Eliza Violet Gist, the daughter of Nathaniel Gist and Judith Cary (Bell) Gist was born November 10, 1794. Nathaniel Gist was a colonel in the Virginia Continental Line during the American Revolutionary War. The Gist family and their enslaved people moved from Virginia to Bourbon County, Kentucky in the spring of 1793, or 1794. Her father, a planter and Indian Agent, established a 4,000 acre plantation called Canewood. Gist was either born in Bourbon County, Kentucky or Virginia.
