NELSON T. GANT |
NELSON
T. GANT. In the face of difficulties which would
utterly have discouraged the great majority of men Nelson T. Gant
labored diligently and untiringly and accumulated a fortune.
He was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, May 10, 1821. He was
born in slavery and bore the name of his stepfather. He
obtained his freedom in 1844 by the will of his master, John
Nixon. His principal duties while in servitude were
those of a body servant or valet to his master. While a slave
he was married to Maria Hughes, who belonged to the
Russell family of Loudoun county and after being given
his freedom his first effort was to obtain the means to purchase his
wife. He took contracts for cutting cord wood on the Potomac
river, arranging to cut five hundred cords at forty cents per cord.
When he had accomplished this work he found that it would not secure
him the means to buy his wife and about that time he was also
brought before the grand jury for remaining in the state more than
twelve months after his emancipation. He then left Virginia,
telling his wife that he would return for her in six weeks, meeting
her at a place designated. He then came to Zanesville, Ohio,
and here obtained information concerning the underground railroad.
In this city A. A. Guthrie and
others supplied him with funds and he returned to Leesburg,
Virginia, for his wife. At Washington he was arrested and it
was after great difficulty and many hardships that he was enabled to
purchase his wife, the sum paid being over nine hundred dollars.
This money was raised by friends, principally Quakers.
Mr. and Mrs. Gant then came to Zanesville in
1847 and here he continued to make his home. He began working
for Theodore Converse in whose employ he remained for
five years, when his employer died, after which Mr. Gant
worked his place, farming and gardening. He was thus engaged
for about thirty years, during which time he saved some money.
He employed at different intervals from eight to ten men and as
farmer and gardener he carried on business for many years,
prospering as time passed, and as opportunity offered investing in
land until he was the owner of about three hundred acres contiguous
to the town. In 1894 he sold twenty acres to F. M. Townsend
for twenty thousand dollars. This was used as a park by Mr.
Gant and is now known as Gant Park. In making the sale
he stipulated that no liquor should be sold on the premises.
Mr. Gant had one hundred and fifty acres of valuable
farm and coal land in Springfield township and this property
returned him an excellent income. He was reputed to be one of
the wealthy men of Zanesville and he certainly deserved great credit
for what he accomplished, as he depended entirely upon his own
labors.
In 1877 Mr. Gant was called upon to mourn
the loss of his first wife. Four children had been born unto
them: Nelson T., who is engaged in the insurance business at
Columbus, Ohio: Elizabeth, the wife of Robert Manly,
who manages her father's affairs; Sarah, the wife of Dr.
Dan McNorton, of Yorktown, Virginia; and Maggie,
the wife of George Potts, of Zanesville. In 1879
Mr. Gant was again married, his second union being
with Favinia J. Neal, of West Virginia. They had one
child—Lula Logan, the wife of Dr. E. H. Gee, of
Zanesville. Mr. Gant gave his children excellent
educational advantages. They have attended Oberlin College,
while Mrs. Gee completed her education in Boston,
studying at the Boston Conservatory of Music for three years.
Mr. and Mrs. Gant were members of the Methodist church on
South street and at the time of his death he was its oldest living
representative, having attained the age of eighty-three years.
His life was characterized by many sterling traits, prominent among
which were unfaltering diligence, unquestioned integrity and
faithfulness to every trust reposed in him. He died July 14.
1905.
Source: Past and Present of the City of
Zanesville, and Muskingum Co., Ohio - Published Chicago: The S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co. - 1905 - Page 374 |
