Robert Hillry Gibson

Robert Hillry Gibson Robert Hillry Gibson was born May 17, 1892 at Summers, Arkansas, and died there December 19, 1970. He was the son of John (Bud) Gibson and Hettie Gertrude Alexander Gibson. Hillry was married February 14, 1914 to Iva Marie Moore, born August 7, 1894, and died July 10, 1977. She was the daughter of Wilson Moore and Minnie Payne Moore. Children: Virginia Ruth Gibson and Genevieve Gibson. I. Virginia Ruth Gibson, born June 6, 1918 was married May, 1946 to John Rector Kirk, born March 23, 1916 and died February, 1983, the son of Robert E. Lee and "Angie" (Nancy Angeline) Little Kirk, all of Summers, Arkansas. One child, Gerita Kay Kirk was born February 1, 1950 and was married July 15, 1975 to Charles Moreton, born February 23, 1947, Alma, Arkansas. They had two children: Dax Rhys Moreton, born December 9, 1978 and Dayne Ives Moreton, born September 14, 1982. II. Genevieve Gibson was born July 25, 1921, died June 17, 1985, was married September 4, 1946 to Covil Arthur Scott, who was born January 16, 1913 at Snowball, Arkansas, the son of George Dallas Scott and Maud E. Scott. Their children: Warren Keith Scott and Colleen Marie Scott. (1) Warren Keith Scott was born February 10, 1948 and married July 5, 1969 to Brenda Charlene Cox, who was born April 12, 1956. She was the daughter of Thurman Cox of Morrow, Arkansas. They had two children, Robin Raquel Scott, born June 10, 1971 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Rhonda Renee Scott, born November 14, 1971 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (2) Colleen Marie Scott born April 12, 1956. Colleen married May 19, 1979 to Gary Morris and they have three children, Derk Morris born October 28, 1974, (Gary's son by a previous marriage), Nicole Van Morris, born September 20, 1981 and Brandi Marie Morris, born December 18, 1983. Gary and Colleen live on the old Pleasant West (or later George West) farm. Not long after Uncle Hillry and Aunt Iva married, they built a house, barn and "cyclone cellar", on the east side of Uncle Hillry's half of his father's land and they lived there for ten or fifteen years. Hillry farmed with his step-father, John A. Tennant, producing the usual crops, cattle and hogs. He also liked to trade in livestock and was expert in that line. After some years, he and his brother-in-law, Fred Summers, (son of John F. Summers, the early-day merchant for when Summers, Arkansas is named) formed a partnership and entered the mercantile business at Summers. Uncle Hillry had a small store in Summers at this time, which I think he had bought from Earnst Kirk. I am not certain, but Fred may have had a store there, also. At any rate, they opened their store in the second building put up by Fred's father, John F. Summers. It stood on the northwest corner of the Summers crossroad and had a high, false front, as was the style. It was in fact high enough for two stories and did have a second floor in the rear, which served as an office. The front had shelves (almost up to the ceiling), which held tubs, buckets, hats, horse collars, hames, jugs, jars and "you name it". The dry goods and clothing were on the north side and other things on the south. I recall that Mr. Bob Boles, who lived just across the road south of the store "clerked" for them for awhile. The Summers Mercantile Company was a complete general store. They sold bolt goods for making clothing, sheets, bed "tics" (to hold feathers for feather beds), etc, hats, boots, thread, needles, groceries, candy, axes, saws, nails, horseshoes, tobacco, cookies, pickles, vinegar, kerosene, sacks of livestock feed and all the other items required by a rural community. They bought, or "took in trade" live poultry, eggs, apples, potatoes, cream, fur, sometimes coal for the blacksmiths. They always had lots of huge firecrackers to sell at Christmas time. (This was when we shot fireworks in those days. Very seldom could you get them for the 4th of July.) This business must have opened in the very late 1920s or early thirties, and it prospered. Many other firms closed during the early thirties, and Summers Mercantile became a busy trade center, moving a block north to a larger building and stocking more hardware and farm machinery parts. Fred and Hillry also acquired sizeable tracts of land as it was offered for sale and kept considerable herds of cattle and hogs. As the business continued to prosper, other stores were established and, at one time, they had stores in both Westville and Lincoln and perhaps for a short time, at Cincinnati. Fred and Hillry became prosperous farmers and merchants, continuing until they were ready to retire, when they sold the business and divided the real estate. I used to stay the night at Uncle Hillry's house in bad weather, when I was a school boy. He seldom failed to see that we had Van Camp's Pork and Beans for supper on those nights, for he knew I liked them. By: James E. Gibson