George Washington visits Pittsburgh, scores more obelisks

Here's what the blog learned about Christopher Gist, who turned out to be from the blog's neighborhood in North Carolina:

CHRISTOPHER GIST, an American frontiersman, was the first white man to settle in what is now Wilkes County along the Yadkin River , Daniel Boone being his neighbor. Gist provided England and its colonists with the first detailed description of southern Ohio and northeastern Kentucky . While Daniel Boone is generally given credit for opening Kentucky to white settlement, Gist preceded him by more than fifteen years. Nathaniel, one of three of Gist’s sons, married a Cherokee ‘princess’, in which their son, Sequoyah, invented the Cherokee alphabet.

Gist was also present with Washington at the Battle of Fort Necessity, said to be Washington's only military surrender.