What was the profession of Nathaniel Gist's reputed son?
Sequoyah Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ "Ssiquoya", as he signed his name, or ᏎᏉᏯ "Se-quo-ya", as his name is often spelled today in Cherokee) ( 17701843), named in English George Gist or George Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. This was one of the very few times in recorded history that a member of a pre-literate people created an original, effective writing system (another example being Shong Lue Yang). After seeing its worth, the people of the Cherokee Nation rapidly began to use his syllabary and officially adopted it in 1825. Their literacy rate quickly surpassed that of surrounding European-American settlers.
Joseph S. Gitt Joseph S. Gitt (September 9, 1815 – January 22, 1901) was a self-taught civil engineer, surveyor and politician from Pennsylvania. After an unsuccessful career as a newspaper publisher, Gitt went back into railroading, estimating that in his career, he had conducted 31 different railroad surveys for a total distance of over 300 miles in his career Gitt either surveyed or engineered most of the railroads constructed in Frederick and Carroll county, Maryland and Adams county, Pennsylvania in the 1855-1885 period with the exception of the civil war.