WILLIAM TELL GARST at WORK As Cattle Order Buyer on the Kansas
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WILLIAM TELL GARST AT WORK As cattle order buyer on the Kansas City Livestock Market, where he has spent more than fifty years of his life-a pioneer in this line of work-since he was the first man ever to be put on a straight salary on any public livestock market. OUR GARST FAMILY in America Compiled and Published by WILLIAM TELL GARST KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI All Material Edited and Arranged and Typed for the Printer by CLAUDIA COVINGTON GARST First Edition BROWN-WHITE-LOWELL PRESS KANSAS CITY 1950 COPYRIGHT, 1950 By WM. T. GARST Printed in the United States of America DEDICATION Lovingly dedicated to the memory of Benja min Franklin Garst and Arminta Hackett Garst, my well-beloved and very worthy parents. FOREWORD Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, was the only specific destination for our earliest ancestors, when they boarded those slow moving ships, "Patience," "Molly," James Goodwill," "Isaac," et al, and came in search of freedom and justice. Next we hear of them located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Bethel Township was to be their home. At that time Lancaster County was a wilderness. In 1785 the northern part of Lancaster County was cut off and called Dauphin County, with Harrisburg as the county seat, and in 1813 the eastern part of Dauphin County was cut off and called Lebanon County with Lebanon as the county seat. Hence records of Bethel Township are in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. It is said that the early settler came with a gun on his shoulder, an axe in his hand, and a Bible in his pocket-the gun for protection from savages and wild beasts, the axe to clear the forest and build log houses, churches and schools, and the Bible to strengthen faith and lend spiritual guidance and courage for the task ahead. Many of our older living families recall memories of their parents' description of personal contacts with the American Indians, and the younger generations gladly listen to reminiscences of what fathers and mothers, in faithful toil have done to give us this fair and prosperous land. May this record of one family and intermar ried families increase in the hearts of our readers a pride in and a love of our forefathers, who have won for us a place of distinction. All down through these eleven generations of Garst history some have attained prominence, but most of them have lived quiet Chris tian lives, loved and respected and of value to their communities. A few made no appreciable addition to the record, yet rare indeed are the exceptions that brought discredit. Yes, character is the noblest. attainment of manhood and womanhood, and high personal character has been an outstanding trait of our GREAT GARST FAMILY. 6 OUR GARST FAMILY EVOLUTION OF GARST NAME There are some twenty-five ways the name "Garst" has been spelled in the records examined for this genealogy, among them are: Gerst, Gherst, Gast, Gharst, Cast, Carst, Gish, Grist, Gorst, Garst, Garce, Karst, Kearst, etc. The "E," "A," "0" crept in because of the carelessness of county clerks and their assistants who copied by hand, and officials could not figure out at later dates just what the name was. Then these new citizens wrote German script or made their mark. Many of their descendants retained the "h," which was always silent. Finally, the spelling that is most widely accepted is the one that will be used in this record, G-a-r-s-t. In the state of Washington there is a town named Gorst, and in that town there are people named Gharst, and also people named Garst. A professor of the University in Holland told Rev. John New ton Garst that the name meant "Grain Dealer," and that our an cestors many years ago were evidently importers and exporters of grain, such as wheat, barley, and rye. WHY OUR GARST ANCESTORS CAME TO AMERICA Many factual references stating the "Why" of the emigration of those old-world families might be furnished from the Garst and Zehring families or the Frantz and Peffley families, all of similar import but under varying circumstances. Always the uppermost de sire was the same-to separate themselves from the domination of the church at Rome, and to seek in the new world a rest from per secutions dating back to the fifteenth century, and freedom to study the Word and to worship God according to the teaching of the New Testament. Notice the following, copied by Rev. Jesse 0. Garst, from the History of the Brethren Church in Southern Ohio. (Otterbein Press, Dayton, Ohio.) "The outgrowth of the Luther Reformation left Europe in the throes of religious controversy. From the unsatisfactory doctrines of catholicism, men's minds ran the range of all creeds and doctrines. In Germany, many members of the state church withdrew because of its cold formality and lack of spirituality. These were called 'Sep aratists.' One of these men, Alexander Mack, became one of the first Elders of the Church of the Brethren. He gathered together enough people to establish a strong church at Swartzenau. Persecution soon sprang up here and many of the members fled to Marienborn, then to Creyfelt, where, for a time, they found religious freedom but later found it necessary to move again, going to the province of West Friesland, in Holland. Here also, they failed to find the freedom they sought, and Alexander Mack here made the acquaintance of William Penn, who was in Holland seeking settlers to go to America, and who invited the Brethren to settle in Pennsylvania. The off er was gratefully accepted, the first going in 1719, consisting of twenty families under the leadership of Peter Becker. Other groups followed at various times during the next ten years." Also this, from "Martyr's Mirror" page 106 7: (Written permis sion to publish obtained from a Zug descendant.) "Hans Zaug, a Mennonite minister, with six other ministers, en dured great religious persecution, at Berne, Switzerland, being im prisoned from the year 1659 to 1671, first having been sentenced for 8 OUR GARST FAMILY life; being poorly fed, with reproach heaped upon them. But when their enemies saw that this would not dissuade them from their faith and religion, they gave them the choice of three things: first, to forsake their own church and go with them; second, to be ban ished to the galleys as slaves; or, third, to be executed." The above is supported in the "Hertzler Genealogy" page 2 77, where it is further stated that in 1671, the States General and others of Netherlands and Holland, petitioned the Lords and council at Berne, Switzerland, for the liberation of the prisoners. They were liberated on the condition that they would leave the country and not try to return without special permission. They were conveyed to their brethren with whom they departed to the Palatinate, Germany. Hans Zaug was the father of twelve children. They came from Zug, the capital of Canton Berne, Switzerland. In possession of Peter Zug's descendants, who settled near Downington, Pa., is an old family Bible brought from Switzerland, showing that the family originally lived in the Palatinate, Germany, and that the name was "von Zug." The particle of nobility (von) was dropped when religious persecution drove them to Switzerland. Records show land trans£ ers to Zug families of lands acquired in 1743 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Also that Magdalena Zug married Michael Frantz about 1760, and they moved to Botetourt (Roanoke) County, Vir ginia, between 1784 and 1788. Our Garst forefathers represent a perfect cross-section of those early settlers, who built the foundation structure of America. We, their descendants, should be the first and foremost to stand for reli gious liberty at any cost. For it they paid a great price. Let us safe guard that rich heritage I INTRODUCTION The title, Our Garst Family in America, might lead you to wonder ·why "our" and not "the." The word "our" is used advisedly and fully justified, since this work does not essay to trace all the descend ants of that first immigrant family, but only those of his son John Nicholas Garst, and so his line is indeed our family, and presents a constructive record wherein the name of each Garst and Garst descendant is readily traced through its respective family branch to John Nicholas Garst, and to our one common ancestor, Theobald Garst. · In the very first section of this record appears a certified court copy of the will of Theobald Garst, naming his seven children and two grandchildren, and also a copy of the will of John Nicholas Garst, I, in which he names his two sons and ( according to the custom of the time) the names of his five daughters' husbands, the one who married David Peffley and the four who married the four Frantz brothers. These court records establish authentic proof, and place our ances tors and their deeds and relationships on a solid documentary basis. Our great nation, being young as compared with some of the na tions of the world, is not so steeped in tradition, but the fact that it was founded a Christian nation and that our ancestors assisted in es tablishing the basic principles on which America was founded, gave them and gives us a sense of security and well-being because the ele ments of light, love and liberty have been infused. We now perceive why our progenitors suffered persecution and untold privation, even risked life itself, for freedom. When we grasp the full meaning of the five freedoms, first of which is freedom of worship-faith in the Cre ator, without which the other four have little value-then we know the Christian meaning of life itself.