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Peace at Last
With the break up of the 'St. Johns Ring,” an anti-Mormon group in and around St. John's Arizona, a happier spirit settled benevolently upon Andrew Gibbons' town. He puttered around his comfortable new home and labored lovingly in his fields and orchards. He served as a senior member of the stake high council, maintained his friendships with many of his indian brethren, and watched with interest to see his tall poplars reach toward the sky. Rizpah, known as “Aunt Rizpah” throughout the town—became a midwife, the only one in St. Johns for many years. She spent her last years energies in helping families for miles around. It was a good life, and her roots—allowed at last to stay in one place for a while—went deep into the Arizona earth.
Andrew and Rizpah, no longer young, but yet glowing with the devotion which had brought them long ago across the Mississippi River into the western wilderness, gathered children and grandchildren around them to recount their experiences.
It was bitterly cold that day when Andrew left the comfort of his own fireside to do some charity work on a widow's house. His once-tall frame was bent. The vigor of his youth had fled, but he was happy here among his own; at peace, and with his orchards growing near the house.
Poetically, this final act of his was one of service. He came home ill, and on the 9th of February, 1886 he died quietly. With loving care, his people laid his weather beaten body in the earth to rest at last. His children wept at his grave, but Andrew Smith Gibbons had received his last call.
Owner/Source | The Life Stories of Joshua Smith Gibbons & Nancy Louisa Noble Gibbons |
Date | 2001 |
File name | Peace at Last |
File Size | |
Linked to | Andrew Smith GIBBONS |
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