Have you watched the Documentary on Public Broadcast TV "The Lewis and Clark Expedition" The Patrick Gass mentioned on here is from BROOKE COUNTY, WV....Here is a bit of information on him: (From Brooke County Historical Society records)
PATRICK GASS...In 1790, according to Patrick Gass (whose life and history was so well written by the late John G. Jacob ) the bottom land above Buffalo Creek was a narrow ridge along the river and back of it, next to the hill, was a morass overgrown with wild plum trees and bushes. The very ground described them by the late Mr. Gass, now naturally embraces Wellsburg, and the very opine, takes in our Main Street. On this narrow ridge, or Main Street, even in the recollection of the writer hereof, Indian bodies and relics have been frequently dug up and it appears to have been a place of some ancient day of very general Indian resort.
The historian says there were very few signs of occupation beyond that as a trading post, at that date on the site where now is located Wellsburg.
Patrick Gass in 1790 was a young man of about 19, and was perfectly able to have a vivid recollection of occurrences. His diary which he had taken pride in keeping, contained much information and from which, together with personal interviews, Mr. Jacob was able to glean many facts. The book entitled "The Life and Times of Patrick Gass" was issued in 1952, but in these antecedent days it seems that our early history was not appreciated or looked after as it is at this late day. Some of these books are still in existence and command a high price, but they are very scarce; those so fortunate as to have a copy are reluctant to part with it.
Although Mr. Gass, it would seem, was a man of limited education, no doubt due to the lack of opportunities afforded, he certainly had varied and extraordinary acquirements, and judging from his life, as it is written, his forecast was wonderful to say the least.
He died in the year 1869, and his remains were interred in a field on Pierce's Run, about a mile from Waugh's tunnel, the ground now belongs to Mr. Louis Bauer, who recently purchased the farm from L. Shrimplin. His last resting spot was not even distinguished by a stone or mark of any description.
Patrick Gass cast his last presidential vote for U.S. Grant in 1868, and at the time of his death he had reached almost the five score mark.
Patrick Gass burial site has been moved to the Brooke Cemetery in Wellsburg (in Section H.). He was born 12 June 1771 d 3 Apr 1869. Born at Falling Springs, PA. Member of PA Pvt 1 US Inf. War of 1812. A member of the Overland Expedition, under Lewis and Clark in 1804-5-6 ..also soldier in the war with Great Britian from 1812-1815 and a participant in the Battle of Lundy's Lane. Lost an eye in storming of Toronto. He was the last survivor of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
From THE DAILY HERALD, Brooke Co. WV-Tuesday Jan 25,1927,
The history of the pension laws of the United States is one of interest, and not withstanding the fact that all has not been done that gratitude perhaps demanded, she has been more liberal in this respect, than any other country in the world. It has been the rule in all countries to grant pensions in some shape for meritorious services, to acknowledge or stimulate merit, and to raise those who have served their country faithfully above the caprices of fortune. In England the king has been regarded as the sole judge of desert, and following out the theory of sovereignty, in America, the people have exercised the grateful prerogative. As the gratitude of the country toward the veterans of the revolution was great, so their liberality in the early history of the republic was generous beyond precedent, the more especially as the public lands furnished an apparently inexhaustible magazine of largess whence to draw. Pension acts were passed during the war of the Revolution, providing adequate support to those who might be disabled in the discharge of duty. Subsequently, these laws were enlarged and experienced. In 1818, those "who served in the war of the Revolution until the end thereof or for the term of nine months, or longer, at any period of the war on the continental establishment and by reason of reduced circumstances in life" were in need "of assistance from the country for support" were provided for....In 1828 pensions were given, without any qualification as to property, to all officers and soldiers who served in the continental line of the army to the close of the war. Finally in 1832 the terms were enlarged, and pensions were granted to all who served in a military capacity, during the war of the Revolution, for a period not less than six months. First, those disabled in the military and naval service received pensions; then the indigent and necessitious; and lastly all were embraced. The act of 1832, was very comprehensive in its provisions, yet in some respects it was unjust - for instance: The rate of pension was graduated by the length of service and the grade or rank in which it was rendered. Two years service entitles the party to the full pay of his rank in the line, not to exceed however the pay of a captain. For shorter periods the pension was proportionally less; but no pension was provided for merely being in a battle, or for any length of service in a battle, or for any length of service less than six months. This of course cut off a large class of soldiers equally meritorious but whose service perhaps only extended to s single campaign or to a single battle, although that campaign of six weeks or single battle may have been equally arduous and dangerous to the individual, as in other cases might have been the fall period of the war to other individuals. Many persons were called suddenly into active service during the war of 1812 as at New Orleans and other places, and actually engaged in active battle, perhaps been wounded and disabled, yet those men, under the provision of the act of 1832, were entitled only to a pittance proportioned to the excess of service over six months. This was manifestly unjust and to remedy the injustice and in some manner equalize the public bounty was the object of the old soldiers meeting on the 8th of January 1855, in which Mr. Gass with many others, figured at Washington City, as hereafter narrated
In the spring of 1829 he commenced boarding with John Hamilton, better known among our younger readers as the Judge whose bowed frame will be well remembered as he sat about the stores and street corners a wreck of a powerful and once influential man. At this time Hamilton lived on a piece of land, and had to cheer him a pretty daughter whom he called Maria. She was just blooming into womanhood and thrown into the constant society of our hero, a mutual feeling sprang up between the two, and gradually June melted into December. Of the process of their courtship we have no date other than what probability suggests. He doubtless wooed her with the "tales of hair breath scrapes, and of perils by sea and land." and as she listened, she doubtless breathed the wish as maidens often do, "that heaven had made her such a man." Whether she did or not, they made each other understood by some subtle alchemy to lovers known; and not to theorize too far on so delicate a subject, they were married in 1831. Patrick immediately rented a house from a certain crickett who resided on the Crawford farm in the vicinity of Wellsburg and commenced house-keeping-Maria made him a good and loyal wife and in testimony thereof, presented him with seven children, during the fifteen years of their married life, from 1831 to 1846, when she died. It was customary to joke the old soldier on his rapid increase of family. Such pokes were always good natured and he would characteristically remark that as all his life long he had striven to do his duty, he would not neglect it now, but by industry make amends for his delay. In his married life he was kind and affectionate- a good husband and father. Five of his children are still living.(1859), one having died in infancy and another, a well grown lad dying in London county Va. of the small pox in 1855. After various changes and removes, he finally purchased a piece of hill-side land on Pierce's Run in Brooke county and sat down with his increasing family to cultivate the soil. This happy retirement was interrupted in 1846. At this time the measles appeared in his family-all of the children were prostrated, and in the February succeeding, came the severest blow he had ever experienced. At this time his wife having taken with the measles died and he was left with a large family of young children dependant upon for support in his old age. In consideration of his services he received from the Government, in addition to his pay as a soldier, 160 acres of land in 1816, and a pension of $96.00 per year to date from that period. The land he suffered to lie until eaten up and forfeited from non payment of taxes, and the pittance of $96.00 per year is all that he has actually received from the Government in exchange for the services of the best years of his life, from 1804 to 1815 over and above his pay and rations as a soldier.
Residents and visitors gathered Aug 2 to honor a former Wellsburg resident who had ties to an important historical event. The man was Sgt. Patrick Gass, serviceman, carpenter and son of Irish immigrants who lived in Wellsburg for many years.
The event was the Lewis and Clark Expedition, of which Gass(PHOTO) was the first to present a written record. A monument featuring a bust of Gass as a young man was unveiled and dedicated at the Sixth Street Wharf. Also unveiled was a sign noting the city's other connection to the famous expedition - Meriwether Lewis passed the city then known as Charles Town in 1803, while traversing the river in a keelboat to meet William Clark near Louisville, Kentucky before setting out the following year to explore the unchartered Northwest Territory.
The monument and sign were funded by the Ohio River Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail Foundation with the assistance from the National Park Service. Many members of the foundation joined descendants of Gass and others for the dedication, which was one of several events attended by about 65 members of the non-profit group on their first motor coach excursion along the Ohio River.(PHOTO)
Ludd Trozpek, a member of the foundation, told those attending the dedication the group wanted the city to have a lasting reminder of the pioneer spirit of Gass and others who participated in the expedition. Trozpek said its also a thank-you to the city's residents for their hospitality and assistance over the years, particularly the late Tony Cipriani, Sr., a former Wellsburg Mayor who aided the group in developing the monument while serving as chairman of the Brooke County Museum's board of directors.
Tropek said two portraits and a photograph produced of Gass as an old man were used by sculptor Agnes Vincen Talbot of Boise, Idaho, to visualize how Gass might have looked as a young man. A broad forehead, firm chin and serious gaze are among the features Talbot transferred from the older images to the bust, which sites atop a stone monument describing Gass' life. Talbot also has been commissioned to create a bust of Sacagawea, the group's Native American guide, for a monument in Salmon, Idaho.
Patrick Gass, the subject of this sketch, was born June 12, 1771 at Falling Spring, Cumberland county, near what is now Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. His parents appear to have been poor people and moved frequently. After several of these moves, a notable one was made over the South Mountain, into Maryland, in 1775, just as the revolutionary contest as assuming the form of a civil war. From 1777 to 1780, he resided with a grandfather, for the ostensible purpose of going to school, but the facilities for education must have been poor at that day for he says, the amount of his education was what he learned of reading, writing and arithmetic in nineteen days. In after life he regretted his early mental culture had not been better for he always thought he might, with his opportunity, mental and bodily vigor and energy, have attained eminence and fame among the great men of the nation.
In 1782 his father removed his family west, which was then immediately beyond the Allegheny mountains. They encountered great hardships on the road, of which the following graphic reminiscence, taken from the pages of the "Old Redstone" will convey an idea "My father's family" says the author, "was one of twenty that emigrated from Carlisle and the neighboring country, to western Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1784.
The journey as made in April, when the nights were cold. The men who had been inured to the hardships of was, could with cheerfulness endure the fatigues of the journey. It was the mothers who suffered; they could not, after the toils of the day, enjoy the rest they so much needed at night; the wants of their suffering children must be attended to.
As the company approached the Monongahela, they began to separate. Some settled down near to friends and acquaintances who had preceded them. About half of them cross the Monongahela, and settled on Chartiers creek, a few miles south of Pittsburgh, in a hilly country well watered and timbered the Gass family, however reached the forks of Yough, without extraordinary incident, in 1784, and immediately proceeded to locate near Uniontown then called Beasontown, their stay however was short at Beasontown, for in the ensuing year they again pulled up stakes and removed their household altar to Catfish Camp, where Washington now stands. This place took its title from being the head quarters of a noted Indian chief of that name. Catfish Camp, as also prominent in early times, from being a sort of half-way house between the Monongahela and Ohio, being about twenty-four miles from either river. It was a convenient stopping place, and became generally known to the settlers and scouts as a rendezvous. A regular path existed in those days from Redstone by waters of Buffalo and Wheeling creeks, to the Ohio at Wellsburg and Wheeling, and was much traveled by the emigrants as well as the Indians. From Catfish Camp, Patrick, directed his exploration into the surrounding country, and gives us his impression of Wellsburg, as the site appeared to him in 1790. the ground was swampy in places and covered with a dense growth of sycamore, walnut sugar and wild plum trees. There was at that day but one building to be seen, and it was a log house on the lower end of the bottom near midway between the river and the hills. This was built by Alexander Wells.
At Catfish Camp, Patrick remained on the farm leased by his father a considerable period of time, during which he made several trips over the mountains to Mercersburg and Hagerstown, for salt, iron etc. which in those days had to be packed on horses - two hundred pounds of iron and two bushels of salt being the usual burden for a horse.
The year 1790 was remarkable for a drouth in the Catfish country, and Patrick came to Charlestown for corn, which he got of Mr. McFarland, the surveyor, who laid out the town - and then shot himself. His corn to took to Moore's mill, on Buffalo, took a receipt for it and returned to Catfish, thus traveling fifty miles or more to mill and back.
He finally, in 1831, married Maria Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton, of Brooke county, W VA rented a farm and settled down to a life of toil. He also left off his habits of drink and lived a humble, quiet life, living upon the fruits of his labor. He raised a family of seven children. His wife dying in 1846, left upon his hands the support and care of this helpless family. He received from the government a pension of $96 a year in half yearly payments. With this pittance and what he could eek out of such labor as he could perform he lived in patriarchal simplicity, scrupulously honest, owing no man anything, apparently contented and happy as a millionaire. So far as worldly cares were concerned, as to himself he lived the life of a philosopher satisfied that he would have enough to give him a decent burial when he died, and hence troubled himself but little about the accumulation of property. His wants were but few and easily supplied.
For may years preceding his death Mr. Gass lived a steady temperate life. On the 18th day of April 1867, he was baptized by Elder A E Anderson, by immersion, in the Ohio river at Wellsburg, and united with the Christian church at that place, of which he remained a member to the time of his death.
He died April 2, 18700 in a small log house, on the farm of David Waugh, near the first tunnel on the Bethany Pike, on Buffalo creek. Brooke county, and is buried in Shrimplin's cemetery a on Pierce's run. No stone marks his last resting place. He was the last survivor of the Lewis and Clark expedition across the Rocky mountains in 1804-5 . He died at the age of ninety-eight years, nine months and twenty days.
a Otherwise in this information you will read that his remains were moved to Brooke cemetery. Details above)
(Please note. The book has a much longer bio. of this man. You can stop at the library for further details.)
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