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Descendants of Philip Sitton

Generation No. 2

2. AMBROSE⁷ SITTON (PHILIP⁶, PHILIP⁵, JOHN⁴, BENJAMIN³, JOHN² SUTTON, JR., JOHN¹) was born April 19, 1787 in North Carolina, and died Unknown in Rabun County, Ga.. He married GRACIE CARTER, daughter of EDWARD CARTER and MARY BROWN. She was born Unknown, and died Unknown in Rabun County, Ga..

Notes for AMBROSE SITTON:
Ambrose Sitton, born April 19, 1787, was probably born in Randolph or Chatham County, N. C., before the Sittons left for South Carolina. Not much is known about Ambrose. On a deed made to Philip Sitton in 1804, Ambrose Sitton is listed as the chain bearer for the surveyor. About 1815, Ambrose married Gracie Carter, daughter of Edward and Mary Brown Carter. Edward Carter was born May 29, 1761 in Bucks Co., Pa., and came to North Carolina where he married Mary, daughter of Daniel Brown and Grace Craven of Randolph County, N. C. Edward's family moved to Chatham county in 1764, then to what is now Yancy County, N. C. Edward then moved to the area known as Democrat in Buncombe County, and built a gristmill there. In 1816, Edward, his wife and some of his family moved to Rabun County, Ga., where he received a grant of land for his serving as a sergeant in the Revolutionary War. Ambrose and Gracie Sitton were in the group that moved to Rabun County. A few years ago, I traveled to Rabun County to see if I could find anything on Ambrose and his family.
      The first mention of the Sitton family in the records of Rabun County, is that on February 25, 1825, Ambrose Sitton undertook to purchase land lot 134 in the Valley district, by giving Job Hammond of Franklin County, Ga., nineteen promissory notes amounting to $560.00. However, Ambrose failed to meet the payments on these notes and the lot of land was sold at Sheriffs sale to Pleasant Watts. Watts afterwards sold the lot to Jesse Carter (brother-in-law of Ambrose) for $600.00.
      I was able to find some information on two of Ambrose and Gracie's children. These were their son Edward and daughter Winifred that married a Rickman. Both of these children of Ambrose are buried in the Head of Tennessee Baptist Church Cemetery at Dillard, Ga., but I was not able to find dates or place of burial of Ambrose and Gracie Sitton.

Children of AMBROSE SITTON and GRACIE CARTER are:

11.	i.	EDWARD⁸ SITTON, b. 1816; d. November 13, 1891, Rabun County, Ga..
12.	ii.	JONATHON SITTON, b. April 26, 1817, Rabun County, GA.; d. May 22, 1904, Nacogdoches, Tx.
13.	iii.	WINIFRED SITTON, b. November 11, 1821, Rabun County, Ga.; d. July 05, 1863, Rabun County, Ga..

3. ELIZABETH⁷ SITTON (PHILIP⁶, PHILIP⁵, JOHN⁴, BENJAMIN³, JOHN² SUTTON, JR., JOHN¹) was born December 31, 1788, and died April 11, 1858 in Henderson County NC. She married MATHEW GILLESPIE 1810 in Henderson County NC, son of JOHN GILLESPIE and JANE HARVEY. He was born July 23, 1788, and died May 16, 1871 in Henderson County NC.

Notes for ELIZABETH SITTON:
                  OBITUARY

            From the records of the Mills River Baptist Church

Read and adopted a memorial of Sister Elizabeth Gillaspie presented by our Moderator.
A Memorial of Sister Elizabeth Gillaspie who departed this life April 11th 1858.
Where as it has pleased our Heavenly Father in the dispensation of his providence to remove from our midst (by death) Our Much esteemed Sister Elizabeth Gillaspie.
Therefore resolved. That we deeply sympathise with the bereft family and the many relatives and friends in their loss. Yet we mourn not as those having no hope. Believing that our loss is her eternal gain.

More About ELIZABETH SITTON:
Burial: Sitton-Gillespie Cemetery, Mills River, Henderson County, NC

Notes for MATHEW GILLESPIE:
The Gillespies came to America in the 1600's. The Gillespie family had its origin in Scotland. The name Gillespie meant "Servant of the Bishop", and the Gillespies furnished the church of Scotland some of its earliest ministers. In America, the early Gillespies settled in Pennsylvania, and they were gun makers by trade.
      In the early 1700's, three Gillespie brothers, Thomas, William and Robert left Pennsylvania and settled on the Cowpasture River in Botetourt County, Virginia. (This is near Roanoke). William Gillespie and his wife Mary raised a family of nine children in Virginia. Their third son, John, was born about 1753 and was reportedly a soldier in the Revolutionary War, but to date, I have found no proof of his service. On August 12, 1779, John Gillespie was married to Jane Harvey of Botetourt County.
      Sometime after the Revolution, John and Jane Harvey Gillespie left Virginia along with his parents and several other members of the family. They traveled down through North Carolina and into South Carolina and eventually settled at Georges Creek, near the present town of Easley, South Carolina.
Just before the end of the 18th century, John Gillespie moved his family to East Fork, North Carolina. East Fork in on the East Fork of the French Broad River, and is near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, N. C. John and Jane Gillespie had a family of three sons and three daughters. John built a home at East Fork, and also a gun shop where he and his sons made famous Gillespie long rifles. The gun works were on a hill west of the river at what was later to become the Harve Whitmire place. Nearby was a small stream named Boring Branch, where the rifling for the gun was made. The metal for the rifle barrels was first made in thin bars, then heated until soft enough to be tractable. When the heated bars were taken out of the furnace they were bent around a small iron rod and edges welded together, a few inches at a time. If the barrel had to be enlarged to make the rifle a heavier calibre, a drill, driven by water power was used.
      The rifles were muzzle-loaders, with first the powder put in through the barrel, then the wadding was packed in with the ramrod and finally the bullet, greased and wrapped in a "patch" of cloth. Each gun, being hand made, had to have bullets made to its specific requirements.
      Family tradition has it that John Gillespie was using iron from the Sitton Forge to make his rifles. He sent his middle son, Matthew, to Mills River to bring iron back to the gun shop. On these trips to Mills River, Matthew renewed his acquaintance with Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Philip Sitton. Mathew and Elizabeth were married in 1810, and Matthew Gillespie built a gun shop near the Sitton iron forge, and soon the Gillespie Long Rifles were made in Mills River. Over the next few years Matthew and Elizabeth had five sons, and these sons all became gun makers.
The Gillespie rifle gun was long of barrel, slender and graceful of stock with a good deal of drop or crook. No two were identical, yet any man could spot a Gillespie rifle in a wink. Many of them were ornamented with inlays of brass, German silver or even coin silver. Silver sights adorned some, and it is said that at least one was turned out with a sight fashioned from Carolina gold.
      Every man in the area wanted a Gillespie rifle, whether it was for hunting or protecting his family. When Henderson County men went off to the Civil War, many of them were carrying a Gillespie rifle.
      About 1850, John and James, sons of Matthew and Elizabeth, moved to Union County, Georgia, where they continued to make rifles. This left Philip, Wilson and Harvey to make rifles at Mills River. Philip was the best known of the rifle makers, his initials "PG" appearing on the barrel of many rifles.
      On September 15, 1863, Philip and Wilson Gillespie, along with their brothers-in-law, Robert O. Blythe and George Underwood, left Mills River and traveled over into Tennessee, where they joined the Union Army. They served in a unit commanded by Colonel Joseph Hamilton, brother-in-law of Solomon Jones, the famous road builder. Tragedy struck the little group from Mills River when the two brothers, Philip and Wilson Gillespie got sick with diarrhea. Wilson died January 15, 1864 in a hospital at Tazwell, Tennessee, and Philip died the same day in a private home in Maynardsville, Tennessee. A short time later, on April 8, 1864, George Underwood died at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. When the men left Mills River, Wilson Gillespie had a little book or diary with him. Robert O. Blythe recorded the deaths of the three men in the little book, and brought it back after the war and gave it to Wilson's widow, Malinda Underwood Gillespie. Less then one year after Blythe returned home from the war, he lost his life in a grist mill accident at Big Willow on January 21, 1866.
      With the loss of the two Gillespie brothers and with Matthew Gillespie getting old, the gun shop at Mills River turned out no more rifles.
      The Iron-works fell into disuse, and the forge was abandoned. There is nothing to remind a visitor that once the famed Gillespie gunsmiths had a gun shop on Mills River.
      At the intersection of NC 191 and the South Mills River Road stands a historical marker that tells of the Sitton forge and the Gillespie gun shop. If you go up South Mills River today, all you can find is a few pieces of iron slag in a cornfield where the old forge once stood, and the Sitton-Gillespie cemetery where Philip Sitton and Matthew Gillespie are buried.
      The Gillespie Long rifle has become a rare collectors item. One is at the Pioneer Museum in the great Smokies. One was on display at Vance's birth place near Weaverville, N. C.,but it was stolen a few years ago. A few are still in the hands of local gun collectors. A Gillespie rifle today is worth several thousand dollars, depending on its condition.

                                          Bert J. Sitton
One of the best known makers of long rifles in Western North Carolina was Mathew Gillespie of Mills River. Mathew was born July 23, 1788, the son of John and Jane Harvey Gillespie of East Fork. Mathew Gillespie was married in 1810 to Elizabeth Sitton, daughter of Philip Sitton, founder of the Sitton Iron Forge of Mills River, and Winifred Bradley, his wife. Elizabeth was born December 31, 1788.
Mathew Gillespie had learned the gunsmith trade from his father, and he learned it well. After marring Elizabeth Sitton, Mathew set up a gun shop along side the iron works of his father-in-law. Mathew soon began turning out the famous Gillespie long rifles, and he was later joined by his five sons, who made rifles at Mills River until the Civil War.
The Gillespie rifle-gun, long of barrel, slender and graceful of stock with a good deal of drop, or crook, became a frontier legend and even created legends, not to mention a few myths. No two were identical and yet many men could spot a Gillespie rifle in wink. Many of them were often ornamented with inlays of brass, German Silver or even coin silver. Silver sights adorned some and at least one was turned out with a sight fashioned with Carolina Gold.
Mathew and Elizabeth Gillespie were both very active members of the Mills River Baptist Church. Mathew Gillespie joined the church in May of 1837 and later that year was appointed to the office of deacon, a position he held for many years. He was a delegate from Mills River to many church conventions and served his church in many ways until his death. Upon his death a memorial was published in the church records which states that he was an inoffensive man and liberal towards the support of the gospel.
Mathew and Elizabeth were the parents of twelve children. Two of their sons, Philip and Wilson, and a son-in-law, George W. Underwood, died in Tennessee, while serving with the Union Army during the Civil War.
Elizabeth Sitton Gillespie died April 11, 1858, and her husband, Mathew Gillespie died May 16, 1871. Both are buried in the Sitton-Gillespie Cemetery at Mills River.

                  OBITUARY

      From the records of the Mills River Baptist Church

The subject of this record is Brother Mathew Gillaspie. He was Baptized into the fellowship of the church by Elder Peter Owen May 30, 1837, was ordained a deacon of the same January 27th 1858. He lived a consistant member of the same for 34 years when his membership ceased with the church Militant. We have no doubt but what he has joined in full fellow ship with the church triumphant. He departed this life May 16th 1871
      He was an inoffencive man and liberal towards the support of the Gospel.

More About MATHEW GILLESPIE:
Burial: Sitton-Gillespie Cemetery, Mills River, Henderson County, NC

More About MATHEW GILLESPIE and ELIZABETH SITTON:
Marriage: 1810, Henderson County NC

Children of ELIZABETH SITTON and MATHEW GILLESPIE are:

14.	i.		JOHN⁸ GILLESPIE, b. December 06, 1811, Mills River Henderson NC; d. 1894, Union County, Ga..
	ii.		JANE GILLESPIE, b. February 21, 1813, Henderson County NC; d. January 26, 1869, Henderson County NC; m. ROBERT O. BLYTHE, December 18, 1851; b. June 04, 1811, Henderson County NC; d. January 21, 1866, Henderson County NC.

More About JANE GILLESPIE:
Burial: Sitton-Gillespie Cemetery, Mills River, Henderson County, NC

More About ROBERT O. BLYTHE:
Burial: Beulah Baptist Church Cemetery, Henderson County, NC

More About ROBERT BLYTHE and JANE GILLESPIE:
Marriage: December 18, 1851

iii.

WINIFRED GILLESPIE, b. March 29, 1814, Henderson County NC; d. April 30, 1850, Henderson County NC; m. WILLIAM RILEY GASH, March 28, 1850; b. Unknown; d. Unknown.

More About WINIFRED GILLESPIE:
Burial: Sitton-Gillespie Cemetery, Mills River, Henderson County, NC

More About WILLIAM GASH and WINIFRED GILLESPIE:
Marriage: March 28, 1850

15.	iv.		SARAH GILLESPIE, b. December 08, 1815, Henderson County NC; d. September 05, 1891, Henderson County NC.
	v.		PHILIP GILLESPIE, b. February 11, 1817, Henderson County NC; d. January 15, 1864, Maynardsville, Union County TN.

Notes for PHILIP GILLESPIE:
Philip Gillespie, son of Mathew and Elizabeth Sitton Gillespie, was probably the best known of the Gillespie rifle makers of Mills River. Philip was born February 11, 1817, and while a young man, he learned the trade of rifle making from his father, and he learned it well. Many of the Gillespie rifles in existence today bear the inscription P. G. stamped on the barrel of the rifle. Very few of these rifles are to be found today, and when they are, the going price is in the vicinity of $3,000.00. In addition to making rifles, Philip was a farmer, and also operated a distillery. In 1849, Philip purchased 347 acres of property from the estate of Philip Sitton, Sr., who was Philip Gillespie's grandfather. The property included the home of Philip Sitton Sr., and the Iron Forge that Philip Sitton established about 1800.
It was somewhere on this property that Philip Gillispie reportedly buried a cask of brandy and a small sack of gold coins. The next day Philip left Mills River, never to return.
On August 2nd. of 1863, Philip, his brother Wilson, brothers-in-law, George W. Underwood and Robert O. Blythe, left Mills River by foot, went to Asheville, where they caught a train to Tenn. The men worked for several days, thrashing wheat and cutting corn. On September 25, 1863, the four men enlisted in the Union Army, at Greenville, Tenn., and on October 1, 1863 the men were assigned to Co. F., 2nd. Regiment of the North Carolina Mounted Infantry, at Knoxville, Tenn.
On January 7th., 1864, Philip Gillespie was taken from camp, sick with diarrhea. He was taken to the home of Richard Wade near Maynardsville, Tenn., where he died Friday evening, January 15, 1864. He was buried at Maynardsville on Saturday night, January 16, 1864.
On Philip Gillespie's Civil War papers, his description is as follows: Age 44; height 6 ft.; Eyes, Blue; Complextion, Light; Hair, Light; Born, Buncombe County, N. C., Occupation, Gun Smith.
For many years, people searched for Philips brandy and gold coins, but as yet they have not been found.
Information for these notes was taken from the diary of Wilson Gillespie, and Philip Gillespie's Civil War records.

Copied from the Asheville Citizen-Times

LOST TREASURE
A POT OF GOLD, A KEG OF BRANDY

By John Parris

SHOOTING BRANCH - There's a pot of gold and a cask of brandy hidden somewhere in the laurel-crowned hills hereabouts.
For a hundred years folks have been trying to unearth this golden cache, but it has proved to be just as elusive as the proverbial treasure at the end of the rainbow.
Philip Gillespie, a rifle-making man from a rifle-making clan, buried his gold and the brandy in an underground vault back in 1862 and then went off to fight in a war that swallowed him up.
The spot he picked to hide his fortune was a secret he held unto himself, and the secret died with him on some unknown battlefield far from the hills of home.
Its locked in the ancient earth of Forge Mountain which stands like a grim prophecy here in the Pisgah wilds west of the French Broad and along the upper reaches of Mills River.
The land hasn't changed much since Philip Gillespie buried his gold and his brandy. It is essentially the same. And a soil that cannot be plowed under keeps its secrets.
Be that as it may, folks keep right on searching because there is something in a Treasure that fastens upon a man's mind. But, then, these are folks who never knew Philip Gillespie or his intentions.
When he decided to offer his rifle-gun and his trigger finger to the Confederacy, he told a bunch of mountain men gathered at his gunshop here on Shooting Branch: "I aim to make certain no man ever spends my money or any red-legged revenuer ever lays eyes on my brandy." And then he proceeded to do just that.
The Gillespies had come out of Pennsylvania, out of Lancaster, where the patriarch of the clan had established a reputation as a famous gunsmith. A pioneering son named Mathew followed Daniel Boone down into the wilds of the Blue Ridge and then came on to Shooting Branch where he set up a gunshop near Philip Sitton's iron works under the dark shadow of Forge Mountain. He married one of Sitton's daughters. She gave him three sons. They became gunsmiths, too, and shaped the gunskelps hammered out by their grandfather.
They added lustre to the Gillespie name which already was synonymous with rifle-gun wherever frontiersmen gambled their lives on their trigger fingers.
One of the sons was Philip. By the time he was 20, his gun-craft had earned him a right smart fortune and made him a man of property. Between his gunshop, which produced prime superfine rifles, and his apple orchard, which produced a right peart brandy by way of homemade distillery, the gold coins literally poured in and Philip Gillespie stashed them away in a leather poke.
Taking a cue from his Scotch-Irish ancestors, he believed that any man had the inherent right to make and sell brandy, law or no law, and that the fruits of a man's labors should not be taxed. He never had paid out any of his gold coins in tax on the brandy he made and he didn't ever aim to as long as he lived.
By the time the Civil War came on, Philip Gillespie had succeeded in keeping to his aim without too much trouble with the revenuers.
He was still a young man when old Edmund Ruffin hauled off and fired the shot that started the Civil War down at Fort Sumpter.
News traveled slowly back in those days and it was some time before folks hereabouts realized what was happening. and when they did hear, it didn't mean too much. Isolated as they were, they knew little or nothing about slavery or Secession. after all, non of them had slaves.
But in time, the war became a real thing to them. It started when news seeped into Shooting Branch that workmen from the McKinney forge over on Bradly Creek had been conscripted and sent across to Davidson River where gunskelps were being turned out in large numbers.
There was word, too, that gunsmiths from other parts had gone to South Carolina where they were hard at work turning out guns for Southern soldiers. It wasn't long until every set of powder irons in the entire section had been pressed into use. Many of the farms were producing charcoal and salt peter for gunpowder.
Over on Crab Creek a whole company had been organized and sent off to join the Union army in Tennessee. These folks had thrown in their lot with the Yankees, dividing many home. By and by, a summons for enlistment in the Confederate Army reached upper Mills River and Shooting Branch.
Guns were polished and grease boxes filled. Powder horns were fitted with new leather straps. Bullet ladles and bullet molds lay side by side with the stout shot bag of linsey-woolsey. Everything was ready for an early morning start.
But Philip Gillespie had one more talk to perform before he left for the fighting. It concerned his poke of gold coins, which now held a fortune of some $1,600, and 50 gallons of brandy. The gold mostly was Bechler coins, minted down at Rutherfordton. The brandy was in a stout barrel which a neighboring cooper had fashioned of oak staves and tied with hoops of tough young hickory saplings. It was built to endure
"No sir," Philip Gillespie mused. "They'll never find my brandy and collect any part of my hard-earned gold for tax." So when night came on, he slipped out of the house with his poke of coins tightly packed in an earthen crock he had taken from his mother's crock he had taken from his mother's springhouse.
He moved off to the barn and hitched on of the oxen to a sled. He rolled his cask of brandy from its hiding place under some straw and loaded it on the sled. Then he set out for grim Forge Mountain.
He had a pick and shovel with him, and he carried a rifle-gun. Somewhere in a cove up there, Philip Gillespie halted his ox and sled and dug an underground safety vault. He lined it with rock and built it to last and preserve his treasure. Finally he placed the gold and the brandy in the vault.
He sealed the cache with more stones and ten packed earth over it. And over the newly turned earth he spread leaves and brush to hide all trace of the thing he had done. Satisfied with his handiwork, he turned toward home. "I've hid it good," he told his folks, "Won't nobody find it. It'll be there when I get back."
The following morning, Philip Gillespie said good by to his folks and marched off to war with his long-rifle in the crook of his arm, a rifle-gun he made with his own hands in his own gunshop.
News of the war's progress trickled into the isolated settlement and the news was not good, for the news was not of battles lost but of men of the settlement killed. It came stark and terse . . "Killed at Seven Pines" . . ."Missing at Malvern Hills" . . ."Died of wounds received at Chancellorsville" ..a roll call of home boys dwindling.
Stragglers and deserters roamed the country, plundering and pilfering. Old man Philip Sitton was shot by a renegade as he stood in the doorway of his home.
The war went on the there was no word of Philip Gillespie. Then the war was over and those who had survived began straggling back. On Shooting Branch, they waited for Philip Gillespie, but he never did come back.
Folks remembered his talk of hiding his gold and his brandy. So they started searching for the golden cache. They've been looking for it a long time now. It's become a legend and a tale to tell around the fire.
But the gold and the brandy are still there. For Philip Gillespie said he aimed to make certain that no man ever spent his gold or any revenuer ever laid eyes on his brandy.

FROM THE CIVIL WAR PAPERS OF PHILIP GILLESPIE

INVENTORY of the effects of Phillip Gillespie, late a Private of Captain Joseph Hamilton, Company F. of the 2nd Regiment of North Carolina Mounted Infantry Volunteers, who was enrolled as a Private at Knoxville in the State of Tennessee on the 1st day of October, 1863, and mustered into the service of the United States as a Private on the 9th day of December 1863 at Walkersford in Company F. 2nd Regiment of N. C. M. I. Volunteers to serve 3 years or during the war; he ws born in Buncombe County in the State of North Carolina; he was 44 years of age, 6 feet 0 inches high, light complexion, blue eyes, light hair, and by occupation, when enrolled, a Gun Smith; he died in Hospital at Maynardsville, Tenn. on the 15th day of January, 1864, by reason of chronic diarhea.
Note: There were no items listed in the inventory.
I certify, on Honor, that the above inventory comprises all the effects of Phillip Gillespie, deceased, and that the effects are in the hands of __________at ___________ to be disposed of by a Council of Administration.
J. H. Jennings
1st. Leiut.
Commanding the Company

vi.

MARY GILLESPIE, b. October 28, 1818, Henderson County NC; d. November 25, 1872, Henderson County NC.

More About MARY GILLESPIE:
Burial: Sitton-Gillespie Cemetery, Mills River, Henderson County, NC

16.	vii.	HARVEY GILLESPIE, b. June 18, 1820, Henderson County NC; d. August 19, 1877, Henderson County NC.
17.	viii.	JAMES A. GILLESPIE, b. January 05, 1822, Henderson County NC; d. March 17, 1897, Union County, Ga..
18.	ix.	ELIZABETH GILLESPIE, b. June 16, 1823, Mills River Henderson NC; d. June 10, 1919, Transylvania County, NC.
19.	x.	REBECCA GILLESPIE, b. July 04, 1825, Henderson County NC; d. January 21, 1896, Texas.
20.	xi.	WILSON GILLESPIE, b. February 15, 1828, Henderson County NC; d. January 15, 1864, Tazwell Clairborne Co., Tn.
21.	xii.	ISABEL GILLESPIE, b. November 09, 1829, Henderson County NC; d. July 26, 1914, Henderson County NC.

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