penn township, in a place called Darktown.
   
   Samuel Gist's will was dated 22 June 1808. Four codicils were added.
   
   
   Samuel Gist is credited with bringing the first race horses to America.
   
   Children of the Gist Settlement attend school in the neighboring village of New Vienna (Clinton County, Ohio). There was a school in the Gist Settlement at one point, but now it is deserted.
   
   There are only 8 or 9 families left in Darktown. Before World War II there were about 70 people.

6. ↑ Ayres, Elsie Johnson, and Herbert K Skinner. Highland pioneer sketches and family genealogies. (Springfield).
7.   The History of Brown County, Ohio: containing a history of the County, its townships, towns, churches, schools, etc.; general and local statistic; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; map of Brown County; constitution of the United States; miscellaneous matters, etc., etc. (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Pub. Co., 1981).

   The original version is available on Google Books.
   http://books.google.com/books/about/The_History_of_Brown_County_Ohio.html?id=udUyAQAAMAAJ
   This is a reprint of an 1883 work and therefore out of copyright.
   Page 591
   Gist Settlement started in Eagle Township, west of Fincastle, in 1818.
   ===
   THE “ COLORED SETTLEMENT. ’ ’
   The colored settlement in Eagle Township was made in 1818, by a number of the former slaves of Samuel Gist, a wealthy banker, resident of London, England, and an extensive land-owner and slaveholder in the United States.
   It is not known that Gist ever visited his plantation here, or that he ever saw a single slave that cultivated his lands, but all was left to the management of resident agents appointed by him. These lands lay in the counties of Hanover, Amherst, Goslin and Henrico, Va., and included some of the finest plantations in the “ Old Dominion.”
   In 1808, desiring to make ample provision for the future happiness of those who had so abundantly filled his coffers by their servitude, Gist made a will, the intent of which was certainly benevolent, but which has been most wretchedly executed. This document, of fifty-eight closely written pages, is a study within itself. It begins: “This is the last will and testament of me, Samuel Gist, of Gower street, in the parish of St. Giles, in the city of London, of the county of Middlesex, England.”
   After bequeathing various valuable estates and large sums of money to his only daughter, he designates what property and sums of money shall fall to the numerous persons who have been in his employ, and most explicitly does he provide for his slaves in Virginia, who numbered nearly one thousand souls!
   Relative to them, the will provides that at his death, his “ slaves in Virginia shall ‘be set free.” That his lands there shall be sold, and comfortable homes in a free State be purchased for them with the proceeds. That the revenue from his plantations the last year of his life be applied in building schoolhouses and churches for their accommodation. That all money coming to him in Virginia be set aside for the employment of ministers and teachers to instruct them. That “ care be taken to make them as comfortable and happy as possible.”
   In 1815, Samuel Gist died, and Wickham, of Richmond, Va (in conjunction with his father-in-law, Page), who had been appointed Gist’s agent, proceeded to execute his will. Accordingly, through parties in Hillsboro, Ohio, 1,122 acres of land near Georgetown, and 1.2 acres west of Fincastle, in Eagle Township, were purchased for homes for these slaves. These lands were covered with thickets of undergrowth and sloughs of stagnant water, and were almost valueless at that time for any purpose other than pasturage. Here in June, 1818, came nearly 90O persons, a part of whom located on the Georgetown lands, the remainder on the Fincastle purchase. Their “ comfort able homes ” lay in the wild region about them; the education they received was in the stern school of adversity. As a matter of course, they did not prosper. Some who were able returned to Virginia. Others built rude huts and began clearing away the forest. What little money they had was soon spent. Scheming white men planned to get their personal property. They became involved in numerous law suits among themselves, and so from various causes they were reduced almost to pauperism. In later years, their lands have been sold, so that at present but few families remain as relics of this once large settlement. Among the first families that settled in this township were the following persons, most of whom had families:
   Jacob Cumberland, George Cumberland, Samuel Hudson, Gabriel York, James Gist, Gabriel Johnson, Joseph Locust, James Cluff, —— Davis, Sol Garrison, ——- Parsons, —— Williams, Glascow Ellis and Tom Fox. “Old Sam Hudson,” as he was familiarly known, was an odd character, and many anecdotes are yet related of him. At one time, he was sent to the State Prison at Columbus for making unlawful use of another man’s horse, and it so happened that a white man named Demitt accompanied him for a like offense. Upon being interrogated as to his occupation, Sam answered, “ Preacher ob de Gospel!” Turning to Demitt, the ofiicer asked, “ What’s your occupation?” “ I clerk for Sam,” was the shrewd reply.
   Richard Cumberland (“ Blind Dick ”), Meredith Cumberland, Taylor Davis, Moses Cumberland, Ephraim Johnson and Winston Cumberland were also born in Virginia.

8.   Quillin, Frank U. Color Line in Ohio. Michigan University. 1913. reprinted by Negro Universities Press. New York. 1969. ISBN: 8371-1937-7
   pp. 26-29.
9. ↑ Schwarz, Philip J. Migrants against slavery : Virginians and the nation. (Charlottesville, [Virginia] ; London [England]: University Press of Virginia, c2001).

   There is a chapter on the Gist Settlements.

10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6} Drummond, Barb. Midas of Manumission: The Orphan Samuel Gist and His Virginian Slaves . (United Kingdom: Drummond, Barb, 2018).

    Drummond says he did NOT breed horses or import Arabians.

11. ↑ Coldham, Peter Wilson. American migrations, 1765-1799: the lives, times and families of colonial Americans who remained loyal to the British crown before, during and after the Revolutionary War, as related in their own words and through their correspondence. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Genealogical Pub. Co., c2000)
    pp 558-559.

    entry on Samuel Gist of Hanover, Virginia

12.   .

    U.S. General Land Office Records, 1776-2015No Image
    Name: Samuel Gist
    Issue Date: 12 Oct 1812
    Place: Muskingum, Ohio, USA
    Meridian: U.S. Military Survey
    Township: 002n
    Range: 008W
    Aliquots: NE¼
    Section: 5
    Accession Number: CV-0016-420
    Document Number: 0
    Original URL: http://glorecords.blm.gov/deta...
    
    This record is not from Ancestry and will open in a new window. You may need to search for the record when the web page opens. For more information on web records, click here.
    
    You will need to log-in or register to save this record to your tree.
    Source Citation
    Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records; Washington D.C., USA; Federal Land Patents, State Volumes
    
    Source Information
    Ancestry.com. U.S. General Land Office Records, 1776-2015 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
    
    Original data: United States. Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records. Automated Records Project; Federal Land Patents, State Volumes. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/. Springfield, Virginia: Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States, 2007.

13. ↑ .

    Samuel Gist
    Birth: 1723
    Death: 15 Jan 1815 (aged 91–92)
    Burial: Wormington, St Katharine's Church, Broadway, Wychavon District, Worcestershire, England
    Memorial #: 178819804
    Created by: Todd Whitesides (47553735)
    Added: 27 Apr 2017
    URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178819804
    Citation: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 08 January 2020), memorial page for Samuel Gist (1723–15 Jan 1815), Find A Grave Memorial no. 178819804, citing Wormington, St Katharine's Church, Broadway, Wychavon District, Worcestershire, England ; Maintained by Todd Whitesides (contributor 47553735) .

14. ↑ .

    Virginia, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1607-1890No Image
    Name: Samuel Gist
    State: VA
    County: Hanover County
    Township: 11 80
    Year: 1782
    Record Type: Continental Census
    Page: 28
    Database: VA Early Census Index
    Source Information
    Ancestry.com. Virginia, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1607-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
    
    Original data: Jackson, Ron V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp.. Virginia Census, 1607-1890. Compiled and digitized by Mr. Jackson and AIS from microfilmed schedules of the U.S. Federal Decennial Census, territorial/state censuses, and/or census substitutes.

15. ↑ .

    Wilmington News-Journal (Wilmington, Ohio)29 Jan 1976, ThuPage 5 G

16. ↑ .

    Wilmington News-Journal (Wilmington, Ohio)25 Jul 1936, SatPage 3
    Gist Settlement by Violet M. Turner