William Henry Gist, South Carolina Governor / Sold

William Henry Gist, South Carolina Governor - Inventory Number: CON 225 / SOLD

Document is dated July 24th, 1859, and written from Unionville, S.C. – Petition for the Pardon of “Mr. Parsons convicted in the Spring term of your court, of Manslaughter: & sentenced to six months imprisonment & a fine of five hundred dollars.”  The document continues to state: “the punishment is very mild for such an offense”. 

William Henry Gist (August 22, 1807 – September 30, 1874) was the 68th Governor of South Carolina from 1858 to 1860 and a leader of the secession movement in South Carolina.  He was one of the signers of the Ordinance of Secession on December 20, 1860, which effectively launched the Confederacy.

Gist had two sons who fought for the Confederacy the youngest being David Christopher Gist. His eldest son William was killed by a Union sharpshooter outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1863. Gist was the cousin of States Rights Gist, a Confederate brigadier general who died leading a charge at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in 1864.

Inventory Number: CON 225 / SOLD