Remembering
Tuolumne...
By Joseph Celentano,
TCMM Historical Research Committee,
E-mail: JCelentano@TuolumneMuseum.org
Early Pioneers of
Summersville
Continuing with the spirit of the 2004
Tuolumne Township Sesquicentennial celebration, we will focus on yet another
pioneer family of Summersville, the Gibbs’ Family.
The following are excerpts from an article
in the Tuolumne Prospector on January 22, 1948, written by Laurie
Ellen Gibbs Sawrie (1858-1952), granddaughter of Samuel and Elizabeth
Summers.
As you read this column, remember it is
from a newspaper article dated 1948. It should be noted that there are certain discrepancies and
inconsistencies within this article. It
is a good lesson to remember when dealing with family genealogy history. This article contradicts some information we have from Lee Ann Summers Whipple-Haslam’s book, Early Days in
California, published in 1924.
[Bracketed] words were
inserted by TCMM Historical Research Committee for clarity.
- - - - - -
“Early in 1850, Samuel Summers,
with his sons, Dr. George, James, Frank and [John] Jack Summers, arrived
in this section to try their luck at mining.
Deciding that this was where they wanted to make their home, the father [Samuel Summers] returned to Missouri for the rest of
the family [wife and 10 children]. The
sons developed the claims in his absence.
“For the father [Samuel Summers], the long
hard return journey was made in the spring of 1851. It took four months and twelve days to make
the overland trip from St. Louis to Summersville [Long Gulch]. Lee Ann, Nancy, Jesse, Katherine, Emily, Mary
Frances, Eliza, Jane and [Isabelle] Belle [Summers] were
the children in the party. [This is
where a big discrepancy occurs. Laurie
Sawrie failed to mention that Samuel’s son, Frank and his family,
were also in the party. This is confirmed in Lee Ann Haslam’s book.] During the first month, death overtook the
caravan and Emily [Samuel’s daughter, age 17] was laid
to rest by the roadside.
“Somewhere in Nevada, during the last
month of the journey, the father [Samuel Summers, age 55] died. Two sons, Jim and Frank, left Summersville
[actually, Long Gulch,
since Summersville was not named yet] to meet the party. They reached them just the day after the
father was buried. [Another discrepancy;
Frank was the son who went back to Missouri with his father.]
“The brave mother [Elizabeth Summers, wife
of Samuel Summers and mother of Frank], who was almost blind, continued on with
her children knowing full well the hardships, which lay ahead.
“Placer mining gave way to quartz mining
and the Summers’ brothers built a stamp mill at Upper Camp, which is upper
Summersville [Old Town], near Miss Ruth Tupper’s home. They had a boarding house and a Chinese cook,
which was quite an event in those days. [This
is another discrepancy. It was Elizabeth Summers, widow of Frank, who
had the boarding house.]
“The children married and moved about the
country. Elizabeth Summers [wife of Samuel
Summers and mother of Frank], spent very little time in Summersville. Jess Summers was
killed by an Indian in Mono County.
James made his home in Bridgeport.
He and his wife died there. They
had five children including one set of twins.
“Frank Summers married [Elizabeth]
‘Lizzie’ McGlacklin in Gentry County, Missouri. They had two children. John and Lee Ann
Summers. John was the first
white child born in Summersville. [Two
years] after Frank Summers was killed in a
courtroom row in which he was a witness, his widow married [William C.] Bill
Connally. Their children were Alice
Connally Winwood, George B., Frank, Bill [William C. Jr.] and Charles
Connally. Their home was near where
the West Side depot now stands. Later
they moved to Long Gulch at the foot of Mt. Eaton. Only a few rock foundations stand to show
that this town once existed.
“Eliza G. Summers married Joe Bittick. They
had three sons; [George Bittick,] the youngest
died in Summersville and Henry and Albert Bittick went
to Arizona and became cattlemen.
“Dr. George Summers married Amanda
Peeler. Sarah, George, Rosa and
John Summers were their children.
Rosa [Summers Bratten-Eichenberger] is still living in
Oregon at 90 years of age. John became a doctor, but as with the others, has passed on.
“William Dulaney Gibbs [son of William Joseph and Vashti
Margaret Gibbs] came to California from Texas on a mule, starting in
1849 and reaching Shaws Flat and then Columbia, the
best results having been with a cradle at Shaws
Flat.
“He was the only Gibbs to come to
California, but several neighbors accompanied him, one being the Joe Bittick, mentioned above, who became his
brother-in-law.
“William Dulaney Gibbs met and married Mary
Frances Summers at Roberts Ferry, near LaGrange, December 23, 1853.
“They were blessed with sixteen
children: George Jefferson, Laura
Ellen, [baby] Silas, Flora Elizabeth, James Lee and Lee Dora (twins), Mary
Frances, William Phillip, Henry Jackson, Samuel [who was stillborn],
Rose Virginia, Walter Augustus, Jesse Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Ada May and Roy Crittenden [Gibbs].
“The Family moved from Roberts Ferry to
Summersville on January 2, 1860. [Baby]
Silas Gibbs, only eight days old, died.
There was no cemetery here. The
mother watched from her window as the father and other members of the family
carried the little body up the hill.
When they reached, what she thought was the nicest spot, she waved her
handkerchief and the father started what has grown to be Carter Cemetery.
“The twins, James Lee and Lee Dora, were
born at Marlow Diggings, what is now known as the George Baker
Ranch. They weighed 2 ½ and 3 ½ pounds
at birth. Through the loving care of
their mother and without the aid of an incubator, they will be 84 years young
this March 21st.
“[James L.] Jim Gibbs [married Ada Dell Gurley], whose children were Jessie
and Bernice Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs has
remained faithful to these parts, while his twin, [Lee Dora] Mrs. F.F. [Farlen Ford] Ball is
still in her home in Sonora.
“Henry [Jackson] Gibbs [married Poole
Wilson] and went to Texas, the home of his father, and is still living
there.
“Laura Ellen Gibbs married Reverend
Robert Alexander Sawrie, a minister in Sonora. She lives at Auberry and will be ninety years
old on March 5th, 1948. She has been bedridden for six years, but her
nimble fingers made many Afghans during the past war. She was the mother of two children, Mark
and Roberta Sawrie [Myers], and is responsible for the data of this
article.
“Jesse [Jay] Gibbs was a merchant
in Tuolumne in partnership with his brother Jim. He was also at one time supervisor of this
district. He later moved to Jamestown
where he conducted a grocery store until his death. He married Annie Tenney
and they were the parents of four children, James, William, Jan and Margaret
Gibbs.
“William [Phillip] Gibbs [1869-1899]
married Flora Belle Stackpole, aunt of Mrs. Myrtle
McGibbon who is still a Tuolumne resident. William Gibbs died in Alameda in 1899. Their children were Ora
[Viola] and Sherman [William] Gibbs.
“Mrs. McGibbons
sister, Harriet H. Johnson, married Walter [Augustus] Gibbs. They had two children, Ruth and Leslie
Gibbs. Walter [Phillip] Gibbs died
in 1905.
“William Dulaney Gibbs died at the Marlow
Ranch from natural causes on September 9th, 1895 at age 65. He was active in politics and schoolwork and
emphasized the better things for his family.
Mary Frances Gibbs died at Selma, aged 83, on July 30, 1920.
“In her reminiscing, Mrs. Laurie Ellen Gibbs
Sawrie tells, ‘….a large hydraulic mine was near our home and I remember,
when I was a little girl, seeing a gold pan with the bottom covered with gold
dust outside the boss’ door. No one was
near the cabin. In those days, stealing was considered a far worse crime than murder. Well I remember a tree where three men were hanged for stealing!
My first school days were at Summersville. The first term of a few weeks, I learned the
alphabet forward and backward and my first words were ab-ob-eb-ib. That was in 1863. How well I remember when President Lincoln
was killed.’
“Grandma Elizabeth Summers [Samuel Summers
wife – a widow who never remarried - and mother of Frank] died at Hopeton, California when 79 years old. Besides being the mother to thirteen, she
took three little girls [orphans, ca. 1855] whose mother had died in a camp
near by. She had never seen them
before. In those days, there were such
strong bonds of friendship and willingness to help one another.
“I remember when we weighed gold dust in
little scales. Printed coins were rare
and guarded as real treasure. After a rain,
we children would pick up pieces of gold and keep them in a box until we had
enough to trade. Money was cheap and
goods scarce but we had good times. A
sled made of boards was prized as highly as a
bicycle. We had many happy hours playing
games in our family. Hopscotch was a
favorite. We played it in bare feet to
save our shoes!”
“The Gibbs’ family tree, together with
rare items of interest which belonged to the family, are
now on display in Max Raff’s store window.”
---- The End ----
…and thus, another page
turns in the history of Remembering Tuolumne.
Additional historical
information came from the Summers Family of California book by Georgia
Kinney Bopp.
This article may be viewed in
its entirety on the TCMM Web Site at:
TuolumneMuseum.org/pioneerfamilies.htm
Copyright 2004 TCMM, all rights reserved.
NOV 2004
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