Etowah NC Heritage
  • Home
  • SPECIAL
    • Virtual Tour of Selected Historic Places
    • History Displays in Etowah & Library Notebooks
    • Etowah Heritage Day 2019 - 130 Years
    • Etowah Treasures Exhibit, Sept/Oct 2019
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Maps
    • Memorabilia
    • Places, Early Homes, Other
    • French Broad River & Valley Views
    • People - early times
    • People - later times
    • People - Gash Family descendants
    • Veterans
  • HIST. I
    • Timeline
    • Formation of Henderson County, est 1838
    • Etowah History Notes - Research To Date
    • 1889 Money, then Etowah
    • Etowah - Creek/Muskogee Translation
    • How Etowah Got Its Name
    • Postmasters 1889 - 1968
    • Etowah Train Depot - 1895 >
      • Trains of Etowah
    • The Railroad - Hendersonville to Toxaway
  • HIST. II
    • 1900 U.S. Census
    • Farms of Early Etowah
    • Historic Etowah High School 1928 - 1960 >
      • 1st Annual 1938 -The Chief
      • Little Chief - Gleanings from
      • Students & Faculty EHS
      • EHS Memorabilia
      • Etowah High School - Memorial Plaque 2014 - HCEHI
    • Historic Schools 1800s - 1928 >
      • Etowah Institute 1911
    • Schools of Nearby Communities
    • Historic Churches
    • Historic Cemeteries >
      • Thomas-Fletcher Cemetery
      • Adopt-A-Cemetery: Thomas-Fletcher
  • HIST. III
    • Sheriff Robert Thomas
    • Civil War Union Monument
    • Orr Cabin Homeplace - early 1800s
    • Mountain Lily - 1881
    • Welsh Colony 1880s
    • Grist Mills
    • Shape Note Traditions
  • HIST. IV
    • Community Fairs 1938-1941, 1950s
    • Stores of Early Etowah
    • McKinna General Store
    • More Business Ads 1938 - 1960+
    • "Etowah Brick" Moland-Drysdale Corp. - 1923
    • Calx Mfg. Company - 1919
    • Camp Peep-Out - 1935
    • Etowah Grange #984 - 1937 >
      • Grange - 25th Anniversary 1937-1962
      • Grange Quilt - 1953
  • HIST. V
    • 1952 - Hatheway Floral Company
    • 1954 - Etowah Lions Club, Park & More
    • 1960s - Growing & Changing
    • 1964 - Etowah / Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire
    • 1966 - Water & Sewer System, Tower
    • 1966 - Etowah Riding Club
    • 1982 - A Library Comes to Etowah
  • Stories
    • Eade Anderson, Reverend
    • Lois Adcock Bayne
    • Emma Louise Curtis Bradley
    • Richard Brown
    • Patricia Bell Cantrell
    • Jerri Whiteside Lambeth
    • Wanda Sumner Love
    • David S. Mallett
    • Opal Dalton Parkinson
    • Jeannie Huggins Revis
    • Glenda Maxwell Simpson
    • Marylin Annette Jones Thomas
    • "The Follies" & "Matilda's Folly"
  • About
HOW ETOWAH GOT ITS NAME in 1895

​Etowah, formerly called Money, is named after the Etowah River in north Georgia.

Margaret Indiana Stewart Gash chose this name when the railroad company asked her and Joseph for a new station (depot) name to replace "Money."  The Gash's had donated the land for the station.

The Etowah River runs through the part of Georgia near the Stewart plantation farm, Margaret's childhood home and the place where she married Joseph in 1871. 

Lenoir Ray tells the story in his 1970 book, "Postmarks," pg. 301, excerpt below.

Most likely, Ray based his account on daughter Pearl Gillie Gash's 1956 hand-written account, "History of Etowah P.O."  Read a full transcription of Pearl's account.  
Picture
Margaret Indiana Stewart Gash
born in Gordon County, GA
​1850 - 1922
Picture
Joseph Leander Gash
born in Old Buncombe County, NC
(later aka Henderson County)
​1833 - 1916


​Excerpt from "Postmarks"
" The railroads were most particular about the names they put on their depots and Warren McNeely had no intention of naming this station "Money."  The newly appointed station agent was J. Lee Gash.  Mr. Gash had owned the property through which the railroad passed and on which the station was built.

Mr. McNeely asked the Gash family to think of a name and Mrs. Gash, thinking of her home in North Georgia (near Calhoun) suggested the Indian name of the river in that area - Etowah.  The railroad approved and the name of the station in 1895 was Etowah.

In 1898, the Post Office Department changed the name of the office to conform, and the community was on its way. "


​Joseph is remembered for helping to establish the Etowah Presbyterian Church, 1894.

According to Margaret Morris Gash's (1908-2008) history of the Etowah Presbyterian Church, Joseph Leander Gash purchased land from Noah Henry (son of Joseph Henry) which he then donated for the re-location of the Presbyterian Church.  ​At the time, the Church was named Midway because it was located midway between Mills River and Davidson River Presbyterian Churches. 

Picture
May 1871
Pictures of Margaret and Joseph taken in May 1871, three months after their marriage on February 14, Valentines Day.

Joseph weds Margaret, 1871
At about age 27, Joseph, a Henderson County native, was living in Georgia prior to the beginning of the Civil War.  He is listed in the 1860 Georgia Census with the Anderson household, of Margaret's married sister.  In 1865 he was appointed postmaster of Adairsville, Bartow County, GA. Joseph and Margaret were married in 1871 at her mother's home.  They had three children before moving to Henderson County, sometime between 1878-1880.
Picture
May 1871
​THIS CERTIFIES THAT
The RITE of
Holy Matrimony
WAS CELEBRATED BETWEEN


Joseph L Gash of Bartow County Georgia
and Margaret I Stewart of Gordon County Georgia
on February 14, 1871 at Gilla Stewart's
by Samuel Smith (Minister)
Witness   Warren Stewart        Witness  T G McGill 
Picture
  • Home
  • SPECIAL
    • Virtual Tour of Selected Historic Places
    • History Displays in Etowah & Library Notebooks
    • Etowah Heritage Day 2019 - 130 Years
    • Etowah Treasures Exhibit, Sept/Oct 2019
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Maps
    • Memorabilia
    • Places, Early Homes, Other
    • French Broad River & Valley Views
    • People - early times
    • People - later times
    • People - Gash Family descendants
    • Veterans
  • HIST. I
    • Timeline
    • Formation of Henderson County, est 1838
    • Etowah History Notes - Research To Date
    • 1889 Money, then Etowah
    • Etowah - Creek/Muskogee Translation
    • How Etowah Got Its Name
    • Postmasters 1889 - 1968
    • Etowah Train Depot - 1895 >
      • Trains of Etowah
    • The Railroad - Hendersonville to Toxaway
  • HIST. II
    • 1900 U.S. Census
    • Farms of Early Etowah
    • Historic Etowah High School 1928 - 1960 >
      • 1st Annual 1938 -The Chief
      • Little Chief - Gleanings from
      • Students & Faculty EHS
      • EHS Memorabilia
      • Etowah High School - Memorial Plaque 2014 - HCEHI
    • Historic Schools 1800s - 1928 >
      • Etowah Institute 1911
    • Schools of Nearby Communities
    • Historic Churches
    • Historic Cemeteries >
      • Thomas-Fletcher Cemetery
      • Adopt-A-Cemetery: Thomas-Fletcher
  • HIST. III
    • Sheriff Robert Thomas
    • Civil War Union Monument
    • Orr Cabin Homeplace - early 1800s
    • Mountain Lily - 1881
    • Welsh Colony 1880s
    • Grist Mills
    • Shape Note Traditions
  • HIST. IV
    • Community Fairs 1938-1941, 1950s
    • Stores of Early Etowah
    • McKinna General Store
    • More Business Ads 1938 - 1960+
    • "Etowah Brick" Moland-Drysdale Corp. - 1923
    • Calx Mfg. Company - 1919
    • Camp Peep-Out - 1935
    • Etowah Grange #984 - 1937 >
      • Grange - 25th Anniversary 1937-1962
      • Grange Quilt - 1953
  • HIST. V
    • 1952 - Hatheway Floral Company
    • 1954 - Etowah Lions Club, Park & More
    • 1960s - Growing & Changing
    • 1964 - Etowah / Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire
    • 1966 - Water & Sewer System, Tower
    • 1966 - Etowah Riding Club
    • 1982 - A Library Comes to Etowah
  • Stories
    • Eade Anderson, Reverend
    • Lois Adcock Bayne
    • Emma Louise Curtis Bradley
    • Richard Brown
    • Patricia Bell Cantrell
    • Jerri Whiteside Lambeth
    • Wanda Sumner Love
    • David S. Mallett
    • Opal Dalton Parkinson
    • Jeannie Huggins Revis
    • Glenda Maxwell Simpson
    • Marylin Annette Jones Thomas
    • "The Follies" & "Matilda's Folly"
  • About