Stills and Spirits

    Most frontier farmers had a difficult time getting their crops to market.  The roads were poor and in some cases non-existent.    The distances were great and there was always the issue of spoilage. They soon found that if they distilled their grain into whiskey that spoilage was a non-issue.  So stills and distilleries were a part of my Kentucky and Pennsylvania roots.  
My Pennsylvania ancestors moved into western Pennsylvania about the time of the Whiskey Rebellion.  The Whiskey Rebellion was a result of of the federal government’s attempt under George Washington to apply a tax to spirits but not grain.  Because of the tax, the frontier farmer carried a disproportional share of the cost of the government and it cut into profits as well.  I know that some of the Hugus ancestors must have been distillers, especially since Jacob Hugus was issued a patent for distilling spirits in 1828 and another issued in 1832 for making wine from cider¹. Hugus Patents
     Distilleries were also an important part of life in Nelson County, Kentucky.   The town of Samuels was named for the Samuels Family which has been distilling spirits for hundreds of years.  Present day Maker’s Mark Whiskey was founded by members of the Samuels family.  Even though we know that John G. Gates worked at a distillery and  there was a Mattingly Distillery near Samuels, we are unaware of any family owning distilleries in Nelson County.  William R. Gates (the second son of Elisha Gates) married Elizabeth Mattingly.  Elizabeth’s brother, Miles P. Mattingly was owner of several distilleries in Owensboro².  There was even a court case as a result of one of his purchases.   Old W. S. Stone Distillery; M. P. M. Distiller, Hand Made Sour Mash Whiskey became a famous brand at the time.³


1.  Ellsworth, Henry-Leavitt. Unites States. Patent Office. Digest of Patents, Issued by the United States from 1790 to January 1, 1839. Washington D. C.: Peter Force, 1840.

2.  The History of Daviess County, Kentucky. Chicago, Illinois: Interstate Publishing Company, 1883. 

3.   Mattingly v Stone, Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1889 Southwestern Reporter, Vol 12, page 467-69

That First Discovery - Researching Elisha Gates

     In the early 1990s I purchased a genealogy software package and started entering our family tree information that had been researched and written down by dad's sister, Jane Armstrong Healey.  For some unknown reason, I became interested in Elisha Gates.  I found it interesting that Elisha had been from Maryland and had moved his family to Kentucky.  Aunt Jane knew birth and death dates from pictures of his tombstone. I decided that I would try to discover when he had married Christina Ann Summers.
     I heard that I could go to the local Family History Center and find out more information.  At that local FHC, I received some help from a volunteer and I ordered a film that was recommended as a possible source of information about Elisha. 

Christina Ann Summers (1794-1869)

Elisha Gates (1789-1863)

     A few weeks later I went back and started through the film.  It wasn't too long before I found a marriage record for Elisha Gates and Christina Ann Summers¹.  A connection to my 3G-grandparents.  Their marriage record was recorded in Prince George's County, Maryland on 12 April 1817.  The film seemed to be disorganized with some pages out of sequence and some upside down on the film.  But if that was all I had to deal with then finding new information was going to be easy.
    I was just a little naive.  It was another five years before I found anything else about Elisha and over a dozen years before I found the identity of his parents.  Now I am on an Elisha Gates binge.  I have focused on him in my blog entries in particular because he was a soldier for three months exactly two-hundred years ago.  It has been nice to meet you, Elisha and Christina!    

1. Prince George's County (Maryland). Clerk of the Circuit Court, Marriage licenses, 1777-1880,  Film #14305  Family History Library,  Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949

Who is that with Elisha?

    Two-hundred years ago Elisha Gates answered the call to go to battle against the British and their Native-American allies.  Is it possible that Elisha Gates was with family and friends while serving in the Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Militia¹?    
     Elisha's name appears on page 166 of the book "Kentucky Soldiers of the War of 1812".  A couple of interesting names appear on page 167. (See below)
     One name of interest is John S. Summers.  Is John S. Summers related to the woman who Elisha married.  In 1818 Elisha married Christina Ann Summers in Prince George's County, Maryland.   In 1827 Elisha and Christina, while living in Kentucky, sold a tract of land called Meadows Resurvey located in Prince George's County to a John G. Summers.  Are John G. Summers, John S. Summers and Christina Ann Summers related?  Ongoing research is a requirement.  
       Another name, 'John Yates' is last on the list.  Whenever I see the name Yates, I wonder if it is Gates transcribed incorrectly.  I have found records where the last name Gates has been misread as Yates.  In the third image on this webpage you can see where the 'G' in Gates looks perilously like a 'Y'.  Handwriting has changed over the years and a capital G used to be open at the top and have a tail below the line.  If the name is John Gates is this John related to Elisha?  Elisha named his first son John so it is certainly a possibility. Some day I would like to find if that name should be 'John Gates'.  The only way to be certain would be to find the original piece of paper.  This might require a trip to the Kentucky Archives in order to see the original.
     Is Henderson Mudd related to the Elisha's first guardian, Joshua Mudd?  Again further research will be required.
     As is normally the case, whenever one locates information about an ancestor, that same information raises more questions than answers.

   

1. Clift, G. Glenn. Kentucky Soldiers of the War of 1812. Frankfort, Kentucky: Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, 1891