Anna Gipson and her ancestors

The Halls loved Annie and her people

Anna Rosinda Gipson, called "Annie," was one of three members of her family to marry into the Hall family. She married Newton Jasper Hall about 1881, probably in Pickens County, Georgia. His brother, James Allen Hall, married her aunt on her mother’s side, Eliza Ann Sheppard before 1870, and George Washington Hall, believed to be another brother, married her aunt on her father’s side, Edith Elizabeth Gipson, on 10 February 1883 in Gilmer County, Georgia.

“Annie” Gipson was born in August 1862 in Pickens County, and died on 23 December 1919 in the Oostanaula District of Gordon County, Georgia, at the age of 58. Her father was William Asa Gipson of Gilmer and Pickens Counties, born about 1838 and died in 1881 at the age of 42, and her mother was Mary Ann Hickman, born about 1839 and died after 1880, both probably in Pickens County. Asa and Mary Ann probably married in 1861, since Annie is their oldest child, but I could find no record of their marriage, nor do I know where they are buried.

In the family, Annie was always known as Annie Gibson, but the census records clearly spell the name with a “p.” There are examples of both spellings in the records, and one web posting suggests that the interchangeability of the B and P suggests they are of German descent. In one case, the spelling was permanently changed from Gipson to Gibson at some point. A parallel line of Gipson/Gibsons in Gilmer County, the descendants of Solomon Gipson, born 1797 in North Carolina, changed the spelling from Gipson to Gibson just before 1900 (see below).

Annie appears in the census records four times: in 1870 with her family in Pickens County; in 1880 with her family in the Talking Rock District of Pickens County; in 1900 with her husband Jasper and their children in the Talking Rock District, and in 1910 in the Oostanaula District, Gordon County.

Little else is known about Annie Gipson. As said, she appears for the final time in the 1910 census as a widow in the Oostanaula District of Gordon County. She is living with six of her children, her grandchildren Maude and Grady Itson, and her aunt Mary F. Harris, William Asa’s sister. Annie can read, but she cannot write.

According to her death certificate, Annie died of “appoplexy.” The term appoplexy can mean bleeding, or a seizure, and commonly refers to a stroke. Her death certificate says her father was “Ahaz Gibson” and her mother Maryann “Henderson.” The personal information was provided by her son, Sherman. Information in the census records in general tends to vary from one decade to another, including the spelling of names, ages, and birth states of parents.

Annie is buried next to her husband Newton Jasper Hall, both in unmarked graves, in a small family cemetery called “The Land Cemetery” next door to the present Gordon County Animal Shelter off Harris Beamer Road in Calhoun, Georgia.

Annie’s father William Asa Gipson, known as Asa, may have had a previous marriage. A William A. Gipson married Catherine Collins on 7 December 1856 in Gilmer County. The only Catherine Collins I could find in the 1850 census was in Division 12, Gordon County. She was born about 1843 in South Carolina, which would have made her 13 or so in 1856. William Asa Gipson would have been 17 or 18 in 1856. William Asa is living with his family in 1850 and 1860, but I could find no other William A. Gipson in Gilmer, Pickens, or any surrounding county in the 1860 census.

William, at age 25 years, five months, is listed in the 1864 Militia Enrollment List for Pickens County (commonly called the “Joe Brown census”). The list included all men of military age who were not currently serving in the Confederate Army. William is listed as exempt from service because of an unnamed disability. His father, Harrison, is on the same list.

William and Mary are living in the Talking Rock District, Pickens County, in 1870. They are three houses from Susannah Jordan, the widow of the Rev. Robert Jordan, four houses from Allen Hall and Eliza Ann Gipson, and five houses from Anna Stephens. Anna is Mary's mother. The Halls and Gipsons apparently knew the Rev. Jordan and his family fairly well. In 1880 in the Talking Rock District, Allen Hall's mother Susannah is living next door to Hugh Allen, who married  the Rev. Jordan's daughter, Elizabeth. The Rev. Jordan and his wife Susannah were the parents of Capt. Benjamin F. Jordan, leader of the notorious Pickens County Home Guards, who were, I believe, a major factor in the Scared Corn-Ryo murders.

In 1880, William and Mary and their children, including Annie, are living in the Talking Rock District of Pickens County next door to his father Harrison and her mother Anne (Stephens). Yes, Annie Gipson Hall’s maternal grandmother married her paternal grandfather.

Asa Gipson and Mary Hickman had the following children:
 
1. Anna Rosinda Gipson, born August 1862.

2. Amos Shepard Gipson, born 4 February 1864 in Gilmer County.

3. William Harrison Gipson, born 11 April 1869, probably in Pickens County. He died 28 March 1939 according to his tombstone (10 April 1930 according to a website) and is buried at the Hinton Cemetery in Hinton, Pickens County. He married Shady Dezuras Moss (19 May 1877-12 January 1945). She is buried next to him. They had 11 children, some of whose names I include here because they are interesting: Benelee, Marion Alvin, and Genie Grady (male).

Shady Dezuras Moss is probably related to the family of Gabriel Moss, Sr., and Tabithia McFarland, who are also buried at Hinton. Ironically, two of their sons married daughters of Jacob Archibald Collins, Jr., who is a gg-uncle of Thiddo Smith, Gladys Hall’s husband (see Collins in North Carolina and Georgia).

4. David Elic (Alexander?) Gipson, born 1 April 1867 in Pickens County and died 16 May 1952 according to his tombstone in the Hinton Church cemetery (a website says he was born in 1872). Newton Jasper and Annie Gipson Hall had a son named Alexander who was called Elic.

5. Marion H. Gipson, born1874, probably in Pickens County. Marion may be the source of Anna Rosinda's son Sherman Marion Hall's name, as well as mine.

6. Andrew A. Gipson, born1876, probably in Pickens County.

7. Georgia Gipson, born 1877, probably in Pickens County.

Annie comes from a line of widows that included her grandmother Anna Hickman-Stephens, and her great-grandmother, Anna Sheppard. Neither of their husbands are known, nor is the elder Anna’s maiden name. All the Annas can be confusing, too.

Mary Ann Hickman's mother Anna Sheppard was born 1818 in South Carolina and sometime before 1839, she married a Hickman and produced Mary Ann that year. It was a short marriage because by 1840, Anna is apparently widowed, divorced, or abandoned and living with her mother.  Anna Sheppard Hickman later married Larkin Stephens, born in 1797 (he was 22 years her senior), sometime before 1860. Larkin, who also appears in the 1840 Gilmer County census, died before 1870, and by 1880, Anna had married Harrison Gipson.

Without other records, at this time it is impossible to tell just who Anna Sheppard-Hickman-Stephens-Gipson's first husband was, who her father was, or what her mother's maiden name was.
    
Anna Rosinda Gipson’s great-grandmother Anna Sheppard, mother of Anna Sheppard-Hickman-Stephens-Gipson, was born in South Carolina in 1781 and died before 1860, in Gilmer or Pickens County. She is one of the earliest white residents of Gilmer County, appearing as a head-of-household in the county’s first census in 1840, just two years after the Cherokee removal. Based on the ages and birth states of her children, she and her husband apparently got married before 1817 in South Carolina, and migrated first to North Carolina by 1833 before settling in Gilmer County by 1840.

In the 1840 Gilmer census, Anna is one of only three Sheppards listed as heads-of-household. The others are Amos and Benjamin, so they may be related to her husband.

Anna Sheppard had a second daughter, Eliza Ann, born 1833 in North Carolina. As noted, Eliza Ann Sheppard married Allen Hall, Anna Rosinda Gipson’s brother-in-law. The birth years of her two girls indicates that Anna Sheppard was married from at least 1817 to 1832. She may have had other children, of course, especially males who were either old enough to be out on their own or were living with relatives after her husband died sometime in the 1830s. One possibility for a son is Wilburn or William Sheppard, who is her next door neighbor in 1860 in the Dug Road District of Pickens County.

Wilburn/William was born about 1834 in North Carolina, a year after Eliza Ann was born. He is married to Mary, 26, born in Georgia, and they have two children, Nancy C. 6, and a son, 2, whose name is difficult to decipher. It appears to be something like Sanders A.

In the 1870 census for Truck Wheel, Pickens County, Anna Stephens is a widow with a child in the household named Cynthia L. Stephens, 9, born 1861 in Georgia. The 1870 census does not list family relationships, but in the 1880 census for the Talking Rock District, Pickens County, Harrison Gipson and Anna Stephens have a granddaughter named Cinthia, 18, born in Georgia. Cynthia is listed as a Gipson, but there is only one known child with that name in Harrison’s family. She is the daughter of Harrison's brother (see below).

In the 1880 census, both Cynthia’s parents are said to have been born in Georgia, which means she cannot be Wilburn/William or Eliza Ann Sheppard’s child. Cynthia L. is probably the child of some unknown son of Anna Stephens. Cynthia could be Mary Hickman’s child as well, although that would make her illegitimate.

I must add that in the 1860 census for the Dug Road District of Pickens County, there is a Lawson E. Gipson with a daughter named Syntha J., 1. He is 29, a farmer born in North Carolina about 1831, and married to Avila, 20, born in Georgia. They have two children; the other is John C. 2,. I don't know if Lawson is related, but probably so. Harrison had a brother named James Lawson Gipson.

Syntha might be the Cynthia that appears in Anna Sheppard’s household in 1880, although that Cynthia is 9 and 18 in those censuses and is said to be the child of parents born in Georgia.

Without further information, it is impossible to tell just who these Cynthias are.

William Asa Gipson’s line

William Asa Gipson’s father was William Harrison Gibson. He was born 1815-17 in North Carolina, probably Burke County, and died after 1880, probably in Pickens County. As noted, Harrison is on the 1864 Militia Enlistment List for Pickens County. His age is listed as 53 years 1 month, which indicates he was born in 1811, but the census records consistently indicate he was born 1813-17. Harrison appears in Gilmer censuses in 1840, 1850, and 1860, and is in the 1870 and 1880 Pickens County censuses. In 1860, he is in the Dug Road District of Gilmer and in 1880 is in the Talking Rock District of Pickens County. I don't know where he is buried.

Harrison was married twice. His first wife was Rosanna Lucinda or Lucinda Rosanna Weaver, said to have been born in North Carolina in 1819 in some records, but born in 1821-23 in the census records. She was apparently named Rosanna Lucinda or vice-versa because Harrison is married to Rosanna, 29, in 1850, Lucinda, 37, in 1860, and Rosey, 47, in 1870. Harrison and Rosanna married about 1837 and migrated to Georgia soon after. In the 1840 Gilmer census, they have one child, a son under 5. That would be William Asa, born about 1838.

His second wife was Anna Sheppard, Anna Rosinda’s aunt, as noted above, whom he married late in life.

Harrison, or more likely his uncle Harrison, may have been one of the winners in the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery, apparently as a proxy. The citation is: Number 253, Fourth District, Fourth Section, Cherokee County. His residence is listed as Beasleys, Oglethorpe County, Georgia. This designation of "Cherokee County" refers to the old Cherokee County, which originally encompassed the entire Cherokee Nation in Georgia. The Fourth District of the Fourth Section on an 1831 map is just west of Rome, Georgia, in Floyd County.

The 1880 census says William Harrison Gipson was born in North Carolina, but his parents states of birth are listed as “unknown.”

The known children of Harrison and Rosey Gipson, all born in Georgia, were:
    
1. William Asa Gipson, Anna Rosinda’s father.
    
2. Mary F. Gipson, born 1840. She married Henry Harris. In the 1880 Town Creek District (Georgia Militia District 1135), Henry Harris, 37, a farm laborer born in Georgia of parents born in South Carolina, is married to Mary F., 34, born in Georgia of parents born in Georgia (the birth states of her parents is in error). They have two sons, Thomas J. 4 and John H. 2, both born in Georgia. In the household are Edy E. (Edith Elizabeth) Gipson, 20, and Thomas W. Gipson, 14, both born in Georgia of parents born in Georgia. Edy is Mary's sister. I do not know who Thomas is, but he may be James, below. Mary Harris, 71, is living with Anna Rosinda Hall in 1910 in the Oostanaula District of Gordon County. She is listed as an aunt. 
    
3, Rachel C. Gipson, born 1843. I know nothing else about her, but Anna Rosinda Gipson's eldest child, Rachel, is probably named for her.

4. John D. Gipson, born 1845-7. He is listed as 23 in the 1870 Pickens County census (no district listed), and 25 in the 1880 Town Creek District census, but the latter must have been written in error and should be 35. In 1870, he is living next door to Harrison and Rosanna, with his wife Mary (Talley), 25. They have two children: Lucinda 4, and Sarah 2. Mary and the children are born in Georgia. In the 1880 census, John D. and Mary Gipson are living next door to Henry and Mary Harris. Their children are Elizabeth A. 13 and Sarah M. 11, and in the household is Mary’s mother, Elizabeth Talley, 80, born in Georgia of parents born in Georgia.
    
5. Doctor Robert Gipson, born 1850. He is listed as seven-months-old in the 1850 census, which was taken in September, so he was probably born in February. He is in the 1860 census for Dug Road, Pickens County. He is living with the family and listed as Robert, 19, in the 1870 census. The name Doctor, while unusual, was not without precedent. Doctor Robert was named for his uncle, Doctor E. Gipson, below.
    
6. Edith Elizabeth Gipson, born 1855. Elizabeth Gipson married G. W. Hall in 1883 in Gilmer County. G. W. may be Jasper Hall’s brother, George Washington Hall (See "The mystery of George Washington Hall" on the Newton Jasper Hall page). Edith died between 1910 and 1920 in the Plainville District of Gordon County.
    
7. Nancy E. Gipson, born 1860. I know nothing else about her.
    
8. James Gipson, born 1865. I know nothing else about him, but he may be the Thomas, 14, in the household of Henry Harris in 1880.

In the 1870 Pickens County census, Mary, Rachel, Elizabeth, Robert, Nancy, and James are all in the household, but in the 1880 census, none of them are.

Minyard Harris-Gipson and Rachel Wallis

Based upon a review of the different sources, it appears that William Harrison Gipson’s father was probably Minyard Gipson or Gibson, born Minyard Harris about 1795 in the Eastern Section, Cherokee Nation, North Carolina. He was all or half Cherokee. One website says this is confirmed by his grandson W. H. Gibson applying for “Cherokee money,” apparently a reference to the Dawes rolls, application # 19099. A One World Tree site says that Minyard was half-Cherokee, born sometime between 1765 and 1784.  He is said to be in Laurens, South Carolina in the 1810 census.

The consensus of my sources is that Minyard Harris was adopted by William Uriah Gipson, born about 1760 in Virginia or North Carolina, and Margaret Sparks, born about 1754 in Wilkes County, North Carolina. They married in Wilkes County on 29 April 1782. However, I must note that one source says it was Minyard Gipson's son Harrison who was adopted.

Minyard Harris-Gipson married Rachel Wallis, born about 1797 in Surry County, North Carolina. They were married there on 17 February 1813 when he was about 18 and she was about 16.

In the 1840 Gilmer census, there is a Minneard Gipson, 50-60, living with a female 40-50, and one boy under 5, two 5-10, two 10-15, and one girl under 5 and one 5-10. On the same page are Edward Gipson, 60-70, Jacob Gipson 30-40,  Harrison Gipson 20-30 (William Asa Gipson’s father). and David Gipson 20-30. Minyard, Edward, and Jacob are brothers. I don't know David's relationship.

"Minneard" Gipson, 55, born about 1795, is living in District 85, Union County, in the 1850 census with Rachel. Living in the household is his brother, Sanderson, 30. He is blind. I could not find Minyard or Rachel after 1850.

They are living next door to a William M. Gipson, 22, and his family. William's wife is named Sarah, 20, and their children are Margaret 3, William 1, and James 11 months. All of them are from North Carolina, which indicates that the family moved to Georgia in 1849. Minyard had a son named William, but he is said to have been born in 1818, so I don’t know who William M. is, although he is certainly related.

As noted earlier, Minyard's brother Sanderson, who is 30 in the 1850 Union County census, is blind. In our Harrison’s household in 1870 there is a Catherine Gipson, 85, Edward's widow, and a Simpson Gibson, 62, born about 1808 in North Carolina. Simpson is blind. It is not unusual for names and ages to vary in the census records, so it is possible Sanderson and Simpson are the same person (see Edward Gipson below).

I don't know if Minyard Harris-Gipson is related to any of these Harrises, but I include this information just in case:

In the 1840 census there is a Minyard Harris on the North Catawba River, Burke County, He is 50-60 with a son 15-20, with a wife 40-50, and two girls 10-15.  This Minyard would be old enough to the the father of our Minyard Harris-Gipson, but I can't verify their relationship if any. There is also a Minard Harris in the Laurens, South Carolina census of 1810, age 25-44, and there is a Minyard Harris in Burke County, North Carolina in 1820, 26-45.

In the 1850 census, there are two Minyard Harrises in Murray County, Georgia, one 40, and one 59, both born in North Carolina. In the 1860 Murray County census, there are two Minyard Harrises, one born 1810, married to Dicy, and one born 1830, married to Elizabeth A. Murray County is adjacent to Gilmer. I believe Elizabeth A. is Betsy Ann Turner, who married a Minyard Harris between 1847 and 1852 in Murray County. In the 1880 Murray census, there is a Minyard Harris 66 , born in North Carolina in 1814, married to Martha M., 55, with a son named Minyard, 18. I think this Minyard and the Minyard married to Dicy are probably the same.

Minyard Gipson and Rachel Wallis’s known children are said to be:

1. Sarah Elizabeth Gipson, born unknown.

2. William Harrison Gipson, born 1813-17, probably in Burke County, North Carolina. He is William Asa Gipson’s father and Anna Rosinda Gipson’s grandfather. As noted above, Harrison was born 1811 according to the Joe Brown census of men available for service in 1864, but that was two years before his parents married, so apparently the census is in error. The Federal census records consistently have him born 1813-1817, with two of them indicating he was born about 1815. Harrison and his wife Rosanna Weaver migrated to Georgia in the late 1830s.

3. William Gipson, born 1818 in Burke County, North Carolina. In the 1850 Gilmer County, Georgia census, William Gipson 32, is a farmer born in North Carolina about 1818. He is married to Rebecca, 29, born in North Carolina in 1819. Their children are James C. 8, Catherine 7, Richard H. 4, and Aaron 1,  all born in Georgia, so William and Rebecca moved to Georgia by 1842. I don't know how to explain the two sons named William, although as noted earlier a One World Tree site says it was William Harrison who was adopted and not his father Minyard.

4. Sanderson Gipson, born 1808?-1820. He is blind. As noted above, Sanderson, 30, is living with Minyard and Rachel in Union County in 1850, and Simpson, 62, with Harrison in 1870. Simpson is also blind, which leads me to speculate they may be the same person.

5. Jacob Gipson, born 1822 in Burke County. A Jacob Gipson married Carra Lovell on 27 May 1845 in Gilmer County. They had three sons, Elijah, Elisha, and Josiah. Jacob and Cassa are in Gilmer County in 1850.

6. Doctor E. Gipson, or "D.E." born 1828. He was a member of Company D, 23rd Georgia Infantry ("Colquitt's Brigade") and is said to have died at the battle of Chaffin's Farm near Richmond, Virginia, in 1864. He enlisted as a sergeant, but one Civil War website says that he was a private at the end of the war. I have been unable to confirm any of this information. D. E. married an Elizabeth/Elmina Crump about 1849. She was born in 1830 in North Carolina. Elizabeth was also known as Minnie. In 1850, they are living in Gilmer County in that portion which will later become Pickens County (It includes the Truck Wheel and Talking Rock Districts. See notes on local geography in the Appendix). They are living next door to James Lawson Gipson below and have no children. In 1860, Doctor, 30, is married to Minnie, 30, born in North Carolina. Their children are Duglis (Douglas?) 4, and John, 3, both born in Georgia. In all, they had four children: William A., the Duglis above, born 1853, John born 1856, Frank born 1860, and Louisa born 1865.

On the enlistment lists, D. E.'s name is spelled Gibson.

7. James Lawson Gipson, born 1828 in Burke County, North Carolina. He married Elizabeth, surname unknown, born 1832 in North Carolina. I believe he is the J. E. Gibson who enlisted in Company E (Pickens County) of the 23rd Georgia Infantry (see our family in wartime). In 1850,  James L. Gipson, 22, a farmer, and his wife Elizabeth, 18, both born in North Carolina, are living in Gilmer County with their children William D. 2, and Sarah A. 1, both born in Georgia.

In 1850, D. E. and James Lawson and their families are living three houses from Ransom and Rhoda Martin Collins, who are relatives on the Smith side of my family.

William Uriah Gipson and Margaret Sparks

The children of William Uriah Gipson and Margaret Sparks were:

1. William Gipson, born unknown in Burke County, North Carolina. William is said to be the only one of his brothers not to migrate to Georgia.

2. John Gipson, born unknown in Burke County, North Carolina.

3. Edward Gipson, born 1790 in Burke County, North Carolina and died before 1870 in Gilmer County, Georgia. . He married Catherine “Kitty” Weaver on 3 February 1810 in Burke County. Voluntine Weaver was a witness. Kitty was born about 1785 in North Carolina, and died after 1870 in Gilmer County. Edward and Catherine are in Gilmer County in 1840 and 1850. In 1850, they live one house away from his nephew William Harrison Gipson

In our Harrison’s household in 1870 are Catherine Gipson, 85, a widow born 1785 in North Carolina.

Edward and Catherine had one known child, Jacob, born in 1827. 

4. Minyard Harris-Gipson (probably adopted), born 1795 in the Eastern Section, Cherokee Nation, North Carolina.

5. Harrison Gipson, born 1796 in Burke County, North Carolina. Harrison Gipson is in Union County in 1840, age 40-50, and in the 1850 census for District 85, Union County. In the 1850 census, he is married to Margaret Burch, 53. Harrison married Margaret on 3 May 1823 in Burke County. Christopher Burch was the bondsman and William C. Erwin was the witness. As noted, Harrison may have won a land lot in the Cherokee lottery. In the Burke County marriage records, his name is Gibson.

6. Jacob Gipson, born 1801 in Burke County, North Carolina. Jacob is listed in the 1840 Gilmer census. Jacob married Edy Mayfield, born 1798 in South Carolina, on 19 October 1822 in Burke County. Minyard Gipson was the bondsman and J. Erwin was the witness. Both Jacob and Minyard's names are spelled Gibson in the marriage records, but Gipson in the census records. Their children included Rebecca Gipson, born 1831, and Alexander H. Gipson born 1833, both in North Carolina, and Jacob M. Gipson, born 1835, and Leander W. Gipson (M), born 1841 in Georgia. Jacob and “Eddy” were founding members of the Talking Rock Baptist Church, the first church in Pickens County, in October 1839. The Rev. Robert Jordan was the first pastor.

Since Minyard Harris's parents names are unknown, research on the Gipson line ends with him.

A note on the origin of the name Gibson

The surname Gipson/Gibson means son of Gib or Gilbert. It is said to be of Scottish origin, but one source says the interchangeability of the B and P in the name suggests the Gibson/Gipsons were German.

And this, from a website connected to Gilmer County genealogy:
    
The Gibson Crest

“Gibson Arms: Azure, three stork’s wings expanded argent Crest: Out of a coronet, a lion’s gamb holding an arrow gules, feathered ox. It seems apparent that this old family name was adopted from the name Gilbert.  A popular nickname for Gilbert is “Gib” and the surname Gibson literally means, son of Gib. Although it is believed to be of Scottish origin, the surname Gibson appears in many old English records, dating back to 1379. One of the earliest colonists bearing this old family name to come to our shores was John Gibson, one of the earliest Virginia settlers in 1635.  It also appears that one of his descendants, another John Gibson of Orange County, NC was a soldier of the American Revolution. Many descendants of this old family have made outstanding contributions in the service of our country including several Gibsons whose names are found in this book.  Many persons named Gibson can be found throughout our nation, representing the arts and sciences, as well as the business world. The motto accompanying the coat of arms well befits those who bear the name Gibson, “Courage, Charity, and Virtue.”

Solomon Gipson

A possible relative, Solomon Gipson was born about. 1797 in North Carolina. He married Elizabeth Millsaps, born about 1797 in Tennessee. They were married in Haywood County, North Carolina, 30 May 1817. They had two children: Jane, birth date unknown, who married William Davis, and  Thomas, born 18 January 1826 in North Carolina. Solomon and Elizabeth are living in Gilmer County, Georgia in 1850 and 1860. As I read the information on the webpage cited below, Elizabeth’s brother Isaac, born in 1795, died 6 March1836 at the Alamo.

I have no doubt that this line parallels William Harrison Gibson’s line because of the Gilmer County connection, plus several of the given names in the lines are the same. William Harrison Gipson named his first child William Asa, and Solomon Gipson's son Thomas and his wife Minta named their second child William A.

Notably, at the birth of Thomas and Minta's eighth child, Thomas F., on 13 March 1895, the family Bible records his name and that of his sister, Mag Nola, born in 1898, as Gibson not Gipson.

In the 1850 Gilmer census, Solomon is 53, a farmer born in North Carolina, and Elizabeth is 55 and born in Tennessee. With them is Thomas, 23, born in North Carolina. They are living at dwelling 993, which is not very close to any other Gipsons, but is only two houses from three families of Plemons. including Solomon Plemons, Sarah M. Plemons, among whose children is Minta B. J. Plemons, and Samuel Plemons and his wife Hannah S. (Sumner) Plemons.

Thomas Gipson married Minta B. J. Plemons, born 3 September 1837, in Gilmer County. They were married on 27 August 1857 in Gilmer County. Thomas died 11 April 1882 and Minta died 28 January 1881. Minta is referred to as Juncet and Minnie J. in some records. 

In the 1860 Subdivision 33 Gilmer census. Solomon and Elizabeth are at dwelling no. 235. He is 61, born in North Carolina, and she is 62, born in Tennessee. They have two children in the household, Frances M. 7 (M) and Sarah E. 6, both born in Georgia. Since the Gipson family information contained on the webpage below does not list a Frances or Sarah among the children of Solomon and Elizabeth, and their grandchildren were all born later than 1853 and 1854, I do not know who Frances and Sarah are.

Thomas, 54, and Minnie J. Gipson, 41, are in the Mountain Town District of Gilmer County in 1880. Their children are Samuel W. 19, Solomon L. 13, John H. 11, and James M. 8. Thomas and family are living five houses from John C. Plemons, 31, and his family. John C. may be Minta’s cousin, the son of Samuel Plemons and Hannah Sumner born in 1850.

A William A. Gipson. probably Thomas and Minta's son, married M. C. Sumner on 13 January 1881 in Gilmer County. M. C. is Margaret C. Sumner, daughter of Solomon Sumner and Cecilia Plemons. Cecilia was the daughter of Thomas and Margaret Plemons.

Solomon Sumner was the brother of Eli Sumner. Eli and his family live next door to Susannah Hall and her neighbor Hugh Allen in 1880 in Pickens County. Susannah’s sons James Allen and Newton Jasper, and another possible son, George Washington Hall, all married into the Gipson-Sheppard families. Hannah Sumner (1831-1858), the sister of Eli and Solomon, married Samuel Plemons in Gilmer County in 1850.

In the 1870 Subdivision 55 Gilmer census at dwelling 931, there is a Sarah E. Gipson, 63, a housekeeper born in North Carolina, with real estate worth $100 and personal wealth of $140. In the household is Frances Ingram, 30, born in North Carolina, John C. C. Ingram 11, Jefferson B. Ingram 8, and Caroline Ingram 4. Also in the household is Sarah E. Plemons, 15, born in Georgia. They are living next door to G. W. and Harriet Elliot who have three Plemons children in their household: Martha 10, Savannah 8, and what looks like Jolina E. 7. Martha is listed as a domestic servant.

I don’t know how to sort this all out, but my guess is since the ages of these three children and those of Harriet and G. W.’s overlap, that all the Plemons children are related and probably orphans. The existence of Sarah E. Plemons in the household of Sarah E. Gipson suggests a connection, but I have been unable to figure out just who Sarah E. Gipson is. Sarah E. Plemons, however, is about the same age as Sarah E. Gipson, who is living with Solomon and Elizabeth in 1860. They could be the same person because the surnames of children sometimes change in the census records.

And if any of this is messed up, forgive me. Keeping up with all the Annas, Minyards, and Solomons, takes the wisdom of one.

Sources

Family history

United States Census records

Sites on Ancestry.com. Unfortunately, I did this research early in this process, when I intended this work just for close family members, and I did not record the sources.

Burke County marriages
Archived and arranged by W. D. Floyd, wdfloyd@rfci.net.

Gilmer County marriages, available on the Web.

On Solomon Gipson:

http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.texas.counties.fannin/983/mb.ashx

<http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gagilmer/julia/gipson.html>.

The author of this website and all affiliated websites is Marion T. Smith, son of Gladys and Thiddo Smith. Please send all additions, corrections, and inquiries to upmytree@inbox.com. Thanks.

Last updated 18 February 2012.

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