Henry Gasho, Patriot Ancestor of Mike Biferno, was born on July 15, 1752. Henry's family had fled France during the Huguenot persecution and found refuge in Worms, Germany, later moving to Darmstadt, Germany where Henry was born.
Henry’s father died about this time, so his mother remarried. His enlarged family now included, a sister, his mother, a step-father and 2 step-sisters.
In the fall of 1766, when Henry was 14 years old, the family traveled to America on a sailing vessel. During the Atlantic crossing, which took 16 weeks, his step-father died.
Henry paid for his passage by becoming a redemptioner or indentured servant. He contracted in Germany for his services to be sold on arrival in America for a set period. Henry was sold to John Kaufman in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and served out his term faithfully.
He enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment and took part in the Revolutionary War fighting for his adopted country. Records show that in 1777 Henry Gasha (Gascho, Gasho) served as a Private in Captain Conrad Korer’s Company, Eight Battalion, Lancaster County Militia, commanded by Colonel Michael Haverstick. Henry Gasha served again in 1782 as a Private in the Fourth Company, Fourth Battalion, Lancaster County Militia.
Henry was both a farmer and a weaver. He married Barbara Schenck about 1779 and together they raised 3 children. In 1833 their children moved from Pennsylvania to Indiana, eventually settling in the Noblesville area (north of Indianapolis).
In 1839 Henry died and was buried in a cemetery near the family home in Pennsylvania. Over the years the home was torn down and the fields plowed over, removing evidence of the small cemetery that was located there. By chance his headstone was found as the land was being converted to a dump. An ancestor retrieved the headstone and had it placed in a nearby Mennonite cemetery, since the Gasho family belonged to that faith.
(This narrative is based on information from a book by Grace Hildebrand (1987) John & Maria Smeltzer: Her ancestors, their descendants. Selby, Kokomo, IN)