History of the Gibson Tomahawk

The following account of how an Indian tomahawk came to be in the possession of the Gibson family was taken from an old letter. Fred Gibson wrote the original. Lucille Ann Collins transcribed the copy in the author's possession. Note that the story itself refers to the history having originally come from Abe Hulse, who died on 15 July 1932 at the Old Confederates Home in Ardmore, Oklahoma.  He was a close associate and friend of James Ambrose Gibson from their childhood days on through their adult years.  [Ed. Note:   Some records indicate Abe Hulse was a cousin to James Ambrose Gibson, but to date that has not been proven.]

In 1866 a band of Indians about 200 in number, raided through Missouri and Kansas taking horses, women, and children.

General Price of Missouri ordered Col. Parker to take a company of 300 men and rescue the women and children.

They followed this band of Indians South to the Wichita Mountains, not too many miles from where Cooperton is located now, and in the fight that followed the Indians were killed almost to a man, and the women and children who survived, were rescued.

In this fight, the tomahawk was taken off of an Indian Chief by J. A. Gibson, who was one of the 300 men in Col. Parker's Regiment. J. A. Gibson was the father of Thomas L. Gibson of Mountain View, Okla.

This tomahawk is called by the Indians, the Chief Peace pipe. [Ed. pipe?] Nelson Price [William Nathan Price? - written in the margin], a nephew of Gen. Price of Missouri, was with this company at the time. In 1867 J. A. Gibson married a half sister of Nelson Price, and he, with Price and others of this company, moved to Fort Arbuckle in Old Indian Territory, where they reared their families, and Gibson later became a Methodist preacher.

This tomahawk is said to be the only one of its' kind in the state, and is now the property of (Tom L. Gibson) - (youngest son of the above mentioned J. A. Gibson.)

This history was written by Abe Hulse, one of the men of this company sent out by Gen. Price. He died in the Old Soldiers Home at Ardmore in 1932.

This "Note by Lucille" is appended to the end:

Tom L. Gibson willed the tomahawk to his son Ralph Gibson. Ralph, of Stillwater, Ok. died in 1968 and the tomahawk was left to his son who lives in Michigan (James Ambrose Gibson's great-grandson.)

Comments:

• This brief history gives us some insight into the history of the Gibson family.  We find here that the Gibson family moved down around Fort Arbuckle, some time after the Civil War.
• Reference is made to our James Ambrose Gibson marrying a half-sister of "Nelson" Price.  This man is believed to be Nathan Price and he married the half-sister of Clara Elizabeth Hodge - Lottie Wilson.  To date, we know very little about this family.   They are believed to have also been in Indian Territory after the Civil War and there are no U. S. Census records for that area to help us.
• Thomas L. Gibson died in 1972, so his son Fred wrote this down sometime before then, as we see reference to the tomahawk still being in Tom's possession.
• Descendants of Tom Gibson have indicated they believe the member of their branch of the family who ended up with the tomahawk no longer has it in his possession.  What a loss!

Author: Roger L. Roberson, Jr.   •   Last updated: 11 January 2003

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