Samuel Gettys (1725–15 March 1790) was a settler and

tavern A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...

owner in south-central Pennsylvania during the late 1780s. The borough of

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; ) is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the borough had a population of 7,106 people. Gettysburg was the site of ...

, which was founded in 1786, was named after him.

Formative years

Born in 1725 in

Randalstown Randalstown () is a small town and townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, between Antrim and Toome. The town, which contains a prominent disused railway viaduct, lies beside Lough Neagh and the Shane's Castle estate. Randalstown is bypas ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, Samuel Gettys was the husband of Isabella (Ramsey) Gettys (1731–1815), the sister of Reynolds Ramsey, grandfather of historian J. G. M. Ramsey. Their children were: Mary (Gettys) Linn (1752–1823), William Gettys (1757–1813), and James Gettys (1759–1815).

American Revolution

Samuel Gettys gave funds to the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, but, soon after it won, he was rich in land but poor in cash; so he decided to sell off his plots of land in order to achieve financial stability. In 1786, his son James bought his land and sold it off in 210 parcel lots, and is thus considered the founder of Gettysburg.

Death and interment

Gettys died in Gettysburg on March 15, 1790, and was buried at Black's Graveyard in that city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gettys, Samuel American city founders Drinking establishment owners American pioneers 18th-century American businesspeople People from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania People from colonial Pennsylvania 1725 births 1790 deaths People from Randalstown Irish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies