History: Columbia County. The Gibson Family, Reminisces of Dr. H. R. Casey ======================================================================= USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store this file permanently for free access. This file was contributed by: Stephanie Harrison info@conquestmusic.com ======================================================================= Articles written for the Columbia Sentinel in 1883. Permission granted by the Columbia County News and transcribed by Stephanie Harrison. The articles were written in 1883 by Dr H. R. Casey for the Columbia Sentinel. He writes about many of the early pioneers of Columbia County who arrived in Georgia in the late 1700's and early 1800's. Names mentioned in this article: S.A. Gibson, Dexter Gibson, Shade Gibson, Mrs Holmes, Mrs Henry Merry, Mrs Smith Briscoe, Edward {Pearre}, Ben {Pearre}, Wave and Ike Ballard, Ida Ballard, Mrs Pearre, Mrs Dexter Gibson, Job, Issac and S.A. Gibson, Peter Wright,Fred {Gibson}, Rozier {Gibson}and John {Gibson}. May 17, 1883 S.A. Gibson is the son of Dexter Gibson who emigrated from Newborn, N.C., in 1800 and bought some 700 acres of land about three miles south of Appling and built up for himself the name of an honest, industrious and successful farmer. By these habits and the maxim that "a penny saved is a penny made", he was rapidly accumulating from the virgin soil a handsome property, when death cut short his career. Dexter Gibson died in 1815. I did not know him, but his brother, who bore the soubrequet of "Uncle Shade", an abbreviation I presume, of Shadrach the name of one of those Hebrew characters, who walked through the fiery furnace and emerged therefrom without even the smell of fire upon his garmets. But this happened in the days of miracles and I rather think Shade Gibson would have not made the venture. I learned that in the early life, Shade was not so money making as was Dexter. He preferred to enjoy life in these ways in which money is required to carry one along. His motto was Dum Vinimus Vivamus and he was "hale fellows, well met," with all his friends. I did not know him until he was well advanced in years and I not only knew him as a stay-at-home, good, kind and clever gentleman. I knew only two of his children--Mrs Holmes, now dead, mother of Mrs Henry Merry of Berzelia and Mrs Smith Briscoe who still lives in this county. I knew Mrs Dexter Gibson being her family physician for several years previous to her death. She was one of the good ones of the earth--the salt that did not lose its savor through life. She was beloved by all that knew her, and well did she deserve that love. She was an exemplary member of the Methodist Church for forty or fifty years. She died in 1854, at the advanced age of 76, having spent a long life of usefullness to herself, her family and her friends. Having made that preparation which would secure a home in the great hereafter, she quietly and sererenely yielded and answered to the call and her spirit passed from earth to its reward in Heaven. She raised five children-- Edward, who I think died in early manhood; Mrs Ballard, who by her first marriage was Mrs Pearre. By this wedlock she had three sons, of whom Ben has always lived in Columbia , except a few passed years in Thomson. By her second marriage she raised two sons--Wave and Ike Ballard both living in Columbia-- and one daughter, who married and died in early life. Ida Ballard was indeed an ornament to her sex, beloved by all, both white and black. I know of no mother who raised five cleverer, more industrious sons than did Mrs Pearre. The other sons of Mrs Dexter Gibson was Job, Issac and S.A. Gibson. Job and Issac left Columbia in early manhood and settled in Decatur county on the Chattahoochee river. S. A. Gibson or "Al" as he is called was the darling of his mother in her declining years, to whom he was kind and attentive as he could be and on her death inherited the old homestead where he now lives with his nice little wife and six children. And though the frosts of 62 winters have dilvered his locks and taken from him the appearance of youth it is "Al", Gibson yet. He remained single until about 45, and was a gay bachelor when I came to the county near 35 years ago. My first acquaintance with him was made at Madison Springs, sometime about 1837 or 1838. He was there in company with Peter Wright who was a bachelor. And just before I am tempted to tell a good joke on Al that happened on this trip. I'll tell it to you, and if he does not object you may publish it. Now Al is a royal good fellow, full of jokes and even at this time of life he never comes to Appling but one or more of his many friends are obliged to start some tale just to get him started when he comes back with his superlatives, looking as mad as blue blazes but meaning no harm whatever. But he don't care worth a cent and whoever picks him up for one that won't fight is a bad judge of human nature. I know you are fond of a joke, Mr Editor and her it is: As Al and Peter Wright were returning home they stopped at a spring by the roadside and had just taken "a smile" from a flask of good old Bourbon, when a countryman with an apple cart drove up. Al and the stranger soon got into conversation, and Al was drawing largely on his imagination to appear a "big bug". "I am just returning from the springs", said Al, whither I went for a disease with which I suffer. What kind of disease had you? asked the apple man. The swelled legs," said Al. Now, it so happened that "tights" were the fashion then and he was in the tip of the fashion, his pants so tight that a bed-bug or a flea crawling between them and the skin would have been in danger of death. Al, we all know is not much troubled with fat legs, but belongs rather to the "lean kine" and in "tights" would show a scant pattern of a pair of tongs. You say you had the swelled legs, Mister?" "Yes", replied Al. "Well, sir, all I have to say is that you are the best cured man I ever saw. I think you have mistaken the locality. Wasn't it the swelled head?" "My friend", said Al, "I think by gracious alive (a favorite expression of his) that you've got me. Come and take a drink." In the good old ante-bellum times Al was one of our best-to-do planters. The possessor of two large landed estates, with slaves, mules, and all kinds of stock. Al could sit in his veranda with his friends-and he had many-and looking over his broad acres, luxuriant with crops, could say in truth "I am monarch of all I survey, my right there is none to dispute. But alas! In common with many of his friends a great change has come over him. The late war; and its long train of evil, the loss of his slave property, depreciation of lands, scarcity of money and heavy per cent for advances have told heavily on his surrounds and to-day the labor on his farm of only a few acres is done by himself and his three sons. Fred is about grown, Rozier and John but lads. I learn that Al takes his hoe and continues at work, day in and day out, during the crop season. For this I think he deserves praise for with just such bad fortune as his many have been driven to desperation. It is not common for men, after reaching 62 years, not being accustomed to labor to take the summer suns and winter freezes and become a daily laboror. Oh, for a better day for Al, and all of us! The writer saw Mr S. A. Gibson a few weeks since in Harlem looking better in health than he had seen him in several years. He was a little shocked to hear a few days thereafter that his old friend was dead. He was indeed a clever man, a good citizen and did not have I suppose an enemy in the county. Peace to his ashes.