The Gates' Farm

     The Gates' farm was along the waters of Froman's Creek near Coxs Creek.  Elisha probably purchased this land with the proceeds from the sale of the Anchovie Hills Plantation in Prince George's County, Maryland.  The 1850 Census shows the farm valued at $10,000 which was considerably more than other farms in the area.  In 1855 Elisha and Christina gave 153 acres of land to their sons, John and William.  Elisha Gates died during the Civil War but Christina Gates lived until 1869.  William had married Elizabeth Mattingly in 1849.  John did not marry until much later in life.  
     My Aunt Jane, who met some of the Gates family, told about an episode involving Elizabeth Mattingly Gates.  During the Civil War, Union soldiers came through taking all the meat from the farm.  They eyed the nice wool blankets longingly saying, "Wish we were further south, then we'd take these".  Elizabeth Mattingly Gates sat in front of the dresser where their money was hidden but they didn't ask her to move. 

Gates' Family Home near Coxs Creek, Kentucky - May 1905
 from left: Russell Gates; Mattie Gates; Metta Gates Spaulding; Elizabeth Mattingly Gates (wife of W^m Gates)

By comparing this old map¹ with the Google map you can see that the Gates' Farm is close to where Samuels Road (509) turns south.   Zooming makes Froman's Creek visible.  St. Gregory Cemetery is located a little west and south along Mobley Mill Road. (Coxs Creek is also known as Cox Creek or Cox's Creek)

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1. An Atlas of Nelson & Spencer Counties, Kentucky. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: D. J. Lake & Co., 1882.

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