Battle of New Orleans.

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Patrick Gass-- Part 5: After the War of 1812

After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, Patrick Gass worked at many jobs, first in Ohio and then in what is now West Virginia.

Still a bachelor at age 60, he accepted a construction job from a man named Hamilton, at Wellsburg,  and soon eloped with the man's 20-year-old daughter Maria.  The couple settled in a rented cabin and Gass began farming.

They had seven children, six of whom survived into adulthood.  When their last child was a baby, Maria died during a measles epidemic at age  thirty-six.

Patrick was then seventy-five, but raised the children alone.  Until nearly the end of his life, he walked four miles  into Wellsburg to pick up his mail.  He died  at age ninety-nine, the last member of the expedition to die.

--Brock-Perry


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