TombstoneTuesday - Margaret C. Gibson Miller - October 25, 2011

My fourth great grandmother, Margaret C. Gibson Miller, is one of my favorites. Her father, George Isaac Gibson, immigrated from Ireland to Virginia, where he served with George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Margaret was one of 11 children, b. 6 May 1799 in Lee County, VA. She married Herold Miller sometime before 1817, and had eight children of her own. She and Herold moved to Buchanan County, Missouri, where Herold died before 1850. She was a widowed land-owner in Buchanan County, eventually moving to Doniphan County, Kansas, to live with her daughter Thursa Ann and family. She died 22 June 1874, at the age of 75, and is buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery, Highland, Doniphan County, Kansas.

I often wonder about all the things she must have seen and done during her lifetime. Her father was a Revolutionary War veteran who probably told her stories of his wartime service. She moved to the frontier with her husband, raising seven children before moving to Missouri with her own family and several of her brothers and their families. Her nephew, Robert Gibson, was killed on the trip across the Plains in 1855. Several other nephews made to the trip to California in 1849 in search of gold. Always, she was at the front of the westward movement, living the hard life of a pioneer wife and mother. I truly admire her accomplishments.