The Augusta Cemetery Family Trees

William Gaddis

Birth Aug 1718 Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Death 11 Oct 1772 Hampshire County, West Virginia, USA
Burial Buckwalter Cemetery Bloomery, Hampshire County, West Virginia, USA
Memorial ID 63481893

There was in Colonial America a man named William Gaddis about whom little is known, but who is the patriarch of one existing line of the Gaddis family in the United States today. One published genealogical account in the 1890s says that William came from Ireland during the Irish migration to Virginia in 1737, but William's parents' names and his birthplace are not known, so he may or may not have been an immigrant to the Americas. Some researchers link him to James Geddes and Margaret Jackson of Scotland and James' father Alexander Geddes. Other speculation is that he sprang from one of the several Colonial Gaddis families in Virginia, Maryland, or Pennsylvania. Whatever his origins may be, his first recorded appearance is in the Northern Neck of Virginia where he served as a surveyor's chainman in the early 1740s. This is what is known about William Gaddis:

He was probably born between 1700 and 1715.

He lived at Apple Pie Ridge, Frederick County, near Winchester, Virginia from at least 1740 through the 1750s.

He was a landowner in Virginia, a voter, and not a Quaker although he lived near the Quaker meeting of Hopewell and interacted frequently with Quakers.

He was married to Priscilla Bowen (1718-1796), a daughter of Henry Bowen of Cecil County, Maryland and Frederick County, Virginia.

About 1762 he and his family moved from Frederick County, Virginia to a 421 acre farm on Bear Garden Mountain in what is now Hampshire County, West Virginia near the community of Bloomery, West Virginia.

He died in 1773 and his marker is still in place on his homestead in West Virginia. (A photo of his grave may be viewed at this web site:

http://www.historichampshire.org/cems/gaddis.htm

He and Priscilla had at least four sons – John (1741-1827), Thomas (1742-1834), Robert (1749-1834), and Henry (1753-1833 or later), plus probably two others, Rees (1755-before 1820) and William (about 1754-1777).

He and Priscilla also had a daughter, Anna Gaddis (1747-1778) who was married to Levi Springer.

There may have been other children as well whose names are lost to history.

Some time subsequent to William's death Priscilla Gaddis moved across the Allegheny Mountains to what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania , perhaps after, but probably with her sons. It is said that she travelled alone on a mule carrying her waffle iron. She died in Uniontown, Pennsylvania in 1796 and is buried at the Great Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery there.

The son William died in the Revolutionary War on Sullivan's Island near Charleston, South Carolina. The other five sons moved to southwestern Pennsylvania before 1780, with Rees settling in Washington County and the other four sons settling near Uniontown in what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

The eldest son, John, remained in Fayette County until his death. He was a lawyer and farmer and owned several pieces of land north of Uniontown. Not as active in local affairs as his younger brother Thomas, John nevertheless was a prominent man of early Fayette County. He served under his brother Thomas in the Sandusky Expedition.

The son Thomas was known as Col. Thomas Gaddis. He built "Fort Gaddis" south of Uniontown, Pennsylvania; was Colonel of the Monangalia Militia during the Revolutionary War; was third in command of the disastrous Sandusky Expedition in 1782 during which Col. William Crawford was captured and burned at the stake; was arrested and jailed in Philadelphia for raising a "Liberty Pole" near Uniontown during the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion; and moved with many members of the Gaddis family to Clinton County, Ohio in 1814.

Bio supplied by Jim Gaddis, Grifton, NC 28530
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Information about the cemetery on the Historic Hampshire County, West Virginia website located at:

http://www.historichampshire.org/cems/gaddis.htm

Gaddis Cemetery, near Bloomery, WV.

Just after entering the county from the East on Rt.127, you make the first right which is L.L. Pugh Rd. (Rt.6/2), about .5 miles down this road will make a sharp left, at the bottom of the hill this cemetery is located about 1000 to the right on private property.

The cemetery was called Buckwalter's prior to 1986 when Wilmer L. Kerns renamed the cemetery after uncovering Gaddis' crude stone. Gaddis' dates are not on the stone, but estimated by Kerns, based on documentary research.

Priscilla Bowen Gaddis

Birth 1718 Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA
Death 17 Feb 1796 Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA
Burial Great Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA
Memorial ID 6857887

Daughter of
Henry Bowen
and Jane Carter

Wife of William Gaddis
Married 1740 Virginia
(son of James Geddes
and Margaret Jackson)

Mother of
1. Priscilla Gaddis
2. Sarah Gaddis
3. John Gaddis
4. Thomas Gaddis
5. Anna Gaddis
6. Robert Gaddis
7. Henry Gaddis
8. William Gaddis
9. Rees Gaddis

Priscilla's husband, William, is buried
in Mill Branch Valley, Hampshire Co, WV.

Levi B. Springer

Birth 4 May 1744 Burlington County, New Jersey, USA
Death 26 Mar 1823 Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA
Burial Great Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA
Memorial ID 39926154

Son of Dennis Springer & Ann Prickett.

Brother of Dennis Springer (1748-1823), also of Fayette County.

First Marriage: Anna Gaddis.
Children with Anna: Abner, Drusilla, Ruth, Anna, William, Zadoc and Levi H. Jr. Springer.

Second Marriage: Sarah Shepherd Duke.
Children with Sarah: Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth, Lydia, David, Rachel, Job and Dennis Springer.