1949 - 1950: Profiles of Prominent Citizens

Rev. WILLIAM OWEN GIBSON

Okefenokee Times Newspaper

A TRIBUTE

William Owen Gibson was born in 1852. His influence for good in this county has been unequalled. Men sought his council, mothers named their sons for him, families grew stronger by taking his advice and everyone loved him. When he died in 1938, one of his very best friends, Colonel A.S. McQueen, wrote lovingly of a man he admired. The following is McQueen’s tribute to this great man. [Charlton County Herald, December 16, 1938.]

We present this, 150 years after his birth, to remind the present generation of the life of a man who called Charlton County home and who brought great honor to this area

---Lois Barefoot Mays

When the new of the passing of Elder W.O. Gibson in a Waycross hospital on Monday, December 12th was announced in this section, the universal comment was that “a great and good man had been called to his reward.”

In the history of our great nation, there have arisen leaders in every section - men of unimpeachable character, outstanding ability and with rare courage - and the leadership of these God-chosen men has made our nation the greatest on earth, and has demonstrated to all the people of the world that a true Democracy “of the people, by the people, and for the people” can exist and properly function.

If this section of Southeast Georgia has ever had a real leader, it was in the person of the Hon. W.O. Gibson. His leadership, which extended over a period of half a century, was not characterized by the oppressive acts of the dictator, but was founded on love of God, love of humanity and his fellowmen, humility and self-effacement. While strong in his own personal convictions, that great and good man was broad-minded and liberal enough to accord his fellow citizens the same privilege he accorded for himself.

This man’s life and conduct has ever stood apart from his fellows, for in all his service, whether as a private citizen or public official, he ever strove for the common weal and not for private gain, empty honors and personal aggrandizement.
With the exception of one year spent in Brooks County, where he was engaged in farming and as a school teacher, Mr. Gibson spent the balance of his eighty-six years of a full and useful life in Camden and Charlton counties, and his public service extended over a period of many years.

His first service to his people was in the office of Justice of the Peace of the old Centerville District, being elected to this office when only twenty-five years old. He was successively Tax Collector, Ordinary, County School Superintendent and a member of the General Assembly of Georgia, and this varied public service was interspersed by long and faithful service as a school teacher and as a leader in the church of his choice.

In this service it can truthfully be said of him, as a great orator once said of another: “He sided with the weak, the poor and the wronged and with a loyal heart and purest hands, he faithfully discharged all public trusts, and were every one to who he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep today beneath a wilderness of flowers.”
Despite the years spent in public service, Hon. W.O. Gibson spent a great many more serving his God and his fellow-men in the capacity of a minister of the gospel. He was ordained a minister by the Alabaha River Primitive Baptist Association in February 1898, and upon this ordination and consecration he forever after withdrew from public life or holding any office where there were emoluments connected with the office.

When this good man yielded to the call of his Master to labor in His vineyard he, from that time henceforth, put behind him worldly things and laid aside all personal, worldly ambition and during the years that most of his friends and associates were striving to accumulate worldly goods, this man labored without price, without reward or hope of reward in material wealth and worldly things, and this unselfish labor of love endeared him to every person his rich and full life touched.

In passing on to the “Great Beyond” this good man left behind little of material wealth that he, with his unbounded physical energy and brilliant mind could have acquired had he chosen to devote his life to such things; but he did leave a far richer heritage to his children, a heritage of love, an honored, unsullied name and the memories of a life spent in the honored, unselfish service of his God and fellow-man. No man can leave a richer or a more cherished heritage and the people of this entire section of Southeast Georgia join today his near and dear loved ones in sincere grief at the passing of this strong man and gentle, humble leader of men.

Elder W.O. Gibson came along during the hard, bitter years of reconstruction, following the close of the War between the States and early in life was left an orphan. He was denied the benefits of a college education but his brilliant mind would not be thwarted by poverty and adversities and by his own iron will and determination acquired a more liberal, a more full and complete education than is acquired by the average college graduate. He possessed one of the most brilliant, the most logical minds the writer had ever known and coupled with his brilliant intellect was a fine poetic soul and by the combination of these two God-given attributes this man penned some of the most beautiful poems the writer has ever read.

Elder Gibson had long since passed the allotted “three score years and ten” having reached the ripe old age of eighty-six years and only a few Sundays ago told this writer that he was “ready to go”; that if it were not a sin he would choose to go, but would patiently await the call of the Master, despite the many physical afflictions he suffered during the past several years.

He leaves a faithful wife, the one who early in life joined hands with him and together traveled down the road of life sharing with him the joys and adversities of life, sharing his griefs and heart-aches, and true woman that she is, was ever ready to comfort him in times of stress and adversity. In addition to his faithful help-meet, Mr. Gibson is survived by a large family of children and grandchildren, sons and daughters who have been an honor and a comfort to him in his old age. Among his sons are two who are now occupying positions of honor and trust. Hon. John S. Gibson, Solicitor-General of the Waycross Circuit of Georgia and Hon. S.G. Gibson, member of the Board of County Commissioners of Charlton County.

To his good wife and to his sons and daughters, we can offer this consolation: He has lived his life out, it was a life full of honors and of service to his God and fellow-man; he leaves an honored name to cherish and a life worthy of emulation and best of all, “the dead do not suffer.”

“And life is naught, unless we know and love again the ones who loved us here.”

It can be said of this good man that can not be said of most of us who survive, his place can not be filled by another. He filled a place in the hearts, minds and affections of his people that no one else can ever fill. Truly, “A giant of the forest has this day fallen.”

Tribute to W.O. Gibson, Charlton County Herald, March 2, 1934

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