Museum of Appalachia: 4th of July Celebration

Come celebrate our national independence the old-fashioned way, with patriotic ceremonies, old-time music, pioneer demonstrations, and the highlight of the day, the ever-dramatic anvil shoot: Several times during the day, the hunk of iron bursts from a cloud of smoke, sometimes catapulted as high as the treetops. The deafening boom, it is said, can be heard 15 miles away.

Other sights and sounds of an old-fashioned Independence Day include authentic old-time music, patriotic speeches and a bell-ringing ceremony, the aroma of freshly split cedar logs, the whine of the tractor-powered circular saw-mill, and tasty summertime culinary treats.

For more information: Click Here.

The Yellow Store

Family history is not always to be found in courthouse records, graveyards and family Bibles.

The story of the Yellow Store, presented here as today's MHS Blog entry, was compiled by the eminent, and meticulous, Melungeon historian and genealogist, Hawkins County Archivist and MHS Vice-President for Heritage, Jack Goins. It begins with a local color piece published 65 years ago and traces the history of a store, always painted yellow, which had been business since the War of 1812, a history which becomes intertwined, not just with the lives of the store's owners but with lives of its patrons, Melungeon and otherwise. And oh, yes, there is a treason trial involved as well.

To read this very interesting tale: Click Here.

Mahala Mullins Redux

Excerpt form The Moonshiners
By Henry M. Wiltse, 1895

Betsy [Mahala Mullins -- see note below] is a moonshineress, and despite the vigilance and the bravery of Uncle Sam's gallant army of revenue officers, she will remain a moonshineress, no doubt, so long as she is able to pour a drop of liquor out of a keg or a demijohn and count the price of it.

She keeps open house all the year round, and extends to the officers as well as other people a cordial invitation to visit her whenever it suits their convenience....She could not be taken out of the house without taking the roof off and hoisting her out with a derrick; and a derrick could not be taken there for the purpose, for she lives way up on Newman's Ridge, more than three miles from the nearest spot at all accessible with team and wagon....During the greater number of her waking hours, she sits upon a low bed, resting her feet upon the floor, a cask of the "contraband" always in reach from which she supplies the necessities of any who honor her with their patronage.She once sent her compliments to the judge, with the information that she would like to be arrested and taken to court, so that she might see him and something of the world before dying.

This gross woman (six hundred pounds gross) whose body measures nine feet in circumference, whose manners are as coarse as her physical organism; who violates law, defies officers, makes daily traffic of the "dark beverage of hell," is not without a spark of sentiment, a trace of those finer human impulses and aspirations which reach out toward the divine. Once every year, she causes her huge bulk to be transported to the cabin window, from which can be seen the graves of her five sons, every one of whom died tragically, and from this spot she watches the decoration of those graves with extravagance of beautiful wild flowers.

Note: Mahala Mullins is called Betsy in some sources. This may be related to the fact her husband had a sister named Betsy.

Blue Ridge Institute's Farm Museum

Experience early [c. 1800] rural life in the Blue Ridge at the BRI’s Blue Ridge Farm Museum, a re-created Virginia-German farmstead. Costumed interpreters prepare meals over the open hearth, drive oxen, blacksmith, and carry out a host of other household and farm chores of the period. In the gardens and around the log farm buildings heirloom vegetables and historic breeds of livestock speak to the region's agricultural heritage.

Open to walk-in visitors Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 1 to 5 p.m., mid-May through mid-August. Group tours are available by reservation any day April through October. Admission is charged.

For more information: Click Here.

A Visit To The Melungeons

By C.H. Humble, 1897

Home Mission Monthly
Woman’s Board of Home Missions
The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A

The Blackwater Valley lies between Mulberry and Newman’s Ridges, and is from half a mile to mile wide. Twenty years ago it was still a wilderness, but is now under good cultivation, and divided into small farms upon which are rather poor dwellings and outbuildings. In this valley and along Newman’s Ridge, reaching into Lee County, Virginia, are settled the people called Melungeons. Some have gone into Kentucky, chiefly into Pike County, others are scattered in adjacent territory.

The name Melungeons is of obscure origin supposed to be derived from Melange, (French) meaning a mixed people. When I privately asked the son of Beatty Collins, a school teacher, about this name, he strongly resented its application to his people, saying, “We are a pure blood people,” meaning at least that they had no negro blood in their veins.

They feel that oursiders look down on them and this is stimulating them to a better life.

The first settlers here were the great grand parents, Varday Collins, Shephard Gibson, and Charley Williams, who came from Virginia it is said, though other say from North Carolina. They have marked Indians resemblances in color, feature, hair, carriage, and disposition.

In the picture given is seen the typical family of Beatty Collins, chief of the clan, who stands with uncovered head to the right; before him sits his wife. The youngest daughter, about eighteen, a blonde with light wavy hair, can walk, ride, plough or hoe with the best of them. The young man–the school teacher and store keeper----is swarthy like his father. Altogether they are an intelligent, agreeable, and hospitable family. The man in the slouch hat is not of them, but would seem to be looking that way, as through the night till break of day he talked or sang to the daughter who stands beside him.

The second settlers were from North Carolina; they were the Goans, Miners, and Bells; they were charged with having negro blood in them and, before the war, were prosecuted on this ground for illegal voting, but were acquitted. They explained their peculiarities by claiming a Portuguese origin.

Later Came Jim Mullens, an Englishman, who married a Collins, and whose son John married Mehala Collins, to be referred to again. Jim Moore, a British sailor, also settled here, and married a daughter of old Charley Gibson, so that while in one sense, they are a mixed people, their names indicate an origin on one side not differing from their neighbors. Their isolation may be due to the seclusion preferred by the Indians and the exclusion on account of suspected negro blood.

To read this article in its entirety, and more: Click Here.

Note: Varday, as rendered above, is correctly spelled Vardy, and Mehala, Mahala.

Christopher Humble's visit to Vardy led directly to the establishment of the Presbyterian mission in Vardy and the building of the Vardy School. For more on that: Click Here.

The Jamestowne Society

The Jamestowne Society was organized for educational, historical, and patriotic purposes, and to that end:

To discover and record the names of all living descendants of those early settlers who made the great sacrifice to establish our English-speaking Nation; and to unite these descendants to honor the memory of our settler ancestors; and to record their deeds, and to do homage to the birthplace of Virginia and the Nation.

To associate those descendants as members of the corporation.

To bring the members into closer association through activities revolving around matters of common historical and genealogical interest.

To promote the restoration of historical records, documents, objects, and edifices which are of lasting cultural value to the people of Virginia and of the Nation.

To assist in the organization of state companies, reminiscent of the London and Virginia Companies, in states where membership and interest justify them.

To visit the Society's web site: Click Here.

Apalatean Mountains

The accounts of the Juan Pardo Expedition [To review: Click Here] are the last records we have concerning the Appalachian Summit for over one hundred years. Not until after the founding of English settlements on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and the Ashley River in South Carolina, did Europeans again enter the Summit area. Just as the Spanish had been in search of gold, so too were the English on a search, not for gold, but for the long sought passage to the Pacific Ocean which they believed was only a few days journey beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

In 1670 John Lederer journeyed from the James River, Virginia settlement southward through the piedmont of North Carolina, and westward to within sight of the Appalachian Mountains, where he turned back.

John Lederer –

"The fourteenth of March, from the top of an eminent hill, I first descried that Apalatean mountains, bearing due west to the place I stood upon: their distance from me was so great, that I could bearly discern whether they were mountains or clouds. . ."

To continue reading: Click Here.

Melungeons : Examining an Appalachian Legend

By Pat Elder

This book is presently out of print but is considered one of the most important books you can access to do Melungeon research. Here is a list of some of the libraries where you can get this book. Print it out and take it with you to your library. If they don't have it, they should be able to get it through Interlibrary loan.

To view the list: Click Here.

Melungeons: The Myth of Turkish Origins

Melungeon Myth of Drake Dropping off Passengers on Roanoke
By MHS Research Committee Member Janet Crain

A persistent rumor has spread all over the Internet that Melungeons descend from the some 300 to 600 Turks and other nationalities said to have been left on Roanoke Island in 1586 by Sir Francis Drake. In truth, there is NO evidence there were any left, much less several hundred.

To continue reading this excellent article on our sister blog, Historical Melungeons: Click Here.

Fort New Salem

Fort New Salem, located in Salem, WV, a rural Appalachian community in western Harrison County, is a living history, outdoor museum interpreting the history, trades and lifestyles of the region. The settlement is surrounded by tree-covered hills. The facility takes its visitors into an era when work and leisure activities reflected the values and traditions of the community and the Appalachian culture of her people.

Fort New Salem is a representative frontier log settlement of Nineteenth Century West(ern) Virginia. Work on this village of over 18 relocated log structures began in 1971. The Fort opened to the public in 1974. The site is approximately eight acres, all owned by the Fort New Salem Foundation, Inc.

To visit the fort's web site: Click Here.

Moonshining Remembered

From an Article in the Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 11, 1995

By Clifton Caudill

In the early years of my life, which began in 1913, many places and things on our 200 acre farm had names that indicated what and where they were so when talking to family members or anyone, the location of the place or object could be determined. This was true in most all mountain households, but is fast disappearing and seldom heard in conversations of today. Mention the Hoe Ding, the Narrows, the Whirl Hole or Pig Pen Gap and you may suddenly become a prime candidate for the bug house. Today's talk would like be about Bluegrass and Standiford Field airports, Interstate 75, a concert in Rupp Arena, or how to cure the ills of the U. S. government. How time and tides do change.

To continue reading this very entertaining article: Click Here.

The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

March 1, 1669

Our sovereign lord the King having, out of his royal grace and bounty, granted unto us the province of Carolina, with all the royalties, properties, jurisdictions, and privileges of a county palatine, as large and ample as the county palatine of Durham, with other great privileges; for the better settlement of the government of the said place, and establishing the interest of the lords proprietors with equality and without confusion; and that the government of this province may be made most agreeable to the monarchy under which we live and of which this province is a part; and that we may avoid erecting a numerous democracy, we, the lords and proprietors of the province aforesaid, have agreed to this following form of government, to be perpetually established amongst us, unto which we do oblige ourselves, our heirs and successors, In the most binding ways that can be devised.

One. The eldest of the lords proprietors shall be palatine; and, upon the decease of the palatine, the eldest of the seven surviving proprietors shall always succeed him.

For entire text, consisting of 120 articles: Click Here.

Note: At the time the Carolina colony had not yet been split into a North and South Carolina.

To see Carolina's original 1663 charter: Click Here.

To see Carolina's revised 1665 charter: Click Here.

Pursuant to these charters two documents were issued specifying various details about the governance of the the colony:

A Declaration and Proposals of the Lord Proprietor of Carolina, Aug. 25-Sept. 4, 1663. To view: Click Here.

Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina, 1665. To view: Click Here.

Saponi Indians

As stated here earlier, a number of Melungeon writers have posited a connection between the Saponi and the Melungeons, some speaking of it as a fact; however, such a connection has yet to be proven.

For an overview of the Saponi and their history: Click Here.

For a similar overview of the closely related Tutelo: Click Here.

For the previously blogged entry on the Saponi Town web site: Click Here.

Bunch Family Timeline

Penny Ferguson
MHS VP for Research

1720: Gedion Bunch born. (JG)

1733: Micajah "Cage" Bunch born in probably Brunswick County Virginia. (JG)

1735: 15 November 1735 John Bunch recorded a Plat for 350 acres northeast of the Santee River and lot 177 in Amelia Township --He recorded a plat for a further 100 acres on the Santee River and a half acre town lot in Amelia Township a month later on 13 December 1735 [Colonial Plats 2:461]. (PF Timeline JG source)

1745 May 28, 1745 - Louisa Co. VA

"Ordered that William Hall, Samuel Collins, Thomas Collins, William Collins, Samuel Bunch, George Gibson, Benjamin Branham, Thomas Gibson, and William Donathan be summoned to appear at the next Court to answer the presentment of the Grand jury this day made against them for concealing tithables within twelve months past."

…pled not guilty…

To continue reading: Click Here.

More Pictures from the MHS Conference

For a wonderful slide show of MHS Conference moments: Click Here.

For a look at the MHS officers, see below!

MHS President Wayne Winkler
Author of Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia

MHS Vice-President for Research Penny Ferguson

MHS Vice-President for Heritage Jack Goins
Author of Melungeons and Other Pioneer Families
Hawkins County, Tennessee Archivist

MHS Secretary/Treasurer Becky Nelson

First Annual MHS Conference Very Successful

The first annual Melungeon Historical Society Conference, held Friday in Rogersville, Tennessee, was very successful with more than a hundred people in attendance. Part of the crowd is pictured above while MHS president Wayne Winkler is pictured below addressing the conference.

For more on the conference and a lot more pictures: Click Here.

The Vardy Community Historical Association's "Spring Fling" followed on Saturday in Vardy. For coverage of it: Click Here.

MHS President Wayne Winkler

Virginia's Heritage Music Trail

"Explore the Crooked Road"

The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, winds through the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Here, the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Traditional Country music is as beautiful and rugged as the landscape itself. Our mission: Supporting economic development by promoting Heritage Tourism and Blue Ridge and Appalachian culture.

To begin exploring the crooked road: Click Here.

VCHS Spring Fling

The Vardy Community Historical Society's "Spring Fling" is today, the day after the first annual MHS Conference in Rogersville (more on that later next week).

The Spring Fling, which lasts from 10 am till 2 pm, features Appalachian crafts such as basket and chair weaving, apple butter making, corn grinding, shuck dolls, hominy making, a tractor show, and plenty of music. The location is the Vardy Church Museum, in Vardy, which features displays from the Presbyterian mission which provide education opportunities for Melungeon children from 1899 to the early 1970s.

The location of the VCHS homepage has changed; to visit: Click Here.

Wise County History and Genealogy

The Wise County Historical Society was established in August of 1992 as a result of a small group of 14 individuals meeting in 1991 in the cafeteria of the Wise Appalachian Regional Hospital in Wise, Virginia to discuss the possibility of publishing a book on our county and city heritage. From that time on monthly meetings were held which resulted in organizing the Historical Society in 1992 with 61 charter members. Today we have over a thousand members from across America. The first publication was The Heritage of Wise County and The City of Norton-Volume1 .

Our objective is to promote historical studies, by the collection and preservation of historical manuscripts, and for kindred purposes in the best interest of southern Appalachian regional history and history in America. Also to aid in the research of genealogical history and preserve it for future generations.

The WCHS publishes The Appalachian Quarterly.

To visit the Wise County Historical Society online: Click Here.

To visit the Wise County GenWeb site: Click Here.

Some Colonial Records of Virginia, 1619 -- 1668

Some some colonial records of Virginia spanning the years from 1619 to to 1668, including the proceedings of the first Virginia legislative assembly, have been made available online by Project Gutenberg. The title not withstanding, these records are by no means complete but may be of interest.

Table of Contents

• I. The First Assembly of Virginia, held July 30, 1619
• II. List of the livinge and the dead in Virginia, Feb'y 16, 1623
• III. A briefe declaration of the plantation of Virginia, during the first twelve years, when Sir Thomas Smith was Governor of the Company
• IV. A list of the number of men, women and children, inhabitants in the several Counties within the Collony of Virginia, in 1634
• V. A letter from Charles II., acknowledging the receipt of a present of Virginia Silk, 1668
• VI. A list of the Parishes in Virginia, 1680
• VII. Addenda

To view: Click Here.

The Richmond Daily Dispatch Online

The Richmond Daily Dispatch is the result of a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and collaboration between the University of Richmond, Tufts University's Perseus Project, and the Virginia Center for Digital History. There are currently 1384 issues of the paper available online, ranging in date from November 1860 through December 1865.

Though far removed from Southern Appalachia in both place and outlook, the Richmond Daily Dispatch was the newspaper of record for the entire Confederacy.

To view its wartime archives: Click Here.

Eastern Kentucky University's Center for Appalachian Studies

The Center for Appalachian Studies at Eastern Kentucky University was created in 2000 to coordinate and promote a multi-disciplinary approach toward teaching, research and service on issues pertaining to Appalachia. The Center brings together a diverse group of teachers/scholars primarily from the social sciences and humanities, but also from art, biology, environmental studies, social work and health sciences. Utilizing their wide-ranging talent, the Center endeavors to link the human and technical resources of EKU with the teaching, service and research needs of the students and communities we serve.

To visit the Center's web site: Click Here.

MHS June 12th Conference Program

The first annual Melungeon Historical Society Conference will be held this Friday, June 12th, in Rogersville, Tennessee at 955 McKinney Avenue, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Program:

• 9:30 am - Registration
• 10:00 am – Wayne Winkler: Introduction to Melungeons
• 11 am - Roberta Estes: DNA and Genealogy
• Noon - lunch break
• 1:30 pm – Wayne Winkler: The Term "Melungeon"
• 2:00 pm - Kathy James: DNA Results of Selected Gibsons and Collins Including Probability of Relationships
• 3 pm - Kathy Lyday-Lee: Teaching About Melungeons at Elon University
• 4 pm - Katherine Vande Brake: Century of Progress
• 5 pm - Jack Goins: Induction of the Melungeons, from Newman's Ridge to Louisa County, Virginia
• 6 pm - Roberta Estes: Core Melungeon DNA Project

The MHS Blog will report on the conference as descriptions and pictures become available.

The following day in Hancock County, the Vardy Community Historical Society will hold their spring Fling at the Museum on Vardy Road in Hancock County. Come out and meet some cousins during a Melungeon weekend in Tennessee!

Museum of the Middle Appalachians

The Saltville Foundation was incorporated as a non-profit organization in October of 1991 with the goal of establishing a modern research and exhibit museum, outdoor interpretive trails and living history exhibits, and community outreach program that would encourage and facilitate the preservation, understanding, and appreciation of the natural and cultural heritage of the middle Appalachian region. This was primarily a grassroots effort that began many years before when it was realized that there was such a rich and distinctive history in the area.

To visit the Museum's web site: Click Here.

Bedford, Virginia

The Appalachian community of Bedford, Virginia suffered the highest per capita casualty rate of any locality in the United States during the storming of the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. For that reason it was selected as the site of the National D-Day Memorial.

To visit the National D-Day Memorial online: Click Here.

To learn more about Bedford, Virginia: Click Here.

To visit the Bedford Museum and Genealogical Library: Click Here.

The First Charter of Virginia: April 10, 1606

JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. WHEREAS our loving and well-disposed Subjects, Sir Thorn as Gales, and Sir George Somers, Knights, Richard Hackluit, Clerk, Prebendary of Westminster, and Edward-Maria Wingfield, Thomas Hanharm and Ralegh Gilbert, Esqrs. William Parker, and George Popham, Gentlemen, and divers others of our loving Subjects, have been humble Suitors unto us, that We would vouchsafe unto them our Licence, to make Habitation, Plantation, and to deduce a colony of sundry of our People into that part of America commonly called VIRGINIA, and other parts and Territories in America, either appertaining unto us, or which are not now actually possessed by any Christian Prince or People, situate, lying, and being all along the Sea Coasts, between four and thirty Degrees of Northerly Latitude from the Equinoctial Line, and five and forty Degrees of the same Latitude, and in the main Land between the same four and thirty and five and forty Degrees, and the Islands "hereunto adjacent, or within one hundred Miles of the Coast thereof;

To continue reading: Click Here.

Note how extensive Virginia's original boundaries were. Based on this, Virginia would at one point lay claim to all American lands north of Tennessee and west of Pennsylvania.

Sir Walter Raleigh's 1584 Charter

ELIZABETH by the Grace of God of England, Fraunce and Ireland Queene, defender of the faith, &c. To all people to whome these presents shall come, greeting.

Knowe yee that of our especial grace, certaine science, and meere motion, we haue given and graunted, and by these presents for us, our heires and successors, we giue and graunt to our trustie and welbeloued seruant Walter Ralegh, Esquire, and to his heires assignee for euer, free libertie and licence from time to time, and at all times for ever hereafter, to discover, search, finde out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People, as to him, his heires and assignee, and to every or any of them shall seeme good, and the same to haue, horde, occupie and enjoy to him, his heires and assignee for euer, with all prerogatives, commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, and preheminences, thereto or thereabouts both by sea and land . . .

To read the rest: Click Here.

If nothing else, reading this charter will demonstrate that convoluted and well night incomprehensible legal language is not a recent invention.

Lat-Long.com

This site contains the exact latitude and longitude of more than two million places in the United States. This includes churches, schools, cemeteries, county seats, communities and other items of potential genealogical or historical interest.

For example, to see a list of Hancock County cemeteries extracted from Lat-Long.com: Click Here.

To visit Lat-Long.com: Click Here.

Hancock County 1860 Mortality Schedules

Mortality schedules were taken in addition to the regular census; they recorded any person that died within the year of when the census was taken. Note: The mortality schedules like a lot of information are only as good as the person who gave them. Some households may not have reported family deaths to the census taker.

To see the compiled 1860 mortality schedules for Hancock County: Click Here.

Who Were the Parents of the Mullins Children?

Submitted by MHS board member Katherine James

I have seen and heard many discussions on the “three” sets of children from the marriages of Nancy Gibson and Madison Mullins, etc. The following should clarify the confusion on these three sets of children.

I. Nancy Jane Gibson, daughter of Kenner Gibson and Hettie Collins married Elbert Mullins, son of John and Mehala Collins on July 20, 1871 (Taylor notes). The following sons were born to them:

1. Howard Mullins born 1873 .
2. Kinley Mullins born 1876
3. Thomas Mullins born 1879

Elbert Mullins , born 1851 married 2 nd Eliza Seals, daughter of John Seals from below Sneedville. They lived on the Panther Creek side of Newman’s Ridge. Nancy’s sister, Elizabeth Gibson married Elbert’s brother Rubin Mullins.

Madison was the son of Jimmy Mullins and Nance Collins. Jimmy was the son of “hairlip ” Jim and Nance was the daughter of Eva n Collins and Mehala Delp.

Madison Mullins was living in the household of Thomas Bell in 1870.

II. Nancy Gibson Mullins, daughter of Kenner and Hettie Collins Gibson, who had been previously married to Elbert Mullins then married Madison Mullins on January 20, 1879. The following children were born to them:

4. Keener Mullins born 1880
5. Brownlow Mullins , who married Maude Collins daughter of Conoway and Hannah Bell who was the daughter of Burdine Bell.
6. Hillary Mullins, born 1886

Madison Mullins married Eliza Mullins on July 15, 1888. Rev. Abijah Collins officiated.

III. Nancy Gipson Mullins Mullins (who had previously been married to Elbert Mullins and Madison Mullins) then married William Davidson on September 8,1889. The following children were born to them:

7. Marshall Davidson, born February 28, 1888 who married Orpha Collins, daughter of Rev. Lewis Collins (son of Silas who was the son of Solomon Collins and Orpha Collins, who was the daughter of Martin and Elizabeth Collins).

8. Luther Davidson , born May 8, 1892, died April 6, 1938 of pneumonia who married Flora Goins, daughter of Tennessee Goins and Kyra Collins Goins. Luther and his brother Garrett Hobert Davidson both died the same day of pneumonia.

9. Pearly Davidson, born, 1896 married Madison Oaks , son of

Bill and Martha Goodman Oaks.

10. (Garrett) Hobert Davidson, Was born November 6, 1898 and died April 6, 1938. He married Sallie Johnson of Harlan County, KY.

Hill Mullins is listed as born 1886 and stepson of Willie

Davidson on 1900 census for Hancock County, Tennessee . Also living with Nancy and Willie was her brother, Hilary Gibson, shown as a brother-in-law to Willie.

( Willie’s sister Cornelia (Neila) Davidson , married Nancy’s nephew, son of her brother Preston Gibson .)

That it was Nancy Gib(p)son Mullins who mothered the 11 children is further supported by the 1900 census where Nancy is married for 12 years to William (Willie) Davidson , son of Jeb “Gib Davidson and the mother of 11 with 10 still living. She very well could have had one child who was born and died in the 20 years between 1880 and 1900 and was not picked up on the census.

Willie Davidson’s 2 nd wife was Lindy Moore.

Note: Sarah Gibson was a first cousin to my great grandfather, Jarvis Gibson. Jarvis’ mother Mary and Nancy’s father Kenner were children of Joseph Fisher Gibson. Fisher’s children were Morning, Preston, Mary, Kenner, Zachariah and Jim. There are a number of marriages between the Mullins and Gibson families.