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Benjamin Gass was born June 12, 1794 Brooke County, West Virginia, son of William Gass and Jane Rea McClain of Troy Township, Richland County, Ohio. He was married January 05, 1827 Richland County Ohio to Elizabeth McCluer, daughter of Samuel Sr. and Sarah McCluer of Troy Township. Benjamin was a soldier in the war of 1812. He also was a Bishop at the Church of Christ in Mansfield, Ohio. He was very strongly opinionated on the anti-slavery issue, often lecturing and debating on the subject. His home was one of the 'stations' for the Underground Railroad harboring many of the runaway slaves during the cruel years that eventually caused a Civil War in the United States. During his lifetime in Richland County, Ohio Benjamin Gass twiced served with distinction the elected position of County Auditor

Benjamin Gass had five children: Cicero T.Gass, William Gass, Tantha Gass, Benjamin Gass and James G. Gass. All were living in 1880 except for James G.

The youngest son, James G. Gass, was a soldier during the Civil War in the Fifteenth Ohio Regiment had died April 13, 1873 in Lexington,Troy Township,Richland County, Ohio; he had been in number of hard battles from which his health never fully recovered. James G. Gass had been commissioned Nov. 26, 1864 to First Lieutenant. James G. Gass had married Ferdinanda Meixner on 4 October 1870 in Richland County, Ohio. Mrs. Ferdinanda Meixner Gass was born in Neuwied Prussia, Germany April 4, 1851 and came to America in 1858 with her uncle, William Rhinehard, who located in Mansfield. She lived with her uncle until her marriage. Mrs. Ferdinanda Gass died in 1902 and is buried in Lexington, Ohio.

Cicero T. Gass was born 1827 in Richland County, Ohio. He married Margaret Castor, daughter of Thomas and Rachel Castor on 30 April 1863 in Richland County. Cicero T. Gass was involved with the Quartermaster during the great Rebellion. One child of this union between Cicero and Margaret Gass, James G. Gass, was born 2 December 1865 in Richland County, Ohio. Two more children, Charles and Mary were born in Missouri. About 1866, Cicero T. Gass moved to Grundy County, Missouri and the next year to Crawford County Kansas for six years. It was in Dade County, Missouri that James G. Gass died on 26 May, 1940.

[Cicero T. Gass and Margaret E. Castor/Gass had four children:  Athena, James G., Mary E. and Charles.  Mary and Charles were born in Crawford Co. Kansas, near Girard, KS.    I am a grandson of Charles.  My father was Fulton the first of seven sons, and I am one of twenty+ great-grandchildren of Cicero and Margaret. ]  Notes from Charles Gass.

Elizabeth McCluer Gass (mother of Cicero T. Gass) died in Richland County in May 1864. After her death in 1864, Benjamin married Sarah M. Creigh in 1867. Benjamin Gass died February 17, 1879 at the age of 82 years and 8 months. After his death, the widow Sarah Margaret Creigh Gass moved to Dade County,Missouri, where her son William Gass had made his home in the Northwest Corner in Cedar Township. William Gass of Dade County Missouri had married Sally and had children Robert M. Gass, James W. Gass, William O.Gass, and Edna Gass.

Benjamin Gass is buried in Lexington, Troy Township, Richland County, Ohio
Gass, Benjamin, 12 June 1794 - 17 Feb 1879, h/o Elizabeth McClure
McClure, Elizabeth, 20 Dec. 1793 - 10 May 1864, w/o Benjamin

Benjamin Gass made his claim as one of the earliest pioneers to use an axe in the following article:

Mansfield Herald Newspaper, Jan 30th, 1858

"Lexington, jan 30th, 1858. Messrs. Cook & Roberts: ---Gentlemen: We perceive by the city papers of our county htat you have three axes manufactured at your steam power establishment in Mansfield, to be presented to the three earliest choppers in Richland County, to be certified by you by two citizens of the Township with the person claiming one of the axes under the above terms and which claim is to be decided by Jabez Cook Esq., of your city, on the 10th day of February, 1858. We therefore present Benjamin Gass, of Troy Township, as a claimant to one of the said axes. He is sixty-three years old; was born in Brooke County, Virginia, on June 13th, A.D., 1794. In the Spring of 1800 his father moved with his family to the N.W. Territory, part of which is now the State of Ohio, and settled in the woods, in Fairfield County, three miles east of of New Lancaster, and remained there till the Spring of 1806, when he moved to Knox County, and settled on unimproved lands one mile East of Mt Vernon, where he lived till the Spring of 1812, and then moved to Richland County, and settled in a dense forest, in what is now Troy Township, arriving there on the 23d day of April, 1812. However, on the last of October previous, being 1811, Benjamin Gass, the claimant, with his father and younger brother, James R. Gass, came into this county to make some preliminary arrangements for building in the ensuing Spring; camping out of course. --- So that really, the chopping career of the claimant may be said to have begun on the first day of November, 1811, notwithstanding his father did not get moved into the county till the time before mentioned. All of which is respectfully submitted. Yours &c., Samuel McClure; James R. Gass"

Note: Samuel McCluer Jr.,brother-in-law, and brother, James R. Gass

 

by James W. McCluer, December 1999

1. History of Richland County, Ohio, 1880 by A. A. Graham, Mansfield, OH, p. 705.
2. Marriage, Volume 10, page 270, Richland County Ohio, James G. Gass to Ferdinanda Meixner, 4 Oct 1870.
3. Marriage, Volume 8, page 677, Richland County Ohio, Cicero T. Gass to Margaret Castor, 30 April, 1863.
4. Marriage, Volume 9, page 641, Richland County Ohio, Benjamin Gass to Sarah N. Creigh, 7 Nov 1867.
5. Marriage, Mansfield Gazette, newspaper, 5 January, 1827, Elizabeth McClure to Benjamin Glass (note: another unfortunated spelling, should be Gass)., Mrs. Frank Henney, Compiler.
6. Mansfield Herald, Claimant for Pioneer Axe - Benjamin Gass, newspaper, Jan 30th, 1858

(incomplete bibliography, will add to later - JWM)

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