Christopher Gist
Encyclopedia
Christopher Gist was an accomplished American
explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country
(the present-day states of Ohio
, eastern Indiana
, western Pennsylvania
, and northwestern West Virginia
, USA). He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain
and her colonists. At the outset of the French and Indian War
(1754), Gist accompanied Colonel George Washington
on missions into this wilderness and saved Washington's life on two separate occasions.
. Historians believe that he received training as a surveyor, more than likely from his father Richard Gist, who helped plot the city of Baltimore. Gist's nephew Mordecai Gist
served as a general under Washington in the Revolution.
, England
. Howard served with King James II of England
's forces as an officer during the Monmouth Rebellion
in 1685, before settling in Baltimore, Maryland. Christopher's brother Nathaniel Gist married Sarah's sister Mary Howard.
, near the Yadkin River
. One of his neighbors was the noted frontiersman Daniel Boone
. During that same year, the Ohio Company
chose Gist to explore the country of the Ohio River
as far as the present-day Louisville, Kentucky
area. That winter Gist mapped the Ohio countryside between the Lenape (Delaware)
village of Shannopin's Town, site of present day Pittsburgh
, to the Great Miami River
in present-day western Ohio
. There he crossed into Kentucky and returned to his home along the Yadkin.
When Gist returned to North Carolina, he found that his family had fled to Roanoke, Virginia
, because of Indian attacks. He rejoined them. In the summer of 1751 he again went west to explore the Pennsylvania
and western Virginia (present day West Virginia
), country south of the Ohio River
.
In 1753 Gist again returned to the Ohio Country, this time accompanying George Washington. Robert Dinwiddie
, the governor of Virginia, sent Washington to Fort Le Boeuf
to deliver a message to the French
demanding they leave the Ohio Country. (The French were constructing forts in the Ohio Country to prevent the British colonies from expanding there; they ignored Dinwiddie's letter.) Washington took (now Lieutenant) Gist along as his guide. They traveled on the Venango Path
through the Ohio Country to get to the fort. During the trip, Gist earned his place in history by twice saving the young Washington's life.
As Washington awaited orders, the French finished their fort and named it Fort Duquesne
after their governor. Captain Contrecoeur, in command of the French forces in the fort, had been forbidden to attack the Virgianas unless provoked, so he sent out his subordinate Joseph Coulon de Jumonville
out with a party of men to order Washington out of the area on May 23. Washington received reports that a French force was approaching, and assuming that they were preparing a surprise attack, Washington ordered his men to dig in.
On the 27th, Christopher Gist arrived at Washington's camp and told him that 50 French troops had stopped at his cabin and threatened to kill his cow and break everything in his house. In response, Washington sent out Captain Hog with 75 men to pursue the French troops. However, shortly after Hog left, Washington called together some young Indians and told them that the French had come to kill Tanacharison, and the Indians also left to go a pursue the French. That evening, Washington received a message from Tanacharison who said he had found the French encampment. Washington decided to attack himself and brought 40 soldiers with him towards Tanacharison's camp. That morning, they met with Tanacharison's 12 Indian warriors, and Washington and Tanacharison agreed to attack the French encampment. Washington ambushed the French, killing 10 to 12, wounding 2 and capturing 21.
In 1754, Washington, Gist, and a detachment of Virginia
militia attempted to drive the French from the region. At the Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754, the French soundly defeated the Virginian colonists. This was the beginning of the French and Indian War, a part of the Seven Years' War between France and England.
Gist owned land near the present city of Uniontown, Pennsylvania
. He called it Gist's Plantation and began to build a town there. At the outset of the war, the French burned all the buildings.
Gist was a member of the Braddock Expedition
in 1755 when it was defeated by the French and their Native American allies. Following the defeat, Gist traveled into Tennessee
, where he met with various native groups to seek their support during the war.
His whereabouts during the final years of the war were uncertain. It is said that in the summer of 1759 he contracted smallpox
and died in Virginia, South Carolina
, or Georgia
. Other reports having him surviving until 1794 and dying in Cumberland, North Carolina
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country
Ohio Country
The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...
(the present-day states of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, eastern Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, western Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and northwestern West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, USA). He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
and her colonists. At the outset of the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
(1754), Gist accompanied Colonel George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
on missions into this wilderness and saved Washington's life on two separate occasions.
Early life and education
Born in 1706 in Baltimore, Maryland, Gist is thought to have had little formal educationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. Historians believe that he received training as a surveyor, more than likely from his father Richard Gist, who helped plot the city of Baltimore. Gist's nephew Mordecai Gist
Mordecai Gist
Mordecai Gist was a member of a prominent Maryland family who became a general in command of the Maryland Line in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War....
served as a general under Washington in the Revolution.
Marriage and family
Gist married Sarah Howard, a daughter of Joshua Howard of ManchesterManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Howard served with King James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
's forces as an officer during the Monmouth Rebellion
Monmouth Rebellion
The Monmouth Rebellion,The Revolt of the West or The West Country rebellion of 1685, was an attempt to overthrow James II, who had become King of England, King of Scots and King of Ireland at the death of his elder brother Charles II on 6 February 1685. James II was a Roman Catholic, and some...
in 1685, before settling in Baltimore, Maryland. Christopher's brother Nathaniel Gist married Sarah's sister Mary Howard.
Career
By 1750 Gist had settled in northern North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, near the Yadkin River
Yadkin River
The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in North Carolina, flowing . It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control. The river becomes the Pee Dee...
. One of his neighbors was the noted frontiersman Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
. During that same year, the Ohio Company
Ohio Company
The Ohio Company, formally known as the Ohio Company of Virginia, was a land speculation company organized for the settlement by Virginians of the Ohio Country and to trade with the Indians there...
chose Gist to explore the country of the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
as far as the present-day Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
area. That winter Gist mapped the Ohio countryside between the Lenape (Delaware)
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
village of Shannopin's Town, site of present day Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, to the Great Miami River
Great Miami River
The Great Miami River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southwestern Ohio in the United States...
in present-day western Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. There he crossed into Kentucky and returned to his home along the Yadkin.
When Gist returned to North Carolina, he found that his family had fled to Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
, because of Indian attacks. He rejoined them. In the summer of 1751 he again went west to explore the Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and western Virginia (present day West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
), country south of the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
.
In 1753 Gist again returned to the Ohio Country, this time accompanying George Washington. Robert Dinwiddie
Robert Dinwiddie
Robert Dinwiddie was a British colonial administrator who served as lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia from 1751 to 1758, first under Governor Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, and then, from July 1756 to January 1758, as deputy for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun...
, the governor of Virginia, sent Washington to Fort Le Boeuf
Fort Le Boeuf
Fort Le Boeuf, , was a fort established by the French in 1753 on a fork of French Creek, in present-day Waterford, in northwest Pennsylvania...
to deliver a message to the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
demanding they leave the Ohio Country. (The French were constructing forts in the Ohio Country to prevent the British colonies from expanding there; they ignored Dinwiddie's letter.) Washington took (now Lieutenant) Gist along as his guide. They traveled on the Venango Path
Venango Path
Venango Path was a Native American trail that ran from the Forks of the Ohio to Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, United States of America. The trail was named after the Native American village of Venango where French Creek empties into the Allegheny River...
through the Ohio Country to get to the fort. During the trip, Gist earned his place in history by twice saving the young Washington's life.
As Washington awaited orders, the French finished their fort and named it Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania....
after their governor. Captain Contrecoeur, in command of the French forces in the fort, had been forbidden to attack the Virgianas unless provoked, so he sent out his subordinate Joseph Coulon de Jumonville
Joseph Coulon de Jumonville
Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville was a French Canadian military officer. His defeat and killing at the Battle of Jumonville Glen by forces led by George Washington was one of the sparks igniting the Seven Years' War.- Early life :Jumonville was born in the seigneury of Verchères, New...
out with a party of men to order Washington out of the area on May 23. Washington received reports that a French force was approaching, and assuming that they were preparing a surprise attack, Washington ordered his men to dig in.
On the 27th, Christopher Gist arrived at Washington's camp and told him that 50 French troops had stopped at his cabin and threatened to kill his cow and break everything in his house. In response, Washington sent out Captain Hog with 75 men to pursue the French troops. However, shortly after Hog left, Washington called together some young Indians and told them that the French had come to kill Tanacharison, and the Indians also left to go a pursue the French. That evening, Washington received a message from Tanacharison who said he had found the French encampment. Washington decided to attack himself and brought 40 soldiers with him towards Tanacharison's camp. That morning, they met with Tanacharison's 12 Indian warriors, and Washington and Tanacharison agreed to attack the French encampment. Washington ambushed the French, killing 10 to 12, wounding 2 and capturing 21.
In 1754, Washington, Gist, and a detachment of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
militia attempted to drive the French from the region. At the Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754, the French soundly defeated the Virginian colonists. This was the beginning of the French and Indian War, a part of the Seven Years' War between France and England.
Gist owned land near the present city of Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Uniontown is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh and part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. Population in 1900, 7,344; in 1910, 13,344; in 1920, 15,692; and in 1940, 21,819. The population was 10,372 at the 2010 census...
. He called it Gist's Plantation and began to build a town there. At the outset of the war, the French burned all the buildings.
Gist was a member of the Braddock Expedition
Braddock expedition
The Braddock expedition, also called Braddock's campaign or, more commonly, Braddock's Defeat, was a failed British military expedition which attempted to capture the French Fort Duquesne in the summer of 1755 during the French and Indian War. It was defeated at the Battle of the Monongahela on...
in 1755 when it was defeated by the French and their Native American allies. Following the defeat, Gist traveled into Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, where he met with various native groups to seek their support during the war.
His whereabouts during the final years of the war were uncertain. It is said that in the summer of 1759 he contracted smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
and died in Virginia, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, or Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. Other reports having him surviving until 1794 and dying in Cumberland, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
.
See also
- Fort SeybertFort SeybertFort Seybert was an 18th century frontier fort in the Allegheny Mountains in what is now Pendleton County, West Virginia, USA. In a 1758 surprise raid occasioned by the French and Indian War , most of the 30 white settlers sheltering there were massacred by Shawnee and Delaware warriors and the...