The Gist family gathering

On Saturday, July 15, there was a reunion of over 35 Gist family descendants from all over the country in Mt. Orab. Gist family descendants come from former slaves that were freed in Virginia and settled in Brown and Highland counties. Peggy Mills Warner started this gathering in 1999 and has hosted it every other year since.

Here is what Peggy had to say about the start of the gatherings:

“When my son left for college, I felt there was something I could do with my time. My mother had always told us a story that her father had passed down to her that we came here because some wealthy plantation owner sent us here. She said it like this: You are going to college, and I want you to find out what this story is all about. Well, a music student has NO extra time. If there is, we spend it practicing. So, time went on, and I didn’t get ‘my task’ done. Then duties as wife and mother prevailed and still no research. But when I had the time, I started reading and Granddad was right! My sister and I traveled in 2002 to Virginia (Hanover County) to visit the plantation that we had researched – Gould Hill. It was once owned by a man named Samuel Gist who has quite a story behind him, he wrote a will that freed ALL his enslaved people – some say 300, others say more than that I found out that my great great great grandmother Betty (sometimes called Betsy) was given Lot #22, 37.5 acres of land in Eagle Township in July of 1819 along with fellow enslaved people who traveled with her from Goochland and Amherst Counties in Virginia. Thirty-two plots of similar land went to many families that became her neighbors her former fellow slaves on the plantation. Mr. Gist owned two or three plantations. He wrote a 50-page will manumitting his slaves upon his death, but the Commonwealth of Virginia would not allow the slaves to remain in Virginia after they were freed. They had a law prohibiting it. So, the estate handlers gathered up all the slaves and brought them to Ohio—a free state. Somewhere between 1995 and 1999 I started having meetings in my home in Sardinia talking with people that I had found out were descendants. Some of the people I had gone to Church with as a little girl, not knowing, and others I was in School with, not knowing. Most of the people were from Brown and Highland Counties, but then the word spread, and people would attend from Columbus, Xenia, Washington Court House, Cincinnati, and beyond. It was such a delight to hear their stories and to share my stories. In 1999 I got the ‘bright idea’ to start the Gist Gathering.

Micaiah Y’Hisrael, a Gist descendant, spoke of the importance of these gatherings.

“My paternal grandparents’ families, Tatman and Cumberlands were recipients of the Gist settlement,” said Y’Hisrael.

“Although, African American genealogy can be rife with obstacles and poor record keeping, I was able to trace back my paternal great grandmothers’ Grace Cumberlands’ side of the family to Hanover Virginia. My great grandfather, Benjamin Tatman also has ties to the Gist settlement.”

“I hope to connect the dots with the help of other Gist Settlement family descendants that will be in attendance. There is pride in knowing your history. It’s evident that our ancestors were a resilient and hard-working group of individuals. Many perished on their travels from Virginia to Ohio, but the descendants of the Gist Settlement have families that survived. That’s surely something to celebrate.”

Another descendant, Roy Kay, talked about how important these gatherings are to him and our country.

“I grew up with stories about Sardinia, Ohio. My grandmother, Luella Cumberland (daughter of Josephus and Arabella Cumberland), left Sardinia, with her young son Roscoe, and came to Minneapolis around 1910. Her older brother George Cumberland was already living in Minneapolis with his wife Tiny. It is possible that Luella’s sister, Bessie Cumberland, also accompanied her to Minneapolis. Nevertheless, both sisters married men in Minneapolis and settled there. Luella married William Kay from Attica, Iowa, and they had four children (Martha, Roy, Harold, and John). Roscoe was not legally adopted by William, but he became a Kay and was fully integrated into the Kay family. Concerning Sardinia, the one story that sticks in my mind is about our land. My aunt Martha told us numerous times of the large apple orchard on Josephus Cumberland’s land. I dreamed of seeing this land often as a child. In 2009, I saw it for the first time during a Gist Settlement Gathering. The gathering brought me face to face with the stories of my youth and the birthplace of my grandmother,” said Kay.

“Moreover, Gist and his legacy is a story that is American History in general. Getting at this story helps us (I mean all Americans) understand American history but also many of our race-based problems today. We cannot turn away from what happened in American history; we must embrace these events, even if they are uncomfortable and troubling, so that we can be better citizens and better human beings,” he added.