Oral Interview of Lizzie DAVIS Gibbs By Norbert and Kathy Gariety

INTERVIEW WITH

LIZZIE DAVIS GIBBS

BY 

NORBERT AND KATHY GARIETY

APRIL 13, 1979

3800 HARDING ST.

LONGBEACH

CALIFORNIA

TRANSCRIBED BY CONNIE GIBBS GILTZ 

ORIGINALLY NOVEMBER 1996

THEN AGAIN MARCH 2020

 

 

Construction Sign for new Berean Baptist Church Oct. 1953 Compton Calif

 Pictures are our windows to the past. Some are unknown mysteries looking for answers.  There are people in our lives who might have the answers. Sometimes it seems like we have lost the answers for good. Now a days with technology we can do some detective work and come up with what appears to be a reasonable answer.  

In the collection of my Aunt Lahoma's pictures I came across 6 that got me to wondering about them, I can identify one person, my Uncle Ira Massengale husband of my  Great Aunt Daisy. One has a date on the back of 1953. There are several of a sign that gave me a few more questions, so I decided to play detective to see what I could learn, I've read quite a bit about people who discover stories while searching for photos answers. I thought I would give it a try.

Here's a look at what I started with:

This picture shows a number of people working on the foundation for the new Berean Baptist Church in Oct. of 1953. I've enlarged it and I don't recognize anyone and the small sign isn't clear. 

There are about 5 pictures that involve this next picture of the sign 

in various stages of being put up

The man on the right of the sign is my Uncle Ira, I don't know

the identity of the other two.

The sign holds the clue that gave me the idea to see what I could learn.

It indicates that the old church is located at Oleander and Hatchway.

So I opened up Google Maps and searched for Oleander and Hatchway Southern California.

And look what popped up.

I took a street view and at this intersection there is

a vacant lot

This started the mind to wondering. I know that at

one point the Aunts and Uncles lived in Compton.

As I was going through the pictures and other items I have to scan

I come across things and it just so happened that around the same time I 

came across the group of pictures about the sign I also came across this, 

a birth announcement for Tom Underwood. When I first looked at it, I thought

that's sweet I will definitely have to scan it, then put it back in the file folder it was in.

Well, as I looked at the above map that little announcement jumped

into my mind and started yelling, I can help. Sure enough -- BINGO!!!

Now I have an address for them in Aug. of 1953.

So back to Google Maps I went and found that

they lived 2.3 miles from the intersection where the 

old church was suppose to be at.

Now it's time to look at the "new" church location 

and its location to Aprilia Ave. All I have is the

name of the church on the construction sign,

Berean Baptist Church.  So I went to google maps

and entered that in for southern Calif. and 2 locations

showed up

I decided to take a closer look at the one

that is closer to Compton.  I went to street

view, this church is on the corner of Main St. and

126th St. Greater Berean Baptist Church.

Now to go see the distance between here and

Aprilia Ave.

It's about 2.3 miles from the Aprilia Ave. house

I did 2 more google map searches 

I looked at the distance between 

the 2 Churches.

The 2 Churches are 3.2 miles apart. 

And then one final look at google maps

just to see where the Aprilia Ave house

was in relation to the 2 Churches

Aprilia Ave is at the bottom. 

There's just one more thing.  I am pretty certain these are the correct 

locations, in 68 years things change, but looking at locations on the

map the location is correct.  The one thing I am not sure of is the

actual house. In Aunt Lahoma's White Album I shared with ya'al

one picture was labeled the house on Aprillia Compton Calif.

But when I do a street level view in google maps

this is the house.

All of the houses in street view look like

that one, none look like the one with

Aunt Lahoma is seen in. like I said I

know things change over time, but these

2 houses don't "feel" the same. 

also in the white album are a few labeled

Corlett house but no real good look at the house,

except one picture looks like maybe a backyard with a wall of

the house and it's stucco and street view in google maps 

the houses are stucco. On the same page labeled Corlett house is

what could be a front  but and it is wood with 3 windows 

going across and small flower bed underneath.

The other thing that could have happened to the

house on Aprilia between now and when Aunt Lahoma

lived in it, it might have been remodeled, in the street view

the front door is on the side and in Aunt Lahomas picture

it's in front with only one window at the front and a window at the side.

Someone in a remodel could have moved the front door to where the

side window is, however in Aunt Lahomas picture there is also a

gas meter under that window.

That brings this chapter of my being a photo detective to a close. 

Would be nice to find a picture of the old church 

but nothing comes up in a google search.

 

 

 

Lizzie

I have digitized the interview with Lizzie that Kathy and Norbert did. I have an idea of what I want to do with it, but I haven't had time recently to play with it. Here is a link to where I have some sound clips from the interview. I just tested it and the sound is low at least on my computer with no other speakers attached. You have to click on the link under the picture of Lizzie that says "The Flood" Then click download, you will be asked to choose what to play it with, after you do that it might take a few seconds for the player to open and start to play, I am really sorry about the volume problem, can't fix it here but then you might not have the problem, let me know.

These wavs go along with this post

Lizzie talks about the move to Claremore, OK

I came across, Rogers County History, it was published by the Claremore College foundation in 1979, I found it on Ebay maybe 5 or 6 years ago now. It has helped me trace some of the family branches of Martha and Joseph Gibbs. I want to share the entries I found in this book that pertain to our family, I hope you find it as interesting as I did. First though, here is part of an interview with Lizzie, done by Kathy and Norbert Gariety, where she talks about why the Davis family moved to Claremore.

Lizzie said that when she was in the tenth grade at the Female Indian Seminary in Tahlequah, she went home for Christmas. She says, "We had the awfullest rain, all night it rain, day an night, well there was a big river, and that river got up, it was about 10 miles up above us where it started from an everything come way out there, all the farmers down in there, we called it the bottom, I guess there were about 25 or 30 farmers, we kept watching it come, an we had a big orchard an dad says well it's up there in the orchard now and its still a coming an by about 5 o'clock that evening, well it come through and hit our yard, it had to come about a mile from the river and the further it went down, well it just taken the whole (can't understand this part). Well there was about 30 or 40 houses down there an they all had to leave, we went out to the field, we called it the hill, going out to town, and we had grain, every farmer had a grainary and they tore down all the granaries they could tear down and built skiff, come and carry us all out. We had big ole cotton wood trees down there, oh they was tall, you know we came out right over the top of them trees. Kathy asked how big? Lizzie answered, "Our house was a double, it was high, and it come up to the top of the windows and when the water went down, it left the sand there and we had to go in an dig the sand all out.

Norbert asked, "it ruined everything in the downstairs? "oh yes, ruined everything" Lizzie answered. Furniture too? Norbert asked. Lizzie replies yes, had a parlor, had a big loft, we had an organ, one of them old time organs. Dad an me had to lift that up in the loft, dad cut a big hole in the ceiling. We had fireplaces, well that fireplace was filled up with sand and water, and the yard, didn't look like we had any yard with all that sand. Out in the fields it drifted, it would just go around and around, just left a big hole and when the water went down there were big old turtles in there. Kathy asks if they had turtle soup, Lizzie tells her, no they was dead, they couldn't get out, it was deep as this house, Lizzie was interviewed at Doc and Lahoma Underwoods house in Long Beach, CA, a single story ranch style.

Lizzie goes on to say after the flood, why that just tore us all up, they never had nothing. The farms was ruined, couldn't have a farm anymore. Norbert states, the land was ruined by the flood, couldn't use it anymore, Lizzie continues, yeah, filled with sand. The fruit trees, the sand would be on to, top of them trees. Couldn't tell there was ever a farm there. Well dad sold out, he got a chance, he got a little out of it. some man come in there to buy it out, buy them out.

Then we went to Claremore. We drove over, was three days going, from our house to Claremore. And we taken, oh, about ten or twelve cows and horses and hogs, had a hundred head of hogs. We drove em, drove those hogs to Claremore. Put a bell on one bog old sow, oh she was a big un. And she'd go in the front and they'd go, just right down that road.They'd all follow her, she was like a lead cow or a lead horse.

Well when we got down to Muskogee there was a little town next to um. It was called Red Bird, well there wasn't nothing but n******. And they had a big sign up there, "Mr. white Man, don't let the sun go down on you!" Well we got that far and boy we didn't know what to do, so dad and the man that was drivin', they went in an seen the clerk, and he talked to em, and he said well I'll tell you what I'll do, he says I can take care of you tonight, he says, I'll open the stock yard, cause nobody got anything to do with the outside. So that's what he done. Put all our stuff in there, thrown everything in there. Well the next day we had to cross the Arkansas River and we had to go across on the bridge, the wagons all went across first then the horses, they weren' no trouble, and the cows and then come to puttin' them hogs across, they'd get on ther and they'd get on the end and fall off the wall, they a a time, was nearly all day gettin' them hogs across that river. Norbert asks if any of the hogs were lost, Lizzie tells him no. But they all got a bath says Norbert, yeah replies Lizzie, they got a bath alright. Very few of them stayed on, when they landed then there had to be somebody over there to corral them in.

Kathy asks, did you get a farm in Claremore? Lizzie says yeah, we had a, dad had a brother. He'd been living there a long time. He had quit a farm and ran a ferry boat on the river there. So he told dad, he said "I got one empty house an if you want that" says "you can have it till you can get you a place." It was a log house, had two fireplaces in there ... well it was night whe we got down there and we got settled in, and the next day, oh, taken over in the boat. And that's were we stayed, oh, we was there about five years I guess.

That was Lizzie memory of her families move to Claremore. She mentioned Red Bird in this, I googled Red Bird and found very little information about it that long ago, which I figure would have been about 1897, I did come across a pamphlet written about 1905 encouraging African Americans to move there, you can view that here.

Five Generations

This was taken this past June when Karen and her family flew down to Los Angeles to vacation, we drove the motor home down and surprised the California tribe, except for one member of the tribe, that's because she was part of it.


Front row: Hailey DYGAS. Behind her: Me, Connie GIBBS Giltz, I am holding Mya DYGAS. Next to us: Karen Dygas GILTZ, Janice GIBBS, Martha Lahoma GIBBS Underwood.

Daisy Mildred GIBBS Massengale

I am very late in post this, no excuses.
September 11, 2008 we lost Aunt Daisy. She had just turned 94 on August 31st.

This is the Obituary that can also be found at the Mobley-Dodson Funeral Home website
by entering Daisy Massengale in the search field, there you can also sign and read the guest book:

Daisy Mildred Massengale, age 94 of Sand Springs, passed away on Thursday, September 11, 2008 in Sand Springs.

Daisy was born on August 31, 1914 in Claremore to James Frank and Lizzie (Davis) Gibbs. She graduated from Sand Springs High School in 1931 and married Ira T. Massengale on December 25, 1939 in Okmulgee.

Daisy worked for Commander Mills in Sand Springs and moved to California to work for AT&T for thirty-three years as a Traffic Supervisor. After retirement she moved and resided at Grand Lake for 20 years. She returned to Sand Springs in 1999. Daisy loved traveling, lighthouses and collecting Princess Diana and Shirley Temple Dolls. Daisy was loved by family and friends. She was of the Baptist faith.

She was survived by her sister Lahoma Underwood of Long Beach, California, nine nieces and nephews Sandy Null, Stuart Wayne Gibbs, Janice Gibbs, Karen Carper, Sally Gibbs, Paula Amemeya, Katherine Anna Money, Tom Underwood and James Gibbs. A multitude of Great nieces, nephews and great-great nieces and nephews. Daisy is preceded in death by her parents, brothers Ed, John Davis and James Frank Gibbs Jr., sisters Mary Gibbs and Agnes Stewart, a brother-in-law, Doc Underwood, nieces and nephews Eddy Gibbs, Victorine Anderson, John Underwood and Richard Gibbs.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday,1:00 p.m. September 16, 2008 at Mobley-Dodson Chapel with burial at Woodlawn Cemetery in Claremore at 3:15 p.m. Officiating will be Reverend Craig Gibson.

Online memorial may be left for the family at www.mobley-dodsonfuneralservice.com

Arrangements are Entrusted to the care of Mobley-Dodson Funeral Service of Sand Springs

Gibbs Family Plot

What do you do on a snow day? You work on a project and my project is organizing
photos. Today I came across photos from Aunt Agnes's collection and found these photos of the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery, the Woodland Cemetery link will take you to a map of Claremore with the cemetery marked, in the upper right hand corner on the map click on satellite to get a birds eye view of Claremore Oklahoma. The above picture is of Frank and Lizzie Gibbs headstone, don't know when this was taken, it could be around the time of James Gibbs Funeral judging by the flowers and the older cars. This is a photo of Joseph Lewis Gibbs Crypt, Joseph was the father of James. You can find a more recent picture of the crypt here

Jewel Austin Underwood

Uncle Doc

July 10, 1917 - Nov. 25, 2007
Born July 10, 1917 in Carolton, Missouri to George and Nellie Underwood.
Photo taken Dec. 20, 2002
Married Martha Lahoma Gibbs June 30, 1945. Celebrated their 62 Anniversary this year.
Photo taken Dec. 25 2005