PIONEER HOME of Mr. William "Bill" Richard Gibson and Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Anderson Gibson. They were the parents of Pete, Fred, Daisy, Clinton, C. D. (Noody), and other children. The Gibson Family Cemetery is located on these grounds.
The family home in Waynesville still stands underneath one of the renowned Council Oaks. It was underneath these oaks that the Indians held council meetings. There are only a few of these trees in Georgia and perhaps interesting to county citizens to know that Brantley County has a tree of this type within its boundary.
The Gibson farm was formerly known as Sherwood, the home of Dr. Thomas Spalding Hopkins, from which he removed his family to Thomasville, Georgia for protection during the War Between the States. Uncle Bill Gibson purchased the farm in 1902. He re-built it form three stories and nine fireplaces to two stories and five fireplaces in 1928 to please his wife, Sarah. The family cemetery is located in front of the old home.
RELATED STORY: Marshall Rowland, a 1947 graduate from Nahunta High School, later a successful country music entertainer, and owner/operator of the largest country music radio station in Jacksonville and south Georgia, worked for the Gibson family as a teenager while attending school. His job was to "feed-up and pen" the Gibson farm animals (cows and pigs) every evening. With the Gibson farm located about one and half miles (3 mi - round trip) out the old Browntown road (unpaved in mid-1940) from Waynesville, where Marshall resided near the railroad tracks, he had to maneuver himself over some pretty rough-sandy roads each day to reach the Gibson farm. Marshall relates that during his younger years, he tried to ride his bicycle over these sandy roads, but that was a lost cause. Later he found other means of travel. Regardless, as a young teenager trying to earn spending money, Marshall says that he worked harder traveling to and from the Gibson farm than he did after arriving and accomplishing the job for which he was hired.
Marshall's Job Performance: Over 45 years later, while Thomas "Earl" Cleland was interviewing Mr. C. D. "Noody" Gibson for "The Story of Brantley County," Mr. Noody always spoke proudly of Marshall's achievement, almost as if Marshall was the son he and Mrs. Dorothy never had. Marshall reciprocated, always maintaining contact with the Gibson family throughout the years.