John Gano - Biography

Biography

Gano was raised as a Presbyterian and his father was a descendant of Huguenots and his mother of English Baptists. After a powerful conversion experience, John Gano eventually became a Baptist (Calvinistic) as a young man after a period of intense study. Gano left the family farm to study at Princeton University (then the College of New Jersey) but left before graduating. Gano was ordained as pastor of the Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Baptist Church on May 29, 1754. In 1760, he became the founding pastor of what became two years later the First Baptist Church in the City of New York, now located at the intersection of Broadway and 79th Street. Gano served as pastor of the New York Church until 1787, however, he made long itinerant trips evangelizing throughout the thirteen colonies, asserting

I... had a right to proclaim free grace wherever I went.

Gano travelled throughout the South, Middle Atlantic States, and New England, sometimes being away from home for as long as two years. In 1764, Gano joined several others as an original fellow or trustee for the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the former name for Brown University, originally a Baptist school).

During the American Revolution, Gano served as a soldier and a chaplain for the Continental Army, and was chosen by General Washington to say a prayer marking the official end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783. After the War, Gano returned to his congregation in New York, and in 1787 he moved to Kentucky where he lived until his death in 1804. Gano is buried in the Daughters Of The Revolutionary War Section of the Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky just beyond Daniel Boone's grave. Before his death, Gano wrote and published an autobiography of his life.

Gano's descendants include billionaire Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., whose mother was Allene (Gano) Hughes; Rev. Stephen Gano; Admiral Roy Alexander Gano; Confederate States of America General Richard Montgomery Gano, and Union General Stephen Gano Burbridge.