SARAH D. GIBSON'S BOOK
PREFACE
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The first Gibsons to come to America of our family:
The Gibsons of Cumberland.
by Sarah D. Gibson
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Robert and George Gibson, brothers, came from Stewart's Town in the North of Ireland to Pennsylvania, about the year 1730, for we find the latter at Lancaster at that period, while Robert had settled in Derry Township. It is probable that William, Patrick, James, and John Gibson, who about the same time took up land, belonged to the same family, but how closely related cannot be ascertained.
1. Robert Gibson, born circa 1700, died prior to 1754 in Derry Township, Lancaster Co., PA. As stated he came with his brother, George from Stewart's Town, Ireland. He married Mary McClellen, a native of Donegal, Ireland. After her husband's death, she removed to Sherman's Creek with her son, Hugh, and there she was murdered by the Indians in July 1756. Robert Gibson's children are:
(Of their family, Robert, Andrew, and John, settled in the Cumberland Valley. Hugh was captured by the Indians. What became of Israel and Mary, there is no record. There were probably other children.)
***( This note here is from Gary T. Gibson. Hugh Gibson was about 14 years old when he was captured by the Indians in the year 1756. So Hugh was actually born about 1742, not 1730. )***
2. George Gibson, b. circa 1708; inn-keeper at Lancaster, and owned a large number of tracts of land, which he had warranted from the Proprietaries. He died at Lancaster in December 1761, leaving a wife, Martha _____, and children as follows:
3.William Gibson , b. prior to 1717 in Stewart's Town, Province of Ulster, Ireland. Settled in Newton Township, Cumberland Co., PA, where he died in January, 1761, leaving a wife Margaret _____, and children:
***( These notes are by Gary T. Gibson: William Gibson wrote his will in December, 1770, and he died in January 1771. When William wrote his will, his wife Margaret was pregnant with his 11th child. Sarah does not mention that child here, but she does later on. However, that child was born in 1771!)***
4. Robert Gibson (Robert) of Hopwell Township, Cumberland County, PA, b. circa 1722, died May 1756. He left a wife Ann, and children:
5. Andrew Gibson (Robert) b. circa 1724; settled in Antrim Township, Cumberland County, where he died in March 1783. He served a tour of duty on the frontiers of Cumberland County, during the Revolution. His wife was Elizabeth _____, their children were:
(There were others of the name of whom we have little or no record, and in the absence of accurate dates of birth cannot definitely fix where they belong. The dates given in the fore going are approximate, hardly two years out of the way. The descendants of none of the lines have been followed out.)
***(These following notes are by Gary T. Gibson: So, what we have here is Sarah D. Gibson assigning birth dates to people, simply because she didn't have the correct ones. She did this throughout her book. Many people missed this when they obtained information from her book. One person of interest is Dee Wayne Schvaneveldt, who submitted her ancestral file to the LDS, where it was then accessed by many other people, who also were not aware of what Sarah did. I have spoken with D. S. Schvaneveldt, and she did say she obtained some of her information from Sarah's book, and she never read William Gibson's Will. She also said that she would update the ancestral file that she submitted to the LDS.)***
GIBSON FAMILY HISTORY
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CHAPTER I.
THE SCOTCH-IRISH
The name Scotch-Irish is a strange compound. They lived in Ireland, but they had Scotch and English ancestors, and they were given the name Scotch-Irish, after they commenced to migrate to America, to distinguish them from the Scotch of Scotland.
The Poet Edmund Spencer, after long residences in Ireland, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England, first suggested to her, the plan of colonizing Ireland, with Protestants, in this way, making Ireland more loyal to the English government.
In 1611, James I of England, Scotland, and Ireland, put this scheme into practice. The Presbyterians had placed King James VI on the throne of Scotland, and on the death of Queen Elizabeth, he was the nearest heir to the English throne. James IV of Scotland, had married Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, and Margaret was the great-grandmother of James I.
Old John Knox had denounced from the pulpit, the beautiful, but ill-fated Queen Mary Stewart, in no agreeable or gentle manner, and he never hesitated to discipline King James, himself, if he went contrary to the rules of the Church. When James became King of England, he had Scotch friends, who he wished to reward, but he dared not give them anything in England, because there was such a great jealousy between these two nations. And there were friends of Queen Elizabeth, whom he wished to get out of the way. Therefore, King James drove the Irish out of the Province Of Ulster, the northern Province of Ireland.
For an excuse, a plot was hatched against O'Neal, Earl of Tyrone, and O'Donnell, Earl of Tyconnel, accusing them of treason against the English government. And they, with all the Irish living in this Province were compelled to seek refuge in the neighboring Provinces in the bogs and the mountains. And thousands died of starvation, and other hardships.
The Irish were every ready to rise at the least provocation, and try to drive out the intruders and oppressors. And many and terrible were the massacres that took place. Sometimes, the Irish were the conquerors, and sometimes the Protestants. Thus for many generations, the Scotch-Irish were trained for border warfare. The Protestants were from Southern Scotland and Northern England. Mostly Presbyterian picked men and women of the best sort, who for many generations, had been of a higher grade of intelligence and training.
There was one million acres of good land in the Province of Ulster. And at the beginning of the 18th Century, it numbered nearly a million people. They made this Province a garden and established manufactories of wool, and of linen, which have ever since been famous thorough the world.
These Scotch-Irish were not ignorant people of the peasant class, but they were intelligent farmers and artisans. And in 1718, on a paper signed by 319 men, only three of these were unable to write their names. Nothing like that could have happened anywhere else in the British Empire, hardly even in New England.
These people were mostly Lowland Scotch Presbyterians with very little intermarriage with the Irish. For there was a hatred unsurpassed in bitterness and intensity, between the Irish Catholics, and the Scotch Presbyterians.
But England became jealous of the manufactories in Ulster. They interferred with the English trade. So, England made laws, which supressed the Irish manufactories. And from 1698 to 1704, the Presbyterians were forbidden to have their own schools, or perform marriage ceremonies. They were patient hoping for improvement in these laws. But from 1719 to 1782, they emigrated to America in great numbers.
They were received with open arms from Maine to Georgia. And they came with their Bibles in their hands. They were good industrious citizens. England became alarmed, and the "Toleration Act" was passed for Ireland. But this did not check the tide of emigration. The freedom and vast tracts of rich fertile land of the new world, had great attraction for them.
This was before steam ships, but in one week in the year 1727, six ships, loaded with Scotch-Irish, landed in Philadelphia. In 1682, Francis Makemie organized the first Presbyterian Churches established in America, on the eastern shore of Maryland, and neighboring countries of Virginia, among the Scotch-Irish. In 1717, the Scotch-Irish made settlements in New Jersey and Massachusetts.
From 1727 to 1749, William Gooch, a military Scotchman, was Governer of Virginia. During his government, it was remarkable the western emigration across the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. It introduced into Virginia a new set of people and new forms of religion, and new habits of life. It affected all of the Colonies south of Pennsylvania, and did much to determine the character of all the states founded west of the Alleghanies, and south of middle Illinois.
The coming of the Scotch-Irish was almost as important as the coming of the Puritans, and the Cavaliers. At the beginning of the Revolution, the Scotch-Irish element was the strongest and more important than all the others in the Alleghany regions.
Pennsylvania was the great distributing center of a great Southwest. The Scotch-Irish spread down the Shenandoah Valley, following the course of the rivers, into the Carolinas, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, sweeping past all civilization. But taking their religious habits with them, building churches, first of pealed hickory logs, and later erecting better and larger churches.
"Their pews of unpainted pine straight back and tall,
Their galleries mounted high three sides around,
Their pulpits goblet shaped halfway up the wall,
With sounding board above with acorned crowned."
The Scotch-Irish did good work in their country schools, "log colleges", as they were called. From 1715 to 1745, large colonies of Scotch-Irish emigrated to South Carolina, where land was cheap and easy to get. And it was secured by them in large tracts. Too large for the prosperity of the country. And the land quickly rose in value. There were Presbyterians, who had English names, and they founded some of the most important families, and produced some of the most brilliant leaders in South Carolina. The Pinchneys, the Rutledges, John C. Calhoun, and Andrew Jackson. He went afterwards to Tennessee, and twenty-seven times he crossed the trackless wilderness between Nashville, Tennessee, and South Carolina, infested with wild animals, and the more savage Indians.
The Scotch-Irish emigrated to the Shenandoah Valley in 1730. They settled on the Opequan River, and their oldest churches, the Tuscarora meeting house, and the Opequan Church, are still standing, the first near Marlinsburg, VA., and the latter near Winchester, VA. Their small farms, their few slaves, and the democratic ideas of these Scotch-Irish soon made great changes in the aristocratic life of the Virginians. For two generations there was a contest between these two classes in the House of burgesses of VA., which resulted in the separation of Church and State, and complete religious toleration, and the abolishing of entail, and primogeniture, and many important changes were made under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, who was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Jefferson is called the father of modern Democracy, and the Shenandoan Valley its cradle.
In 1770, one third of the population of Pennsylvania was Scotch-Irish, and at the beginning of the Revolution, they were one-sixth of the population of the American colonies. 30,000 Scotch-Irish settling in Lancaster Co., and Cumberland Co., PA. These were afterwards divided into several counties. It was the policy of the government to place Scotch-Irish between the colonies, and the Indian frontiers as defenders. March 17, 1755, Richard Hernderson, Thomas Hart, John Williams, William Johnson, Jon Luttrell, James Hogg, David Hart, and Leonard Bullock, all of Scotch-Irish ancestors, purchased a large tract of land, south of the Ohio River, between Green and Cumberland Rivers. It is now part of Kentucky. It was called Transylvanis. They expected to make immediate settlement.
They obtained this land from the Cherokee Indians, and paid them 10,000 pounds of English money for 17,000,000 acres of land. They did this at great expense and peril of life. They made an offer to induce settlers to go there, and to any man who would go thee and raise a crop of corn, and help defend the settlement, and give all needed assistance to the same to him, they would give 500 acres of land and 25 dollars in money. And many accepted this offer and had gone to Kentucky, but when the war of the Revolution was declared, this contract was worthless. Congress afterwards gave this company other grants of land, and confirmed the men in their titles, who had already settled in Kentucky. This settlement by the early pioneers secured this country to the United States in the final settlement between England and the Colonies.
And George Rogers Clark, another Scotch-Irishman, by a bold scheme, and skillful execution of the same, secured the Illinios country to the Colonies.
He was a pupil of the Scotch-Irish schoolmaster, Donald Robinson, and James Madison, one of the presidents, was also his pupil. Clark was well educated, and in 1772, he was land surveyor upon the upper Ohio, and he had rendered valuable assistance in the Great Kanawha. He obtained from the government of VA, 180 picked men with their rifles, and some light artillery, and a flotilla of boats. They rowed down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River. All the British soldiers had been taken from Kaskaskia to Detroit, and Clark easily took Kaskaskia, and Cahokia, and two other towns.
All of these towns were inhabited mostly by French settlers and Clark represented in such glowing terms the alliance between France and the American colonies, that they were easily persuaded to submit, and the Catholic Priest Gibault voluntered to carry Clarks's terms of surrender to Vincennes, which easily yielded, and Clark sent a party back to Virginia with the news of his bloodless victory. Thus all of the country north of the Ohio River was annexed to Virginia, as the Illinois country, and 600 men were raised for its defence. This was 1788 and 1779.
Clark's younger brother, William, with Merriwwether Lewis made the exploration of the Columbia River in 1804, thus giving the United States a claim on Oregon and Washington.
It was the Scotch-Irish that won the battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, of the Revolution, and crushed the Indians in Alabama. They overthrew Wellington's veterans in the short, sharp battle of New Orleans, under the command of General Andrew Jackson. Some of the most celebrated descendants of this race are among the statesmen, Jefferson, Madison Calhoun, Benton; among the orators, Patrick Henry, Rutledge, Preston, McDuffie, Yancy; jurists, Marshall, Campbell, Robinson; poets, Edgar Allen Poe; divines, Waddell, Alexander, Breckenridge, Robinson, Plummer, Hoge, Hawks, Fuller, McKendree; physicians, McDowell, Sims, McGuire; inventors, McCormick; soldiers, Lee Jacksons, Johnstons, Stuart; sailors, Paul Jones, Buchanan; seven Presidents, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Taylor, Polk, and Johnson.
They are mingled with the descendants of many other races. They were the vanguard of the fighting settlers, who with their ax and their rifle in their hands, won their way from the Alleghanies, to the Rio Grande and Pacific Ocean.
During the Civil War, the descendants of the Scotch-Irish of Kentucky and Tennessee were true to the Union, and stood like a living wall between the North and the South.
CHAPTER II
THE SCOTCH PRESBYTERIANS
In 1688, some of the Scotch Presbyterians were dissatisfied with the settlement of religious questions in Scotland, and they withdrew from the Presbyterian Church, and united in a religious organization and were called Reformed Presbyterians, and sometimes Cameronians, or Covenanter, most generally.
November 17, 1733, Ebinezer Erskine, Alexander Moncrief, William Wilson, and James Fisher, gave in protestation to the Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, declaring their secession from the prevailing party in the jurisdiction of the Church, and they associated themselves together as a Presbytery for the administration of discipline, and their motto was, the people should be free to choose their own ministers.
They took the name of Associate Presbyterians, but they were called Seceders.
The Seceders adhered to the convenants as firmly as the Convenanters, but did not reject the present British Constitution.
Members of both Communions emigrated to America. A Reformed Presbytery, and two Associate Presbyteries, the Presbytery of New York, and Presbytery of Pennsylvania, were in existence at the time of the Revolution. The leaders of the Associate Presbytery were Dr. John Mason, and Rev. Robert Annan, of the Reformed Presbytery, John Cuthbertson, William Linn, and Alexander Dobbins.
In the struggle of the Colonies for freedon, all the members of both Presbyteries were for freedom, and when the British captured New York City, Dr. Mason had to flee to the American camp, and he was one of General Washington's chaplains, and his Church in New York was used by the British for a stable.
In 1782, the Seceders and the Convenanters united, and were called the Associate Reform Church, or Union Church. Two ministers dissented from this union, Marshal and Clarkson, and other ministers came or were sent to their aid from Scotland or Ireland. So, the Associate, or Seceder Church continued to exist, as a distinct church, and some people of the Reformed Presbyterian Church continued to exist, and ministers were sent from Scotland or Ireland.
The associate Reform Church founded the first Theological Seminary, established in the U. S. in the year 1804. In 1790, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians constituted the principle portion of the population in some settlements of South Carolina, and they had their churches and schools and academies. These were more common then than at a later date in the slave states.
The Associate Reform Church was among the first to object to slavery. There were then but few slaves in that part of South Carolina, and for the white man, labor was not as degrading as it afterwards became.
The invention of the cotton gin gave power to slavery. A man must raise cotton, and therefore, he would be obliged to purchase more slaves, or see his family drop to the same level with slaves, or remove west, which many families of the Scotch-Irish did. Those who would move, must load their all into a wagon, and wend their way over mountains, across swamps, and through the wilderness. Many weary weeks were spent on this journey by day, and around the camp fire by night, before they arrived at their destination.
CHAPTER III
THE GIBSONS OF CUMBERLAND VALLEY,
PENNSYLVANIA
Robert and George Gibson, brothers, came from Stewartstown, in the province of Ulster, in the North of Ireland, before the year 1730. For we find them at this date already land owners. George Gibson is settled at the town of Lancaster, and Robert, the elder brother, is settled in Derry Township, which is now in Dauphine County, PA.
And it is probable, that William, Patrick, James, and John Gibson, who about the same time took up land in the same county, belong to the same family, but how closely related I do not know.
SECTION I
The first generation of the Gibsons in America follows:
I. Robert Gibson, from Stewartstown, Ireland, born about 1700, died 1754 in Derry Township, then Lancaster Co., PA. He married Mary McClellen, a native of Donegal, Ulster Province, Ireland. After her husband's death, she removed to Shermans Creek in Perry Co., PA, northwest of Lancaster Co., with her son, Hugh, and there she was murdered by the Indians, July 1756, and her son, Hugh, was taken prisoner by the Indians at that time. The children of Robert Gibson and Mary McClellen, his wife, were as follows:
Of this family, Robert, Andrew, and John, settled in the Cumberland Valley; Hugh was captured by the Indians; and there is no further record of Israel and Mary.
SECTION II
II. George Gibson was born about 1704 in Stewartstown, Ireland. He was an innkeeper at Lancaster, and owned large tracts of land, which he had warranted from the original proprietors. He died at Lancaster, December 1761, leaving a wife, Martha, and children as follows:
The executors of George Gibson's Will were Robert Gibson, and Thomas Donnelson.
SECTION III
III. William Gibson, supposed to be related to the two brothers, Robert and George. He was born before 1717 in Stewartstown, Ireland. He settled in Newton Township, Cumberland Co., PA, in the west side of the county, where he died January 1761, leaving a wife, Margaret _____, and children as follows:
***(These following notes are by Gary T. Gibson: So, the above information is what Sarah had in her book. If you would, please GO HERE, to see what I believe is a more accurate assignment of William's children after reading William's Will. William's will was written in December 1770, the infant child was actually born in 1771!)***
SECTION IV
There are six Gibson mentioned as belonging to the first generation in America.
1. Robert and George, brothers, and William, Patrick, James, and John. And in the second generation, are given 5, and 7, and 11, equal to 24 persons.
Robert Gibson (son of the first Robert) was born about 1722, of Hopewell Township, northeast corner of Cumberland Co., died May 1756, leaving a wife Ann _____, and children as follows:
Executors of Robert Gibson's Will: William Patton, and Hugh Thompson.
SECTION V
Andrew Gibson (son of the first Robert) was born about 1724, settled in Antrim Township, Franklin Co., PA, on the Maryland boundary line about five miles north from Hagarstown, MD., where he died March 1783. The executor of his Will was his wife Elizabeth. Her name before marriage was Elizabeth Carnes or Karns. Andrew Gibson served a tour of duty on the frontiers of Cumberland Co., during the Revolution (from manuscript archives of PA.) Their children were as follows:
There are records of land titles in Franklin Co., PA. George Gibson, 520 acres of land, Andrew Gibson, 203 acres of land, October 28, 1746.
There were several other Gibson families at this time in Cumberland Co., but their records are very incomplete.
John Carnes enters land in 1748, also Robert Armstrong and William Maxwell, Robert Richey, Hugh Martin, and John Martin and James Parks was Commission Clerk 1796 to 1799.
CHAPTER IV
John Banister Gibson, son of Col. George Gibson, he who was killed at "St. Clair's Defeat" was born in Sherman Valley, PA., November 8, 1780, and died in Philadelphia, May 3, 1853.
John B. Gibson studied at Dickson College, and was admitted to the Bar in 1803. He practiced law in Carlisle, Beaver and Hagarstown, MD. Then he returned to Carlisle. He was elected to the Legislature in 1810 and 1811. In 1813, he was made Presiding Judge. In 1816, he was Associate Justice, and in 1827, was made Chief Justice of PA. I do not know anything positive about any of the other families of Gibsons of Cumberland Valley, PA.
CHAPTER V
I will now continue the account concerning our branch of the Gibsons, which was Andrew Gibson, second son of Robert Gibson, who came from Stewartstown, Ireland. Andrew was born in Ireland, but perhaps married in America. He and his wife were both Scotch-Irish, and there is a tradition that these Gibsons were from London, and went to Ireland in Queen Ann's reign.
Andrew Gibson and his wife were members of the Associate, or Seceder Church.
And there were churches of this belief at Greencastle, Mercersburg, and Chambersburg, in Franklin Co., PA.
Of Andrew's daughters, Margaret Parks, and Jean Long, I have no farther record. Elizabeth, his youngest daughter, married James Sterling of Baltimore. He was a merchant from Scotland. He was a member of the Associate Church.
He was an energetic business man. He built the first quay for ships landing in Baltimore. Before this, all ships had landed at Annapolis.
James Sterling bought some marshy land, and drained it, and filled the marsh and made the finest landing in Baltimore. People at first laughed at him for his investment, "but they laugh who win", is the old proverb.
Col. Thomas Gibson, Andrew's oldest son, lived in Baltimore and was in partnership with his brother-in-law James Sterling. Thomas never married, and was a very rich man at his death, and his brother John ought to have inherited some of his property, but John lived so far away in Tenn., so it was all kept by the Sterlings.
John Gibson, second son of Andrew Gibson, and my great grandfather, married Martha Parks of Hagarstown, MD., in the year 1772.
The genealogy of Martha Parks family is as follows:
Elizabeth Knox, born before 1700, said to have been related to John Knox, married _____ Alexander. Their daughter, Jean Alexander, married 1st, _____ Morrow. Their children as follows:
Mrs. Jean (Alexander) Morrow, married 2nd, James Parks. Their children as follows:
James Parks, and his family, came to America about 1760, and lived in or near Baltimore. Thomas Morrow married and had children, and one daughter married Andrews. The Andrews lived near Nashville, Tenn. They had a large family of children. Their daughter, Nancy, married Rev. Robert Armstrong. Of them, we will have a more extended account in the future. Her brother, Hugh Andrews, was one of the earliest settlers of Green Co., Ohio.
About the time the Parks came to Baltimore, there were about 25 houses, only four of which were of brick.
The others perhaps were of logs, of every primitive structure.
James Parks had a store in Baltimore, and about 1770, he sent his son, James Parks, Jr., to open a store in Hagarstown, MD, and his sister, Martha Parks, went with him to keep house for him. She had a colored woman to help with the work. James Parks was a royalist.
Already trouble had commenced in the Colonies. The Colonists refused to be taxed so unjustly by England, and the Colonists were not allowed to have any representation in the English Parliament.
The Colonists were not allowed to manufacture anything in America. But they were obliged to buy everything from England. Beaver skins were caught in America, and sent to England to be made into hats, and then the Colonists had to by the hats. There was a sever punishment for any man who dared to manufacture a beaver hat for himself, and there were many other articles in this same class. Window glass was another article that was taxed. The Colonists said they would not buy, but that they would do without these articles, and the Colonists formed companies of mounted militia to scour the country to enforce this rule, that the Colonists should not buy these things, and stores were entered, and if any of the condemned articles were found, they were destroyed by the soldiers militia.
John Gibson, son of Andrew, belonged to one of these Continental militia. One day they rode into Hagarstown. They entered James Parks store, there they found some beaver hats that had been manufactured in England.
The militia took the hats out into the street and made a bonfire of them. Naturally, James Parks would hate all of the Continental militia after the destruction of his fine English beaver hats.
James Parks invited some of his Baltimore friends to visit him at Hagarstown. In those days, they traveled on horse-back, and carried their clothes in saddle bags. Saddle bags were made of leather, about 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 yards long and about half a yard wide. They were sewed down one side, and around both ends, and the other side one third, in the middle was left open, to put in what the owner wished to carry. Then it was strapped together, with a leather strap passed back and forth through slits cut in the edges of the saddle bags. It was thrown across the horse and fastened with straps to the saddle. In these they carried their money and their clothes, and often some corn for their horse. I have a pair in my possession now.
James Parks had bought for his sister, a fine English chintz dress, and the skirt was cut with gores and a train. In her hurry in waiting on her brother's guests, she switched her train, over a pile of delft china plates, that stood on a stone bench in the kitchen, and the plates were all broken in pieces. She was dreadfully frightened for she was afraid her brother would be very angry with her for her accident. So she went into the cellar, where her brother had his dishes stored, and got another set of plates exactly like the broken set, and she carried the broken dishes out and buried them under the currant bushes, and her brother never found out about the broken plates.
John Gibson soon became acquainted with Martha Parks, for his home in Antrim Township, Franklin Co., PA., was about ten miles from Hagarstown. But James Parks did not approve of Continental militia and he forbade Martha having anything to do with such rascals. But Martha was for the cause of the Colonists, and she had her own riding horse, and she and John Gibson often met without her brother knowing of it. They were married in Maryland in 1773. They lived in Chambersburg, and also on Andrew Gibson's farm in Antrim Township, I have heard. Their children are as follows:
This record I copied from great grandfather John Gibson's Bible bought in Blount Co., Tenn., in the year Feb. 23, 1804. This Bible, he gave to his son, John Gibson, and John Gibson gave it to his oldest son, Cyrus Gibson, or it became his after his mother's death. There is a tradition in the family that Martha and John Gibson had two or three children, that met with an accidental death. One was lost in the woods of Tenn, and one fell on a pair of scissors. But their names were not written in this old Bible of John Gibson's. I have heard that their names were, Samuel, Othniel, and Robert.
CHAPTER VI
THE HOGG OR HOGUE FAMILY
I believe the family changed the spelling of their name in Tenn., for my grandmother Gibson always said her name had been Hogg, and she would never own the name of Hogue, and in my reading of the American Archived, I often found the name Hogg, but never saw the name Hogue.
The Hogg's came from the north of Ireland, but in what year I do not know. They settled in Virginia near to Alexandria, and the creek of Bulls Run ran through their farm. James Hogg married Margaret Parks of Baltimore, Md. She was a sister of James Parks, Jr., of Hagarstown, and sister of Martha Parks, who married John Gibson of Antrim Township, Franklin Co., PA. James Hogg was a farmer and a raiser of fine stock, and he and his wife were members of the Associate or Seceder Church. The following is from the American Archives. "Before the Revolution, George Washington and Peter Hogg, both took up land in Augusta Co., VA. Washington had 5,000 acres, and Peter Hougg had 2,100 acres of land, and one of the Hogg brothers and some other white men were killed on the head waters of the Kanawha River. A James Hogg took up land in Greenbrier Co., VA." My grandmother, Martha Hogue was born in Greenbrier Co., VA, Oct. 31, 1774. In what year her father moved there I have not been able to find out.
During the Revolution, the Indians encouraged by the British and helped with arms, committed cruel depredations on the distant frontiers, and many had to give up their farms and return to the settlement.
And nothing remained in a few years to show that the white man had been there. The cabins were burned to the ground, and the clearings made by the settlers were grown up with brush. The children of James Hogg and Margaret Parks, his wife, are as follows:
The war of the Revolution was over, and George Washington was serving his first term as President of the United States, which then numbered 15 states, for Vermont was admitted in 1792.
And James Hogg and all of his family left the state of VA. The went to Franklin Co., PA. On the way, James Hogg's oldest son was taken with small pox and died. His widow and two children, Samuel and Margaret, continued the journey with James Hogg. They all went to stay at John Gibson's home, and there Martha Hogg was taken sick with smallpox. Her aunt Martha Gibson took care of her. She wet a linen cloth in sweet cream, very often and covered Martha Hogg's face with it, keeping it moist all the time, and her face was not marked with smallpox, only two or three on her forehead. (As marks of that terrible disease.)
CHAPTER VII
Before the war of the Revolution, several families, and individuals, who had belonged to the Associate or Seceder Church, both in Scotland, and Ireland, emigrated to what afterwards became the State of Tennessee. They settled at Nashville, and about twenty miles south of Knoxville in east Tennessee, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. It is in Knox County, north of Blount County, and near the Holstein River, which is the boundary line between the two counties.
About the year 1782, The Presbytery of the Associate Church of Pennsylvania, received a petition from these two places, Nashville and Knoxville, praying for preachers to be sent to them.
But it was impossible for the Presbytery to grant this petition, for the ministers had to be sent from Scotland, for there was not at that time any place in America for the theological education of the ministers of the Associate Church. And it was difficult to obtain minsters for the Associate Church of the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina, where there were the greatest numbers of the Associate Churches. And there were a few churches in some of the New England States.
But these people continued steadfast in their faith, and often renewed their petitions for a preacher of the Gospel.
It was 16 years before they received their first ministerial visit.
Between 1790 and 1792, John Gibson, and all of his children, and James Hogg, and all of his children moved to Blount County, Tennessee. I do not know if other families went with them, but it was always desirable to have a large colony in those early days, to form new settlements in new States. Their journeys were long and weary, some through the wilderness infested with wild animals, and the more terrible Indians. Our ancestors were always interested in having churches and schools, where ever they lived.
And were educated, well informed people, as the times and their surroundings would afford.
They journeyed down the Shenandoah Valley, between the mountains, following the streams and rivers, for then they were the main highways of the Colonies. And along the rivers were the most settlements. And the rivers afforded a supply of water for their stock, and for themselves.
And the soil of the bottom land is the richest and the most productive.
Thomas Gibson and Martha Hogg were married on their journey to Tennessee. They were married near Lexington, VA., near the Natural Bridge. There was an Associate Church at Rockbridge, Virginia, which is near Lexington, and both are in Rockbridge County. Rev. John Crie was the minister there in 1792.
The church was established in 1790, Rev. David Somerville was the minister in 1793.
Blount County, Tennessee had been part of North Carolina, there had been a great deal of quarreling over this territory, and much lawlessness committed. In 1790, North Carolina gave up her claim to this territory, and it was then called, the Country Southwest of the Ohio River. William Blount was the first Governor of the State of Tennessee, and it was stipulated by North Carolina, that Tennessee should be a slave state. It was made a State in 1796, the white population then being 67,000, and the slaves 10,000. Andrew jackson was the first representative from Tennessee. A mail route was established there in 1797.
CHAPTER VIII
John Gibson and his oldest son, Thomas Gibson, had fine farms adjoining, and James Hogue had a fine farm on the other side of Thomas Gibson. They were in the state road, and lived three miles south of the Holstine River. John Gibson owned an island in the river of 61 acres, and a farm of several hundred acres. He pastured his cattle and horses on the island in the summer season, and they had a boat to row back and forth.
There was fine timber and water in Tennessee, and good soil, and they raised good indigo and cotton, but railroads had not yet been dreamed of. And the Mississippi River belonged either to France or Spain, and there was no prospect of ever having a market for their grain and stock.
The Cumberland mountains were plainly visible in the distance.
John Gibson lived in a large two story house with a porch, and an ell kitchen. The house fronted towards the state road, with a wide gravel walk leading to the front gate, with a row of Catalpa trees each side of the walk.
And lilac, and rose bushes, and other shrubbery. A fine garden, and a large orchard of different kinds of fruit. And meadow land, and he had a fine large barn. He made a settee and bottomed it with cane, to stand on the porch. And when the grandchildren went to visit their grandparents, the children thought it a great treat to sleep on the settee.
Thomas Gibson's house was built the same style as his father's house, but it was built of nice hewed logs.
James Hogue's house was situated a mile on the other side of Thomas Gibson's house. Thomas Gibson had a very fine spring that ran out of the cliffs above, and a spring house below the spring, where the water was deep and clear, and near the spring, shading it with its branches, was a large persimmon tree. The fruit was not good to eat until frost came and touched the fruit with his icy breath, and then they were delicious, and there was a scramble in the early morning among the children to see who would get there first, and get the fallen fruit.
John Gibson and his wife were both young people when they went to Tennessee, and they had children born in Tennessee. One son was named Samuel. One day in the early spring, when the days were still cool, and the children were at school, the school house was warmed by a fireplace built of stone. The teacher allowed the children to go and gather pine cones to burn in the firplace, for they make a beautiful fire. Sammie was six years old, he got separated from the other children and they supposed he had gone home, for his home was near the school house. But when school was ended, and the children went home in the evening, Sammie was not there, and could not be found. His poor mother was almost distracted with grief. The neighbors all came to help search for the lost boy, and the poor mother would go to assist in the search for her darling.
They rang bells, and called loudly, and searched for days, but could find no trace of the little boy. In August of the same year, a neighbor was hunting in the woods. As he was about to cross over a log over a stream of water, close by the log, covered with cane and leaves, he found the remains of clothing and bones of a small child. He informed John Gibson of his discovery, and he and the mother and friends went to see the remains, and the mother recognized the clothes and the bottons, as those worn by her darling boy. They could not tell how he came to his death. If he were killed by an Indian or had died of cold and starvation. It was such a comfort to his mother to find his remains and bury them in the church yard, and to settle the dreadful uncertainty of his disappearance
I do not know if these people owned negro slaves or not. ?But either in Pennsylvania or Tennessee, John Gibson owned a negro man, who had been a Prince in his own country of Africa, before he had been seized, and sold into slavery in America. This negro would not obey any person's orders but his master's, John Gibson. Two strangers stopped at John Gibson's house one day and asked for feed for their horses. He told the man to drive to the barn, and there they would find a colored man, who would feed their horses for them.
The negro threw down as many sheaves of oats as he thought the horses needed. The men ordered the negro to throw down more oats, but he said no, that was enough oats for the horses. One of the men struck him with his whip; the negro caught the white man and threw him on the floor, and took a two pronged pitch fork and placed it over the man's neck, with a prong each side, and then placed the end of the handle under the beam, so the man could not get up, and the other man he picked up and threw into a grain bin, where he could not get out, and he went away and left them to enjoy their imprisonment. John Gibson heard their calls for help and went out and released them. Another time a man driving carelessly knocked down John Gibson's fence, the negro called to the man to put up the fence again, but the man refused to be ordered by a nigger. So the negro caught the man and stripped off all his clothes, and took them to his master, for that was the way they did in Africa. But John Gibson made the negro to understand that he could not do that way in America.
Thomas Gibson was educated in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He said his uncle, Thomas Gibson, often carried him to school on his back, through the deep snow, when he was a little fellow.
Thomas went to Baltimore and worked for his uncle, James Sterling, and his uncle Thomas Gibson, these two were in partnership in business. There Thomas learned the stone mason's trade, which was very useful to him in his after pioneer life.
Thomas was a very fine penman. Some of his business papers, which are still in existence are a model of neatness and accuracy; and his writing looked like steel engraving.
Thomas Gibson fought against the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee, but he did not like to talk about that war, for he said some of the white soldiers were very cruel to the Indian prisoners. They would kill the Indian children, because the mothers could not carry their children and keep up with the marching soldiers. He would think of his own little ones at home, and he would feel so sorry for the poor Indian mothers. He was opposed to all unnecessary cruelty and bloodshed. The Tennessee Indians were of the most savage tribes, and Kentucky and Tennessee had been a battle ground for ages between different tribes.
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