August is the month to remember the founder of Gettysburg, James Gettys. Here are a few facts about the man who built the town of Gettysburg.
1. James was the son of Samuel and Isabella Gettys, who came to Pennsylvania from Ireland in 1730.
2. James was born near Marsh Creek, west of what is now Gettysburg, on August 4, 1759. At the time the land was part of the Manor of Maske, a large tract of land formerly owned by the descendants of William Penn.
3. James Gettys was a soldier in the Continental Army, serving in the cavalry from 1781 to war’s end in 1787.
4. Gettys’ father had donated a great deal of money to help the Revolution, so at war’s end he was in debt. Gettys sold tracts of land for his father, which laid out the town that would bear his name.
5. Gettysburg, having grown from the Marsh Creek settlement, was established in 1786, with James Gettys credited as its founder.
6. Earlier records give the town the name of Gettistown, also after the name of Gettys.
7. James Gettys served as a judge and justice of the peace. He and his family lived in a stately home on Race Horse Alley, behind the Gettysburg Hotel. The home was destroyed by fire many years after Gettys’ death.
8. Gettys served in the War of 1812 and left that war as a Brigadier General.
9. James Gettys died on March 13, 1815 of an infectious fever (probably typhoid fever). He was 55 years old. His mother and wife died of the same illness within days of his death.
10. Gettys was buried in Black’s Cemetery. The bodies of Gettys and his wife, Mary, were later placed in Evergreen Cemetery on Cemetery Hill.
11.Gettys loved animals, especially horses and dogs. It is rumored that one of his dogs is buried with him.
