Our Gibson family heritage has its known roots in the early history of Middle Tennessee back before 1800. William Gibson was born there, probably in Rutherford County.
On 30 April 1812 in Rutherford County, Tennessee, William Gibson married Nancy Bellah. Nancy was born on Independence Day, 4 July 1794, in Rowan County, North Carolina to Moses Bellah and Elizabeth Anderson. Moses was the grandson of an Irish immigrant, William Ballagh, from County Antrim, Ireland, the northernmost county in the country of Ireland. A distant Gibson family member has evidence of a William Gibson coming to South Carolina before the year 1700. There is apparently some evidence that the Gibson and Bellah families may have had an association long before William married Nancy. The association could potentially go back to Ireland.
Over the next 30 years, William and Nancy raised a family of 10 children - Moses, James, John, William, Andrew, Samuel, Matthew, Alfred, Elizabeth, and Mary [see the William Gibson Family].
Sometime before 1844, William moved his family from Rutherford County, Tennessee to Missouri. We don't know where his travels took him, but by 1844, the family had settled in Newton County, Missouri, just E. of present day Neosho, in the southwestern corner of the state near Arkansas and Oklahoma. There is an indication from letters written in the Bellah family that the Gibsons suffered during this time of travel, finding land through which they passed to be swampy. Members of the family contracted malaria as a result.
We find record in 1844 of William and John Gibson, presumably his son, establishing the second business in the town of Neosho - a blacksmith's shop. In about 1846, however, William passed away, probably of malaria, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Old Gibson Cemetery, E. of Neosho, Newton County, Missouri, with his wife Nancy.
Author: Roger L. Roberson, Jr. • Last updated: 11 January 2003