Gordon Family in St. Helena Parish, St. Helena Parishes, La.
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Robert Abney, Mar. 2010

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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.

*From "Gordons of the Deep South" by Erminie N. Marshall, 1961, Austin, TX

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