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| William Smith Gibbs, known by everybody in Morgan county as Squire
Gibbs, because he was for
so many years justice of the peace at Proctor, lives in Versailles at the present time and makes his home with his son John F. Gibbs who is a lawyer. Squire Gibbs is in good health and sprits and is one of the most highly esteemed citizens in the county. Tuesday, June 25, 1907 he came into the Statesman office and made the following statement for publication in this history: -- “I was born in Morristown, East Tenn., April 24, 1835. My father’s name was Thomas Jefferson Gibbs and my mother’s maiden name was Margaret McFarland. Both were born in Virginia but I do not know in what years. I came to Morgan county with my parents in 1829 and settled on the Osage river, the south side, in what was then known as Kinderhook. A tree fell on my father in 1840 and killed him. We soon thereafter moved to Johnson county where we lived three years and them came back to south Morgan and settled at the same place, Proctor, on this side of the river. I have lived in that section and in Versailles all the time except when we lived in Johnson county. Father is buried at the Willson burying ground on the Osage and mother is buried at Otterville. She was married the second time. The last time she married W. C. Reed of Otterville. She died in 1872. I have two half sisters. They are Mrs. John A. Willson, mother of our sheriff, C. E. Willson, and Mrs. W. A. Taylor, of Big Buffalo. I had two brothers, Prof. A. M. Gibbs who died in 1901, and John M., killed in the war and buried at Warsaw in 1861. Brother A. M. Gibbs is buried at Otterville. My father was a farmer all of his life. He was an old time Whig. I got my education in subscription schools, there were no public schools in those days. I have been a member of the Methodist church 58 years. When born, I was christened in that church by old Brother William G. Barlow, the well known eminent southern divine whose good works history will always tell about. My wife died January 27, 1902, and is buried at Versailles. I raised a family of nine children, six are dead and three are living. The living are Dr. T. J. Gibbs of Proctor, John F. Gibbs, lawyer of Versailles, and Fannie, wife of Rev. J. W. Bond of Brock, Texas. I was in the union army nearly four years and was one of the first volunteers from Morgan county. I was justice of the peace in the south part of the county many years and was postmaster in Versailles from 1865 to 1872. I have had my part of the family sickness, hard luck and much to discourage a man but I am happy in founding out my life that it has been no worse with me than it has. I have not done as much as I should have done, but I am proud of my record as a citizen, am proud that I a man American citizen; am proud that I am a veteran union soldier and that I am drawing a pension as a testimony of my worth to my country as a soldier. I am proud of my record as a church member, although I want your book to say that I regard myself as one of the weakest in the church. I am proud that I am a Mason. In short, I feel satisfied with my effort and have few regrets. Probably a dozen families from Tennessee came to Morgan county about the same time as my parents did. They were all related or acquainted and settled along the Osage river in a sort of Tennessee colony and lived and brought up large good families in that section of the county. These old families were: The Willsons, the Earnests, Snyders, Ivy, Kauffman, Cables, Bollingers and Appletons. At that time the country was all unfenced and was all government land. These families all entered land from the government. The old ones are all dead and the second generation are nearly all dead. I think I am the oldest member living. Nobody was permanently settled in that part of the county when we moved here. There were some hunters and trappers camped around there but they had entered no land and were not permanently located. Ours was the first permanent settlement made in the south part of the county. Possibly the first church in the county was the old Methodist church built at Proctor in 1844. Robert J. Willson preached there then. He was the local preacher. The circuit riders that I remember were: John Monroe and a Mr. Headly. The Baptists held services whenever a wandering Baptist preacher came through the country but this was not often. The Baptists had no organization there then. Everybody in the whole country patronized Josiah Walton’s grist mill. He was the grandfather of our J. S. Thruston. I remember the first steamboat that ever went up the river past Proctor. Its captain was Burgis who died after years at Warsaw. The boat was called the Canoy and was afterwards wrecked two miles below Proctor and was never repaired. this was in 1842. The people did not raise much in those times. They consumed at home all they raised. There was no marked for anything much and there was not much to stimulate the people to greater action and production. All of the clothing was made at home. About all we bought was coffee and salt’ we raised the rest. We paid for what we bought with furs, deer skins, and venison hams. Versailles was just a village. The first store I was ever in was in Versailles. W P. Tooley and W. W. Crook were the proprietors under the firm name of Crook & Tooley.” -------------------------------------------------------- I had intended to add to these statements one from J. S. Thruston,
known among us as Syd
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