Gibtown Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Gibtown Cemetery, out there in Jack County. Now, this place started with a different name entirely. They called it New Hope City, which is the kind of name that carries a certain weight all on its own.

But somewhere along the way, the town was renamed Gibtown, in honor of a local merchant by the name of Burdett Levi Gibbins. The marker doesn't tell us when, exactly, just that it happened, and that a man who ran a store ended up with a town carrying his name. There are worse legacies.

Now, before there was much of anything else here, there was a cemetery. And according to oral tradition, the very first person buried in that ground was a stranger. No name.

No story attached, at least not one that survived. Just a stranger, laid to rest in soil that was just beginning to become something. The first marked grave, though, that one has a name.

Mary C. Stults. She died in 1876, at the age of thirty, and she left behind a husband and six young daughters.

Six. You sit with that for a moment. The Methodist Church acquired the property in 1881, and the burials kept coming.

Pioneer families. Veterans. Ministers.

County officials. Doctors. People who built something out of what had been open land.

And if you walk among the stones, you can still read the symbols carved into them, the emblems of the Woodmen of the World, the Masons, fraternal marks that tell you these folks belonged to something larger than themselves. The marker calls this a once thriving community. Past tense.

But the cemetery is still there, still holding every one of them, stranger and statesman alike.

What the marker says

This area was originally called New Hope City but was later renamed Gibtown in honor of Burdett Levi Gibbins, a local merchant. According to oral tradition, the first cemetery burial was that of a stranger. The first marked grave belongs to Mary C. Stults who died in 1876 at the age of 30, leaving behind a husband and six young daughters. The Methodist Church acquired the property in 1881. Burials include pioneer families, veterans, ministers, county officials, doctors and other influential community members. Tombstone detailing reflects fraternal associations including the woodmen of the world and masons. This historic cemetery reflects the history of this once thriving community.