Marion County AlArchives Obituaries.....GAST, James L. January 15, 1889
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Veneta McKinney http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00016.html#0003775 March 27, 2010, 11:37 pm

Guin Dispatch, Jan 26, 1889
The Guin Dispatch (Marion County, AL), January 26, 1889

JAMES L. GAST
	On Sunday January 15th inst. at 6 o’clock p.m. at the residence of his 
son-in-law Mr. HENRY HENSLER, at the Gast homestead eleven miles south of 
Russellville, Ala., in the arms of his daughter and without a struggle the 
spirit of JAMES L. GAST passed away.  He had been suffering for some weeks from 
the effects of a severe cold, yet his death was as sudden and unexpected as it 
was painless, no one being present but Mr. HENSLER and the members of his 
family.
	JAMES L. GAST was born in the north of Ireland, county of Cavin, about 
AD 1807, or poor but respectable parents.  His early religious training was of 
the Episcopal faith. After obtaining a common school education he served an 
apprenticeship of seven years in his native land under an experienced 
millwright, becoming a skillful mechanic.
	It was about the year 1830 that he secured passage on board a sailing 
vessel named the Josephine bound for America, and after an uneventful voyage 
landed at Castle garden, New York City, a total stranger without friends or 
relatives in what doubtless appeared to him a very strange land.
	But confident of his ability as a mechanic, and being as he was 
possessed of an informitable will, he soon secured work in the Brooklyn navy 
yard, and afterward followed his trade in the states of Connecticut, New York, 
Pennsylvania and finally drifted into the state of Ohio early in the forties.  
Here he plied his vocation until 1845 when his services were secured by the 
Hon. D. L. HUBBARD, then a member of Congress from Alabama, to superintend the 
rebuilding of what is now known as the Hubbard Old Mill in the southern portion 
of Lawrence County.  After completing the mill at the solicitation of Maj. 
Hubbard he formed a co-partnership with him for the purpose of erecting a 
cotton mill on Bear Creek, at the present site of Allen’s Factory.
	While in Ohio he formed the acquaintance of an estimable lady named 
MARGARET MCVOY, and early in 1846 he returned to Ohio, married Miss MCVOY, 
after which the happy pair returned to Alabama and moved into the residence now 
occupied by Mr. J. R. PHILLIPS when Mr. Gast began the erection of the proposed 
cotton mill.  About the time the mill was completed a disagreement took place 
between the partners when Mr. Gast withdrew from the co-partnership, and in 
1848 moved to the place where he has since resided.
	James L. Gast was a kind and affectionate husband, a loving and 
indulgent parent, a true friend, a safe and judicious counselor, a thorough 
mechanic and an honest man.  He believed in the infinite goodness of God and 
all his works; was an ardent lover of nature in all its various forms both 
animate and inanimate.  He loved truth for truth’s sake and despised hypocrisy 
and cant; he was the friend of the oppressed of all nations, abhorred cruelty 
and looked with compassion and pity upon the unfortunate.  He was a close 
student and comprehensive reader, a lover of poetry and history, and was happy 
in the society of books and newspapers.  In forming his opinions he was never 
hasty but when given they were always guided by the torch of reason.    He was 
unwilling to accept anything as an established fact unless demonstrated by the 
light of a reasonable solution.
	On Tuesday, Jan. 18th, inst. at 1 p.m. after a eulogistic address, the 
readying of a chapter in the Bible, and an eloquent and touching prayer by his 
friend Mr. HARVEY SARGENT, his body was borne by the hands of his neighbors and 
friends to the family burying ground and there deposited beside the remains of 
his wife and three children who had preceded him to the spirit work.
	And now he sleeps beneath the storm tossed branches of the stately oak 
near the trees and shrubbery planted cultured by his own hand where the balmy 
southern summer breeze will waft the fragrant perfume of the flowers, which in 
life he loved so well o’er his tomb.
	F. A.



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