Gideon Keyt

  General Notes:

!SOURCE: "The Ross Family of New Jersey" by Robert L. Ross, pg 89.; "The Keyt
Family Album" of Mayfield Cuyahoga and Geauga Co. Ohio.
!BIOGRAPHY: Gideon Keyt was married at the home of Margaret Connet according to
Westfield,NJ Presbyterian Church records.
In 1812 he moved onto a farm in Lodi, Sennaca Co. NY. He was drafted in the
war of 1812 and had made arrangements to go, but on the day before hewas to
leave a friend came to him and said, "I am a single man, you have a family. If
you will make me a pair of boots I will go in your place." Gideon worked all
night, and the boots were ready the next morning.
In June 1828 he brought his family via Erie Canal to Buffalo, then byboat to
Fairport, Ohio, thence to a small farm of 40 acres in Mentor, Ohio, in section
known as Black Brook. As this was a tather swampy place, he sold it on Sept 4
1832, and moved his familyu to Mayfield township, Cuyahoga Co. Ohio. Though a
shoemaker , he located on a farm of 160 acres. He built a house, partof which
is a section of "Bywater" (one time owned by Thomas H. Jones) on South River
Road, Gates MIlls.(Near the dam in the Chagrin River and North of theSouth
Cemetary). He had a dairy but worked at shoemaking in the evenings. Later a
shoemaker by the name of Chase came to town and Gideon gave up his trade to
him.
His religious convictions are shown by the fact that he belonged to the
Presbyterian Church of Westfield and was later a member of the Gates MIlls
Methodist Church. In politics, he was a democrat.
Contemporaries of Gideon Keyt were Halsey Gates (founder of Gates Mills)
Linden Jenks, Joel Sherman, Lemuel Southwick, and Samuel Dean. The latter four
arriving in 1834.
Gideon had a gun his grandfather used in the Revolutionary War. In 1950 it
was in the possesssion of a Great Great Grandson, Jay Champlin of Louisiana..

Gideon married Margaret Connet, daughter of Edward Connet and Margaret Williams, on 26 Nov 1809 in Westfield, , New Jersey, Preb. Church. (Margaret Connet was born on 15 Apr 1787 in Westfield, , NJ, died on 10 May 1864 and was buried in Gates Mills, Cuyahoga Co., OH, South Cem..)