Grove Beginnings...Part 11

By Rose Stauber

Nothing beats proof when you are telling a story, and I have proof that
John
H. Gibson was elected mayor of Grove in 1899. Remember that we don't
have
the newspaper record. But an official record fell into my hands while
I was
copying a Dawes Commission application for someone. The commission was

pretty sticky about having marriage records which is how this record
ended
up in the Dawes file.

Seems that W.M. Fields and Miss Sally Lauean (?), both of Fairland,
wanted
to get married. This was 1899, and the only place anyone, white or
Indian,
could get a marriage license in the Territory was from the Northern
District
Court at Vinita. So William and Sally got their license and then asked
John
H. Gibson to marry them. Gibson filled in the Certificate of Marriage
by
writing "John H.Gibson Mayor for the Incorporated Town of Grove I.T."
He
proceeded to conduct the rites and publish the Banns of Matrimony. The
date
was July 16, 1899. Gibson signed his name and repeated "Mayor for
etc."

We probably need to have a footnote when we call John Gibson the
second
mayor.
Remember that J.C. Starr appears to have left office early. However,
there
is information that the major and council were elected annually.

John Gibson and his biographers say that he served four terms as mayor
of
Grove. We know he was elected again in 1907, the statehood year. This

service was only a part of a long career of service to his community.

Gibson was born in 1861 in Rusk Co., Texas, where his mother's family
had
gone to avoid the dangers of the conflict in the Cherokee Nation
between the
Treaty Party, to which the Bell family belonged, and the Ross party.
His
mother, Nancy Abigail Bell, daughter of John A. Bell and Betsy Harnage,
grew
up in Rusk County where she married Quinton K. Gibson, a white
Georgian.
His father was serving in a Texas unit in the Civil War and was killed
in
1864.

Nancy Gibson had a daughter, Rosa. The mother with her
two
children returned to Indian Territory on Feb. 17, 1872, according to
John.
Nancy Gibson married James E. Harlin. Nancy is the one who cooked the
wedding dinner for the Remsens. The Harlins had five children of whom
one
died young. John and Rosa, who married Robert Wann, seem to have
remained
close all their lives.

John entered the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah in 1878, at
least
that is the first time he was on the Honor Roll carried in the
"Cherokee
Advocate." The 1880 census lists John by himself with the remark, "At
the
Male Seminary going to school." Also from the "Advocate" in 1882, we
are
told that the Cherokee Debating Society had reorganized and elected new

officers to include John Gibson as vice-president, and his friend, John
E.
Butler, as critic.

About this time, according to one account, John dropped out of school
for
lack of money and sought a job teaching. He taught some years
including at
Olympus School in 1884. Also John began working his own farm. On July
8,
1886, he married Ary T. Sturdivant, daughter of Martin and Matilda
Sturdivant who lived nearby.

Not long after Remsen got the post office, Gibson started a small
store.
For years he was continuously involved with the growing town, partner
in
businesses and taking an active role. In addition to his service as
mayor,
he was continuously on the council. In a dispute over some of the
council
members paying taxes in 1906, John Gibson was appointed to investigate
and
resolve the problem. Just how it came out is not known because of the
missing gap in the newspaper.

John's first political efforts beyond Grove were with the Cherokee
Nation.
He was elected to the Cherokee legislature in 1897 and again in 1903
and was
chosen speaker of the lower house and served in that position until
tribal
government was dissolved in 1905.

John Gibson may have been to school on winning elections according to
the
following extract from an Indian-Pioneer Interview with E. Lee Brown
who
said this:

"One year while I was in Grove, Mr. Gibson, my employer, ran for the
Cherokee Senate which met in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee
Nation.
Those were perilous times. The man who could pass out the most whiskey

usually got the most votes. Mr. Gibson and I went back in the
mountains and
took a barrel of 'firewater' to the Indians. On the voting day I stood

outside the door and voted for these full blood Indians. We had no
booths
in which to vote. We would hold the ballot against the building and
mark
it. Mr. Gibson won."

I have been told similar stories about voting in much more recent
times in
Delaware County.

John was a member of the sixth and seventh Oklahoma legislatures. He
was
elected county commissioner for two terms.

At home, he had his sorrows. In 1904, Ary died. The obituary ran
right
under the masthead of the Grove Sun, John H. Gibson, Editor and
Proprietor.
The next year, the youngest daughter, Hudnall, had her clothes catch on

fire. She did not survive. The Grove Sun carried the sorrowful story.
Now
in Olympus Cemetery were the graves of the mother and three small
daughters.
Five children of the marriage survived: Quinton, Mattie B., Mary L.,

Jennie C., and John L.

John Gibson married Mrs. Mattie McDonald June 16, 1906. Three
children
were born of this marriage: Nannie A., Paul W., and Charles Obediah.

John Gibson and his family had lived in various houses around Grove,
but
about 1911, he bought Arwood Springs which was on the west side of
town.
Today you would take State Park Road. The land had been owned by
Wilson
Suagee, and the Suagee Cemetery, or what remains of it, is still there.
It
was where Gibson would spend the rest of his life.

In a letter to Rosa in April 1939, he wrote, "The damn water will
cover
all of our good land here and on Honey Creek. They have not yet made
me a
bid on the land taken. We hate to be compelled to give up our home,
but
will have to do so."

"I look forward to your coming with great pleasure for I know I am
to you
what you are to me, an unbroken line of LOVE and Sunshine."

John H. Gibson died April 13, 1940. His long-time friend James E.
Butler
took part in the services. The Masonic Lodge conducted graveside
services
for the last charter member of the lodge. He is buried beside Ary.


Copyright © 2007 Rose Stauber