1837 James Gaston Pension Application

In 1832 the Congress of the United States passed legislation giving pensions to living veterans of the War for Independence.  In order to qualify, a veteran had to appear before a probate judge in his county of residence with witnesses and assert in writing the facts of his service.  I found James Gaston's pension application that he made in 1837.  Ironically, or not, he made the application on the anniversary, 6 August 1837, of the Battle of Hanging Rock (6 August 1780) in which he was taken prisoner and three of his brothers, Ebenezer, Robert, and David, were killed.  Another brother, Joseph, was severely wounded at Hanging Rock and nearly died.  A good portion of his face was blown away and the wound never healed. The family farm was 2 miles east of the battlefield.  James was 76 years old at the time of the application.  James Gaston is my 4th Great Grandfather.  He was one of nine sons of John "Justice" and Esther Waugh Gaston, "Patriots of the Revolution."  James Gaston fathered  Thomas Gaston who fathered James Monroe Gaston who fathered Lloyd Ulysses Gaston who fathered Nellie Elizabeth Gaston.  Nellie married Russell H. McCullough Sr., my grandfather.  Their son, Russell H. McCullough, Jr. was my father.  Here is the transcription:

Declaration by James Gaston in Order to Obtain the Benefit of the Act of Congress of the

7th of June 1832

State of Illinois

County of Wayne

On the sixth day of August in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Seven: Personally appeared in open court before the Probate Judge for the County of Wayne and State aforesaid James Gaston a resident of the county and state aforesaid aged seventy six years who being first duly sworn according to law doth make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provisions by the Act of Congress passed June the 7th 1832.

That he Entered the service of the United States in the latter part of the summer of 1778 as a draughted (drafted) man served in the regiment commanded by Col. Joseph Carhaw in the company commanded by Capt. John Marshall [? ?] was Charles Robinson.  Gen. Benjamin Lincoln was the commanding general.  Was in the Battle of Hanging Rock (SC) and was taken prisoner there, and was confined in the Camden Jail (SC) two months and nineteen days when he was paroled and returned home.  When he was paroled he left John Adair, John Moor, and Alexander Brown in jail.  On his arriving at home he found his Father's Farm and everything there destroyed.  (He then) threw his parole in the fire and turned out volunteer in the company of Capt. William Ingram with whom he served until Christmas when he joined (?) company of Capt. William Nesbit (spl?)  for three months, where he served until the first week of May in 1781.  He has mentioned no written discharge.  He was born in the Sate of Pennsylvania, Lancaster County, the 24th of July 1761.  His father moved from Pennsylvania when he was about six years old to the State of South Carolina.  Settled 28 miles north of Camden, two miles east of the Hanging Rock where he (James) resided nearly 40 years.  From there he moved to Christian County, Kentucky in the year 1805.  (He) lived there two years.  He moved to Illinois where he has resided up to the present time.  That Alexander Clark, John Clark, Vaughn Stuart, and (Marby (?) Staton are persons residing in his present neighborhood who will testify to character for veracity on his behalf of his services as a Soldier of the Revolution.  (Signed and attested, etc.)

19th Century lithograph of what James Gaston called "The Hanging Rock"  It is here where the wounded were brought for shade and care during and after the battle, 6 August 1780

James Gaston's resting place in Wayne County, Illinois.  Image courtesy of "Find a Grave"

Hugh Gaston - American Patriot

Ruins of Ballywallin Presbyterian Church, County Antrim, Ulster Plantation, ca. 1748 – Image Courtesy Ballywallin Presbyterian Church

Five generations ago, Hugh Gaston risked it all…and paid it all.  He fled home, hearth, church and family risking everything for the freedom of reading, teaching and living the precepts of the Holy Scriptures.  After attending an annual conference of ministers in 1766 he disappeared for nearly four months.  Suddenly he reappeared in South Carolina, sought out his brother, John “Justice” Gaston of Chester County and set out for the back country to begin a new ministry.  He preached just one or two sermons, then fell ill with the measles.  He was dead within a month of his arrival.  He is buried next to his brother and sister in law in Burnt Meeting House Cemetery just an hour’s drive south of Charlotte, NC.  John wrote a letter home to his widow, Mary Gaston, and children telling of Hugh’s tragic demise.  Hugh’s family stayed in Ulster and never came to America, but Hugh’s book DID come! 

These freedoms that Hugh risked everything for had eluded the Gaston family for generations.  Long before Hugh was born the Gaston family searched for the truth of the gospel with the Huguenots of France.  Roman Catholicism was the state religion there in the 16^th century.  The Gaston’s, under persecution from Rome, fled France for Scotland where they associated themselves with the Reformed Presbyterianism of John Knox.  Here too, they faced persecution, not from Rome but from London.  The English, having subdued Scotland, were determined to force the Scots back into Romanism under Queen Mary and then into Anglicanism under Elizabeth I and James VI.   Scotland was under the boot of the tyrannical English, land was scarce and times were hard.  After several generations, the family sought a better life across the Irish Sea in what was then called Ulster Plantation, now known as Northern Ireland.  Here they found more, better and cheaper land. However, they did not find the religious freedom that they so desperately longed for.

Ulster Plantation was designed by the English as an enclave where both Scots and English would settle Irish Catholic lands and eventually cause the Irish to give up their resistance to English rule.  The plan backfired and the repercussions of this 400 year old plan are still resounding today in the streets of Northern Ireland.  The Gaston’s faced the hatred of the displaced Irish Catholics and the persecution of the English Anglicans.  It was literally a “stress sandwich.”  However, early in the 18^th century, these displaced Ulster Scots began immigrating to a new land that promised it all – freedom of religion, free land and unbridled prosperity in a land “flowing with milk and honey,” AMERICA.  John and Esther Waugh Gaston along with two small daughters came to Pennsylvania before 1740.  By 1754, the expanding family found their way south through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, through the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina, ending up in the rolling piedmont hills of upstate South Carolina.  John became the top law officer on the frontier, the so-called “Kings Justice.”  He also became the most successful surveyor of land in all the upstate.  Here they would prosper in freedom and liberty.  John and Esther would eventually have 13 children, all of which lived to adulthood, a blessing unheard of in that day and time.  The only thing they lacked in the upstate were trained preachers for all the Scot – Irish, as we are called here in America.  Hugh Gaston was not only a trained minister, he was the most brilliant Presbyterian scholar of his age.  No amateur, Hugh was trained at the University of Glasgow as was his physician brother, Alexander.  No wonder John was so excited to greet his brother on his way to Chester from Charleston when he arrived in 1766.

Hugh Gaston was a dangerous man to the English, perhaps the most dangerous man in all of Scotland and Ireland.  Why?  Hugh had in 1763 published a book, a book that threatened every Catholic and every Anglican in Ulster.  It was book that, for the first time, provided the common man the tools needed for deep Bible study.  Now the Ulster ploughman could within a very short period of time, know more Bible than any Catholic or Anglican “clergyman.”  It was simple, yet brilliant.  The book was a combination systematic theology, concordance and topical Bible.  It became a bombshell!  The name of the book?  A Scripture Account of the Faith and Practice of Christians.   Detailed knowledge of the Scriptures not only spoke of salvation, they shed the light of truth on all other aspects of life.  Scot-Irishmen learned self-reliance, self-government, morality, virtue and courage.  They also learned that the rights of man descended, not from the king, but from God Himself!  They then began to “proclaim Liberty throughout the land!”

The publication of this book apparently cost Hugh everything.  By 1766 he found himself broke and disgraced.  Because he so soon died upon arriving in the new world, he left no information as the exact circumstances of his sudden departure.  One thing is for sure.  This book cost Hugh everything.  He lost his family.  He lost his position.  He lost his wealth.  He lost his life.  He lost these things so that anyone could study the Bible for themselves.

Hugh Gaston gave everything so that others could take that journey as well.  He was a man of great passion and love for the truth.  Though Hugh was an “American” for less than six weeks, few others made such an impact.  His book was republished numerous times for nearly 100 years after his death.  Countless thousands of everyday people learned to read and study the Bible for themselves, no longer having to rely on government preachers to tell them how to live and believe. Every man, woman and child became his own priest before God.   Gaston’s Collections as the book came to be known, taught its readers to become truly free, truly responsible and truly patriotic.

Now, one year shy of 250 years, the passion of Hugh Gaston has been replaced by passivity.  “Christians” today have grown passive, lazy and unconcerned with the study, the teaching and the living of the Scriptures.  Bibles sit unopened on the shelf or travel without use in the back seats of automobiles.  People today are passive towards the claims of Holy Scripture and are ashamed of what it says.  What Hugh Gaston died for in 1766, people in 2015 could not care less about.  How about you?  Are you passionate or passive?

Hugh Gaston is my great uncle, five times removed.  John Gaston is my great grandfather five times removed.  John and Esther gave four sons in death during the War for Independence.  They also gave up their home, their possessions and their freedom.  Three of their sons died on the same day at the Battle of Hanging Rock, 6 August 1780.  Ebenezer, Robert and Dave Gaston gave their all just a few miles from the family farm on Fishing Creek.  In fact, all nine of John and Esther’s sons served the cause of liberty.  Hugh and John’s brother, Dr. Alexander Gaston, was murdered by the British in Newbern, NC in the presence of his wife and young son.  At 80 years of age, John Gaston died in his sleep, still being pursued by the English.  He had two loaded pistols under his pillow and a loaded musket at this bedside as he passed into eternity.  The year was 1782.  Esther joined him in death seven years later in 1789.  On their tombstone is one simple inscription – “Patriots of the Revolution.”

The Gaston’s learned that “freedom isn’t free” from reading, studying and living the precepts of Holy Scripture.  Hugh Gaston left a legacy of light and truth that still burns bright today.

-          Russ McCullough – Mint Hill, NC – 21 May 2015

 

A Bitter Sweet Visit

Today I visited the grave of my 5th great grandparents, John "Justice" and Esther (Waugh) Gaston, "Patriots of the Revolution" for the very first time.
 

It was a bitter sweet moment.

Sweet because after 6 years of searching, I finally found them.  (It wasn't easy)  Bitter because their grave has been all but forgotten save some very recent grave violators.  The slab was moved about 8" in an attempt to push it aside.  Apparently too heavy to slide further, the desecrators dug down and opened the tomb from the side.  I called the local police and reported the crime but never heard a word back. 

In 1789 everyone in Chester revered the Gaston's. 

The top slab you see today is not original. It was placed there by local patriots ca. 1900 when their memory was still very much alive. Today, no one remembers and no one seems to care.

Prior to my photograph, the last known photograph of their resting place was in 2006.  The grave was compromised sometime between then and now.  Here is what it looked like in 2006:

Photo via "Find a Grave"



In 1782, the Gaston's were the most notable, significant and important people in all of upstate South Carolina.  John had rallied the entire population of Scot-Irish Presbyterians to oppose the brutal English invasion by force.  They suffered much and paid dearly for their patriotism.  All their worldly possessions, save the family Bible, were destroyed by the English.  The two loving parents of 13 children were chased all over South Carolina by the enemy.  John's brother, Dr. Alexander Gaston, was murdered in cold blood by Tory thugs as his wife and son looked on in horror.  They lost a son in the war due to smallpox and lost three more on a single day in a single battle, the "Battle of Hanging Rock."  Ebenezer, Robert and David Gaston all perished on 6 August 1780, just a few miles from home.

Now lying in desecration, John and Esther rest in what is now called "Burnt Meeting House Cemetery."  The graveyard is located very near to Richburg, SC in Chester County.  Sometime before the end of the War for Independence the Lower Fishing Creek Meeting House burned and was abandoned.  However, for perhaps another 100 years or more, the local Presbyterian community continued to inter decedents here.  The cemetery is enclosed by a chain linked fence and is accessible via a high power voltage line easement.  Other notable people rest here as well including the oldest daughter of John and Esther as well as John's brother Hugh who died of the measles ca.1766.  Their graves, however, are either unmarked or unidentifiable.

For their selfless service, the community honored John and Esther with the largest tombstone and the highest elevation resting place in the cemetery.  Time has nearly erased the memory of these great patriots.  May their memories be rekindled once more by a new generation of patriots!



Gaston's Lament

August 6, 1780 was a devastating day for John and Esther Gaston of Chester County, SC.  They had nine sons and three daughters.  ALL 9 sons fought in the War for Independence.  On that hot August day, three of their sons fell dead at the Battle of Hanging Rock.  Robert, David and Ebenezer perished on that one fateful afternoon.  A fourth son, Joseph, was severely wounded, taking a lead ball to the cheek.  The wound took a large chunk of his face and left an open and continually draining wound that would be there for life.  He actually survived until 1836.  Before he died he related a great deal of information about this little known, but pivotable battle in the War for Independence.  Another son, Alexander, succumbed to small pox just thirteen days later on August 20.  John's brother, Dr. Alexander Gaston, was murdered by the Redcoats just one year later while wife and son looked on in horror.  Freedom isn't free.  The Gaston's paid a terrible price for liberty.  They knew all too well the meaning of the Founders phrase in the Declaration that called for all patriots to sacrifice "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor."  In honor of the this great families sacrifice I've written a poem / song to the memory of what must have been a day of mourning like none other.  It is to be sung to the tune of that classic Revolutionary song; Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier.  A few of the words are similar though the sorrow is universal and the sentiments are pure Gaston, hence the name...Gaston's Lament:

Here we sit on Hanging Rock Hill,
Me and Esther cryin' still.
All our tears a river could fill...
Our sons have gone for soldiers!

The Redcoats came with fear and dread,
at the Waxhaw's killed us dead.
Tarleton's Quarter flowing red...
Our sons have gone for soldiers!

We sold our farm, we sold our fields,
we sold our only water wheel,
to buy nine boys' all rifles primed...
Our sons have gone for soldiers!

Ebenezer, Robert and Dave,
it broke our hearts to see your graves.
Three in one day...Oh, NO, NO, NO!...
Our sons have gone for soldiers!

The Lord He gives and He takes away.
Three sweet boys were slain today.
They longed for peace yet died in war...
Our sons have gone for soldiers!

Brave lad Joseph God did spare.
He now lies wounded in His care,
to honor the lives of brothers three...
Our sons have gone for soldiers!

The war drags and victry is not won.
For our sons we bear our arms,
to rid ourselves of the kings tyranny...
Our Sons have gone for soldiers!

MANY thanks to Diana Nelson and her mom, Betty, for writing the score!  I am eternally grateful!

Rest in peace Gaston Family!

On a personal note, I, for the first time in my life, wrote and sang a song.  I was inspired to do so by the memory of my late sister, Carol Lovell.  She passed away in April of 2010.  She was an accomplished musician as well as a talented singer and song-writer.  As the only one of my generation left in the McCullough family, I honor her memory with Gaston's Lament.  After all, John "Justice" Gaston and Esther Waugh Gaston were her 5th great grandparents too!  Thank you, Carol, for inspiring me to write and sing this song about our brave ancestors!

 

 

Russ McCullough - 5th Great Grandson of John "Justice" Gaston, "Patriot of the Revolution"