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 ordon
is certainly the oldest surname in our family tree, as it was
the name of an ancient family of probable Norman origin that later
became a powerful clan in the north of Scotland. The history of
our Scottish line is included here in a separate narrative, but
much of it is somewhat speculative. Currently, although we know
the general family origin of our first immigrant to the New World,
we do not have the exact link back to Aberdeenshire or Scotland.
| Old Tennent Church near Freehold,
New Jersey |
The first Gordon from whom we can trace direct descent was Charles
GORDON (1669 - 1740), who arrived in the East Jersey Colony
in the late 1600s. He was probably a younger member of the family
known as the Gordons of Pitlurg, from the Aberdeenshire area
of northern Scotland. He became a landholder in the vicinity of
the town of Freehold, in Monmouth Co., New Jersey in the early 1700s.
He and his son, Peter
(1703 - 1770), are noted in the history of the Old Tennent Church,
which is still an active Presbyterian congregation in that area. A number of genealogies show Charles as being the son of another Charles Gordon who came here from Scotland. But I believe that there is more evidence against this relationship than for it.
Peter's son, Lewis GORDON
(1762 - 1844), was a farmer and surveyor who moved his family to
Mason Co., Kentucky in the late 1790s. He helped survey many of
the roads in that growing county, and was a colonel in the Kentucky
militia in the pre-1812 period. His son, Peter
(1800 - 1853), expanded the family holdings in the area and had
connections with other landed families such as the Downings and
Smoots through the marriages of his children.
| Lewis Dixon Gordon (1842 - 1929) |
Lewis Dixon GORDON
was the last of our line in Mason Co. He married Grace
QUAINTANCE of nearby Fleming Co. and moved there to live
and work on the farm owned by Grace's parents. At one point, he
went into a farming partnership with his brother and moved the family
to Missouri for a few years between 1897 and 1892. On returning
to Kentucky, they eventually sold the farm in Fleming Co. and retired
to a place downriver in Cincinnati.
A more complete story of the New Jersey and Kentucky generations
is also included here as a separate narrative.
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