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This is a recent photo of Walnut Grove
Baptist church located near Trap Hill , NC in Wilkes County.
Many Gambills are buried in the cemetery.
Our
ancestor, William Gambill, deeded the land that the first
church was built upon. Our great aunt, Caroline Gambill
May, Pap's sister, professed her christian faith here at the
age of 15.
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There is a beginning for everything, but the
knowledge of our family's beginnings is lost in the mists of time..
The first fact that I know is that the root word origin of our family
name, Gamel, means in the Old Norse language "The old one."
I, also know there is, and I have visited it, a village in Cumbria,
Northern England called Gambleby (home of the Gambles). And we know
that our Scotch, or Scots- Irish, ancestors emigrated to America
from a country surrounding the Irish Sea, probably England. So extrapolating
these bits of knowledge I fantasize the following scenario as a
possibility of our early beginnings.
"Back in time when dragons were real (at least on the prows
of ships), in the seventh and eighth centuries, Norsemen/Vikings
were plundering all the coasts of Europe. A raiding party entered
one of the rivers of northern England, pillaged and raped, and one
of them stayed to spread his progeny. Or maybe he just was dumped
there by his co-Vikings/raiders because he was too old to continue
pillaging and raping. You see they called him Gamel -the old one.
There are still families all over the United Kingdom and the United
States by that name, but Gamel has evolved and become Gamble, Gambill,
Gambell, Gambrill, Gambrell, Gumbel-I have read that at least twelve
different spellings are known."
The only other factual item that I have read about our ancestors
prior to the early 1700's is that there was a Gamel fighting as
a foot soldier with Henry V's English army at the battle of Agincourt
in France. The year was 1415.
So now we fast forward to the early 1700's and come to the next
chapter which is:
In the intervening
millennium since the "Old One" arrived on English shores,
the Gamels have blended with the locals--tribes of Picts, Celts,
Scots, Angles, Saxons, other Norsemen, and remnants of Romans -Whatever!
We know, too, that early in the 17th century many Scots lowlanders
and some English were invited by King James 1 to cross the Irish
Sea to settle in Ulster, Ireland. Our Gambill ancestors considered
themselves to be part of this group-the Scotch Irish.
 The
early part of the 18th century in England and Ireland were troublesome
and oppressive times for the working classes Beginning in 1709 the
English Parliament passed Acts requiring that private lands be enclosed,
or fenced off, from common lands. This was designed to give the
advantage to the sheep growers who produced the wool which in large
part accounted for England's wealth at that time.The Scotch- Irish
suffered especially from absentee landlords in England. And
they also suffered religious persecution in that Presbyterians (the
religion brought to Ulster Ireland by the followers of John Knox)
were denied many freedoms and opportunities. To escape, what better
place was there than the American Colony where there was the possibility
of free land! And a chance to escape the oppressive old world class
system which favored landlords. And so began a mass migration from
those countries surrounding the Irish Sea i.e. Northern England,
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland..
Some of those who migrated
from England were the Scotch- Irish who had recently left Ireland
after the linen war of 1700-1704. Our ancestors were thought to
be part of this group(from an article by David Andrew Sturgill of
Alleghany Genealogical Society).
Most of these immigrants
came through the port of Philadelphia. From there, in their search
for land, they moved westward into that part of Pennsylvania which
was then the frontier. Some veered south settling in the mid-counties
of Virginia. And this is where we pick up the first written evidence
of our Gambill ancestors.
Footnote: Notwithstanding
that there are scattered records of individual Gambills who landed
on the shores of Maryland and Virginia between 1631 and 1745, I
favor the above hypothesis , i.e. that our ancestors came to Virginia
through Pennsylvania.
Finally, we have moved beyond fantasy, conjecture
and probabilities and we can talk about authentic people.
Henry Gambill
was the first known in our line although there are some
researchers who suspect that Thomas and Ann Gambill/Gamble.were.
There are land records in 1729 from which could be drawn the inference
that they were Henry's parents, but the records do not offer the
absolute proof required of genealogists . So we will start with
what we know of Henry and leave Thomas and Ann back there in those
mists. Perhaps we will meet them again as additional research is
done by new generations. .
Henry was born, we know not where,
ca 1700. He died in Culpeper County, Virginia between 1762 and 1775..
He married Mary/Marie Davenport, the daughter of Martin Davenport
and Dorothy Harralson around 1735, or earlier. They probably lived
for a time in an area known as Gamble's Mountain in Culpeper,
We know that he and Mary had at least six sons and one daughter
: William, Benjamin, Henry, John, Thomas, Martin and Sally.
 The
following legal records have been discovered, documenting Henry's
life:.
: He
was a witness to the will of Martin Davenport of New Kent County,
Va. in 1735.
On September 3, 1735, according to the records
of Hanover County, Virginia, Henry bought 175 acres of land on Little
Rocky Creek from Thomas Carr of Caroline County.
On October 22, 1735 he bought nine hundred acres in Culpeper County,
Virginia from Thomas Kennerly of South Carolina.
Records show he sold land to Mr. John Minor of Spotsylvania, County.
On September 17, 1761 Henry, in deeding 180 acres in Bromfield Parish
to William, pointed to William as his son toward whom he bore "good
will, love and affection." He deeded land to George Strother
on August 19, 1762. This seems to be his last legal record.
On November 20, 1775, William Gambill, seemingly
the eldest son, sold land to Alpheus Beale of Maryland, the record
including the words " Henry Gambill, Deceased." Thus we
know that Henry died in Culpepper County between 1762 and November
20, 1775.
In regard to the children, we have a record that his daughter Sally,
born around 1745, married John White of Virginia. According to parish
records of Lafayette, Louisiana, she died there February 20, 1828..
Some of his sons' activities
in Virginia are a matter of court and service-connected records
during the 1760's and 1780's decades.
Benjamin, Henry, John,
and William are listed as witnesses in the 1764 Culpeper Court Minutes.
Henry and John were Sergeants in the Culpeper Militia under Colonel
Thomas Slaughter. The group organized in August 1755. For their
service of approximately one year, Henry and John were each paid
1,710 pounds of tobacco in April 1758.
A payment was made to Thomas Gambrell, an infantry soldier, on 24
July, 1786.
The 1782 Virginia land tax shows no Gambill's living in Culpeper
County. Instead the family of Henry seems to have migrated to the
western districts of the state and also, in one large contingent,
to western North Carolina. Our interest lies in three brothers,
William , Martin and John who disappear from Virginia records and
appear at the same time in Surry County (later Wilkes), North Carolina.
Footnote: All the information in Chapter 3 was extracted from the
Winter 1987 publication of the Wilkes Genealogical Society. It results
from the research of the late William Perry Johnson of Raleigh,
NC. I only tried to reorganize, edit and write it so it would be
easier to read. The variant spellings of the name are typical of
the era.
 I
found quite a lot of written information about this trio of pioneers,
William, John and Martin, especially Martin who
was the youngest and most colorful ..
William, the oldest, may have carried leadership.
Born around 1740, deed books show that he sold land to Joseph Poindexter
in Culpeper County Va. in 1776, to Richard Parks in 1771, and to
Alpheus Beale in
1775..Meanwhile in the
New River area of what became Wilkes, Ashe, and Alleghany Counties,
entries for land grants had been entered by the three men. William
received several land grants totaling around one thousand acres
of land near what is presently known as the west fork of Roaring
River. Since Wilkes County was not formed until 1778 William's assets
were first listed on Benjamin Cleveland's 1777 Surry County Tax
List, with two improvements, along with four slaves, four horses,
11 cattle, and 75 pounds of money.
He was appointed Tax Assessor in Captain Allen's district in 1778,
served as juryman, and was a planter and miller. According to family
legend , the Gambill Mill was a landmark in Wilkes County for over
100 years . He donated land for the first Walnut Grove Baptist Church
in the Gambill Creek area. The church is still there, but not the
original building. Today, there remains a Cemetery adjoining the
church. Many Gambill names are on the tombstones, but not William's.
It is believed his grave was washed away in a flood.
William also served in the Revolutionary War as a private in the
First North Carolina Battalion under Major John Baptista Ashe and
Colonel Thomas Clark in 1777 and 1778. Note: I have read that
proving direct lineage with him will merit membership in
the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution).
William
married, Mary Johnson Wash, daughter of Thomas Wash, probably in
Culpeper County, Virginia around 1758/60. They had seven children,
and this is what I have found written about them.
(1) Henry married Charity Morgan, daughter of Squire John Morgan,
on Oct 6, 1778. This couple were settled in Davidson county, Tennessee
by 1789.
(2) Thomas, born 1760, married Susey Brewer on April 8, 1780 . By
1783 he had sold out and probably was the Thomas Gamble or Gambill
recorded on the Iredell County, NC census for 1790. Also, there
is a land deed in Georgia in the late 1700's involving Thomas and
Susannah (Susey?).
(3) William, either left Wilkes County, or died during the Revolutionary
War period.
(4) James married Alice Morgan, Charity's sister, in July 1785.
James and Alice became pioneers in Robertson County, Tennessee.
(5) Sarah married John Nall on March 21, 1785.
(6) Jesse married Nancy Johnson around 1805/07.
This Jesse removed from Wilkes County to Ashe County between 1810
and 1820. He is back in Wilkes for the 1830 and 1840 censuses. (More
about him later).
(7) Mary married Fielding Lewis around 1790 and they resided in
Claiborne County, VA.
William
died young in 1779 at around 39 years of age. Mary lived at least
well into her seventies.. Because it is important to our story and
because it provides interesting insights to the man's character
and the way our ancestors lived, his will is inserted verbatim here:
LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF WILLIAM GAMBILL
 In
the name of God Amen this the 14th day of February 1779, I William
Gambill of Wilkes County being very sick and weak in body but of
perfect mind and memory. Thanks be giving unto Almighty God. Therefore
calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing it is appointed
for all men once to die do make and ordain this my last will and
testament: That is to say principally and first of all I give and
commend my soul unto the hands of Almighty God that gave it and
my body to the grave to be buried in a decent Christian burial at
the direction of my executors, nothing doubting but at the general
resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power
of God. And as touching such worldly estate wherewith it has pleased
God to bless me in this life I give and devise and dispose of the
same in the following manner and form.
In primis I give and bequeath to Mary Gambill, my dearly beloved
wife, that plantation that I now live (on) and the land joining
of during her life of widowhood, then to my son Jessey Gambill.
I do give and bequeath to my son Thomas Gambill the lower part of
the land beginning with the location, then running south, then east,
than west and so to the beginning. I do give and bequeath to my
son Hennery Gambill the part of that land that he now lives on beginning
at the mouth of the branch he lives on running (illegible). I do
give and bequeath to my son James one hundred acres of land on New
River Waters on the no-headed branch..
I do give and bequeath
to my daughter, Sarah Gambill, one negro boy named Daniel.. I do
give and bequeath to my daughter, Mary Gambill, one negro boy named
Ben. If any one of the said girls should die without a lawful care
of his body, her negro above named to belong to the surviving one
and if both should die without lawful care of his body, the said
negros above named to be returned to the estate.
I do give and bequeath to my beloved wife, Mary Gambill , the rest
of my estate and mill that stands on my son Hennery Gambill land
to be sold at her death or day of marriage and to be equally divided
between all my children, namely Thomas Gambill, Hennery Gambill,
William Gambill, James Gambill, Sarah Gambill, Mary Gambill, Jessey
Gambill.. I likewise constitute my wife executrix, Thomas Gambill,
Hennery Gambill executors of this my last will and testament.
Followed by signature and witnesses, James Ramey, James Gambill,
and George Lewis.
.Eshibit B. INVENTORY OF THE ESTATE OF WILLIAM GAMBILL, DECEASED
Sept. Term 1779
Four beds and steds. A parsel of pewter. One case of knives and
forks. A parsel of books. A pare of selyards. One chest. Three negroes.
Two horses. Forty head of hogs. Ten head of sheep. Twenty head of
cattle. One case and bottles. One slate. One waggon and gears. Three
plows. Eight hose. Three pots and a Dutch oven. One mill, six jugs
and butter pat and one hand bellows. Fore axes. Nine barrels. One
hemp mill spindle. One gun shelf and parsel of other iron. One pare
of fire tongs. Two sythe blades. One cross cut saw and a parsel
of other tools, a parsel of files. One set of shew tools. One cutting
knife and face. One box iron and one candle stick. One peper box.
One box and wafers. One nuttermeg grater. One loome and gerse. Two
pare wool cards. Two pare coten cards. One woolen wheel. Two spinner
wheels. Three beehives. One table. Four water vessals and one chern.
One market barrell, One frying pan. One flesh form and two saddles,
Two raser and strap and hone. Seven repehooks. A curry comb. Five
bells. One pare of wedges and groin stone.
The above inventory was returned to Sept. Court 1779 by Thomas Gambill,
Exec.
Note. Spelling is exactly as written by the original researcher,
Hazel Roche` My spellcheck went crazy!! All of the data in this
chapter was published by Hazel or William Perry Johnson.
John, the second brother who moved with
William to North Carolina, was born around 1750, married around
1770 to Catherine, or Caty. They had at least four sons and four
daughters. Most of them continued westward in various settlements.
Martin, born in the 1750's was the youngest, the most famous, the
most dynamic, and the one whose pedigree all the Gambills tend to
claim. He settled in Ashe County. For his role in the Revolutionary
war, they call him the Paul Revere of the South... Enough is known
about him to publish a separate account as an Appendix, but since
we are not of his direct line I will summarize his life in this
body by quoting the Gambrella Newsletter, Winter 2002.
" Martin Gambill served in the Revolutionary War. John Hammon,
in his pension application (N.C.. S9559, dated October 6, 1835}
stated he was in a skirmish led by Capt Larkin Cleveland and when
Cleveland was wounded, leadership was taken by Martin Gambill. John
Hammon also stated he served under Capt. Martin Gambill at Kings
Mountain, and elsewhere. After Ashe County was formed in 1799, Martin
Gambill was elected its first sheriff and Tax Collector in 1806.
His bond for each job was 2000 pounds--these bonds were signed by
John Cox and Jesse Reeves. He also was elected in 1810 the first
state senator from Ashe County and was a senator until his death.
He was also interested in education, built the first school house
in that area. His daughter Thursa Gambill, taught there."
In
genealogy research it is almost a given that after the first excitement
of finding names,dates etc. one hits a brick wall, and I did.! All
of the information in chapters three and four were out there, the
real work done by researchers, some of them professionals. It took
a long while to find and assimilate it, but no original research
on my part was required.. In going backward from my father, J. C.
Gambill, which is the correct way to research, I had arrived at
my ggrandfather, James Martin Gambill aka in family
lore as William Martin Gambill. I had learned from various sources
the name of his wife, Phebe Brown, and of his nine children. I found
him as either James, James M, or Martin on the 1850, 1860, 1870
census records respectively, thus we many conclude that the name
William is in error. We may have confused him with his youngest
son, William, buried in the same cemetery. 
But now my problem was -Who were his parents? Maybe he was a son
of the three original Gambill brothers. More than likely a grandson,
since from the census records, we can determine he was born in 1813.
It would be an enormous leap of three generations if I could find
the link..
I established a time line
and reviewed every thing that I could find about the families of
William, John, and Martin. There was no place that I could find
that he fit in John's and Martin's families.. Alice Billings, a
lady of note where it concerns the research of the Gambills, seemed
to think he was the son of Jesse and Nancy inWilliam's
line , but no evidence to prove it. The only thing I could find
out about Jesse was on the 1830 Wilkes County census. There he had
three sons, identified only by gender and age grouping, and Alice
knew all their names. And then I recalled reading that Jesse had
removed himself to Ashe County in 1810 and 1820. By putting the
census records of Ashe and Wilkes together, I could determine that
Jesse indeed had four, instead of three, sons and the time line
fit exactly for James Martin, born in 1813, to be his second son..
There were other facts
pointing to this conclusion:. In 1850 he and Phebe were living at
Trap Hill, NC a few houses from Jesse J. ( the third son). and Mary
Gambill. Also, in 1880 Jesse's youngest daughter, Chloe, who
never married, had left Wilkes County and was living on Helton in
Ashe County with a Blevins family who were neighbors of James Martin's
widow, Phebe Gambill. The proximity of the families are probably
not coincidence, but an indication of relationship.
Another clue, not proof,
but a significant indication that he was part of Jesse's family,
is the way that the family names were repeated through the generations---.
Samuel, William, Jesse, James, Shadrack, Louisa, Nancy. This was
a customary practice, a Scottish tradition, in those times.
.It was like fitting together
a jigsaw puzzle, with one piece missing. When that final piece was
found it was a fit!.. In conclusion , having tried and eliminated
every possibility with all the other Gambills, I am convinced beyond
a reasonable doubt from the circumstantial evidence that I found
that our ggrandfather, James Martin Gambill was the son of Jesse,
who was the son of William, who was the son of old Henry who was
the son of maybe Thomas? , who was the son of ? , who was the son
of ? , all the way back to the "Old One " of legend. And
from him who knows!
Notwithstanding, I will keep an open mind and continue my research
to validate my conclusion.
That elusive, hard-to-pin-down Jesse
is part of the second generation of Gambills living in North Carolina.
What did I find out about him? . .He was born ca 1785, probably
in Wilkes County. He was living in Wilkes County in 1803 because
we find his name on a Wilkes County Court order to lay off a road
that runs up the South Fork of the Roaring River etc. etc.
He married Nancy Johnson, a daughter of Capt. Samuel Johnson, ca
1805. In 1810 they were in Ashe County with two children in the
household under ten years of age. This turns out to be his daughter,
Nancy, born 1808 and his son, Samuel, born 1810. In 1820 he was
still in Ashe County with wife Nancy and they had two more sons
under the age of nine. It works out that they are James Martin,
born 1813, and Jesse J,. born 1818. Of course, Samuel and
young Nancy are still at home. Interestingly enough, three young
adults were living with them, too. I have no guess as to their identity,
but mountain people were notorious for their hospitality and it
could have been any relative or friend.
There is a deed record in Ashe County that shows that in 1819 Jesse
bought 275 acres on the South Fork of the New River from the heirs
and administrators of the estate of Jesse's uncle, Martin Gambill.
Purchase price $ 650.
After 1820 and before 1830, Jesse was back in Wilkes County. Although
this is total conjecture on my part, it could have been that his
mother died and he came into the inheritance he was promised at
her death by the will of William, his father ( that will is printed
in a previous chapter}.. This may have prompted his return.. The
time line fits. He has a son under the age of five-Shadrack, born
1824, another son, -from the age we assume it was Jesse J,-- and
a new daughter, Chloe, born 1830. Young Nancy, the eldest, is still
at home and a daughter Louisa who was born around 1815. The two
oldest sons, Samuel and James Martin, are unaccounted for.
By 1840, he was still in Wilkes. He had three daughters at home
whom we can assume are Nancy, Louisa, and Chloe. Only three sons
are at home---one has to be Shadrack, but of the other three it
is impossible to determine by their age groupings which one is unaccounted
for. But we know they were all alive at that time because we come
to the 1850 census and find them by name.( The 1850 Census is the
first one to list everyone in the household by name and age)
 Jesse
died after 1840 and before 1850 because we find his widow head of
the household on the 1850 Wilkes Census with four of her children
living with her. And for the first time we find, on the 1850 Census
ggrandfather James Martin, by
name, as head of a household with his wife, Phebe, and two children,
Caroline and Samuel.
So what do we know of this recent ancestor, our ggrandfather, James
Martin, besides the fact we always had his name wrong.
We know he was born in Ashe County in 1813. He is on the 1850 Wilkes
County census as James Gambel , age 37, married to Phebe who is
age 20 (robbed the cradle, he did! ). Two children, Caroline and
Samuel are on board. Next door lives his brother Jesse J, age 32
with his bride, Mary, age 21, no children. (That is why I knew she
was a bride!) His widowed mother, Nancy, age 61, lives nearby with
the rest of his brothers and sisters, Nancy, Samuel, Shadrick, (sic)
and Cloe {sic}. All are accounted for except Louisa who I am told
married Johnson Caudill before 1850.
Jumping ahead to .the
1860 Census, we find him as James M., age 42-(uh oh, something is
amiss. He must have given those years to Phebe who has now jumped
to 37). Elizabeth, Jesse, Mary, Shadrack, and Louisa have joined
the household.{ Notice the repetition of family names}.
His elderly mother, Nancy, is still in a separate household as the
head with the same four adult unmarried children living with her.
And a new name emerges, Samuel Gambill,15, origin unknown. Chloe
is probably his mother.!
James Martin Gambill moved
from Wilkes to Ashe County sometime after 1860 and before 1870.
The folks that know why he did are dead, but it undoubtedly was
connected with the Civil War. Aunt Gert Gambill Roberts used to
say that the Gambill family had money and land in Wilkes County,
but they were run out because they were Union sympathizers, or Republicans.
She recalled hearing that one of her Denny relatives was put in
the stocks by the Home Guard. Another one, or perhaps the same one,
was hung by his heels. He was cut down before he died, but he never
fully recovered. Quoting from an article, Wilkes County
and the Civil War, authored by Chris J. Hartly.
" The people of Wilkes were bitterly divided. Brothers,
families, friends, and neighbors were pitted against one another
in philosphy and belief, if not in deed. There, in Wilkes County,
the nation's Civil War struggles were being played out, in miniature."
James Martin may have
hidden in the highlands of Ashe County, perhaps joined family already
there, to avoid this kind of conflict.
The politics of this era
in the mountains of western North Carolina was interesting and sometimes
violent. I quote the following from a book, Grandpa's
River, recording the memories of Mag Gambill.Taylor. She was
not a Republican!. Families were seriously split during this
period.
" Throughout that struggle ( the Civil War) the mountain region
was a nest for bushwackers and bandits that preyed upon the aged
and defenseless who were left at home while all the able bodied
men were away fighting that losing battle.
The Republican Party was started in North Carolina on March 27,
1867. Negroes joined because they thought it had given them freedom.
One half the party membership in the South was Negro--the rest were
scalawags, squatters, and carpetbaggers.
A new state constitution
was written in 1868. In the election of 1868, Republicans swept
to victory---Holden was elected governor. Congress approved the
new state constitution, and admitted N. C. Representatives and Senators.
North Carolina was back in the union but in the control of the Republican
party whose radical policies and negro carpetbag-scalawag membership
were very distasteful to the native white majority.
"Yes", said Mag, "Yankees, bushwhackers, Republicans--as
a little girl I heard about them all, but most about the Republicans,
There were always lots of them around-pretty evenly matched up with
the Democrats. That's the reason it was always right necessary to
work hard on elections. As I remember, it was never the issue that
made the difference; but, just the fact that it would never do for
a Republican to win. So by hook or crook and plenty of corn liquor
to pass around, the Democrats usually won.
It wasn't the Negroes that were segregated in the mountain- it was
the Republicans!"
(Footnote. So now dear
readers those of you who knew J. C. Gambill can understand why he
was such a fanatical Republican as opposed to the radical Democrats.
The roots for his fanaticism apparently go back to the Civil War)
In any event, our ggrandfather was
on the 1870 Ashe County census as Martin. Three more children have
joined the household--Anna, John Aaron , and William.
Now there is a total of ten which is just about right for those
prolific mountain people.
This is the last census James Martin appeared on. He died sometime
after 1870 and before 1880.. He was buried in an unmarked grave
at Zion Hill Baptist Church in Helton Township. His youngest son,
William, and some other Gambills are buried there, too
Footnote:. In 2003 his descendants placed a marker in James and
Phebe Gambill's memory near their son, William.
His widow, Phebe, is on 1880 Ashe County census, Helton Township.
. Five of the children are still at home. Living close with the
F. M. Blevins family is Chloe, James Martin's youngest sister. The
five children still at home with Phebe includes John Aaron, 16,
who is the man we are interested in. We knew him as Pap, our flesh
and blood grandfather.
.Chapter Seven: Grandparents
are Important! - Back to the top
John
Aaron, Pap, was born in 1864, married Martha Ellen Denny,
Grandmaw, in 1889, the same year that his mother, Phebe, died. Their
oldest child my Dad, JC Gambill, was born in a
log cabin on Helton in 1890.. Cousin Tom Roberts told me that, at
this juncture, Pap was working as a day laborer for a well to do
farmer, named Perkins. The cabin probably belonged to Mr. Perkins.
(We have a picture of that log cabin before it was dismantled sometime
in the seventies for the logs}. Tom and I both remember hearing
from family members that Pap worked in that impoverished post- Civil
War economy for $1. a week. Later we know that Pap and Grandmaw
bought a small mountain farm on Piney Creek from Grandmaw's parents,
James T. and Nancy Denny.. They lived there until 1928 raising a
family of six, J. Curtis, James Martin, Samuel, Nancy Louisa, Gertie,
and Rettie.
 But
before we talk more about this family, we digress to tell about
John Aaron's migration.. (Every generation it seems we find Gambill's
moving.}
All of this is family lore, but we know it happened. As a very young
lad he somehow or another went to Montana and stayed for a time
on a cattle ranch. He was the foreman which meant that he got paid
$6.per week for six days of work instead of $5.as did the others.
How he got there and back and when and why he returned to the mountains
we do not know. Maybe circumstances forced him to return--- the
ranching industry in Montana suffered from freezes in the 1880's
that wiped out some ranchers-or maybe he just got homesick. Unfortunately,
he took this wonderful story to his grave. His descendants were
not smart enough to record it. There is a lesson there for all future
genealogists!
Grandmaw had her own bit of adventure as a young woman. Before she
married, she had a job outside her home which was very unusual for
those days and times. She worked for a Mr. Littlewood, an Englishman
who brought textile machinery to Helton and set up a woolen mill
on Helton Creek. The machinery was powered using the same raceway
as the rolling mill which ground corn and wheat.. Lottie Adams tells
me they made socks and linsey woolsey. Because transportation was
so difficult in the mountains, Mr. Littlewood had a dormitory the
working girls lived in. The mill and the dormitory are still standing
on Helton. The old rolling mill is now converted to a private residence.
Footnote; Since
writing this I have found literature saying that Mr. Perkins, a
local land owner, built the woolen mill and Littlewood bought it
later.
We return to Pap, John Aaron, and Grandmaw, Matt. . Pap died when
I was 11 and Grandmaw when I was 14. I knew my grandparents pretty
well because they lived with us in their later years.. What were
they like, what did they look like?
Well, I only knew them when they were old; if you want to know what
they looked like while young, go back to the home page
Pap was of slight build, I expect he was never heavy...His hair
was gray and thinning as you might expect, but he had a handlebar
moustache that stayed bushy. He must have had it most of his life
because a family picture made around 1912 showed him with it. He
always wore bib overalls. I remember that he chewed plug tobacco
.He smelt faintly like tobacco .When he was just "studying"
he would sit and twiddle his thumbs.
My Grandmaw was a real granny. She wore long skirts, with petticoats
and long bloomers underneath. Overall was a big apron. Her hair
was white, long, rolled into a knot on the back of her head. She
had high cheek bones, like an Indian ( I have been told she had
some Indian ancestry from her Howell grandparents, but I do not
know it is true) She dipped snuff and used a chewed twig to work
it around in her mouth. Grandmaw had a pronounced tremor of her
head, never diagnosed, but probably not Parkinsons.
I used to think that Pap represented the Scottish part of the Scots-
Irish while Grandmaw was the Irish part. Pap was a stern man, not
given to showing emotion, in fact a dour soul. As a child I always
felt his regard for me, but I can't remember much petting ( a mountain
term to denote showing affection) from him. I do remember thinking
he favored me and I was very jealous when my youngest sister, Lorraine,
was born and he was bragging about how pretty she was. I remember
him as being a hard worker right up to his final illness. I recall
when I was taking English Comp in college and required to write
an essay about a relative, I wrote about him and referred to him
as "indefatigable." I was learning big words then, but
it fit.
.Grandmaw had a merry way about her which Pap frowned on He was
a stern boss. She did pet her grandchildren. She made sure we all
thought we were her favorite. . I remember she would save a fallen
pear in her apron pocket and give it to me each morning on the sly..
She to let me comb and brush her hair and she allowed me to play
with the loose skin on the back of her hands, making fascinating
patterns. Now I have that same loose skin and absolutely no interest
in making ridges and whorls with it!
They lost the farm that
they owned on Piney Creek because Pap co-signed a note for my Dad
to go in to the timbering business. (After train service came from
Virginia many of the locals started up small sawmills and lumbering
businesses.) When this business failed, my family lost everything
including livestock, but as a child growing up I never heard any
recriminations from my grandparents.
The little house that they had on
Piney is all gone now except for the chimney, but for its day and
time and place, I expect it was an adequate homestead. My oldest
sister, Ruby, tells me that where it is all grown over now, there
was once a barn, a nice apple orchard and cleared fields for corn
and garden, etc. A story, told me by cousin, Lottie Adams, is that
there was one apple tree called the Nan apple tree because it was
given to them by Grandmaw's sister, Nancy Denny..
I remember visiting there
when I was about seven--my first trip to Ashe County since leaving
as a baby.. Pap and Grandmaw were living temporarily in their old
house... As I walked toward the house, I remember Pap was seated
on the front porch twiddling his thumbs. I stayed for supper and
overnight. The little house as I remember it had two rooms in front
and a lean- to in back which was the kitchen. Grandmaw had a small
cast iron stove with two eyes and a small oven in the side. It was
not a real kitchen range.. I expect it provided the only heat, except
for a fireplace in the front room. Grandmaw made cornbread for supper
and it turned out poorly-it was flat with a dark yellow color. She
kept apologizing saying she had ruined her cornbread with too much
soda. I loved my Grandmaw and I remember saying "it was okay,
I really liked cornbread made that way."
As said before they lost
their home and in 1928 they emigrated with my father, J. C., to
Pennsylvania where Dad became a tenant farmer. After that they made
their home with us most of the time, but they regularly returned
to Piney for long visits with their other children. Pap worked on
the farm as long as he had his health, and Grandmaw helped cook,
garden whatever needed to be done.. Pap died of cancer ( I have
learned it was prostate, but that was not spoken of then). at our
home in Zion, Md on August 8, 1939. His body was returned to Piney
where he was buried. Grandmaw spent most of her remaining years
on Piney with her oldest daughter, Lou Roberts, where she died one
day after her 76th birthday, March 8, 1942 My memory is that
she suffered a stroke. She is buried alongside Pap in the Sexton
cemetery on Piney Creek.. .
.Chapter Eight:The
Full Circle - Back to the top
Why
do I call this chapter, the full circle? Well it struck
me as curious that the Gambills were migrating again and this time
they returned to Pennsylvania, close to Philadelphia where we think
the original Gambill immigrants landed when they arrived from Europe
in the early 1700's.
As previously mentioned. Pap and Grandmaw lost their home in 1928
when their farm was sold out from under them to satisfy a note they
had signed for my father. My Dad, J. C., was foreclosed on, too,
and had to declare bankruptcy. They all left Ashe County with seven
young children (Ruby stayed behind with Aunt Rett to complete the
school year) -some say in a Model T Ford, some say in an Overland
touring car. I remember my Mom saying that she and some of us kids
came part way separately by train. That seems likely because I do
not see how it would be physically possible for four adults and
seven children to cram themselves into one car for what was in that
day an arduous journey not of hours, but of days. Like Pap's trip
out West the details were never recorded, so mostly lost. I was
born in 1927 so I was there, but have no memory of it.
But before we take this
family up north to Pennsylvania, we must record what we know about
their life in Ashe County before they left.
Dad, JC, .b. 1890 was the oldest child. I am sure he did not have
an easy childhood. Life was harsh and demanding in those days and
place. Some folks had it better, but for most it was a very primitive,
subsistence farming life style.. No modern machines were available.
Plowing may have been done with mules, or oxen, but the planting
and cultivating were done with a hoe on those steep hills. For cash
crops they went to the woods to gather ginseng and chestnut bark.
.
The simplest of conveniences that we take for granted just were
not there------ remember that stove of Grandmaw's! Before that I
expect she cooked over a fireplace. The wonder is that they survived
.the harsh winters in mountain homes so poorly made from rough cut
lumber that you could see through the cracks on the walls and floors..
I know that newspaper was pasted on the walls to provide cleanliness
and some insulation. Anyway, they did survive and in the case of
Dad, J. C., and our Uncle Jim even got some extra schooling.
At Trap Hill in Wilkes County the Baptists
and the Methodists had boarding academies. Tom Roberts tells me
that both Uncle Jim (the second son who was a Methodist minister),
and Dad attended one of them after they completed the mountain school
near them. They got the money by stripping bark off chestnut trees
and selling it to a small factory which made acid using for tanning.
To illustrate the value that many of the mountain people placed
on education I will include some more excerpts from an unpublished
book written by Mildred Taylor, Grandpa's River. This book,
written in the 1960's, comes from the tales told by Mildred's mother-in-law,
Mag Gambill Taylor. As best I can determine Mag was born about ten
years before my Dad. She says,---with some editing on my part:
"As for school, I can't remember when I didn't go to school
a little bit. Already the new Gambill school had been built up here
on Chestnut Hill. Of course it was not much of an improvement over
the old one( Martin Gambill's first school for his family}. There
were still the big log walls and a stone fireplace. But by the time
I started to school we had a big modern pot-bellied stove, and were
always red hot on one side and freezing on the other. We also had
backs nailed to the old puncheon benches. We kept our slate, our
lunch pail, and book ( if we had one) on the bench beside us, On
the puncheon bench by the wall stood the big water bucket filled
each morning at the spring, and one tin cup that everybody used.
A broom of sage grass hung on the wall beside the hickory stick
(In case you do not know that was for discipline)
It is true our school house was very crude, but we were lucky indeed
to have one at all. The mountain people took education seriously
because they had to work for it. And the mountaineers who were illiterate
were not so because they wanted to be. We had the very best that
our parents could provide. There was no help from the State or the
Federal Government. There was a little money in the state set aside
for education, called the Literary Fund, but none of it ever found
its way across the mountains.. But even after the war,(she was talking
about the Civil War) with the empty barns and cribs and smokehouses,
the education of hungry and ragged children was never entirely abandoned.
The old Gambill school was kept in repair and every generation had
its chance to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling.
The summer schools were always taught by women or young girls; the
winter school by men or boys. In the mountains these schools were
called Subscription schools, organized by the parents or sometimes
by a teacher, but always paid for by the parents.
When I was ten years old, I went with some of the older children
up to Jones School. This school was two miles from home which we
ran every morning through rain, sleet, or snow and jumped fourteen
rail fences. This school was no better than our Gambill school--it
had only benches to sit on, and the same old water bucket and tin
cup-- the same kind of big pot-bellied stove for which the boys
would have to chop wood every day at noon, and the girls would have
to carry it in.. That year I studied "Sanford Intermediate
Arithmetic,"" Holmes Second Reader,. and the " Blue
Back Speller".
We had recitations and declamation and spelling bees."
Mag goes on many pages, and then she tells us that under a certain
Governor Vance the legislature authorized a normal school for each
race. County commissioners were to raise enough tax to keep schools
open for four months. Academies were being established over the
State-even a few in the mountain section.
"So when I was 17 years old, I went to "Nathan's Creek
Academy" (Liberty Hill Methodist) .
There I studied English Grammar, US History, Sanford Higher Arithmetic,
Latin, Physical Geography, Page's Practice Teaching, Mental Arithmetic
and the Dictionary".
She stayed with an Aunt, and everyday there were eighteen sitting
down at the table. And only three paid any board money.. Continuing
on
" That year Aunt Neeley and Uncle John went to Charlotte on
a trip. They brought back tablets and pencils for all their ten
children and for Reeves and me. It was the first tablet I had ever
seen! I was 17 years old, and we used them like they were gold."
After much more Mag tells us:
" I took the county teacher's examination given by Professor
Jones, the county superintendent
While I was taking the examination that day, Sept 6, 1901 news came
that President McKinley was assassinated.
That winter I taught in Garvey School, which was a four month public
school, and I was paid $25 per month,
I stayed with Aunt Lydia and Uncle John Pierce that year and paid
50cents a week for board. I could now afford it.
Those were wonderful days for I could see a dream coming true--I
would soon save enough money to go to college!".
There is a great deal more to Mag's memories, but I wanted to share
this much. It tells so much about the mountain people and the value
they placed on education. Incidentally, Mag did not go to college.
She met a feller, married him, and helped him to become a medical
doctor.
I do not remember Dad's saying that he went to Trap Hill in Wilkes
Count to an Academy, but I know that he received a Permanent Certificate
for County Elementary Teacher for North Carolina, signed by the
County Superintendent of Ashe County Schools, Mr. C. M. Dickson
on 17 Jume, 1918. My memory is that he received his teacher's training
at Appalachian Training/Normal School at Boone. How much we miss
by not paying attention!
I only remember one story that Dad told us about his teaching
career. He was a new teacher to a small school which had a hard
time keeping teachers. You see there was one family, with some mean
large boys, who had a reputation for running off the school teachers.
Right away they challenged my Dad with the idea of beating him up
and sending him packing. When the first one attacked him, Dad picked
up the axe that was used for chopping wood for the pot-bellied stove,
hit the bully on the back of his head with the blunt end and then
threw him out the window. He told his brothers to take him home.
Class immediately came to order. However, my Dad was uneasy for
a while as the boy almost died in which case he would have been
tried for murder. Fortunately he survived and my Dad's teaching
career did not end with a murder charge
Why and when he left teaching I do not know. Thelma, who remembers,
said he would have to leave for a mountain school and be away for
the week and come home on weekends. That and low pay could have
been the reason. On the 1920 census records Dad was living near
Pap on Piney and listed as a farmer. I do not know why he turned
from teaching to farming, store keeping and the timbering business,
but he did. And the timbering business at the beginning of the Great
Depression is where he went bankrupt and as a result left Ashe County.
When Dad was a young man he had typhoid fever. It was usually fatal
in those days, but he survived. He was out of it for most of one
summer and when he gained consciousness he could not even speak
loud enough to be heard. He lost all his hair and teeth. The hair
came back and when he was in late middle age, I remember he grew
a third set of a few of his teeth. They had to be pulled to accommodate
his dentures.
Of Mom's younger years, I know little except her Dad was a preacher
and her Mom was everything, including a midwife. She was raised
very strictly. She said she was punished once for using the word
" darn".. She was talking about fixing stockings! On the
1900 census I find Mom as Mandy O, a girl of nine who could not
read or write and who had never gone to school (nor had her older
sisters although they could read and write) Her brothers Joe and
John had attended school for four years. What does the O stand for?.
I asked Mom once if she had a middle name and she said "Orran"
I thought she meant Irene. I found the name Orran on some old census
records, so I guess she meant what she said.
The first place that our
family lived up North, was on the Lutman farm a few miles outside
of Oxford, Pa. in Chester County. I cannot imagine how the big extended
family made it with no household goods and certainly little or no
money. How they got that stuff and livestock and machinery together
is incredible. I suppose it had to be on credit. My sister Doris
told me that in the first months the family survived largely on
potatoes that were left in the cellar there by the previous tenant--apparently
it was obligatory to leave these when the farmers changed tenancy.
We stayed there one year and then moved to the Paul Cameron farm
outside Rising Sun, Maryland on old Route One {then the major thoroughfare
between Philadelphia and Baltimore } . One of my very earliest memories
is Bill being born there in that old stone farmhouse. Dick was born
there, too, a couple of years later-a Valentine baby. Mom got a
comic valentine from an anonymous sender which brought a lot of
snickers. I did not have a clue what was funny!
.
I remember we had a big timbered barn and dairy cows-the monthly
milk check was the income. We grew corn, wheat, hay, alfalfa, tomatoes
and soy beans. . Very labor intensive, I remember. Dad bought a
tractor, a John Deere with big cleats, not tires, on the wheels.
Long after newer tractors with tires were bought, this one was used
to pull vehicles when they were really mired
.I had some wonderful times playing in that big barn where the hay
and straw was stored. It was lovely with enormous timbers that we
used for a jumping board. Sadly, it is gone. Burned down in recent
memory, after a lightning strike.
While we lived there the state put a big curve in Route One right
in front of our house. It replaced a dead end intersection, now
called Sylmar Road. It was very exciting to me. We would find little
pins with the American flag attached that the workers left there.
We considered them treasures although I still am not sure what they
were all about. I, also, remember so well that on that same stretch
of land, Dad had all the older children grubbing out the roots and
underbrush in order to make a field suitable for cultivation ( I
remember tomatoes growing there later). We tried to make root beer.
I do not recall how it tasted, but we did not make more, so I guess
it did not turn out well.
We younger children attended Cherry Grove Elementary( a one room
school) and the older ones Rising Sun High School. Cherry Grove
was close enough to walk to, but the older ones, if they were lucky,
rode to High School on the milk truck as Dad took milk to the creamery.
In the Fall and Spring they were not so lucky, they usually had
to stay home in the mornings to work in the fields. Then they missed
school or went to school late! Life was hard in those depression
years.
I remember well the 1932 election and how frustrated my Dad was
when Roosevelt won the Presidency. He hated him for 12 + years.
Well, enough of my memories. We lived there until 1935 and moved
to a farm near Barnsley, Pa. called the Patterson farm. I remember
it had a beautiful, old brick house and lovely shrubbery and trees.
Originally it was not the tenant house, because there was another
smaller one which was for the tenants.. I know we were living there
in 1936 when Alf Landon lost the election. Dad was riled again!
Lorraine, or Tootie was born here, the youngest of twelve starting
with Ruby, Gwyn, Doris, Archie, Thelma, Robert Earl(died in infancy),
Dean, Kathleen, Bobbie, Bill, Dick, and Lorraine.
I knew I had moved up because in the
fourth grade, I was now in a four room elementary school at Barnsley,
Pennsylvania.. The water bucket was gone, but the toilet was still
outside. We had wonderful teachers in this school and I felt that
we were taught a lot considering the facilities and class room size,
etc.
We stayed one year only at the Patterson Farm. Then we moved to
a farm closer to Oxford, Pa, {no name farm.} It was farther to walk
to Barnsley school and that was a hardship in the winter months.
We simply did not have clothing suitable for it, but there were
no choices. It did have the advantage of making Oxford more accessible
and we kids walked to the First Baptist Church Sunday School.. At
this time Mom took in some boarders, single male immigrants from
Ashe county, who were working at the Oxford Cabinet Factory. God
only knows how she cooked for all of us and made do! We were crowded!
What I remember politically about this place is that the Social
Security Bill had been passed and my Dad was furious, foreseeing
that we were heading toward Socialism. And he was right, but from
this vantage point, I know ---with the overpopulation we have---
the independent life style of the mountains that my Dad espoused
was doomed anyway.
In 1938, Dad-- with the
help of the Federal Land Bank at Towson, Md.-- bought a 100 acre
property from Rev Prettyman in Zion, Md. The house was a mess, no
running water, not even electricity. In time, we got a sink in the
kitchen and Les Sexton and Archie crudely wired the place. It was
a long time, in the sixties, before there was a bathroom. Anyway
it was theirs. There was a small dairy barn and within a few years,
Dad built a larger one.. They spent many years of hard toil there
right up to their deaths. One of the things Dad did to earn money
was to go South periodically and buy cows.. He would buy them for
a few dollars because the farmers there did not have adequate grain
to keep them well fed over the winter. Then he would fatten them
up before reselling them at the Barnsley sale.
JC Gambill - Zion, Md. (Late 1950's)
Dad died in 1961 as a result of a farm accident when he was cultivating
corn on a farm he owned jointly with my brother, Archie. Mom died
eight years later of natural causes at home in 1969. They are both
buried at Conowingo Baptist Church, Maryland, a lovely hilltop
cemetery reminiscent of the old graveyards back home in Ashe County.
But I cannot end here
without telling something about my parents which was at the core
of their beings--that mountain hospitality. They helped so many
people! There were many of our relatives and friends, even acquaintances,
who joined that great out migration from Ashe County. Our home was
like a way station. They would come to Curt's and Mandy's and always
they were given shelter, food, and helped until they could find
their own place. Dad sometimes would even move them in his old truck.
I doubt if they even bought the gas. Tom Roberts remembers my Dad
telling him that he borrowed money sometimes to do this. They gave
'til it really hurt!
The above cases are too numerous to
mention individually--it was ongoing all my young life. There were
two outstanding single cases that I must record, though.
. A severely handicapped, humpbacked man named Lester Sexton lived
with us many years before he died around 1944. His own family rejected
him because he was a cripple and illegitimate, so Dad and Mom just
let him stay with us. He was no fool because he could fix about
any vehicle or farm machinery we had,--- and he did. When he could
get the booze, he would tie one on and we would find him sick in
the old outhouse.. He had no income, so Mom would take a few pennies
from her meager egg money and buy him loose tobacco which he used
to roll his own cigarettes. Mom had a big heart.
The other instance involves my cousin, Lottie Roberts Adams. Lottie
had polio as a toddler which left her with a withered leg. In the
mountains in those days there were no hospitals or doctors who could
help her. She walked, but barely, on the side of her foot with a
very severe limp. Mom and Dad, through a doctor in Oxford, Pa, got
her admitted to the Shriners Hospital for crippled children in Philadelphia.
Lottie went through years of serious operations, braces, special
shoes, isolation from her family. Dad always made sure she had the
transportation to and from the hospital. Lottie grew up to touch
the lives of many people, to marry and have a family and a career.
She has been a blessing to everyone. And I know she praises God
for my Mom and Dad's intercession. (Go to Family Writings and read
Mommy's Story)
I think if I could write my parent's epitaph, I would put on their
tombstone, the following:
Never have two
who had so little, shared so much.
Not " the end', but a good place to stop
.Epilogue
- Back to the top
Herewith ends my writing of the Gambill Family
History. Much of my generation and of the succeeding ones are still
alive. I do not consider it appropriate to write the history of
people who are living and still making history. And, importantly,
there is an issue of privacy.
Except in the early chapters where all I had to deal with were
facts, this narrative was highly subjective, representing a small
part of my perceptions and memories. Some of them may not coincide
with yours. Feel free to differ.
Naturally, in a writing of this sort only a few of the players
can be named. I have close to 600 individual records , many of whom
I know little more than their name.
I invite family members to continue this History. We would love
to add as Appendices any writings that you may care to submit.
Marie (Bobbie) Gambill Smith
October, 2002
The truly marvelous thing about
these ledgers is that they survived. The other truly marvelous thing
about them is that they reveal a lot about my parents' lives in
the decade from 1920 to 1930.
I thought I had concluded writing about my parents, J. C. and Amanda
Gambill—not that I had told all that there was to tell, but
I had shared enough. Then Ruth Gambill reminded me about old ledgers
of Dads that she and Bill Gambill had in their safekeeping. She
offered me long- term access to them and mailed them to me. I looked
them over carefully with new eyes. As she said " There are
many stories in those pages." Indeed there are and I thought
it appropriate to record and share some them for future reference
while I had a chance..
Footnote: After
my brother, Bill Gambill, passed Ruth gave me the ledgers.
As of May 2010 they are in my safekeeping..
I know that prior to 1920,
Dad's livelihood came, in part, from teaching school ( I have found
his name recorded as a teacher at White Oak and Lansing, and have
been told that he taught at White Top) On the 1920 census records
he was living at house 6-6, adjacent to his father, John Gambill.
He and Pap were listed as farmers, owning farms with no mortgage
and working for themselves. A brother, Sam, and a sister, Rettie
Wallace, married to Dennis, were living close by, the menfolk listing
their occupations as timber laborers. On the 1930 census we find
Dad and Pap in Cecil County, Md near Rising Sun, renting a farm
and categorized as farm laborers.( We know this farm as the Paul
Cameron farm on old Rt 1). What happened in those intervening ten
years to bring them to such a changed position? My older siblings
who may have known are dead, but there is much that can be inferred
from the entries in these books.
From the
ledgers and business letterheads we can determine that Dad went
into business after 1920. There were two –one the timber and
lumber business (Small sawmills and lumbering operations were located
up every holler after the the train came from Virginia) and the
other one, groceries. However. the entries in the books are intermingled
as if a sole undertaking.
 .
First of all, there are two ledgers, pretty tattered.( I never
saw these as a child and I wonder what prompted Mom and Dad to keep
them all those years through all the moves they made) Within the
pages someone has left a variety of loose documents, ranging from
canceled checks to a hand written contract to buy timber, to a personal
letter to my grandparents from my Uncle Jim Gambill. The first entries
were in 1920 for notes that were apparently used to borrow the money
to capitalize the business and the last ones were in 1928 when they
were farming in Pennsylvania. The greater majority of the entries
were in 1923 and 1924 when it was obvious that the business operations
.were at their peak. I have found two loose pages, apparently from
a third ledger(non-existent) and the entries were in 1927, listing
payments made to some debtors.
I can tell he was in the
timbering business, contracting stands of timber from which he,
Pap, and others (hired by the hour) harvested chestnut oak bark
which was sold to the Smethport Extract Co. of Damascus,Virginia
(I understand this was used for tanning purposes). Also, of course,
stands of timber were bought, felled, and skidded out of the woods
by oxen This was sawed into board feet, etc. and sold for a variety
of purposes including railroad ties. Ruby Gambill Kilby remembers
a sawmill right outside of Lansing. As evidenced by notes and checks,
he was backed by a Mr. W. T. Greer who was in the timber and lumber
business and his father, our Pap, John Gambill.
In addition Dad had a small grocery business. Sometime in 1924,
J. P. Roberts joined him in this. At least we know J. P. or Uncle
Jeems, husband to Lou Gambill Roberts, did the bookkeeping using
a beautiful script... He probably minded the store, too. Was he
a partner or an employee.? Can't tell from the entries.
Family members who had accounts are numerous. At the top of the
list is Sam Gambill. There were many entries under his name paying
him for his labor; charging groceries and clothing to his account,
even evidence of a bill that Dad paid Dr. Lester Jones in August
1924 in his behalf. It was a whopping, $32. Back when men were working
for ten cents to twenty cents per hour that represented several
weeks of work. There were accounts for Shade Gambill, Jesse Gambill,.uncles
to my father, and Hamp and Lee Gambill who were Dad's first cousins(sons
of Jesse). There is also a Bob Gambill whose relationship I cannot
definitely establish, but I think he was a son of Jesse, another
first cousin to Dad. Was he the Uncle(?) Bob I reputedly received
my nickname of Bobbie from?
The most thought- provoking
account is for Jim Gambill, Dad's brother, who became a Methodist
minister and migrated to Ohio at about the same time Dad and Mom
migrated to Pennsylvania.. The pages where his account was detailed
have been torn out, apparently destroyed. Why? Well, all my life
I knew there was some estrangement while they were still young men.
And there is a letter, dated June 1928 from Uncle Jim, living then
in Ohio, to Pap and Grandmaw, now living in Pennsylvania You can
tell he is embittered–-perhaps because they lost their home
and land by supporting my father's business ventures. This letter
is lying loose within the pages. The mystery is why was it kept
and in that place? I do not recall Uncle Jim visiting us while his
parents were living with us.. I know that none of us ever visited
him–I doubt we were ever invited.. In their later years there
was a reconciliation between my Dad and Uncle Jim–he read a
poem at the grave side ceremonies when my father died.. But all
that is left in these ledgers are a couple of entries for checks
made out to Jim and the aforementioned letter. I wish I could have
seen those other pages which were his accounts.! I am sure they
would fill in a lot of the blanks!
Some loose bills tell a story—there is a bill from Dr. Thomas
Jones. It was for $4.00, charged for "greeting a child".
It was paid in October 1924 with $4.00 worth of flour and salt--
from the grocery business I assume.. I surmise this bill was for
delivering(greeting?) my brother, Robert Earl, who was born and
died in 1924. In July there was a bill from Welch's store in Lansing
which included $1.50 for 12 cans of milk. I have been told that
Robert Earl did not thrive because Mom's milk failed. They had to
send away for canned milk. Despite this the baby died in August,
Mom used to say of cholera infantum–whatever that meant in
that day and time. (My dictionary said it was a form of gastroenteritis
occurring in infants, often fatal.) There are many stories in these
accounts! This was a sad one! My Mom rarely talked about it, but
always she grieved for this lost baby!
Some business peculiarities struck me. One was the use of a store
for transactions normally thought of as banking. There are bits
and scraps of paper where store customers, notably a Mr.Rowie Mc
Neil who would scratch out " J. C. Gambill you please pay Marge
Neaves a dollar and .05 cts for me" Then it would be noted
on the scrap of paper by Uncle Jeems as " booked" Was
it ever redeemed? In fact Mr. McNeil even used checks on the Lansing
Bank, scratched out the name of the bank and put Mr. J. C. Gambill
over it and wrote checks paying certain individuals. I can only
assume Dad coughed up the money and honored these checks, but there
is no evidence they were ever redeemed by Mr. McNeill, although
they may have been .Mr. Mc Neill had a sizeable balance on his account
and it was noted this was transferred to page 120 of a new book
This annotation was a second bit of evidence I found that there
must have been a third ledger which has not survived.
It seems that this pseudo form of banking was not an unusual practice.
As a matter of fact Dad had two of his returned checks listed on
his account at Welch's store in Lansing. The store apparently took
care of it, charging it to Dad's bill..
Another peculiarity was the frequent use of the term and concept
"indivigual" . I have a very good dictionary and cannot
find that term. Was it meant to mean "individual?". That
does not always make sense in the context it was used. Was it a
local term of those days and time and what did it denote.? I have
not been able to figure it out. Examples :" J. C. Gambill and
Bob's indivigual acct.". Also "Roberts, J. P. and J. C,
Gambill indivigual acct." and ‘J. C. and John Gambill's
indivigual time". It must have denoted some legal or business
relationship.
The records did substantiate, too, that for some part of the 1920's
my parents left the old homestead on Piney Creek and moved and lived
in Lansing, paying rent..
On a light hearted note. There is only one female customer on the
books–Mrs Bessie Goss. Bessie apparently like her goodies as
she was always charging something like candy, cake, etc.
At one time she had run up a bill for several months and there was
a note to tell her she would have to pay. The next month she paid
$28.00 by check, a sizeable sum when a cake cost 5 cents.. An interesting
sidelight. Bessie not only charged to her own account, but sometimes
to certain gentlemen's accounts. Mostly always the charges were
for items considered luxuries in those days. Maybe these men were
relatives, or had "relations.".
The last entries in the ledgers were in 1928 at the Lutman farm
in Oxford, Pa. Dad was keeping records of milk sold to Abbott's
Dairy in Philadelphia, breeding of cows, and for some labor provided
to Mr. Lutman by himself and two boys. About mid year they stopped,
probably never to go again. I never recall seeing my father maintaining
farm records. I expect life got too hard, and after working all
day it just wasn't something he could keep up with. He juggled a
lot in his head, I do know that. And he never stopped borrowing
and extending credit.
One thing is evident, J. C. was a hard worker and had a great deal
of entrepreneurship. He might have been a business success in the
20's except for a few factors The economic times were against him–the
Great Depression was beginning. Also, he used too much credit by
borrowing, and extended too much credit especially to friends and
relatives. And he did not have an adequate accounting system. He
had volumes of transactions, meticulously listed, ( and was he ever
great in "figuring!"), but from these lists there was
no way he could see the overall picture at any given time. Double
entry bookkeeping would have given him that tool. It had been in
existence for centuries, but at least in Dad's case it was not used
in that time and place. His record keeping system was just not adequate
for the varied businesses he was in!
I hoped I could find something to substantiate why, when and wherefore
Dad went bankrupt, and everything that he and Pap owned was sold
to satisfy creditors.( I think this single event shaped him and
our family for the rest of his life.) Ruby, the oldest child, wrote
at one time Dad became a partner in the hardware business with Henry
Gentry who promptly put all his assets into his wife's name and
declared bankruptcy. Dad, as a legal partner, was left holding the
bag for the whole schmear.. Although Mr. Gentry was a customer and
many pages of entries were dedicated to his business transactions,
I find no specific record or entry to substantiate this, but it
has been part of our family lore since my early memories. I am sure
there is a kernel of truth in it. The answer might lie in the missing
third ledger.
One thing I do know, my parents did not lose everything in the
late twenties because my father or his family, indulged themselves.
My mother never knew what it was to have money, even for the barest
necessities. No, it was not an extravagant, slothful life style
that brought him down. It was probably an inadequate accounting
system, naivete' in business, but mostly an unwillingness or inability
to say "no" to any petitioner.
And he never changed.
April 2003
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