Fort Gaddis is the oldest known building in

Fayette County, Pennsylvania Fayette County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in southwestern Pennsylvania, adjacent to Maryland and West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 128,804. Its county seat is Uniontown. The county wa ...

and the second oldest log cabin in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

. It is located east of old U.S. Route 119, near the Route 857 intersection in

South Union Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania South Union Township is a township in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 10,895 at the 2020 census, an increase over the figure of 10,681 tabulated in 2010. Communities within the township include Hopwood, Hatfie ...

(east of Hopwood and south of Uniontown). Fort Gaddis was built about 1769-74 by

Colonel Thomas Gaddis Thomas Gaddis (1742–1834) was a militia officer in the American Revolutionary War. He was born December 28, 1742, in Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia and married Hannah Rice in 1764; the same year he built Fort Gaddis, a refuge from the I ...

who was in charge of the defense of the region, and his home was probably designated as a site for community meetings and shelter in times of emergency, hence the term "Fort Gaddis," probably a 19th-century appellation. It is a 1 1/2-story, 1-room log structure measuring 26 feet long and 20 feet wide. ''Note:'' This includes During the

Whiskey Rebellion The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax impo ...

Liberty Pole A liberty pole is a wooden pole, or sometimes spear or lance, surmounted by a "cap of liberty", mostly of the Phrygian cap. The symbol originated in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar by a group of R ...

was erected at the house during a rally in support of the rebel cause. The choice of this site for a

political demonstration A political demonstration is an action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause or people partaking in a protest against a cause of concern; it often consists of walking in a mass march format ...

indicates its importance as a focal point for community expression. The fact that all the additions to the building were removed in the early twentieth century in respect for the section contemporary with the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

and Whiskey Rebellion is evidence of the building's longstanding and continuing status and power as a community symbol. Fort Gaddis was built near the Catawba Trail, an important north-south route that extended from New York to

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and passed through

Uniontown, Pennsylvania Uniontown is a city in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, southeast of Pittsburgh and part of the Greater Pittsburgh Region. The population was 10,372 at the 2010 census, down from 12,422 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat and ...

and Morgantown, West Virginia. In the 19th century the trail became locally known as the Morgantown Road. It is now Old U.S. Route 119. About 2 miles north on this road is Uniontown, the

seat, settled in the late 1760s and founded in July 1776 as Beeson's Mill.A history of Uniontown: the county seat of Fayette County, Pennsylvania By James Hadden (Page 12) History fans and researchers should be aware that, depending on which sources are consulted, Fort Gaddis can also be known as the "Thomas Gaddis Homestead", the "Thomas Gaddis House" or "Gaddis' Fort". It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1974 as the Thomas Gaddis Homestead.

Gallery

File:Thomas Gaddis House (Interior).jpg, Thomas Gaddis House (Interior) File:Thomas Gaddis House.jpg, Photo taken during ca1989 restoration File:Fort Gaddis..jpg, Photo taken in 2012 File:Fort Gaddis Road Marker.jpg, Road Marker

References

*Dutko Leonelli, Victoria. ''Images of America, Around Uniontown''. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. *Hopkins, G.M. ''Atlas of the County of Fayette and the State of Pennsylvania''. G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1872. * Jordan, Terry G. ''The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethical and Ecological Interpretation''. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. *Jordan-Bychkov, Terry G. ''American Log Buildings: An Old World Heritage''. University of North Carolina Press, 1985. *Lynch, Thomas. ''Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania''. Clarence M. Busch, 1896. *Mulkearn & Pugh. ''A Traveler's Guide to Historic Western Pennsylvania''. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1954. * Stotz, Charles Morse. ''Architectural Heritage of Early Western Pennsylvania''. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1936. *Wallace, Kim E. ''Historic American Buildings Survey (America's Industrial Heritage Project)''. National Park Service, 1989. *Wallace, Paul A. W. ''Indian Paths of Pennsylvania''. PHMC, 1987.

External links

Fort Gaddis - Pennsylvania Historical Markers on Waymarking.comExcavations at Fort Gaddis
from the California University of Pennsylvania
Thomas Gaddis House, 300 yards east of old U.S. Route 119 near intersection of Route 859, Uniontown, Fayette County, PA
9 photos, 15 data pages, and 2 photo caption pages at

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

"Hart's History and Directory of the Three Towns ... Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville""A History of Uniontown: the County seat of Fayette County, Pennsylvania"Map of Route 119/Route 857 "Old Morgantown Road/Fairchance Road" Intersection
{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania

Gaddis The Gaddi is a semi-pastoral Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic tribe living mainly in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Overview The origin of the Gaddi Tribe is Gaderiya ( Dhangar) they also additionally believe that ...

Houses in Fayette County, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Fayette County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania state historical marker significations National Register of Historic Places in Fayette County, Pennsylvania