William Gum (abt. 1758 - aft. 1830)

Born about 1758 in Augusta County, Colony of Virginia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Jemima (Seibert) Gum — married 1780 in Augusta, Virginia

Descendants

Died after 1830 after about age 72 in Clay, Kentucky, United States

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Biography

• Fact: Residence (1800) Madison County, Kentucky, USA
• Fact: Residence (1810) Clay County, Kentucky, USA
• Fact: Residence (1820) Clay County, Kentucky, USA
• Fact: Residence (1830) Clay County, Kentucky, USA

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It is likely that William Gum lived most of his adult life in what is now Owsley County, Kentucky, or perhaps part of adjoining Lee County to the north. Due to various subdivisions and renamings, this area has, at different times, been included in Lincoln, Madison, Clay, and Owsley counties. ^[1]

William Gum appears in the 1789, 1792, and 1800 tax list for Madison County, Kentucky. The 1792 tax list shows that he owned 200 acres of land. Thus, William lived in Kentucky before statehood was approved in 1792; but he must have been born somewhere else, since European settlement in Kentucky County, Virginia (later the state of Kentucky) began around 1775. His birthplace is often given as Augusta County, Virginia, but this is uncertain. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}

William's Early Years in Virginia (Speculative)

If William did spend his early years in Augusta County, Virginia, he may be the person who appears on the transcribed muster roll for Captain Hull's company in the Augusta Militia, 1779 (see image). This document claims to be derived from a hand-written source by Nicholas Seybert, First Lieutenant of the militia. In addition to showing William Gum to be a Revolutionary War soldier, it associates him with several family names that may be relevant: Arbogast, Rexrode, Seybert. To this list we can add Chestnut (Chesnut), since this name appears in Augusta County histories in the late 1700s, on at least one occasion linked with a Gum. ^[6]

William's wife is often assumed to be Jemima Seibert, but sources to confirm this are missing. Similarly, William's parents are often assumed to be John Gum Jr. and Alice Fisher, residents of Augusta County but originally from Delaware, again without confirmation through sources.

Kentucky Census Data

William appears in the 1810 U.S. Census for Clay County, Kentucky. His household has one male age < 10, two males 10 <= age < 16, one male 16 <= age < 26, one male age >= 45, one female age < 10, one female 10 <= age < 16, and one female age >= 45. These ages would imply that William and his wife both have birth-year 1765 or earlier. ^[7]

William is again head-of-household in the 1820 U.S. Census for Clay County. In the home are one male 16 <= age < 18, one male 18 <= age < 25, one male age >= 45, one female age < 10, two females 16 <= age < 18, and one female age >= 45. These ages are mostly consistent with those of the 1810 census, although given the advanced ages of William and his wife, the youngest girl seems unlikely to be their daughter, and the second female in the 16 <= age < 26 range seems not to have been reported in the 1810 census. ^[8]

In the 1830 U.S. Census for Clay County, William and his wife are alone in the household, and both report having ages in the range 60 <= age < 70. If accurate, then these ages along with the 1810 census data imply that William and his wife have birth-years in the range 1760-1765; this conclusion depends on a level of accuracy in reporting and recording that may be unrealistic for the time, but lacking other sources it will be assumed true. ^[9]

There is no entry in the 1840 Clay County U.S. Census for William Gum, nor for an elderly female head-of-household named Gum. (There is a census entry for a younger William Gum in neighboring Estill County, though this is most likely his son.) Unless William and/or his wife were living with children or others in 1840, it may be that they had died by this time.

Inferring William's Children from Data

The 1820 census lists William Gum, Jr. and Abraham Gum on the same page as the entry for William Gum; also, an entry for William Boles (husband of Sarah Elizabeth Gum) appears next to that for William Gum. The 1830 census lists Elias Gumm, and Stephen Gumm on the same page as the entry for William Gumm; also, Nimrod Smith (husband of Celia Gum), Samuel Chesnut (husband of Rachel Gum), and Thomas Phillips (husband of Edith Gum) are nearby entries on the same census. In all cases, the age ranges are consistent with William being the father and the other Gums being his children.

Based on this analysis of census data, we infer that William's children include Rachel, Sarah Elizabeth, Abraham, Elias, William, Edith, Stephen, and Celia. And, in fact, DNA evidence supports the notion that all these younger Gums share a common ancestor, most easily explained by William being their father.

Gums and Seiberts (Speculative)

Assuming that William Gum's father was John Gum Jr., and that the father had children as noted in various ancestry trees, we can point out an interesting fact about Gums marrying Seiberts or Seyberts. William Gum's brother Isaac had a son Abraham who married Elizabeth Seybert, and a daughter Mary who married Jacob Seybert; William's brother John Gum III had a son Leonard who married Anna Seybert; and William's brother Jacob had a daughter Edith who married Henry Seybert. Furthermore, all of these Seyberts were grandchildren of Johan Jacob Seibert and Maria Elizabetha Theiss. This couple and roughly twenty others were massacred in an Indian raid on Fort Seybert in what is now Pendleton County, West Virginia. They are also the parents of Nicholas Seybert, the first lieutenant who wrote the muster roll on which William Gum's name appears. ^{[10] [11] [12]}

If William's wife was indeed Jemima Seibert, it seems reasonable to suppose she was in the same extended family as the other Seyberts mentioned here, but the exact nature of the relationship is unknown. ^[13]

William Gum's DNA Siblings

Although documents naming siblings are scarce, DNA evidence suggests that William and several Gums from Augusta County, Virginia, circa 1750, share a common ancestor, most easily explained by their being siblings. These include Patience Gum (b. 1745), Isaac Gum (b. 1750), Abraham Gum (b. 1754), John Gum (b. 1756), and Jacob Gum (b. 1760).

The profile for Jacob Gum mentions a lawsuit he filed against his siblings over inheritance from his father John Gum, Jr., and William Gum is mentioned in that claim: "Jacob Gum brought suit against the rest of the family in 1816. Defendents: Isaac Gum, John Gum, William Gum, Patience Chesnut, daugther of John Gum, Dec'd, and John Gum, Otho Gum, Abraham Gum, Isaac Gum and Betsy Gum, children and heirs of Abraham Gum, dec'd, who was heirs of John Gum, dec'd." See Jacob Gum's profile for more details on the matter.

William was born about 1758. He passed away after 1840.

Sources

1. ↑ Interactive historical map of Kentucky counties: https://www.mapofus.org/kentucky/
2. ↑ Heinemann, Charles B. First Census of Kentucky, 1790. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1981.
3. ↑ Early Kentucky Tax Records: From The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society: with an Index by Carol Lee Ford. Baltimore, MD, USA. Genealogical Publishing Co., 1984.
4. ↑ Clift, G. Glenn. Second Census of Kentucky, 1800. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2005. Description: This "second census" of Kentucky is an alphabetical list of 32,000 taxpayers and is based on original tax lists on file in the Kentucky Historical Society.
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky
6. ↑ "A history of Highland County, Virginia," by Oren Frederic Morton (published by author, 1911), pp. 87, 108-110, 186-187, 194-195. https://archive.org/details/historyofhighlan00mort/
7. ↑ "United States Census, 1810," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH2S-RCV : accessed 14 October 2019), Will Gumm, Clay, Kentucky, United States; citing p. 157, NARA microfilm publication M252 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 9; FHL microfilm 181,354.
8. ↑ "United States Census, 1820," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHLH-HKH : accessed 14 October 2019), William Gum, Clay, Kentucky, United States; citing p. 117, NARA microfilm publication M33, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 19; FHL microfilm 186,179.
9. ↑ "United States Census, 1830," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHPL-B54 : 12 August 2017), William Gumm, Clay, Kentucky, United States; citing 168, NARA microfilm publication M19, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 35; FHL microfilm 7,814.
10. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Seybert
11. ↑ For a background of Jacob Seybert in Germany and migration: https://4dtraveler.net/2014/05/05/the-jacob-seybert-family-story-part-i/
12. ↑ For details about events surrounding the attack on Fort Seybert: https://4dtraveler.net/2014/05/08/the-jacob-seybert-family-story-part-ii-2/
13. ↑ Notes on the extended Seybert family can be found at: http://wvancestry.com/ReferenceMaterial/Files/The_Seiberts_of_Saarland_Pennsylvania_and_West_Virginia.pdf

• "Public Member Trees", database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/115698506/person/182039520718/facts : accessed 14 October 2019), profile for William Gum.
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/vitals/L2BD-FPF
• Ancestry Tree