Welcome To:
Gard's Grassroots Genealogy: Brown & Gibson
Help me pull the weeds!
______,`!',__________,`!',__________,`!',__________,`!',_________,`!',_________,`!',_________,`!',______
 
 
    William Clemens Stanley's wife, Sarah Jane Brown Stanley, was an elusive family member for some time until Jan Calogianes sent me a death certificate.  This told me that her parents were Abner Brown from the U.S.A. and Pricilla Gibson from Indiana.  A query on the Gibson board brought forth a couple of letters courtesy of Craig Gibson which cleared up a lot.  I could then believe much of what I saw in the Ancestral File (AF).

    I still don't know much about Abner except that he was a first husband.

    Lewis Gibson was b.19 May 1791 probably in Stokes Co. N.C. (per AF & other sources altho some refs say Stokes Co. Va.) & d: May 24, 1847 in Mercer Co., Mo.  He was the son of James and Sarah (Roark?) Gibson.  On 10 Feb 1814 he m. Priscilla Wilson b. 1793 in Knox Co. Ky and they lived in Knox Co. Ky. until about 1822 when they came to the Greencastle area of Putnam Co. Ind.  Three of their children were born in Ky.:  Mary, James and Castleton (descendants of Castleton wrote the letters).  Priscilla (1821) and Garrett (3 Feb 1826) were b in Ind.

    About Priscilla Gibson the letter said:  "Her first husband’s name was Brown.  They had one girl, Sarah.  She married William Stanley.  Her second husband’s name was Deweese.  They had one girl, America, who was single the last I knew.  Her third husband’s name was Gay.  They had one girl, Martha, and one son, Beda (?)."

    Other interesting points come out.  On 29 Sep 1829 Lewis Gibson m. Elizabeth BUTCHER.  They had about 6 children including John B. and Rhoda who married a Stanley.  Since Ozias Lafayette Stanley m. Rhoda Frances Gibson, it is reasonable to assume that this is she.  Also, Mary Elizabeth Stanley m. a John Gibson.  One account I have seen said he was John Butcher Gibson.  I need to find a census or more.

    The areas in which they lived, Leon, Decatur Co., Iowa and Mercer Co. Missouri agree with all the family histories that I have seen.  Abner and Priscilla were married in Grundy County Mo. 25June1843.  In 1845, Mercer Co. was formed from the northern part of Grundy Co.

    Also, Garrett Gibson (Garrett was a family name) was Pricilla's brother so would have been Sarah Jane's uncle.  It seems reasonable to me that this was the origin of her son's, Owen Garrett Stanley's, middle name.  The writer's comment was:  "Uncle Garrett was in the Mexican War, and also captain of Company C fifth, Kansas Cavalry, in the Civil War.  He had three sons, William, Ulysses, and Charles.  He had one full sister besides your grandmother, (Mary) Prescilla."

    Owen Garrett Stanley was the first of the family (that I know of) that went to college.  He was in his senior year at Stanford in 1906 when most of the school was destroyed by the 'quake.  His records were destroyed so he went to his profs who all agreed that he did quite well in his classes (hey, it was a small school then).  This was sufficient to allow him to graduate; he said: "I was shaken out of Stanford".  Otha Stanley helped him thru high school in Fort Bragg (we saw newspaper clippings from the Mendocino Beacon but I don't know why he went to school there).  In turn, he helped my mother thru U.C. Berkeley.

Go the Stanley Page.
Return to genealogy page.
 

07Dec'99