Benjamin Gass, Sr

Share some things about Benjamin....
Benjamin Gass, Sr is our 8th cousin 8 times removed.
Janet Milburn
7/26/23
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Name Benjamin Gass Born Abt 1712 Gender Male Possessions 1738 Warrant issued for land in Guilford also called Falling Springs, Lancaster Co. Find all individuals with events at this location [1] Probate 1751 Died leaving widow Eleanor and four minor children

_FA2 Came to America and landed at Philadelphia [2] _FA3 Met his wife in Pennsylvania [1] Died 1751 Chambersburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania _FA4 Aug 1751 Will made - probated January 2, 1752 Find all individuals with events at this location [1] _FA5 Some Gass researchers place his birth at River Bann, County Antrim, Ireland _FA6 Guilford also called Falling Spings.

Notes Falling Spring could also be called Guilford. It was Lancaster County in 1750, Cumberland County in 1750-1784, Franklin County in 1784.

On August 29, 1999, I visited Chambersburg and on the eastern outskirts drove along Falling Spring Road which runs somewhat adjacent to Falling Spring. According to 'Chambersburg in the Colony and the Revolution' by Lewis H. Garrard, Philadelphia, S.B. Lippincott and Co., 1856, "Falling Spring commenced at the confluence of several large springs and held its meandering way through natural meadows. Finally, the brook contracted for the impetutous leap from rock to rock and in foam and mist and rapid rill mingled with the waters of the Conococheague". I covered about eight miles of Falling Spring and indeed it did meander through a number of natural meadows that still remain to this day. I did see some remains of an old stone foundation and at another location an old stone building. There were no markers at either of these locations. Benjamin Chambers, the founder of Chambersburg build a log house about 1730 and later a saw mill and a grist mill. Benjamin Chambers married the daughter of Captain Robert Patterson of Lancaster in 1741. People at Falling Spring were almost excusively Scotch Irish Presbyterian. (Note to file by J.P. Rhein)

A review of Benjamin Gass' will dated, August 7, 1751 in the County of Cumberland in the Province of Pennsylvania shows that he left among other things, (1) two hundred acres of land lying upon the East Spring or East Branch of the Falling Spring to his son William Gass, his heirs and assigns and (2) 100 acres of land next to the mill adjoining to Thomas Beard's line to his youngest son, Benjamin Gass. (Note to file - JP Rhein)

Fulling - Fulling Mill

When handwoven wool cloth is made on a loom, the cloth is not very tight and the wool still contains too much grease and oils. The fulling process involves beating the cloth in a wooden tub with some water and soap. Fulling removes the oils and the beating forms a denser, more compact cloth. In a fulling mill a waterwheel powers a pair of wooden mallets to beat the cloth in the tub, often for days. This process shrinks the cloth to perhaps 1/2 its original size. The fulled cloth needs to be stretched and dried. This is done on a tentering frame. When the fulled cloth was dried, it is often further processed by having its nap raised and then cut smooth with heavy shears.

"Died leaving wife Eleanor with four minor children. Built the mill at Falling Springs and left it to his minor sons William and Benjamin Jr. These were the William and Benjamin whom Patrick Gass' granddaughter wrote about. She believed they came from Ireland. Since she didn't seem to know about their father, I believe she could have been wrong about the place of origin for the family." (Source - Mary H. Cole)

The origion of the Gass family is uncertain and will need to be investigated further. The following paragraphs list some possibilities

"When researching Ireland for others of my families, I kept my eyes open for Gass/Goss. There were none in my period of interest - before 1700. I found no family by that name on the hearth tax." (Source - Mary H. Cole)

"Benjamin Gass was probably of Huguenot extraction and was of a large party of expert fullers of linen taken to Ulster in 1665 by the Duke of Ormand from Brabant in the Netherlands to promote the linen manufacture in Ireland. Benjamin was a fuller of cloth and moving to Chambersburg, Cumberland County (now Franklin County) he operated a fulling mill for the manufacture of cloth on Falling Spring Creek. Benjamin died in the winter of 1751 and left four orphan children: Prudence, Mary, William and Benjamin Jr. His wife Elinor died about 1758. The four orphan children had for guardians, Benjamin Chambers and John Potter of Cumberland County (now Franklin County). William continued his father's fulling mill as late as 1783. Benjamin Gass' will is recorded in Book A, page 14, probated January 2, 1752." (Source - A Family of Millers and Stewarts, Dr. Robert F. Miller, 1909)

"A cousin, Robert Gass of South Africa, researched the family Gass and sold books on his results. I have one but Jeanette T. thought it was so much searching for royal ties. In any case, when I was in Africa for lectures at U. Cape Town and my daughter's wedding in Nambia, I visited the grandson of Robert Gass. He had recently traveled to the sites identified by his Grandfather and had pictures of the old farmstead, mill and other remnants. The next June, on my way to a meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland, I stopped for a week in the Scottish highlands and walked through the river valley and found their old farmstead and mill. It was just a small rock house with a rock drain into a cistern on a farm owned by an Oglethorpe. The long and short of the book is that the Gass group were Scottish Highlands land owners in the river valley of the Earn (Strathearn) east of Crief at first but lost their lands after three centuries, spent a century in southern Scotland and northern Ireland and now have spent three centuries on the North American continent. Of course there are still lots of Gasses along the way."

(Source - Letter from Paul Smith, dated January 29, 1998 to his cousin, Sandra Smith Schakel, 96 Placitas Trails Rd, Placitas, NM 87043-9402, SSchakel@aol.com)

Father John Gass, b. Between 1675 and 1690, England , d. 1734, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania F Mother Margaret Cowan Married Abt 1710 [1]

Family Eleanor Galbraith, b. Ireland , d. Abt 1758, Pennsylvania

Children

	1. William Gass,   d. 13 Jun 1803, Falling Spring, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania 

	2. Prudence Gass +	3. Mary Gass,   b. 1742, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania ,   d. Aft 1804  (Age > 63 years) +	4. Benjamin Gass Jr,   b. 1744, Lancaster (now Franklin)County, Pennsylvania n,   d. 1827, Pierces Run, Tributary of Buffalo Creek, Brooke County, Virginia 

Photos Falling Springs (August 29, 1999) Falling Springs (August 29, 1999) In his will dated August 7, 1751, Benjamin Gass, among other things, left land in Falling Springs, in then Cumberland County, Province of Pennsylvania, to each of his two sons and further allowed that the mill (fulling) and plantation be rented out to the best advantage.

Sources [S02831] Mary H. Cole, 70 Ridgecrest Rd, Kentfield, CA, 94904-2746, CDGGA47A@Prodigy.com.

[S02785] A Family of Millers and Stewarts, Dr. Robert Miller, 1909.