Gordon, George

Gordon Family in St. Helena Parish, St. Helena Parishes, La.

Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Robert Abney, Mar. 2010
*From "Gordons of the Deep South" by Erminie N. Marshall, 1961, Austin, TX

George Gordon, planter, youngest son of John & Ruth Gordon, was born May 2, 1752 in Berkeley County, SC, which later became Newberry County, SC. At the tender age of your years George Gordon lost his father, and at age of seven years, 1759, his older brother, Thomas Gordon, heir at law of their father John Gordon, made a deed gift of the home place in Newberry and Union Counties to George and his brother Govin Gordon, who were then in care of their mother, in trust for them. George Gordon received about 250 acres, the lower part of the plantation that included the home place.

He was married Jan. 12, 1779 during the Revolutionary War to Elizabeth (maiden surname unknown) and after the fall of Charleston, 1780, he entered the war by joining the militia in Colonel Thomas Brandon's Regiment.

In 1792 Kentucky became a state and a great deal was being written and told about its fertile soil with abundant crops, mild climate and the great opportunities there. Although George Gordon and his family were comfortably situated in their own surroundings in South Carolina, they were being lured by the prospects and soon joined the migration to the new land that was beckoning to them. In about the year 1796 they bade farewell to their relatives and friends and started on their journey settling in Christian County, KY.

After a ten year stay in Kentucky, George Gordon's adventurous sprit was again to answer the call of the land. The Louisiana Purchase had brought new territory into the United States. The lower Mississippi Valley was called the Province of Louisiana with New Orleans as its Capital. The land extending east from the Mississippi River to the Pearl River and lying south of Mississippi Territory was in the possession of Spain who claimed it as West Florida although the United States considered it a part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1813 the Gordon family, along with the Miller family, obtained their land in West Florida from the Spanish Government "Under Spanish Grants" by right of settlement or by purchase and were called "Private Claims."

George Gordon located a Private Claim in West Florida in the Greensburg Land District. "George Gordon, Cosby No. 550, Certificate No. 703, Section 55, Township 1S, Range 5E-639.20 acres." This land was bounded on the West by the Tickfaw River and on the North by Mississippi Territory. The official record of this Private Claim is the official plat of the township. In 1819 the United States paid Spain for both East and West Florida, and George Gordon's claim was confirmed by the act of March 3, 1819 without the issue of a patent.

This land became a part of St. Helena Parish, LA and George Gordon spent his remaining years on the land where he died intestate 1832. His succession recorded at Greensburg Courthouse, Sept. 18, 1835, names his wife Elizabeth and their children. George and Elizabeth Gordon were buried on their plantation in St. Helena Parish. The tombstones have been removed from their graves.