Following is the article in History of Monroe County, p. 499:
Robert Gordon was born in Scotland in 1788. He came to America in 1810, following his older brother James Gordon, who had come to this country in 1800. According to Dr. W. A. Evans, Robert Gordon was born in Minnegoff, Scotland, and when he came to America, landed first in Savannah, GA. He then traveled with some Indian traders overland and arrived in the North MS settlement of Cotton Gin Port. In territorial times, this part of MS was still under the control of the Chickasaw. Several Indian trails led to the site on both sides of the river and there had been a crossing at the spot for a century or more. Robert Gordon, a jeweler by training, saw the advantages of selling to the Chickasaw. He became an Indian Trader. At first Gordon traveled in the Chickasaw Nation as did many other Indian Traders, some even lived with the Chickasaw. Within a very few years, as settlers began to enter the Monroe County area, Cotton Gin Port became a trading center. Rober Gordon opened a general store in the town. At this time Isa-taho-toka was king of the Chickasaw. Puc-caunla was the queen. Levi Colbert was an influential chief who lived in the Cotton Gin Port vicinity on the west side of the river. Gordon and Colbert became friends. Robert Gordon was one of the witnesses of the treaty negotiated with the Chickasaw in 1832 and signed in 1834. Robert Gordon married Mary Elizabeth Walton in Monroe County in 1828. She was the daughter of Jesse Walton (b. 1773 VA) and Johannah Hobson (b. 1777). She was one of the noted "beautiful Walton Girls of Cotton Gin Port." Mary Elizabeth Walton was born March 14, 1813 in Amelia County, VA and died in 1867 at Lochinvar in Pontotoc County. After the treaty with the Chickasaw that released lands west of the Tombigbee River, Robert Goron and his family moved to Pontotoc. The land office for the sale of the new lands was to be located in Pontotoc and Gordon with his capital became a land speculator. Gordon had received a "floating" section of land to secure money owed him by various Chickasaw Indians who had been unable to pay cash. That section was later located on the west side of the Tombigbee River at Martin's Bluff in Monroe County. This was section 35, that was to become the site for the town of Aberdeen. Gordon had Col. Richard Bolton of Pontotoc to survey the town off and formed a company for the purpose of selling lots.
However Robert Gordon's claim to Section 35 was disputed by the Chickasaw Indian Robertson James, and it was not until 1842 that the claim was finally settled in Gordon's favor, and he received his patent. It was only then that the buyers of lots in old Aberdeen received their deeds. Robert Gordon, meanwhile, had built the beautiful ante-bellum mansion Lochinvar in Pontotoc County just south of the town of Pontotoc. Robert Gordon had several plantations in Monroe County, Chickasaw County and Pontotoc County with overseers set up on each plantation. Robert Gordon died in 1869 and was buried at Lochinvar. The family cemetery at Lochinvar held the graves of his wife, Mary E. Walton Gordon and a daughter who died as a child plus one of his Walton brother-in-laws. |