James William Brooks Gibbs
James William Brooks Gibbs (Autobiography from Heritage of Madison County) |
Teacher
Notes:
• "I was born at West Huntsville right in front of an old, disused textile mill. I was delivered at home by Dr. O.J. Brooks.
My father, Joseph Wheeler Gibbs, was born in southeast Madison County and went to Bugs Chapel School. My mother, Eva Myrtle Dean Gibbs, was born near Tulahoma, Tennessee. My mother came to Huntsville around 1906, where she married my father, who was already living here. (My father was named Joseph Wheeler because his father, Asa J. Gibbs, had become, at seventeen, General Joseph Wheeler's aide-de-camp during the Civil War.)
Asa Gibbs had three girls by his first wife, a full-blooded Cherokee, and seven boys and one girl, by his second wife, a Petty from Fort Payne whose mother was a mid-wife. My father, Joseph Gibbs, was born during the second marriage. I loved Asa because he always took the time to take me onto his lap and answer my questions no matter how silly they might have seemed.
My material grandparents, Emsley and Sarah Dean, also lived in Huntsville at Merrimac, where Emsley was a textile worker. My grandmother, Sarah Painter, was half Cherokee. I remember as a child seeing my Grandma Dean, whom I deeply loved, at Merrimac, sitting before the fireplace with a wool scarf across her head and smoking a cob pipe. She died at 102.
After me was born Troy Buford, who died in infancy; Joseph Raymond; Edna Earl, who died of a brain tumor at 19; Evelyn Louise; and, finally, twins, Grady Rae, who died in infancy, and Sadie Mae.
When I was a boy, my father worked for Charlie Brown, as store manager at West Huntsville. He also worked in the Merrimac Mills, as did my mother, from time to time. There, he became foreman and head of the AFL Union. When the CIO moved in, there was friction and a contract was put out on my father's life. However, one of the killers could not stomach murder and called my father's friends who rescued him. During World War I, when he worked at Lincoln Mill, we lived on Barrell Street, where I tried to jump a ditch to impress a little girl, and missed my mark pretty badly. I decided there were kinder women out there I'd try to impress.
Even though I was not of legal age, I worked in the Merrimac Mill from the time I was eleven or twelve. Three years later, when I told my parents I was going back to school, they tried to discourage me because I was making $4.50 a week. I gave them $4 and kept fifty cents, which bought me two hamburgers at Swain's on Jefferson Street, a coke, and a movie, for as many times as I wanted to see it. And I took twenty cents home. When I threw my bobbin bag down and walked out of the factory, against my father's advice, Mr. O'Neal, the supervisor, praised me. I skipped two grades and restarted my education in the 8th grade.
I had attended Lincoln and West Huntsville elementary schools and later went to Joe Bradley High School (no longer there) where I graduated in 1931. In the 9th grade, I won a $250 cash scholarship, all of which I gave my parents except about sixteen dollars for a new suit. During high school, I was a quarterback and was given the nickname 'Cowboy' because one of my teammates said, 'Gibbs, you act less like a football player and more like a cowboy trying to throw a steer.'
In 1932, I left Huntsville to attend Maryville College in Tennessee, where I obtained my teaching certificate. I taught math and history at Farley and Lickskillet (New Sharon). I then moved to Lauderdale County, which is another story.
In 1997, I returned, with my beloved wife of sixty years, Sarah Elizabeth Hall Gibbs, to Madison County to be near my daughter, Bonnie Leslie Gibbs Roberts, and my granddaughter, Jennifer Elizabeth Roberts-Toews. My daughter teaches at Lee High School and is a published poet. My granddaughter is a student at UAH in Huntsville. Before returning to my birthplace, I had received my B.A. degree in Political Science and History from the University of North Alabama, at the young age of 75.
Mr. Gibbs died on July 7, 1998, two months shy of his ninetieth birthday." - Autobiography
Related Links:
| Born: | September 29, 1908, Huntsville, Alabama |
| Died: | July 7, 1998, Huntsville, Alabama |
Notes:
• "I was born at West Huntsville right in front of an old, disused textile mill. I was delivered at home by Dr. O.J. Brooks.
My father, Joseph Wheeler Gibbs, was born in southeast Madison County and went to Bugs Chapel School. My mother, Eva Myrtle Dean Gibbs, was born near Tulahoma, Tennessee. My mother came to Huntsville around 1906, where she married my father, who was already living here. (My father was named Joseph Wheeler because his father, Asa J. Gibbs, had become, at seventeen, General Joseph Wheeler's aide-de-camp during the Civil War.)
Asa Gibbs had three girls by his first wife, a full-blooded Cherokee, and seven boys and one girl, by his second wife, a Petty from Fort Payne whose mother was a mid-wife. My father, Joseph Gibbs, was born during the second marriage. I loved Asa because he always took the time to take me onto his lap and answer my questions no matter how silly they might have seemed.
My material grandparents, Emsley and Sarah Dean, also lived in Huntsville at Merrimac, where Emsley was a textile worker. My grandmother, Sarah Painter, was half Cherokee. I remember as a child seeing my Grandma Dean, whom I deeply loved, at Merrimac, sitting before the fireplace with a wool scarf across her head and smoking a cob pipe. She died at 102.
After me was born Troy Buford, who died in infancy; Joseph Raymond; Edna Earl, who died of a brain tumor at 19; Evelyn Louise; and, finally, twins, Grady Rae, who died in infancy, and Sadie Mae.
When I was a boy, my father worked for Charlie Brown, as store manager at West Huntsville. He also worked in the Merrimac Mills, as did my mother, from time to time. There, he became foreman and head of the AFL Union. When the CIO moved in, there was friction and a contract was put out on my father's life. However, one of the killers could not stomach murder and called my father's friends who rescued him. During World War I, when he worked at Lincoln Mill, we lived on Barrell Street, where I tried to jump a ditch to impress a little girl, and missed my mark pretty badly. I decided there were kinder women out there I'd try to impress.
Even though I was not of legal age, I worked in the Merrimac Mill from the time I was eleven or twelve. Three years later, when I told my parents I was going back to school, they tried to discourage me because I was making $4.50 a week. I gave them $4 and kept fifty cents, which bought me two hamburgers at Swain's on Jefferson Street, a coke, and a movie, for as many times as I wanted to see it. And I took twenty cents home. When I threw my bobbin bag down and walked out of the factory, against my father's advice, Mr. O'Neal, the supervisor, praised me. I skipped two grades and restarted my education in the 8th grade.
I had attended Lincoln and West Huntsville elementary schools and later went to Joe Bradley High School (no longer there) where I graduated in 1931. In the 9th grade, I won a $250 cash scholarship, all of which I gave my parents except about sixteen dollars for a new suit. During high school, I was a quarterback and was given the nickname 'Cowboy' because one of my teammates said, 'Gibbs, you act less like a football player and more like a cowboy trying to throw a steer.'
In 1932, I left Huntsville to attend Maryville College in Tennessee, where I obtained my teaching certificate. I taught math and history at Farley and Lickskillet (New Sharon). I then moved to Lauderdale County, which is another story.
In 1997, I returned, with my beloved wife of sixty years, Sarah Elizabeth Hall Gibbs, to Madison County to be near my daughter, Bonnie Leslie Gibbs Roberts, and my granddaughter, Jennifer Elizabeth Roberts-Toews. My daughter teaches at Lee High School and is a published poet. My granddaughter is a student at UAH in Huntsville. Before returning to my birthplace, I had received my B.A. degree in Political Science and History from the University of North Alabama, at the young age of 75.
Mr. Gibbs died on July 7, 1998, two months shy of his ninetieth birthday." - Autobiography
Related Links:
• Ancestry.com - Page owned by pattiosborn19. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/686074/person/-1966263249.)
• Autobiography - Autobiography of her father submitted by Bonnie Gibbs Roberts to The Heritage of Madison County, Alabama, by The Madison County Heritage Book Committee, John P. Rankin, Chairman, pages 199 & 200.