Luci was born on March 28, 1818. In Union District, South Carolina.
She moved with her family (though not all of them) to northwest Louisiana (Mount Lebanon, Bienville Parish) by 1846. Somehow at that time she and other family members met the Rogers family which was traveling from Sevier County TN to Huntsville TX. She met a young man, George W. Rogers, who went to war in Mexico, then came back and married her and they moved to Huntsville TX.
Even though they lived in a huge home, and were noted to be among the most well-to-do in town, when Luci was ready to give birth to all her children except the first one, she went back to Bieneville Parish, LA, perhaps because her older brother was a doctor. Her first child was born in the frontier town of Huntsville. Her father-in-law, Micajah C. Rogers had been appointed postmaster in 1850 in Huntsville, and later would hold a high position at the prison that was formed there. He was also a founding member of the First Baptist Church of Huntsville.
I have tried to determine if Luci's mother Sabra Anne Wilbourne Gibbs was in Mount Lebanon, as part of the support for her giving birth there. In 1850 there was a female W.S. Gibbs, age 58 (Sabra Anne Wilbourne Gibbs was born in South Carolina in 1792) living with Jasper's family. However she died in 1864 in Huntsville, and I don't know who she lived with (perhaps Luci)...but there are many gaps in her life. (Sabra Ann Wilbourne Gibbs was topic of my blog Here.)
And more background - Wikepedia said:
"In the 1830s, Ruben Drake moved his family from South Carolina to what he named Mount Lebanon, the first permanent settlement in the parish. As the Drakes were devout Baptists, they established a church and school, which evolved into Mount Lebanon University, the forerunner of Louisiana Collegein Pineville in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana.[4]
"On March 14, 1848, the Louisiana State Legislature created Bienville Parish from the lower portion of Claiborne Parish."
Ruben Drake's brother had a daughter Laura Jane Drake, who married (drum roll please) Dr. Jasper Gibbs, Luci's brother. Ruben Drake's brother died early in Mount Lebanon. I am guessing that the Gibbs and Rogers families who settled there must have been attracted by the religious and educational community formed by the Drakes.
Gibbsland LA, Bienville Parish, was another small settlement, named after Dr. Jasper Gibbs, Luci's older brother. I finally looked up the distance between Gibbsland and Huntsville, and its around 240 miles. When people traveled by horseback or wagons on roads that were just tracks through the woods or swamps, with fords across streams and rivers, it probably took a couple of days to get back and forth. But Luci chose to go back to Gibbsland for each of those 5 births. Since only 2 of those children lived past their first year, she must have needed some special care that her brother could offer, though he couldn't provide whatever these children needed to live. She was 42 when she gave birth the last time.
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| Bienville Parish Louisiana |
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| Walker County TX (where Huntsville is) |
Laura Drake was Dr. Jasper Gibbs first wife, with whom he had 5 children. He remarried following her death in 1855, and had another 6 children. But any descendants of Jasper and Laura would be cousins of mine, going back to Luci and Jaspar's parents (Hiram and Sabra Gibbs) as my great times three grandparents.
I've mentioned elsewhere that Luci's husband George W. Rogers, died when still in his 40s in 1864. Luci, who had married at age 30, became a widow at 45. That meant she had to have some assistance (probably relatives) to raise her children. Her mother lived only until 1864.
She herself lived until she was 66, and died and was buried in Huntsville TX in 1884. She also outlived her oldest son, William Sandford Rogers, my grandfather's father, who died in 1879. I wonder if she ever saw my grandfather George Elmore Rogers, who was born in 1877.
That really brings this woman's life into my own, that she might have held her grandson, a man who I knew and loved when he'd grown into an old man.
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| Stagecoach Inn, Mount Lebanon, Bienville Parish, LA |
Stage Coach Inn
Description: Largest residence in the area, this two-story, five-bay, frame clapboard house has a central hall double parlor plan on both floors and a front colossal gallery. House has original interior with original staircase and simple mantels. Front balcony and simple molded pillars are original. Structure is hewn.
Significance: This building is a local landmark, being the largest house in the area and having the only colossal order gallery in the parish. Built in 1847 by Reuben Drake, one of the founders of the town. In 1869 it was purchased by Jesse Smith and is still in the hands of his descendants. The house was used as a stagecoach stop for the regular stagecoach runs between Shreveport and Monroe.
Mount Lebanon is an old community of approximately thirty buildings which vary in age from 140 years to 3 years. They are spread out along approximately three miles of La. Rt. 154 and La. Rt. 517, two roads which converge to form the center of the community. There is no potential district in Mount Lebanon. The buildings are widely spaced amid rolling countryside, in some cases as much as a quarter mile apart.
The town of Mt. Lebanon began in 1836 when a group of prosperous farmers from Edgefield District in South Carolina settled in the area. During 1836-1837 they established homes, cleared land, opened a post office and several stores, and organized a Baptist church. There were about twelve families in the original group, and at first the settlement was known as the Carolina Colony. Many persons of these original families were related to each other directly or by marriage, and this situation made for a close-knit community with a high degree of shared values.
The community prospered and during the 1840's, other persons were attracted to Mt. Lebanon and its nice homes, expanding trade center, strong church, and congenial society. The village eventually numbered about fifty families, most of which were from South Carolina.
In 1851 a New Orleans newspaper predicted that Mt. Lebanon would become one of the most important towns in north Louisiana. The article said the town was pretty, healthy, and pleasant. In 1860, journalist J.W. Door gave the following description of the town:
It is a delightful town of about three or four hundred inhabitants. It is famous for health, wealth, educational institutions, and good people of South Carolina stock.
The town is well built with everything to indicate wealth and refinement. One is likely to want to prolong his stay indefinitely and if spurred by inevitable necessity leaves it with regret.
Mt. Lebanon has significance in the areas of religion and education, because it was a major center of Baptist activity in north Louisiana from the 1840's through the 1860's. It was under the leadership of Reverend George W. Bains in the 1840's that this period of religious significance began. Several other churches were established in the area due to the efforts of Bains and his congregation. In 1847 the Baptists in Mt. Lebanon began to take an interest in education. In 1848, the town hosted a large meeting of Baptists from many areas of the state which resulted in the formation of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, which had as its primary goal the promotion of Baptist education. In 1853 the Convention established Mt. Lebanon University, and an associated Female College, both of which functioned successfully until the coming of the Civil War. But neither institution ever really recovered its viability after the war. The Female College burned shortly after the war and went out of existence. The university struggled along for many years, eventually becoming coeducational, before it expired in the early twentieth century. Mt. Lebanon University was one of the direct ancestors of Louisiana College in Pineville. The town enjoyed a brief return to prosperity after the war, but this economic well-being faded after 1884 when the railroad by-passed it.
Cook, Philip C., "Mt. Lebanon University in Peace and War," North Louisiana Historical Association Journal, Vol. 9 (Spring 1978), 55-64.
Files of Virginia Yardley and Mt. Lebanon Historical Society concerning history of Mt. Lebanon.
Martin, F. Lestar, "Mt. Lebanon's Historic Houses: A Presentation by Louisiana Tech University’s School of Architecture," North Louisiana Historical Association Journal, Vol. 9 (Spring 1978), 115-124. 
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