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Rachel GIBBENS

Rachel was born on January 22nd, 1801. Rachel's father was John C. GIBBENS and her mother was Katherine HOROBAUGH. Her paternal grandparents were Benjamin GIBBENS and FNU DENT; her maternal grandparents were Philip HOROBAUGH and FNU LNU. She had two brothers and four sisters, named James, Jefferson, Sarah, Elizabeth, Nancy and Louisa. She had seven half-brothers and a half-sister, named John Peyton, Anthony Leach, William, Alexander, David, Robert, FNU and Eleanor. She died at the age of 87 on July 19th, 1888.

General Notes
- aka Rachael (marriage document, 1860 census)
  
  b. Wood Cty, VA
  m. OH/Wood Cty, VA 11 Jul 1822 to Francis Cole CHAMPLIN
  first child b. OH est. 1824
  11 children
  d. Vinton Cty, OH
  buried in Red Brush Church Cemetery
  
  both parents b. MD (1880 census)
  
  Rachel may have been born in what the Gibbens-Butcher Genealogy (1894) calls "the primitive log house of their Stillwell creek home, which, like an opening in the blue sky, peeped from the clearing in a vast wilderness around. Neighbors were miles away in either direction." Her brother Jefferson later described the location as "at the mouth of Stillwell creek, on the Kanawha river."
  
  Corn and flax were cultivated by the area settlers. Jefferson later recalled how his and Rachel's "father and mother went down to pull flax -- a needed product in those days of home-made and home-spun clothing. They took me and placed me on the ground near the foliage of (the) shadetrees, stepped off two or three rods and were soon engaged intently in pulling the fibered weed. ...There were wild flowers of various colors and shapings. Below was the meadow, not of all fine timothy, but mingled with weeds and flowers of every hue, next the corn, green and beautiful... Many of the flax and cockle stalks were yet green and in full bloom. The flax was frequently put in motion by a light breeze of air. The meadows, grass and corn were likewise in motion." Shortly after this idyll, a copperhead bit Jefferson on his instep, and his parents applied "bruised garlic and gun-powder" to the wound.
  
  Jefferson continues: "My father soon moved higher up the Kanawha river on Lee creek, more than a mile from its present mouth, which is on the opposite side of the river from Newark."
  
  Rachel's father died in August 1807 of yellow fever, "prevalent in wilderness days," according to Jefferson. Her mother Katherine then married a significantly older widower, Col. Anthony Buckner, and the family removed "to where Claysville now stands" (Jefferson). "'There was nothing more of the settlement than a grist mill and one dwelling of logs. My stepfather soon after this purchased a piece of farming land in woods, four miles above, directly on the Kanawha banks, and built thereon a new house and moved into it in the fall of the year.'" Jefferson went on to attend school in the spring.
  
  "The step-father was a slave owner," recounts the Gibbens-Butcher, "austere in manner, and no one, white or black, upon the plantation, was exempt from severe labor."
  
  Turning to Rachel's story, G-B continues: "FRANCIS COLE CHAMPLIN was born 5 February 1798, in what Colony is not now known. His parents came from Germany to America. He migrated West from New York, and settled in Morgan county, Ohio, and 11 July 1822 married Rachel, daughter of John and Catherine (Herbert) Gibbens. In early days they settled upon a farm in Scioto county, near the present Hamden Junction. He died 12 April 1880, and was buried upon the farm in Vinton county. She died 19 July 1888, and is interred at Red Brush Church."
  
  probate record:
  Vinton Co., Probate Court File Box #177 contains an application [from whom?] for guardianship of Rachel Champlin dated December 5, 1885. The application states that: '...she is an imbecile and who has had a stroke of paralysis and is unable to care for her estate and property.'. Her personal property amounted to $200 - most of which resulted from the Widow's Pension of $96/annum that she'd been receiving. (from researcher Bob CHAMPLIN)
  
  Note: Alvaro Gibbens' "Gibbens-Butcher Genealogy," pub. Parkersburg, 1894 or 1896 (can be bought for $20 from Wes Cochran (See the Wood Co. WV website)

Ancestor Pedigree Chart
- Thomas/William GIBBENS
  
  Benjamin GIBBENS
  
  FNU LNU
  
  John C. GIBBENS
  - b.  1776 d.Aug 1807
  
  FNU DENT
  
  Rachel GIBBENS
  - b.22 Jan 1801 d.19 Jul 1888
  
  Philip HOROBAUGH
  
  Katherine HOROBAUGH
  - b.20 Jun 1782 d.19 Apr 1875
  
  FNU LNU

Click here for details of Rachel's family with Francis Cole CHAMPLIN

Rachel GIBBENS

Ancestor Pedigree Chart