George Gist, Father
of Sequoyah
About 1739 there came from
Bavaria to Ebenezer a family
of Swabia, Franconia ancestry,
very different in character from
the first settlers, being
influenced by the hope of gain and having
no religious aspirations. To
this family was born a boy named
George Gist; who grew up in
ignorance, could speak only a few
words in English or Cherokee,
and was noted only for his cunning,
lazy, and shiftless
disposition, so that he could not procure a
peddler's license, in lieu of
which he became an illicit Indian trader.
This boy was destined to
become the father of the most
illustrious North American
Indian, the intellectual peer of the
wisest men in the history of
mankind....
The Cherokees had marked out a
path from Augusta,
Georgia, to their country,
over which horsemen could ride to all
parts of the Cherokee country.
George Gist is said to have taken
this path for the Cherokee
country, with two pack horses laden
with merchandise suitable for
trade with the Indians.
Excerpt from the
book: The Chickasaw Nation: A Short Sketch of a Noble People
By James Henry Malone
1922
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