THE AUTHOR
Joseph Gaston, author of the history of Portland, and of this Centennial History of Oregon, born in the village of Lloydsville, Belmont County, Ohio, November 14, 1833, comes of French Huguenot ancestry, as do all of the Gastons of the United States—the family being represented in all of the states, and there being postoffices in twelve states, bearing the Gaston name.
The first person in history to choose and bear this name, born in 1250—was the son of Roger Bernard III, of Foix, a town of France, situated in the gorge of a narrow valley at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains, 44 miles south of Toulouse. Roger Bernard, more famous as a poet than a warrior, got into a war with Philip the Bold, was taken prisoner by Philip, and subsequently also by Peter III of Aragon; and before his death in 1302, began the quarrel of the house of Foix with that of Armagnac. Roger's son and successor, Gaston I, [the first Gaston] continued the war. and was excommunicated in 1308 by Pope Clement V, and imprisoned in the Chatelet, Paris, but regaining his freedom shortly afterwards, joined Louis X, in 1315, in an expedition against Holland, and died on the way home. This family name is followed in French history without difficulty down to 1472, when the house of Foix, on the death of Gaston IV, was merged in that of Navarre, to appear later on as the surname of many families tracing their relationship back to the original families of Gaston de Foix, or that of his father-in-law Jean II of Navarre.
The Protestant Reformation making such headway in France in the 16th Century as induced King Henry IV [who was himself a Gaston] to issue a proclamation (April 13, 1598) having the authority of a law, and known in history as the "Edict of Nantes," the Protestants were thereby guaranteed the free exercise of their religion, and equal political rights with Catholics. Under this law many of the Gastons throughout the Kingdom became what was (at that time) reproachfully termed "Huguenots." The Huguenots were the Puritans of France. After King Louis XIV had ascended the throne of France, in October, 1685, he proclaimed an edict revoking the former edict of Henry IV, and by which the Protestants (Huguenots) were prohibited the free exercise of their religion and denied equal political rights with Catholics. Rather than submit to this great injustice, and risk burning at the stake, a great majority of the Gastons, who had as a wide spread family, embraced the Protestant religion, emigrated from their native land with over three hundred thousand other Protestants—the Gastons settling first in Scotland, and soon after moving over to the north counties of Ireland. From Ireland many of these expatriated Gastons came over to America from the year 1690 to 1720, settling in North and South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
These facts are interesting only as showing how families started in European countries and through wars and religious persecution were forced to emigrate
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