Early Pioneers of Summersville

www.TuolumneMuseum.org/wdgibbs.htm

Tuolumne City Memorial Museum

Historical Research Committee

Joseph Celentano

The Family of William Dulaney Gibbs and Mary Frances Summers Gibbs

The following are excerpts from an article in the Tuolumne Prospector published 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. TCMM Historical Research Committee inserted [bracketed] words 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 21^st.

“[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 5^th, 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 9^th, 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.” [1948]

---- The End ----

Additional historical information came from the Summers Family of California book by Georgia Kinney Bopp.

www.TuolumneMuseum.org/wdgibbs.htm

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