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Name:
Gist's Plantation
Region:
Laurel Highlands/Southern Alleghenies
County:
Fayette
Marker Location:
US 119, 4.5 miles Southwest of Connellsville
Behind the Marker
Christopher Gist was a Maryland surveyor and Indian trader who became an agent of the Ohio Company of Virginia in 1749. In that capacity, he secured permission from the Indians at the Logstown Treaty of 1752 for the Company to build a storehouse at the Forks of the Ohio, where fur traders could keep goods and conduct business with Indian customers. He also accompanied George Washington on his journey to 
Fort LeBoeuf in 1753.
Gist's Plantation was the name given to a settlement Gist spearheaded for the Ohio Company between the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers (near Uniontown, Pennsylvania) in 1752-1754. Part private homestead and part company town, it featured a fortified storehouse for the Indian trade and about a dozen settler families. Gist used his home there as a base for his business on behalf of the Ohio Company. During Washington's ill-fated campaign of 1754, it also served as a military headquarters. After the French tookFort Necessity in July 1754, they marched unchallenged to Gist's Plantation and burned the storehouse and Gist's home.
During the ensuing war, Gist served the British as an Indian agent and scout, but his fortunes never recovered from the destruction of this settlement. He died in 1759.
George Washington's map of his journey to Fort LeBoeuf, Pennsylvania, in...
Fort LeBoeuf in 1753.Gist's Plantation was the name given to a settlement Gist spearheaded for the Ohio Company between the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers (near Uniontown, Pennsylvania) in 1752-1754. Part private homestead and part company town, it featured a fortified storehouse for the Indian trade and about a dozen settler families. Gist used his home there as a base for his business on behalf of the Ohio Company. During Washington's ill-fated campaign of 1754, it also served as a military headquarters. After the French took
Fort Necessity in July 1754, they marched unchallenged to Gist's Plantation and burned the storehouse and Gist's home.During the ensuing war, Gist served the British as an Indian agent and scout, but his fortunes never recovered from the destruction of this settlement. He died in 1759.
