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Collection: GASH, LEANDER S., PAPERS
1866-1867 [1872, 1889]
Wake County, Raleigh
Henderson County
Physical Description: 35 items, correspondence, a tax receipt, photograph
of Leander and Adeline Gash, biographical notes.
Acquisition: Gift of Miss Martha Boswell, Highland Farms Retirement Home,
Black Mountain, NC, June 5, 1979. Accessioned November 13, 1979. ;
Description: Leander Sams Gash (1813-1872), son of Nancy Grudger and
John Gash, was reared in the Swannanoa Valley, settled on the French
Broad River in Henderson County (later Transylvania County). At the
close of the Civil War the family moved to Hendersonville but retained
the farm on the river. He married Margaret Adeline McLain (1819-1890)
on October 7, 1841. He was a farmer and dry goods merchant listed in
the 1860 census as worth $15,000 in real estate, $15,000 in personal
property, and owning 13 slaves. His children were Thomas, Delia,
Waightstill A., Eugenia, Julia 0., and twins Martha P. and M. Adeline.
Gash was elected to two terms in the state senate from the 49th
Senatorial District, 1865 and 1866, representing Buncombe, Henderson,
Madison, Transylvania, and Yancey counties.
The 'collection has 25 letters written by Gash from Raleigh to his
wife during the extra session of the 1865 General Assembly (January-
March, 1866) and both the regular and extra sessions of the 1866
legislature (November-December, 1866, and January-March, 1867). There
are also three letters from Mrs. Gash to her husband in Raleigh; one
from Gash to the business firm of Gash, Erwin and Son; and a letter
of condolence to Mrs. Gash on her husband's death in 1872 in which he
is described as a man of prudence and integrity.