Week 26 (June 25-July 1): Slow

Homesteaders proudly showing what they've accomplished, western Nebraska, 1890.

Though there are no trees apparent in this photo, there's firewood strewn around on the far left behind the cottage. And the windmill may also have been built of wood, as well as the barn and cottage, and probably an outhouse.

This photo works under the prompt of "slow." It took many hours of sweat and working to build all of this. I'm glad a traveling photographer got them to bring out the chairs and memorialize the homestead.

My ancestors: Col. James Gibbs and Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs.

When soldiers fought in the various early wars of America, they often were paid in land that was available (according to the surveys that European settlers had made). 

My 4 times great grandfather, James Gibbs moved from VA to SC; they arrived in Union Co SC, then Old 96th district, before the Revolutionary War, building their first home near the Lower Fairforest Baptist Church. His father, John York Gibbs had recieved a land grant of 500 acres on Fairforest Creek in 1768. James received a grant of 640 acres on the Fairforest in 1772. Then they both served in the Revolutionary War.

Here's a partial repost of his life and descendents, Col. James Gibbs:

Graves of James Gibbs (1740-1794) and Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs (1740-1831)

Gibbs Cemetery

Union County, SC,
It's about 2 hours drive from where I live to Union, SC the town.

The private cemetery has my grandfather's grandmother's grandparents buried there: George Rogers' grandmother was Lucinda Benson Gibbs Rogers, whose father was Hiram Gibbs, her grandfather was James Gibbs and grandmother was Anne Barnett Gibbs, whose tombs are seen in the photo above.

Both the city of Union and Union County received their names from the old Union Church that stood a short distance from the Monarch Mill. When it was first founded, the city of Union was known as Unionville; later the name was shortened to Union. The county's first white settlers came from Virginia in 1749. Union County's population grew the fastest between 1762 and the start of the Revolutionary War. Settlers built log cabins and cultivated tobacco, flax, corn and wheat. Union was one of the first towns settled in the area and was untouched during the Civil War because the Broad River flooded and turned Sherman’s troops away from the town.  (Wikipedia)

The will of James Gibbs (see below) leaves his plantation to Hiram, his son...but Hiram left for Mississippi with Lucinda and the Rogers around 1850.  Lucinda and the Rogers kept going (after a while) to Louisiana then Texas. So Hiram is buried in Mississippi, but his wife, Sabra Wilbourn Gibbs  made it all the way to Huntsville, TX.

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Will of Col. James Gibbs

His estate papers were found in Box 1, package 55. Zacharias Gibbs was the executor. His will was signed 8 Aug 1793. Recorded in Will Book A, p.19-20. An estate sale was held Nov 1794 and another in Oct 1795. Sale papers filed 4 Jan 1796.

The will stated his land was to be divided among the 3 youngest boys- Hiram to have the plantation. Daughter Agatha to have 1 shilling sterling. Mr. Jesse Connell and son Zacharias to manage the estate with his wife. Wife to receive 1/3 of estate, after debts paid. He desired to be buried in his own garden. The Negroes were not to be sold but rather kept on the place until the 3 youngest children were raised. Children all to have an equal part of the property, but Agatha. Oldest son Zacharias to have the cool spring land in Spartinburgh. Son John should have his negro Joe after the death of James' wife and Hiram comes of age. Daughter Susanah to have young negro June. Zacharias was to make title to all the land James had sold in Georgia.
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Gibbs Cemetery
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 34.68970, Longitude: -81.72690
 go to :
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=crMap&CRid=70116

  there are 12 internments in this private cemetery.

Gibbs, Anne "Ann" Barnett b. Nov. 30, 1740 d. May 23, 1831	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Gibbs, James 98812066 b. 1740 d. Aug. 7, 1794	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Gibbs, James 100852451 b. Feb. 11, 1812 d. Sep. 19, 1842	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Gibbs, Rev John 100849211 b. May 16, 1810 d. Aug. 23, 1880	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Gibbs, S 112593185 b. unknown d. 1816	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Gibbs, Zachariah100842912 b. May 24, 1772 d. Dec. 6, 1814	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Gregory, Infant 112593260 b. Sep. 14, 1853 d. Sep. 14, 1853	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Robinson, Berry F 112593308 b. Jan. 15, 1836 d. Jan. 18, 1836	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Robinson, M Priscilla Gibbs100848210 b. 1806 d. Aug. 9, 1836	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Robinson, Sarah A100854727 b. 1826 d. Sep. 19, 1830	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Sparks, James Franklin100855076 b. Jul., 1842 d. Apr. 4, 1858	Gibbs Cemetery Union County South Carolina, USA
Sparks, Mary Mayberry Gibbs 100852922 b. Jun. 25, 1814 d. Mar. 1, 1884

 ===================
father of Sabra Ann Wilbourn Gibbs, (w. of Hiram Gibbs, she died in Huntsville TX.)

Elijah Wilbourne (Wilburn) b. 1763, Sandy Creek, Randolph County, NC
d. 1819 Union Union County, SC

fantastic early photos of mills and Baptist ch in Sandy Creek, NC...maybe something to do with the Wilbournes.
http://randolphhistory.wordpress.com/tag/sandy-creek/

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Today's quote:

 

What you seek is seeking you.

RUMI

She lived 90 years...

 

Where the James Gibbs family lived, near Spartanburg SC

A true matriarch of the Gibbs family - Anne Barnett Gibbs

Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs 1740–1831

Birth 30 NOV 1740 • Orange County, Virginia Colony,  Death 23 MAY 1831 • Union, Union, South Carolina, US
Wife of Col James Gibbs (see Blog HERE), mother of Hiram Gibbs.

She was my fourth great grandmother on my father George Rogers' tree.
I'm re-posting this before her birthday of Nov.30.

When Anne Barnett was born on November 30, 1740, in Orange, Virginia, her mother, Marran Frances Gibbs Barnett, was age 36, and her father John Barnett was age 35. Her father passed away on May 15, 1750, in Orange, Virginia, at the age of 45, when Anne was just 9 years old.  Her mother lived until she was 78, dying when Anne was 42 (but Anne herself lived to be 90.)

Anne Barnett married William Johnson in Orange, Virginia, on February 10, 1770, when she was 29 years old. Her husband William Johnson passed away in 1770 at the age of 68. There are several other William Johnsons who also died in 1770, but had different wives. So far, I've found no probate records for this William Johnson.

Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs married Col. James Gibbs in Orange, Virginia, on July 8, 1771, when she was 30 years old and he was 31.  I haven't checked to see how they might have already been second cousins, because her mother was a Gibbs.  There were many Barnetts and Gibbs who married, so I'd say at best guess that she and Col. James Gibbs were second cousins, maybe in two ways...they had a lot of great grandparents in common!

They had six to nine children together, (some of whom died early) though it's possible her first daughter, Agatha Gibbs White, was fathered by Johnson since she may have been born before the marriage to James Gibbs...Agatha's birth date is unknown. But Gibbs might well have adopted her since Anne was a young widow, (without papers and lawyers.)

Her husband Col. James Gibbs died on August 7, 1794, in South Carolina at the age of 54, having fought in the American Revolutionary War. They had been married 23 years. She died on May 23, 1831, in Union, South Carolina, at the impressive age of 90.

Their graves are in The Gibbs Cemetery, Union County South Carolina. 

Their son, Hiram Gibbs, my ancestor, emigrated to Miss.

His children went further west to Louisiana and Texas, and several of them married into my Rogers family tree.

Some information on Anne's Husband, Col. James Gibbs, from the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution).

James married Anne "Ann' Johnson Barnett, on July 8, 1771, in Orange Co VA...

They are buried in their old family garden, at the Gibbs Cemetery. Today, this place is known as the "C. T. S. Wilburn home place", Mrs Wilburn was the Gr-Gr Grand daughter of James Gibbs.

James & Ann had 9 known children:

Zachariah, John, Ambrose, James, Hiram, Agatha, Susan, Mary and Anna. Some are buried at the Gibbs Cemetery.

He was the son of John Gibbs Esq. of Middlesex Co VA, and Susanne Phillipe. It has been said, that his father died in 1770 in Charleston SC, his mother died in Spartanburg Co SC about 1786.

James moved from VA to NC and SC, they arrived in Union Co SC, then Old 96th district, before the Revolutionary War, building their first home near the Lower Fairforest Baptist Church. His father had recieved a land grant of 500 acres on Fairforest Creek in 1768. James received a grant of 640 acres on the Fairforest in 1772.

James left a will SPT Book 1, p.34, book 2, p.43 and book C, p.251. He left his son Zachariah as administrator, and names his living children in the Will.

Today's quote:

So often we are sabotaging ourselves by being in our own way without even knowing we are doing so.

The Col. James Gibbs family

I spent a couple of hours the other day looking at the records of the children that Col. James and Anne Barnett Gibbs had between them, on Ancestry. That meant checking sources for all those little hints that are being blandished about.  I wish they wouldn't somehow put 10-20 other Ancestry trees as hints, which all say about the same thing.  And above all (yes this it the extent of my rant against Ancestry for today) I wish their algorithm wouldn't use a tree as a source...it's just a information gatherer...and lots of that information is not sourced at all! 

My intent was to find any links to cousins that may still be living in the South or North Carolina area, which is where I currently live.  There are lots of possibilities!  But I also found that generation was the big wave of movement west and south into frontiers that were just being opened.  I also discovered a few children who weren't really James and Anne Gibbs children, but might have been from that general area so were added to their family. NOT funny!

 First I admit to taking off Anna (b. 1801) and James (b. 1817) since Ann Barnett Gibbs could not have mothered them after having been born in 1740.  Nor could James Gibbs because he died in 1794.  REALLY NOW PEOPLE!

These are the children that I can pretty well believe were theirs:
Agatha Gibbbs White 1770-1848
Zachariah Gibbs 1772-1814
John Gibbs 1774-1851
Ambrose Barnett Gibbs 1777-1835
Susannah Gibbs 1781-1814
Hiram Gibbs 1784-1844 (my 3rd great grandfather)

Agatha had 2 children (White last name)
Zach had maybe 7 children, though 3 are listed as all being born in 1810.
John may have married twice, but has no children listed at this time.
Ambrose had 3 children
There's no information that Susannah married or had children at this time.
And Hiram had 8 children, all of whom lived to adulthood. One of his daughters didn't marry or have children. 

As I've mentioned elsewhere, 2 of the Hiram Gibbs children married into the Rogers family, a Gibbs man married a Rogers woman, and a Gibbs woman married a Rogers man...both brothers and sisters.  So everyone was an aunt or uncle of everyone, and the children were so merged in their cousin-hood, I doubt that they cared.

But let me go back to the children of Col. James and Anne, namely the Whites, Zach Gibbs' children, and Ambrose Gibbs' children.

I want to see if any of them stayed in this area, while Hiram and all his children took off to Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Louisianna, and who knows where else.

Well, I just realized how this will become exponential, and of course there will not be any people listed who are alive today.  Somehow I forgot that part of Ancestry..there are only the deceased on it.  I did find an interesting first cousin, 4 times removed, Spencer Gibbs, son of Ambrose.  He fought in the Civil War, enrolling at age 42, then re-enrolling later after his first tour was up.  He and his family had moved to Mississippi.

So now to look at the huge maze of Zach's seven children.  Very briefly!  First, they all lived to adulthood.  
1. His oldest son, Laban, married and had one child.  His wife was Jemima Sellers Gibbs.  I had an Aunt Jemima! No, just a cousin, four times removed, by marriage.
2. Second child was Anna, born in 1801...ah ha! She was his child, not Col. James! See I was right to remove her from his immediate family.  She ended up being his granddaughter (I think.)
She married another White, and had 15 children.
3. Priscilla married but had no children.
4 Churchill never married and lived in Union District SS all his 81 years.
5. No info on John who lived from 1810-1880
6. Nothing on James who lived from1812-1842
7. No info on Mary 1814-1884
8. John (also born 1810) who died 1892, somehow mixed up in Ancestry...definitely same parents, same birth year...oh the headache...he was Rev.John Ottis Gibbs, who married and had one daughter.

So of my 1st Cousins, 4 Times Removed, I have just found how many who had more children?  I'm not even going to count.  Lots. And their great-grandchildren's grandchildren are probably my generation...4 greats down from them to my generation.

OK, when I meet anyone named White, or Gibbs (or Rogers of course) I'm going to see where their family is from!

The Barnett and Gibbs connections.

John Barnett, born in VA. He was the father of Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs (born in1740 in Orange County VA, died 1831 in Union County SC.)

I've spoken about Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs HERE. 
Her husband Col. James Gibbs was the topic of a post Here.

Back to John Barnett, 1704-1750, the father of Anne.  I'm calling him Jr, and his father Sr. 

John Barnett Jr. married Marran Frances Gibbs Barnett,  Nov 13, 1728, who was born either in 1704 or 1708 according to Christ Church Parish records, Middlesex County, VA. She died in 1782 in Orange County, Virginia.

Their only daughter that is currently listed on ancestry is Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs (1740-1831). I'm going to stop saying Johnson in her name, since she was married to him less than a year. 


Her mother, Marran Frances Gibbs Barnett was the sister of John York Gibbs 1716-1770, who married Susanne Phillipe,
the parents of Col. James Gibbs 1740-1794.  

That Gibbs family (parents John Gibbs Sr. 1680-1775, and Mary Marron Mullin Gibbs 1680-1728) might have consisted of 11 children in all.

So now we've got the sister/brother connection which leads to a couple of first cousins getting married in the next generation.  Col. James Gibbs married Anne Barnett (Johnson) Gibbs; they were cousins. His father was brother to her mother.  I feel no different toward them because of this, and hope that most readers will understand that this happened in the past, and happened rather often in most towns.

Map of current day states who allow cousins to marry.

Anyway, the Col. James and Anne Gibbs family had 7 children, many of whom scattered west or further south from South Carolina where they were born. However, there are still cousins of mine probably in Union County SC, and I wonder if I'll ever meet them!  I'd like to visit the graves of Col. James Gibbs and his wife, which are on private land.

Today's quote:

The way to end passive aggressive behavior on your part or others' is with complete honesty and truth in any situation.

 

A true matriarch of the Gibbs family - Anne Barnett Gibbs

Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs 1740–1831

Birth 30 NOV 1740 • Orange County, Virginia Colony,  Death 23 MAY 1831 • Union, Union, South Carolina, US
Wife of Col James Gibbs (see Blog HERE), mother of Hiram Gibbs.

She was my fourth great grandmother on my father George Rogers' tree.
I'm posting this the day before her birthday, because another ancestor was also born on Nov.30.

When Anne Barnett was born on November 30, 1740, in Orange, Virginia, her mother, Marran Frances Gibbs Barnett, was age 36, and her father John Barnett was age 35. Her father passed away on May 15, 1750, in Orange, Virginia, at the age of 45, when Anne was just 9 years old.  Her mother lived until she was 78, dying when Anne was 42 (but Anne herself lived to be 90.)

Anne Barnett married William Johnson in Orange, Virginia, on February 10, 1770, when she was 29 years old. Her husband William Johnson passed away in 1770 at the age of 68.

Anne Barnett Johnson Gibbs married Col. James Gibbs in Orange, Virginia, on July 8, 1771, when she was 30 years old and he was 31.  I haven't checked to see how they might have already been second cousins, because her mother was a Gibbs.  There were many Barnetts and Gibbs who married, so I'd say at best guess that she and Col. James Gibbs were second cousins, maybe in two ways...they had a lot of great grandparents in common!

They had seven children together.
Her husband Col. James Gibbs died on August 7, 1794, in South Carolina at the age of 54, having fought in the American Revolutionary War. They had been married 23 years. She died on May 23, 1831, in Union, South Carolina, at the impressive age of 90.

Their graves are in The Gibbs Cemetery, Union County South Carolina.

Their son, Hiram Gibbs emigrated to Miss.
His children went further west to Louisiana and Texas, and several of them married into my Rogers family tree.

Today's quote:

So often we are sabotaging ourselves by being in our own way without even knowing we are doing so.