Fayette County Genealogy ProjectDR. LEVI SPRINGER GADDIS was born in South Union township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, February 2, 1850. He is a son of the late Henry W. and Ruth Anna (Springer) Gaddis, natives of Fayette county, and both descended from early settlers, the former of Irish, the latter of German descent. The genealogy of the Gaddis family of Fayette county is clearly traceable to one William Gaddis, who was located at Winchester, Virginia, as early as 1750, there being records in a good state of preservation at that place, showing the transfer of property to him at that time. He married Priscilla, daughter of Henry Bowden. They had five children: Thomas, John (Sr.), Robert, Henry and Anna, who married Levi Springer, Sr. William Gaddis died in Virginia. His widow and all of the children came to Western Pennsylvania, locating in what is now Fayette county. Thomas preceded his mother and the other children in coming to Pennsylvania. He was known as Colonel Gaddis and was a major in the Crawford expedition. He subsequently went to Ohio. The Gaddis family took up land on a patent in 1780 in North Union township a few years after their arrival in that locality. Of these tracts—three in number—one is known on the records as the "Gaddistown tract." The most of this land is still in the possession of members of the family. Of the four sons of William Gaddis, Robert has a son, John, whose son, Robert, is the father of Albert Gaddis, miller, of Uniontown. Among the descendants of Colonel Thomas Gaddis, now in Fayette county, are the Hopwoods and McCoys, while Anna, who married Levi Springer, Sr., has numerous descendants, having left seven or eight children, all of whom married and most of whom had large families. Henry Gaddis remained unmarried. Dr. Levi S. Gaddis is descended from John Gaddis, Sr., who was one of the deacons of the Great Bethel Baptist church, one of the county's first justices of the peace, and an agriculturalist on an extensive scale. His son, John Gaddis Jr., was a farmer and stock dealer, in which business he was succeeded by his son, Henry W. Gaddis. The wife of the latter was one of the historic Springer family which had its founder in America in the person of Jacob Springer, who came from Stockholm, Sweden, in 1692, and located in New Jersey, were he died, and whence his son, Dennis, went to Winchester, Virginia. The latter's son, Levi Springer (Sr.), removed from Winchester, Virginia, to Fayette county, Pennsylvania, about 1775. He had a son, Levi, whose daughter Ruth Anna, married Henry W. Gaddis. They had but two children, Sallie K., who married Captain Henry E. Robinson, U.S.A., son of Dr. F.C. Robinson, of Uniontown, and Levi Springer Gaddis. The latter was graduated from Washington and Jefferson college with the class of 1869. After one year's study of medicine, under the preceptorship of Dr. F. C. Robinson, he entered Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, from which institution he was graduated in 1873. For two years following his graduation Dr. Gaddis was resident physician at the Western Pennsylvania hospital for the insane, Dixmont. He has since been engaged in the practice of his profession at Uniontown. Dr. Gaddis has been a member of the Uniontown public school board for ten years, a director of the National Bank of Fayette county since 1893, and is a member of the First Presbyterian church. Source: |