RuthG_intro
Introduction to Ruth Gordon Hastie
Ruth Gordon Hastie. I was born in Mt. Vernon, OH, the daughter of
Kenneth Roy and Martha (Bugh) Gordon. I graduated from
Depauw University in Indiana and have a PhD in Russian history from
Washington University in St. Louis. I have taught and worked as
an administrator at the College of Idaho, Albion College (MI), and the
University of Michigan from which I retired several years ago. My
husband Larry owns and operates a financial advisory business.in Ann
Arbor, MI where we have lived for over 30 years. We have
two sons, one of whom lives in Ann Arbor with a wife and two really
cute granddaughters. Our other son is a website builder in
Chicago.
I found a short barebones outline of my ancestors which was among my
mother’s papers. After I retired, I decided to create a family
history since little was really known about my own direct line of
descent from John Gordon. The project grew and grew. This
was partly because I am naturally curious and partly because I had a
terrible time keeping straight the many John’s, Elizabeth’s, George’s,
Basil’s, etc. In the process of sorting out my own line from the
other descendants of John Gordon and Mary Helen Duke, I ended up with a
database full of information about all the other branches on the family
tree.. Because I enjoy this project, and because no one else has
done it, I decided to try to fill in the blanks so that all the
aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. would also be recorded in one place.
That is how I came upon the Hatcher family.
My serious research began in Perry County, OH where my family farmed
for several generations.. (My dad’s generation was the first to
leave the farm.) There were also many, many other Gordon
relatives in Perry County, and that’s where I first discovered the
Gordon-Hatcher connection. The connection starts in the mid-1830s
when a large group of Gordons migrated to Perry County, OH, including
the widowed Eleanor (White) Gordon and her children who are part of my
direct line. Among the other Gordons who migrated was the
orphaned Samuel Gordon whose daughter Elizabeth married Isaiah Hatcher
in Somerset, OH in 1860.
John Gordon m Mary Helen
Duke
Descent to
Ruth Gordon
Descent to Hatcher Family
George Gordon (1774) m Eleanor White
John Gordon (1775) m Nancy Rinehart
George W Gordon (1827) m Sarah Drumm
Samuel Gordon (1815) m Dorothy Wells
Jacob Henry Gordon (1864) m Isabelle Swinehart
Elizabeth
Gordon (1841) m Isaiah G Hatcher
Roy Edwin Gordon (1891) m M Alice Mohler
Fred G Hatcher (1886) m Lydia M Storer
Kenneth R Gordon (1914) m Martha Bugh
Malcolm S Hatcher (1892) m Margaret Fisher
Ruth
Ann Gordon
M Gordon Hatcher
While pursuing this now very large project, there have been some
surprises and some new acquaintances with cousins I never knew
existed. Gordon is one of them, and his work on the Hatcher
family is among the most thorough and interesting that I have
encountered. I have relied heavily on it in my own research into
the Isaiah and Elizabeth and their descendants.