This is another picture from the album that came (probably) from Aunt Midge. This woman was either labeled as or identified as Cousin Hattie Gibson. Okay. But who is Cousin Hattie Gibson? I have no idea.
In my data base, I have a Hattie B. Gibson, but I can't figure out how she and her parents would be cousins to the Alexanders. There is also a Hettie C. Gibson. a Hettie B. Gibson, and a Hetty Gibson. All four are in the same branch of a Gibson family that I can't relate to the Alexanders. So, this is one of the mysteries that remain to be solved.
Mom used to drag Joe and me to Buena Vista to visit a Cousin Hattie(Haddie??) when we were pretty young. Always one of those sit still and be quiet while adults talking almost drives you over the edge deals. Sometimes she gave us a coke which almost made the torture worth it.
ReplyDeleteAha! I'll have to ask her if she knows who this is and how she's related.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin Mary Sterrett Lipscomb wrote: "She was a great friend of Midge's and Bruce's and with the Gibson name, she must have been some real kin but I have no idea how. When I knew her she lived in Buena Vista and had retired there after having worked in Richmond in. I believe, some State job. We would take Aunt Nannie riding often and one of the places we sometimes visited was Cousin Hattie's. I remember taking Aunt Jessie to visit her one time. Alec and Joe were always with us so that is why he remembers that. I have no idea why I never asked about their kinship nor anything about her background. She never married and has no descendents."
ReplyDeleteHattie Gibson was the daughter of Sam and Mary Gibson, born in 1886, died in 1969. She taught math for many years at what became the Parry McCluer School. According to the Robey who wrote the book about Buena Vista, she hated teaching school and took a month's vacation at the baths at Warm Springs each summer to recuperate. The summer after Mr. Robey was in her class, in about 1918, she took two months vacation and never returned to the school. Instead she moved to Washington, DC and worked for the new Internal Revenue Service until her retirement in the early 1950s. She lived at 2435 Walnut Ave. in Buena Vista (now my home), and during her absence from Buena Vista, the home was converted into two side-by-side apartments. When Hattie Bell moved back to Buena Vista after her retirement, she lived in one of the apartments (I believe, the south-side apartment.) Her father, Sam Gibson, kept diaries of daily life in and around Buena Vista, primarily about the weather, throughout his years living in the house. (The house was built in 1890, but purchased by the Gibsons in 1895. The adjacent lot was deeded to Hattie Bell early on, but has never been built upon. Francis Lynn, the current Buena Vista historian, has read all the diaries and, I think, given them to a niece of Hattie Bell's living in Charlottesville. Martha Vance, who moved into the house next door in 1961 (and herself died just a month or two ago), told stories of her children climbing in the maple tree in front of Hattie Bell's house. Hattie would yell at the children and call the police on them! She apparently had very long hair and would sit on the porch every evening and brush her hair (upside down) for an hour or more. An electrician in the area once mentioned to me that she had blinds on the outside of her windows. I've seen no evidence that that is true. Hattie Bell had a brother, Hardy Gibson, who was the fire captain in Buena Vista for a time. He married and had children. I believe that at least one of Hardy's grandchildren still lives in town. The Gibsons were members of Buena Vista Presbyterian Church.
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful background on this woman! I have many Gibson ancestors in Rockbridge County. I'll have to look into the sources you mentioned.
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