Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons (1849-1932) Part 4—Glendale and Marriage

Cemetery in Glendale, Utah

Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons (1849-1932)

Part 1—Childhood

Part 2—Santa Clara
Part 3—St. George and the Muddy Mission
Part 4--Glendale and Marriage
Part 5--Arizona
Part 6--St. Johns

By Andrew Smith Gibbons, III, Ph.D.

GLENDALE 

But the Muddy Mission years were destined to end as the two states of Arizona and Nevada both claimed the area for taxation purposes, A.V.'s father elected to move to Long Valley on Utah's Sevier River. Townsites which Mormon settlers had abandoned earlier due to Indian pressures seemed a good location for settlement, and the Gibbonses were among those who chose to relocate there. On March 1, 1871, after a one-month journey filled with many hardships, the party entered southern Long Valley. Some families remained in the Southern end of the valley and settled in an area they named Orderville while others including the Gibbonses, continued north to Berryville Fort, later renamed Glendale. When they arrived measles were spread through many families. Poor weather was no help, and three of A.V.’s brothers and sisters—Charles Rudolphus, Evaline and Adeline—died shortly after arriving. Once again there was sorrow and a sense of loss, this time greater because the children had grown in age and formed attachments with the family. As if to deny death power over its members, the Gibbons family continued to add new members. On September 4, 1872 a child destined to live, Le Roy, was born. 

Also in reaffirmation of their hopes for life, the older Gibbons children began to marry at this time. Sarah had married previous to coming to Long Valley in September of 1863. William married during the trip from the Muddy Mission to Berryville Fort in February 17, 1871, and Eliza married on June 30, 1872, two months before Le Roy's birth. This left four children in the Gibbons home after September 1872: A.V., 23; Richard, 14; Joshua, 10; and infant Leroy. Andrew Vinson was not to marry for three years and so remained the only one of the older children free to devote full time to his father's household. Since Andrew Smith Gibbons spent much of his time at home during this period (until the end of 1873), it means that A.V. may have had much of the company of this distinguished man during work and while attending to church duties during that period. 

One of A.V.'s memories of this period related to his grandson, Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr., illuminates the character of A.V. and his father and something of their relationship. A.V. remembered that the job of weeding the garden was handled in the form of a challenge. The challenge was to determine who had the longest reach. A.V. and his father each stood in one spot and picked as large a radius of weeds as was possible standing, then kneeling, then finally lying flat. There is no information as to whose radius was larger, but the image of father and son lying on their bellies in the garden, probably laughing at each other, is wholesome and appealing and makes us wonder what it was that the pioneers were missing that we have so much of today. 

Rizpah Gibbons bore her final child, Lola May, in 1874, while A.V. was still at home. By now he must have fully mastered the moves of the expectant brother/father and been an efficient assistant to the midwife when that was necessary. 

MARRIAGE 

Bishop John Smith Harris,
Father of Nancy Elizabeth Harris,
Performed her marriage to
Andrew Vinson Gibbons

It was not long after this event that A.V. married seventeen year-old Nancy Elizabeth Harris, also of Glendale, and entered a sequence of events that was to draw him into a whole new world of experience and to still another new home. The exact date of A.V.'s marriage is not clear. Three sources give conflicting dates. The LDS Encyclopediagives the date of December 26, 1876. Nancy Elizabeth Harris, the girl that he married, told a reporter (or at least the reporter remembered it that way) that the date of marriage was December 6, 1875. Family group sheets in possession of family members give both dates. The marriage was performed by Nancy's father, John Smith Harris, the Bishop in Glendale, Utah. 

On December 27, 1875 family group sheets show the couple being sealed in the St. George temple. The date of sealing is more supportive of the 6 December 1875 as the original wedding day, since it is a considerable overland trip from Glendale to St. George, and the date would allow time for that trip between the wedding and the sealing. Besides there being some doubt as to the date of the marriage, there is also some doubt as to its location. Family group sheets show the sealing taking place in St. George. Nancy, however, in a published newspaper account describes travelling to Salt Lake City by wagon to have the Glendale marriage sealed in the Endowment House.

Regardless of exactly where and when they were married, it is sure that the young couple decided to settle in Glendale following their marriage, where A.V. practiced farming and stock raising skills he had learned in his youth. 

Nancy Elizabeth Harris as a young woman

A.V.'s judgment in selecting a companion appears to have been fortunate, for he married a woman of energy and principle. Elizabeth was born August 6, 1858 by her own account (or 1856 by some existing pedigree charts) in Washington, Washington County, Utah, near St. George. To place the date in perspective, it was only a few years after the "Utah War", in which the U. S. Government army entered Utah for the purpose of dealing with the "Mormons." Elizabeth's family consisted not only of brothers and sisters, but the father John Harris, and his father, Moses Harris, and Moses's wife Fanny Smith Harris. Also associated with the family in its moves was Elizabeth's maternal grandfather, William Aldredge, who died in Washington only a few years after Elizabeth's birth.

Elizabeth is remembered as a lively companion, energetic, determined, intelligent, and concerned for the spiritual welfare of her family. Reminiscences characterize her as a person of strong conviction—religious and otherwise—and as being willing to follow up conviction with action, even when it was unpopular and sure to net unpleasantries in return. If she was impulsive, then her history shows that that trait was balanced by long-term commitment to worthwhile goals. At a time undetermined, the Harris family moved to Harrisburg, then to Leeds, and finally to Glendale when Elizabeth was about eleven years old (about 1869). 

It did not take time for the young family to expand. On April 3, 1878 a daughter, Naomi, was born to Nancy. In less than a year after Naomi's birth, on December 20, 1878 the family grew again. This time it was not a brother or sister that was added to the family, but another mother. Following the example of his father, and in accordance with the Latter-day Saint principle of celestial marriage, Andrew Vinson married Sarah Ella Harris, sister to Elizabeth and five to seven years her junior. 

Elizabeth is remembered as a person of action and energy, and Ella as a person with a more sensitive, thoughtful nature. Her emphasis, too, was on the spiritual welfare of her family, and she trusted the Lord implicitly. Her patience and industry, as that of most women who took part in multiple marriages, appear to have been exemplary. 

It must have been around this time that A.V. and his families lived in the white house at the north end of Glendale. The house, which still stands today, is a handsome white frame, two-story structure. Judging from its age, it was well-built. 

The family did not grow again for almost exactly two years. On December 16, 1880, a son, Andrew Smith Gibbons, was born to Elizabeth. He was born in the white house, and being the first son no doubt was the object of much pride for A.V. Given a few years this son would not only be a valuable worker in A.V'S farming and stock raising pursuits, but with time would become the one to carry on that work. There would certainly be much to do, for it is reported that during the years in Glendale A.V.'s fortunes continued to grow steadily under the hands of the experienced, well trained husbandman. 

Somewhere in this period the constant motion of A.V.'s father, which had been stilled for a few years, began again, at first with assistance trips to work with Indian matters, but eventually with a call to join the effort of colonizing northern Arizona lands. A.S. Gibbons as usual accepted the call and left the southern Utah home in which he had spent so many undisturbed years with his oldest son. Not only was A.S. Gibbons involved in this call, but A.V.'s brother William, and his family and A.V.'s father-in-law, John Smith Harris as well. The calls appear to have been made as part of an apportioned quota of calls made throughout Utah under the direction of the First Presidency of the Church. These calls were made to fill an urgent need for the settlement of St. John's, Arizona Territory, and other northern Arizona LDS colonies just being settled. 

No doubt A.V. watched the departure of his father with some of the feelings he had experienced as a boy, when he had also watched his father prepare to travel and then leave. This time, again A.V. was not to travel with his father, and it must have crossed his mind that his father was advancing in years and the northern Arizona country was still quite wild. 

A.V. could not have guessed the circumstance through which he was to be reunited later with his father. As his father left he may have felt the pull of adventure or of filial ties, but projects in Glendale had been started and required attention, particularly the job of further building his own family. The next major event in that effort took place April 5, 1883, when Lovina Ella was born to Ella in Glendale. 

To be continued . . .

Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons, (1849-1932) Part 3—St. George and the Muddy Mission

Pah-Ute County, Arizona, with Mormon pioneer communities of
Callville, St. Thomas and St. Joseph
Showing original extent of County, and Portion ceded to Nevada in 1869-1870

Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons (1849-1932)

Part 1—Childhood

Part 2—Santa Clara
Part 3—St. George and the Muddy Mission
Part 4--Glendale and Marriage
Part 5--Arizona
Part 6--St. Johns

By Andrew Smith Gibbons, III, Ph.D.

ST. GEORGE

The flood had further effects upon A.V.'s family. It occasioned a move of the entire family from Santa Clara to St. George, where the one-year-old Cotton Mission had begun to assemble a city. The move came quickly upon the heels of the flood, and by May 9, 1862, it was complete, a house had been built, and a baby, Joshua Smith Gibbons, had been born in it. 

The work load A. V, and his growing band of brothers and sisters must have born in setting up a new home and beginning to produce food must have been heavy, but by now familiar. In addition to their share of the work in getting established, it is possible that some amount of extra work fell to A.V. and the other children as their father assumed the duties of Sherriff of Washington County, which involved duties of keeping the peace among white men and dealing with Indians as well. 

By March of 1863 the conditions of the Gibbons-Dart marriage had arrived at a state where divorce was the only solution. The problems of plural marriage must have been considerable, and those pressures now returned the Gibbons family to almost its former size. A.V., by now 14 years old, no doubt had some experiences during this period as he tried to understand the complexities of the adult world. Also during this period, he was acting head of the house again as his father accompanied Jacob Hamblin for three months to visit the Hopi villages and the Colorado River country. The anxiety and work brought on by these trips must have been considerable but the rewards in and interest must have been great as the Elder Gibbons returned home with stories of unbelievable adventures. Also, the knowledge of having done well in their father's absence must have inspired confidence and pride in the Gibbons children. 

MUDDY MISSION 

The children of Andrew and Rizpah Gibbons
Standing: William, Richard, Joshua, Leroy
Seated: Martha, Andrew Vinson, Eliza

Nearly a year of hard work turned the Gibbons family fortunes to the good. At the end of it, in March 1864, A.S. Gibbons resigned his duties as Sheriff, as if to free more time. It was short-lived freedom, however, because in October he was called to be President of the Muddy Indian Mission. For the Gibbons family, which contained by now six children (Martha Sarah, 18, and married; A.V., one month short of 15; William, almost 13; Eliza, 11; Richard, 6; and Joshua, 2) it was a characteristically timed call, since Rizpah was eight months pregnant when it came. Of course, the call was accepted. 

The call took A.S. Gibbons from home on January 1, 1865 for a period of perhaps nine or ten months. As their mother was incapacitated, a good deal of the family responsibilities fell to them once again, particularly A.V., who was now not just the oldest boy but the oldest child in the home. In the autumn of 1865, the family was reunited in St. Thomas, buried today under Lake Mead, a town to which their father had led the citizens and helped to locate, design, and build. In St. Thomas the family, along with a small number of other families, was living in an arid desert somewhat different from their St. George home. St. Thomas, at first the sole town in this desert, was soon joined by other towns, St. Joseph and Simonville, as new settler-missionaries arrived in the area. 

For A.V. Gibbons and his brothers and sisters, none of them quite adults yet, the experience of living in the Muddy Mission must have been a memorable experience. Not only were there relations with sometimes angry Indians to be observed, but there was the necessity of making acquaintances with new hosts of young people. Years after he had lived in St. Thomas, Richard Gibbons related in his journal the meeting of an old friend whom he has known as a youth in St. Thomas. The entry carries with it the feeling of enjoyment Richard experienced: ". . . I met Mary McFate who was the wife of F. Burke. We were children together in St. Thomas on the Muddy. We had a good talk about old times." Behind the entry can be imagined an absorbing story of the two childhood friends, pioneers in a forbidding land, who had had many experiences to recall and share together. 

For A.V., now nearly the age of a man, there must have been interest not only in making friends, but in courting as well. The St. Thomas population was by no means stable or stale. It consisted of a core of permanent citizens and a continuing flow of prospective citizens, as new arrivals came and either were assimilated into the community or moved on. 

This ebb and flow of settlers continued for the years that the Gibbonses were in the Muddy Mission—1865 to 1870. A.V.’s important late adolescent years were passed in St. Thomas, and it was there that he grew to be a man in years and stature. He also at this time began to accumulate goods of his own, looking toward a dav of marriage. We can expect from his breadth of experience at he had reached manhood in other ways long before this time. 

Andrew Smith Gibbons (b. 1825)
Arizona Territorial Legislator
From Pah-Ute County

During the St. Thomas years, A.V.'s mother bore three more children: Charles Rudolphus on June 15, 1866, and twin girls, Evaline and Adeline on May 4, 1869. Between these two events, in November 1868, the Gibbons children must have been proud to see their father elected to the Arizona Territorial Legislature in Tucson. A.V. and his brother William drove their father and the other Pah-Ute County legislator, Octavius D. Gass, south to the junction of the Virgin and Colorado Rivers to launch a boat into the rapids on a trip that would take Gibbons and Gass to Yuma, from which point they would travel nearly three hundred miles to Tucson cross-country. It was the best Gass mileage Gibbons ever got. 

The river trip was only one of several encounters the Elder Gibbons had with the river. It was a part of his daily environment, and no doubt the Gibbons boys received a liberal education in boatmanship from their father in St. Thomas as well as learning the other necessary lessons in farming, herding, Indian pacifying, and desert survival. We may be tempted to pity youngsters pressed into such demanding experiences as the Gibbons children encountered—far from the refinements of the larger society—but we should keep in mind that their education was by no means lacking. Their tutors were of the highest and proven quality. They rubbed shoulders with great names out of history: apostles and prophets, Indian chiefs, politicians and explorers. Most importantly, they daily associated with pioneers of the caliber to tame wildernesses and thank God for the opportunity. 


To be continued . . .

NOTES

To read more about the fascinating history of the Muddy Mission and the families who lived there, see:

Monique Elaine Kimball's Master's Thesis, "A Matter of Faith: A Study of the Muddy Mission," (University of Nevada-Las Vegas, 1988);

Susan Lyman-Whitney's archived Deseret News article on the Muddy Mission;
The "Muddy Mission" entry in O.N.E., the Online Nevada Encyclopedia;
The 1991 unattributed, archived Church News article, "Muddy Mission Settled in a Forbidding, Lonely Area"; and
Helaman Pratt's notes on the Muddy Mission.

Also, listen to the 2000 Sunstone Symposium presentation by Lois F. Worlton, Jack Worlton and Melvin T. Smith, "The Muddy: A Mission Too Far?"

Obituary of Rizpah Knight Gibbons, by her son, Andrew Vinson Gibbons

Rizpah Knight Gibbons

Rizpah Knight Gibbons, who died here March 17, 1895, was born May 13, 1829, in Perrysburg County, state of New York. She was the daughter of Martha McBride and Bishop Vinson Knight. Her parents united with the Church soon after its organization and in 1834 moved to Kirtland, Ohio. The deceased was present at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple March 27, 1836. From thence the family moved westward and located in the state of Missouri, and were expelled from the state with the Church in 1839, locating at Nauvoo, Ills. It was here that she formed the acquaintance of Andrew S. Gibbons (now deceased), and married him. They were permitted to enter the Temple at Nauvoo and receive their blessing. In 1846 they were driven from their home, going westward, she remaining with the Saints that were scattered along the way between Nauvoo and a place called Winter Quarters, while her husband went on with President Young's Pioneer company. In the fall of 1847 her husband returned; they immediately set themselves about to gather means to follow on. They were successful and arrived in Salt Lake valley in 1852 and located at Bountiful. In 1854 they were called to the Southern mission and located in Iron County. In 1858 her husband (with others) was called to labor as Indian missionary with a view of creating a more friendly feeling between them and the white people, that the settlement of the Saints might be extended father south. She labored with her husband in this direction for many years and consequently suffered much privation, but she never complained; there was nothing so dear to her as the faith she had accepted. She, with her husband, had the privilege of entering into holy places and receiving greater blessing and also did a good work for their dead. They were called to Arizona and located in St. Johns in February, 1880. Her husband preceded her to the other world nine years, having died February 9, 1886. She was the mother of fifteen children, eight of whom died in their infancy; the remainder have all settled in life and have families, and are members of the Church, which was a great satisfaction to her. In her later years she devoted much of her time to caring for the sick, and so general were her visits that there was scarcely a family in the neighborhood that had not been cared for by her; and as was said by some of the speakers at her funeral, "it seemed as though a dear relative had been taken from our midst." She was followed to her last resting place by many loving relatives and friends and laid beside her faithful husband. 


Andrew V. Gibbons


Source: Deseret News, 
6 April 1895, 
St. John, Apache County, Arizona, March 24, 1895. 

Tринадцать персиковых садов—"Thirteen Peach Orchards"—From a sermon given by Daniel Bay Gibbons in Krasnoyarsk Russia, August 2011

Peach Orchard in Bloom
Photo by Karen Blaha, Wikimedia Commons

The following is an excerpt from a sermon I delivered in Russian in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk in August 2011 (Russian translation by Olga Petrusenka):

Я хочурассказать вам реальную историю о моём прапрадедушке, которого звали Эндрю Гиббонс.  Но, прежде чем я начнусвой рассказ, я хочу, чтобы вы узнали кое-что о нём. 

Мама Эндрю умерлаво время родов, дав жизнь сыну в 1825 году. Егоотецотдал Эндрю бездетной паре. Онивырастили его, и он называл этих людей мама и папа. В 1840 годусемьяпереехала в Наву, штат Иллинойс, где жил Джозеф Смит. Эндрю работал на речном пароходе на рекеМиссисипи. Он изучал Книгу Мормона и был верующим. Эндрю крестился в возрасте 15 лет в реке. В своём кабинете в доме миссии у меняесть кирпич от тогодома, который Эндрю помогал строить своей семье в Наву.  Также, Эндрю выращивал персиковый сад в Наву. Он любил персики.  

Позже, Эндрю работал каменщиком на строительстве храма в Наву. В тысяча восемьсот сорок шестом  годуон женился на Ризпе Найт в храме Наву. Ризпе было 17 лет. Вскоре онии их две вдовствующие матери, покинули Наву в повозке. Они ехали сотни километров и достигли места, называемого Уинте Квотерс, где Эндрю построил лачугу для себя, женыи двух своих матерей. Там он также посадил персиковый сад.

Будучи в Уинте Квотерс, Эндрю был призван президентом Бригамом Янгом быть членом егопервой группы пионеров и отправиться в Юту. Он прибыл в долину Солт Лейк двадцать четвёртого июля 1847 года. Емувыделили участок земли под строительство дома. И он также посадил там персиковый сад.

В ту осень Эндрю ехал всю дорогу до Уинте Квотерс верхом, чтобы побыть со своей женой и двумяматерями. У них небыло денег и поэтому им пришлось ждать 5 лет, чтобы переехать в Юту. К томувремени у Эндрю и Ризпы было двое маленьких детей. 

В Юте онипомогали обосновать новый город к северу от СолёногоОзера, названного Баунтифул. Эндрю построил там лачугу. Также, он посадил персиковый сад. 

В течение последующих тридцатис лишним лет Эндрю и Ризпа получали множество призваний, касающихся организации помощи в строительстве новых мормонских городов. Эндрю был призван миссионером в индейские племена.  Он выучил их языки. Он провёл много лет, проповедуя им в штатах Юта, Невада, Колорадо, Нью Мексика и Аризона. В последующие годы Эндрю и Ризпа построили небольшие домав городах Лихай, Седар Сити, Санта Клара, Сейнт Томас, Мадди, Лас Вегас, Сейнт Джордж, Глендале, Моенкопи и Сейнт Джонс. У них родилось ещё шестеро детей. В каждом городкеЭндрю высаживал персиковые деревья. 

А сейчас я хочурассказать вам историю об Эндрю. Однажды, когдаон уже был старым человеком, егомладший сын приехал к немуна ферму. Старый Эндрю вышел из дома, держаруки в карманах своей куртки. Он вынул руки из карманов, и в каждой рукебыло по прекрасному персику. Он протянул персик своемусыну. Они потёрли персики о штанину своих брюк, чтобы немного очистить от ворсинок на кожице, и откусили большой кусок. Затем Эндрю сказал своемусыну: «Я хочу, чтобы ты кое-что знал. Я посадил тринадцать садов с тех пор, как я покинул Наву. И это первый раз, когдая мог остаться жить в одном месте в течение достаточно долгого времени, чтобы я мог съесть фрукт из моегосада».

English Translation: 

Andrew and Rizpah Gibbons, with their
youngest son, Leroy, who recorded the
story of the thirteen peach orchards.

I want to tell you a true story about my great great grandfather, who was named Andrew Gibbons.  Before I tell you the story, I want you to know something about him.

Andrew's  mother died when he was born in 1825. His father gave him to a couple with no children. They raised him and he called them mother and father. In 1840 the family moved to Nauvoo, Illinois where Joseph Smith lived. Andrew worked on a river boat in the Mississippi River.  Andrew studied the Book of Mormon and believed. He was baptized at age fifteen in the river.  In my study in the mission home I have a brick from the house in Nauvoo which Andrew helped his family build. Andrew also planted a peach orchard in Nauvoo. He loved peaches.

Andrew later worked as a stone mason on the Nauvoo temple.  In 1846 he married Rizpah Knight in the Nauvoo Temple.  Rizpah was seventeen years old.  They soon left Nauvoo in a wagon with their two widowed mothers.  They traveled hundreds of kilometers to Winter Quarters, where Andrew built a log cabin for his wife and their two mothers.  There he also planted a peach orchard.

In Winter Quarters Andrew was called by President Brigham Young to be a member of the first company of pioneers to travel to Utah. He arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.  He was given a plot of ground to build a house.  He planted a peach orchard.  

That autumn Andrew rode all the way back to Winter Quarters to be with his wife and their two mothers.  They had no money, and so had to wait five years to travel to Utah. By that time Andrew and Rizpah had two little children.

In Utah they helped settle a new town north of Salt Lake called Bountiful. He built a log cabin there. He also planted a peach orchard. 

Over the next thirty years Andrew and Rizpah received many calls to help settle new little Mormon towns. Andrew was called as a missionary to the Indians. He learned their languages. He spent many years preaching to them in the states of Utah, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Over the years Andrew and Rizpah built little homes in Lehi, Cedar City, Santa Clara, St. Thomas, the Muddy, Las Vegas, St. George, Glendale, Moencopi and St. Johns. They had six more children. In each little town, Andrew also planted a peach orchard.

Now I want to tell you the story about Andrew. When he was an old man, his youngest son one day rode into the farm yard on a horse.  Old Andrew walked outside with his hands in the pockets of his jacket.  He pulled his hands out. In each had was a beautiful peach.  He handed one to his son.  They each rubbed the peach fuzz off on their pants and took a big bite. Andrew then said this to his son: «I want you to know something.  I have planted thirteen orchards since I left Nauvoo. This is the first time I have been allowed to stay in one place long enough to eat the fruit from one of my trees.» 

Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons, (1849-1932) Part 2—Santa Clara

Sketch of the fort at Santa Clara as it may have appeared in 1856 to 1861
Source: Washington County Historical Society

Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons (1849-1932)

Part 1—Childhood
Part 2—Santa Clara
Part 3--St. George and the Muddy Mission
Part 4--Glendale and Marriage
Part 5--Arizona
Part 6--St. Johns

By Andrew Smith Gibbons, III, Ph.D.

SANTA CLARA 

Events moved quickly, however, to change the scene for the Gibbons family. By the Spring of 1858, as Rizpah's health allowed, the family made the move to Santa Clara. On this move, A.V., by now nine must have shouldered a good deal of the responsibility for the heavier work, as would his younger brother William, now seven. 

Rizpah Knight Gibbons

The new home in Santa Clara was a stone fort with three-foot thick walls. One room within the fort served as home for the Gibbons family of six. The dry, hot climate of Santa Clara, and the new host of people in the fort were most certainly currents of experience which young A.V. felt pulling him into a new kind of life. Some of the old experiences which did not change were the work attendant to helping his father keep a family fed and clothed, and the birth of new family members. Richard, born on October 22, 1858, was the next child, and he lived. 

Great excitement was being experienced in Santa Clara at this time over the impending trip of a group of Indian missionaries, A.S. Gibbons included, south into the Arizona Territory, across the Colorado River to find the "Moqui" Indians, reputed to be much more civilized than the Indians in Utah. Six days after the birth of Richard, young A.V. Gibbons and his brothers and sisters watched their father, whom they had spent so little time, leave with the group planning to reach not only the Moquis but the Navajos, the latter not having the same reputation for peacefulness. 

Only two months passed before A.S. Gibbons returned home in a fever, nearly dead. Imagine the effects of pride and awe and fear upon nine-year-old A.V. after his father recovered and recounted a visit to the Hopi (not Moqui) Indians, their acceptance of the missionaries as being sent by the Great Spirit, the living in Indian surroundings, the experience of hunger, and Finally the arduous, near-fatal trip of 350 miles in the dead of winter back to home. This association with courage and great accomplishments must have inspired in the Gibbons children a confidence in their own powers to achieve difficult things, which would have been the force in later years that led them to deal with their own problems as a new generation, their generation, grew into maturity. 

Phoebe Maria Dart

July of 1859 brought still another new type of experience to the Gibbons family. Though it was a comparatively common experience in the society in which they lived, it must have added greatly to the already bulging store of experience the young Gibbons boys and girls were accumulating. Their father took a second wife. Phoebe Maria Dart Gillespie was her name, and she had been married and divorced once before so that she came with a ready-made family of children. Absorbing the new family members no doubt posed a real challenge to the young Gibbonses. A.V., being the oldest, was no doubt reminded that it was his responsibility to lead the way in accepting the new family members and making them welcome. One benefit which the marriage brought with it, which must have been a welcome change, was moving into a private house (since the room at the Fort had suddenly grown too small).

One year after the marriage, on July 7, 1860, Rizpah bore a son, James Albert, who died quite soon thereafter. The baby was buried in a spot near the creek. This spot was significant to A.V. over a year later when rains falling steadily for four weeks flooded the creek. Before the flood waters could wash the grave away, A.V. was asked to hold a torch to give his father light as he retrieved James Albert's body so that it could be reburied in a more secure place. 

To be continued . . .

Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons, (1849-1932) Part 1—Childhood

A.V. Gibbons, in his Prime

Biography of Andrew Vinson Gibbons (1849-1932)

Part 1—Childhood

Part 2—Santa Clara
Part 3--St. George and the Muddy Mission
Part 4--Glendale and Marriage
Part 5--Arizona
Part 6--St. Johns

By Andrew Smith Gibbons, III, Ph.D.

Andrew Vinson Gibbons was the second child and the oldest con of Andrew Smith Gibbons, the pioneer of 1847 and Indian missionary. The absorbing story of Andrew Smith and Rizpah Knight Gibbons and their family is well told in the biography of Andrew Smith Gibbons, Saint and Savage, by Helen Bay Gibbons. The lives of this remarkable couple and their children spanned some of the most important and exciting events of the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Together they watched and took part in the rise and fall of Nauvoo, Illinois, the trials of the church at the hands of persecutors, the movement of the church across the heart of the continent under Brigham Young, and the settlement of Salt Lake and colonization of the Great Basin. The life of A.V. Gibbons was lived against this backdrop of epochal events. He took part in the conquering of a wilderness, but to him it was his daily life. He knew no other life than that of a pioneer, and he played his role in the history faithfully. This biography will attempt to describe the historical events of his life and reveal his character to what is hoped will be an interested and grateful ancestry.

CHILDHOOD

A.V.'s parents, Rizpah Knight and Andrew Smith Gibbons

A.V. Gibbons' childhood family was started on January 5, 1846, when A.S. Gibbons and Rizpah Knight were sealed together in the Nauvoo Temple. By the end of one month the new family, of which A.V. was not yet a part, was faced with the prospect of leaving the city of Nauvoo and crossing the Mississippi River to Iowa Territory with an angry mob closing the door behind them. The family of two travelled across the territory toCouncil Bluffs, Iowa, and settled there. It was there on December 26, 1846 that the first child they would have was born and named Martha Sarah Gibbons. 

On April 5 ofthe next year, A.S. Gibbons left his family to join the first company of Mormon pioneers leaving for the west. The company arrived in the Salt Lake valley on July 24, 1847. After only a short stay, Gibbons returned beginning on August 26, 1847 to his home, By the time he returned his daughter was nearly a year old. The Gibbons family stayed in Council Bluffs long enough to assemble finances to return West, but before that happened, two more members were added to the family: Andrew Vinson Gibbons, and William Hoover Gibbons. 

Andrew Vinson Gibbons was born on April 3, 1849 as his sister Sarah was two years and just a few months old. William was born twenty-two months later on January 23, 1851. One and one-half years later, in July, 1852, the family of five was on its way to Salt Lake, where it settled briefly in September before relocating to Sessions Settlement, later renamed Bountiful.

The separation of A.S. Gibbons from his family during the 1847 trek was a hardship on his family, but it turned out to be only the first of numerous separations. Looking at the family's history over a period of years, in fact, it can be seen that separation was almost more frequent than reunion. 

Once the family was settled in Sessions Settlement, A.S. Gibbons separated from them for the purpose of employment. Saint and Savage places him in Lehi working as a mason. This separation and those that followed must have had an effect upon A.V. as he grew up. When his father was away from home he was the man of the house and wasprobably often tasked with the physical and mental labor required of a man. This requirement, laid upon him from his young years was no doubt responsible for the very practical, work-oriented frame of mind A.V. carried with him into his mature years.

The responsibilities of acting father fell upon A.V., as well as the opportunity of watching the family grow. During 1853 a second daughter, Eliza Gibbons, was born. A.S. Gibbons may or may not have been present for the event. It is highly likely that he was, since his travels during this time were mostly local. But during this period when his father was not home, A.V. must have realized that he was in charge of a growing family. 

At April conference in 1855, A.S. Gibbons was called to be a missionary to the newly-formed Iron Mission. This call was to take him away from his home, his wife of about 25, and his four children: Martha, 8; A.V., 6; William, 4; and Eliza, somewhere around two. At this age, A.V. was probably ready to understand that he was being left "in charge of things," and that he was capable of a good deal of work. While it was possible for A.S. Gibbons to return occasionally to Sessions Settlement to be with his family, the Iron Mission kept him busy for over a year, until July 1856. On a short trip home in the fallof 1855, A.S. Gibbons was present for the birth of his third daughter, Almira, who soon died. Young A.V.,by then seven years old, was probably given cause for reflection on deep questions by this serious occurrence in a family where hehad been assuming an important role. 

July of 1856 brought a call to A.S. Gibbons to the Santa Clara Indian Mission, which promised to reunite the family, but in new surroundings and a much different climate. Santa Clara was in what is now the southern portion of Utah near St. George. A.S. Gibbons responded to the call in July and expected to bring his family to be with him soon, but Rizpah's illness at the time and later a pregnancy prevented that. In this pregnancy, as in the previous one, the birth was followed quickly by death of the newborn. The child, Armintha, born October 4, 1857, died soon. Once again the young family, including A.V. witnessed the solemn ceremonies surrounding a personal family sorrow, and 8-year old A.V. surely must have been changed by the experience.

To be continued . . .