Ninth Generation

369. Col. Nathaniel GIST¹⁰⁷ was born on 15 Oct 1733 in Baltimore County (now Harford), Maryland. He was a non-Cherokee. He died about 1796 in Cranewood Estate, Clark, Kentucky.

Summers, History of Southwest Virginia, p.617: "In the year 1760, Daniel BOONE and Nathaniel GIST left the home of BOONE, in North Carolina, and, crossing the Holston mountains, encamped in what is now known as Taylor's Valley, from which point they passed down the Holston river to near Glenn's Mill, and thence to the present location of Abingdon." p.76: Daniel "BOONE and his companion remained at Abingdon for a short while, during which time they disagreed and separated, BOONE taking the Indian trail leading to Long Island, and Nathaniel GIST, his companion, following the Indian trail to Cumberland Gap. They did not meet again upon this trip."

p.83: "Nathaniel GIST, a noted Indian trader, in the year 1761, purchased from the Cherokee Indians the Great Island lying in the Holston river, known as Long Island, and claimed the same, under his grant from the Indians, and in the year 1777 he petitioned the Legislature of Virginia to confirm the title thereto to him."

p.84: "This island was a favorite resort of the Indians, and seemed to have been anxiously sought after by Richard PEARIS and Nathaniel GIST, probably two of the best Indian spies and hunters we read of in our early history."

p.221: 1776; Captain Nathaniel GUIST; GUEST.

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"Myths of the Cherokee", James Mooney, Dover Publications, Inc, New York, p 108;

...by a KY family it is claimed... Sequoya's father was Nathaniel Gist, son of the scout who accompanied [George] Washington on his memorable excursion to the Ohio. As the story goes, Nathaniel Gist was captured by the Cherokee Arkansas Braddock's defeat (1755) and remained a prisoner with them for six years, during which time he became the father of Sequoyah.

On his return to civilization he married a white woman in VA, by whom he had other children, and afterward removed to KY, where Sequoyah, then a Baptist preacher, frequently visited them and was always recognized by the family as his son.

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Old Frontiers, by John P Brown, 1938, Southern Publishers, Kingsport, TN, pg 158;

Nathanial Gist first appeared among the Cherokees as a messenger of Governor Dinwiddie in 1755. Following the French and Indian War he formed a trading partnership with Richard Pearis and lived in the Cherokee country for several years. During that time, he took as his Indian wife, Wurteh, sister of Chief Old Tassel, and became the father of Sequoyah. [- Danielle Schijvijnck, RootsWeb]

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BIRTH: Recorded in St Pauls Church Register Vol 1 by Bill & Martha Reamy pg 8.

Ditto from Spottsylvania, 17th February, 1780, that Nathaniel Gist served as Lieutenant in Cap. Christopher Gist's Company of Rangers, in 1756, and served until 1757, when the Company was reduced. Also as Captain in Col. Washington's First Virginia Regiment, raised in 1756 and disbanded in 1762; also as Captain in Col. Adam Stephens's Regiment, raised in 1762.

History of Canewood: the seat of the Gist family and home of Governor Charles Scott, James Flanagan, 1800.

Held by Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington, KY.

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

GIST, NATHANIEL, frontiersman (Oct. 15, 1733-c. Jan. 1, 1815). The son of Christopher Gist (1706-1759), he was b. in Maryland and by 1753 had traded with the OVERHILL CHEROKEE, those of the Carolina-Tennessee-Georgia region.

Much later he formed a liaison with a Cherokee girl and probably fathered the great Cherokee Sequoyah.

In 1754 Gist was again among the Cherokee at Echota town in the Braddock campaign, serving as lieutenant in his father's 17th Company of Rangers of Washington's regiment; he was in the disastrous defeat of Braddock. In 1756 Gist served in his father's company scouting and ranging the Virginia frontier against French Indians, in 1757 became a captain and in 1758 took 200 Cherokee in the John Forbes campaign that reoccupied Fort Duchesne .

In 1760 Gist and Daniel Boone hunted in the mountainous wilderness near the Holston River, a tributary to the Little Tennessee.

Gist later exploring Cumberland Gap. His union with the Cherokees could not have come in 1760-61 as has been stated since he then was an officer with the Byrd-Stephen regiment of Virginians operating against the Cherokees.

Afterward he settled for a time in the Cherokee towns on the Little Tennessee and there entered his relationship with the Cherokee woman.

Gist was in the Overhill Cherokee towns in 1775 when Richard Henderson and his associates purchased from the Indians large portions of Kentucky and Tennessee.

From the Cherokee that year he visited West Florida and returned to central Tennessee, becoming deeply involved in the complicated intrigues coincident with the start of the American Revolution and its repercussions on the frontier.

He seemed on the one hand to be intrigue with the British and Tories, and on the other to be loyal to Virginia, warning the Cherokees not to go to war against the border settlers. When Colonel William Christian began his retaliatory campaign against them, Gist under a truce flag joined him. Initially he was "thought to be a spy, but the prejudice against him soon wore off and he became very popular" with the Revolutionists.

He went on to Viriginia, explained his actions to the governor and Council of State, and was cleared. January 1, 1777 Gist was appointed colonel of the Continental forces and sent south by Washington to bring the Cherokee to sign a treaty of friendship at Fort Patrick Henry, Long Island, on the Holston River near the present Kingsport, Tennessee. Gist advocated fuller use of Indian auxiliaries in the American cause.

He later commanded Red Stone Fort in Pennsylvania, campaigned in South Carolina and was captured at Charleston; he retired January 1, 1781.

In 1793 he moved from Virginia to Kentucky, receiving a grant of 7,000 acres of bluegrass land for his services as a Revolutionary War soldier. His home became a center noted for hospitality.

He named it Canewood, and there he died "about the close of the War of 1812." He was described in his maturity as "stout-framed and about six feet high and of a dark complexion," cordial to all and although in 1783 he had married a white woman, Judith Cary Bell, remained perfectly open about his earlier relationship with the Indian girl by whom Sequoyah had been born.

(Samuel C. Williams, NATHANIEL GIST, FATHER OF SEQUOYAH. East Tenn. Hist. Soc. Pub. No. 5 [Jan. 1933], 39-54.)

More About Nathaniel Gist, Colonel: # Children: 8 # Marriages: 2

Military service: commissioned colonel of the additional regiment, 1777. He was taken prisoner, 1780, and retired 1781. Note: Father of 'Sequoyah' Notes for Wut-Teh: From Dorsey, pp. 33-34:

"The mother of Sequoyah, Wut-teh of the Paint Clan, was a member of one of the leading Cherokee families." The Payne Records [John H. Payne Notes: Cherokee Papers, No. 2, pp. 116-140, Ayres Collection, Newberry Library, Chicago] state that 'The family of Gist, on the Indian side (the mother's) was of high rank in the nation. The famous John Watts was one of them.

Two of his uncles were men of great distinction; one of the two was named Tahlonteeske (the overthrower) and the other Kahn-yan-tah-hee (the first to kill). The latter was the principal chief of old Echota (Chota as know to the English), over which he presided.

He was called the Beloved Chief of All the People. It was his exclusive duty and delight to be a peace-preserver.'

He was commonly called "The Tassel" by English and white settlers. The names of both these men appear on the treaty of 1777 at the Long Island of the Holston. [Payne Notes, pp. 131-132]"

More About Judith Cary Bell: # Marriages: 2 [2d to General Charles Scott, Governor of KY in 1808] Burial: unknown. Cause of Death: Cholera Epidemic

Col. Nathaniel GIST and Wut-Teh (Sally) WURTEH became partners about 1760. Wut-Teh (Sally) WURTEH¹⁰⁷ (daughter of Great (Willenawah) EAGLE and Woman of ANI'-WA'DI) was born about 1742 in Tasagi Town, Tennessee. She was a full-blood Cherokee. She was a member of the Paint Clan (Wurteh). Col. Nathaniel GIST and Wut-Teh (Sally) WURTEH had the following children:

+634	i.	George (Sikwa’yi Sequoyah) GUESS107 was born about 1760 near Tuskeegee, Monroe, Tennessee. He was 1/2 Cherokee. He was a member of the Clan Paint (Wurteh). He lived in Willstown, Alabama in 1821. He brought the Cherokee Syllabary to Arkansas in 1822. He lived in Arkansas in 1823. He died in Aug 1843 near the village of San Fernando, Mexico. Sikwa’yi : a masculine name, commonly written Sequoya, made famous as that of the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet. The name, which cannot be translated, is still in use upon the East Cherokee reservation. [-Danielle Schijvijnck, RootsWeb] ----- From: http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/m/o/o/Donna-C-Moore/GENE18-0001.html Oct 17, 1855, Date of Application for Pension. "Sequoyah, whose English name was George Guess, was a soldier in the War of 1812 against the hostile Creek Indians. He served as a private in the company of Mounted and Foot Cherokees commanded by the Cherokee, Captain John McLamore, and forming part of Col. Gideon Morgan Jr.'s Regiment of Cherokee Indians. He served from October 7, 1813 to January 6, 1814. He reinlisted three weeks later, and his regiment took part in the famous Battle of the Horseshoe Bend that inflicted a decisive defeat on the Creeks, March 27th. These facts are known by the records in the US War Department and in the Pension Office. Sequoyah's widow Sally Guess, age 66, applied for bounty land on October 17, 1855. Her claim was based on her deceased husband's service. She stated that she had married George Guess in the Cherokee Nation in 1815, and that he died in Mexico in 1843." [1812 War Records, BL WT 92949-160-55, National Archives, Washington, DC. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769-1923: Volume 2 DEWITT CLINTON SENTER. Sequoia, also called George Guess of Gist, was born, probably in 1760, at Tuskegee Town near the site of Fort Loudon. It is supposed that his father was one of the soldiers in Fort Loudon. He was a cripple and never learned to speak or write English. He invented an alphabet for the Cherokee Indians in recognition of which service the Cherokee National Council presented him, in 1823, with a silver medal. The Cherokees, naturally the most intellectual of all the Indian tribes, with the aid of this alphabet made surprising progress. In the treaty of 1828 the United States government consented for a provision to be inserted giving him $500.00 for the great benefit he has conferred upon the Cherokee people in the beneficial results which they are now experiencing from the use of the alphabet discovered by him. In 1823 he took up his permanent residence with the Cherokees west of the Mississippi River. He died in 1843, near Fernando, Mexico, where he had gone to make investigations relative to the origin of the Cherokees. Ref: p. 1286-1287, Vol. III, (P-Z), ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FRONTIER BIOGRAPHY, compiled by Dan L. Thrapp. SEQUOYAH, Indian intellectual (c. 1760-Aug. 1843). Born in the CHEROKEE town of Taskigi, Tennessee, he was the son of NATHANIEL GIST (whose father was the famed CHRISTOPHER GIST) and a mixed-blood Cherokee woman, WURTEH, daughter of a chief of Echota. His native name was SIKWAYI, corrupted by the white usage to SEQUOYAH, and he also was known as GEORGE GIST. Sequoyah grew up among his mother's people, unlettered but adept at hunting, trapping and fur-trading. In early youth he became involved with alcohol, but soon discovered that it did him no good and abstained thereafter. On a hunting trip he injured a leg and arthritis set in, making him a permanent cripple so he turned to metal craftsmanship, becoming an outstanding silver worker. Sequoyah also was "an ingenious natural mechanic" with pronounced inventive powers. He became intrigued with writing systems, initially so he could engrave his name on his silver artifacts, and became aware of the system's usefulness to whites. Around 1809 he commenced to experiment with picture symbols for use among his people, but soon gave that up as impractical. Undismayed by the discouragement and ridicule of his peers, he continued to experiment, drawing symbols from English, Greek and Hebrew until he had devised an alphabet of 86 characters to express the various sounds of the Cherokee language. Despite his physical handicap Sequoyah and other Cherokees fought with Jackson against the Creeks in 1813-14. In 1821 he submitted his syllabary to the chief men of his nation. To demonstrate its practicallity he composed a message with his alphabet which was turned over to his 6-year-old daughter. She read and understood it and replied in kind. The Tribal Council forthwith adopted the system. Cherokees of all ages immediately set about to learn and use this novel alphabet; within months thousands were able to read and write their own language. In 1822 Sequoyah visited Arkansas to introduce his system to the Western division of the Cherokees, and he settled among them permanently in 1823. By 1824 parts of the Bible were translated into Cherokee, and by doing this Sequoyah won over missionaries who previously had been cool to his new system. In 1828 the 'Cherokee Phoenix,' a weekly newspaper appeared and flourished for seven years until it began to advocate Cherokee rights to their lands when it was shut down by Georgia authorities. In 1828 Sequoyah was sent to Washington to represent the Arkansas band, and when the Eastern Cherokees joined the Western, Sequoyah's influence and counsel became important in the organization of the newly united nation in Indian Territory. In his declining years he withdrew from political affairs and turned to more theoretical pursuits. He sought among many tribes elements of a universal speech and grammar, but found few. He had heard the one band of Cherokees had crossed the Mississippi long before and disappeared in the southwest, and he tried to seek out descendants of those people. Accompanied by his son TESSEE and seven devoted followers he reached the Mexican Border where he heard that farther south there was a mysterious band of Indians who had migrated from the north and spoke a tongue unintelligible to others. After Chief Bowles had been killed in Texas many of his people had indeed fled into Mexico and settled in a village near San Fernando, southwest of Matamoros in Tamaulipas State. Sequoyah and his little band contacted these folk (one of Chief Bowle's daughters had married a son of Sequoyah). In this village Sequoyah became ill with dysentery; his followers went to find food for him. When they returned they found him in his final extremities and he died near San Fernando, to be buried in a hidden grave along with his treasured papers. Sequoyah was the only American Indian north of Mexico to invent a system of writing fully adequate for the needs and understandings of his people, and which could be universally learned and used by them. His bust has been placed in the nation's Capitol Statuary Hall by the state of Oklahoma, but his most memorable monument no doubt are the great California trees named in his honor: 'Sequoia sempervirens' and 'Sequoia Washingtoniana' or 'gigantea' are named for him, the tallest and among the oldest living things on earth and the grandest forest trees of the continent. (Hodge, HAI; Dockstader; Grace Steel Woodward, "The Cherokees." Norman, Univ. of Okla. Press, 1963; Grant Foreman, "The Story of Sequoyah's Last Days." "Chronicles of Okla." Vol. XII (Mar.-Dec. 1934), 25-41; Mary Whatley Clarke, "Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees." Norman, 1971.) More About George 'Sequoyah' Gist: Nicknames: Sequoyah. [-Kenneth Lemmon, RootsWeb]
+635	ii.	Moses GUESS was born in 1765.

Col. Nathaniel GIST and Judith Cary BELL were married about 1773. Judith Cary BELL (daughter of David BELL Jr. and Judith CARY) was born about 1750 in Virginia. She died of Cholera about 1833 in Fayette, Virginia.