THE LAST HANGING IN SCOTT COUNTY VIRGINIA
The long delayed funeral
PART ONE
The Long delayed funeral
©2002 by Daily News of Kingsport
by Pete Dykes
They buried George Gibson in 1889, but his funeral was held in 1927.
One of the strange tales out of the Southwest Virginia mountains concerns Gibson, hanged in Gate City following his conviction for a brutal 1888 murder.
His final request, promised solemnly to be fulfilled by authorities present at his execution, was that his funeral be held 38 years in the future.
And so it was.
Just why George Gibson made the unusual request was never explained, and remains a mystery to this day.
But the good people of Scott County, having given their word to the convicted murderer who was about to die, carried it out with a will.
The funeral was held in Bond Town, Wise County, as Gibson had requested, at the Free Will Baptist Church there, with three ministers, Rev. Monroe Hubbard, Rev. Paddie Robinette and Rev. F.J. Kinderly sharing the pulpit for the occasion, each in charge of a portion of the services.
Curious spectators attended from all over East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky, for they had never been to a funeral delayed nearly four decades before. Certainly not one that had been specifically requested by the deceased.
Was Gibson hoping that his own funeral would keep his name alive longer than the names of those who hung him?
Did he seek a balm to his tortured soul in the deadness of passing time?
Those questions have never been answered.
On a fine June day, perhaps one very similar to the date on which a rope was looped around Gibson's neck in Gate City to convey him from the land of the living to another state or condition, the tolling bell at the Bond Town Free Will Baptist Church rang out its solemn announcement, and the funeral was held.
Gibson's crime had been a brutal murder, made even more shocking by the discovery that the victim had been his unknown half-brother.
The three ministers out-did themselves.
It was reported that hardly a dry eye could be found in the vast crowd in attendance, by the time the service was concluded.
Perhaps George Gibson had known that 38 years would have to come and go before tears would be shed over his error, his crime, and his lost life.
PART TWO
George Gibson grew to manhood in Scott County, Virginia, and was well-known around Gate City.
In the winter of 1887-88, he, in the company of Wayne Powers, Jonas Powers and Joe Meade, traveled to the headwaters of the Big Sandy River to work at a logging job there.
While working in the lumber camp, the Scott Countians met and became fast friends with a young man named Will Gibson.
Similar or same names were not more uncommon in those days than they are now, and the two Gibsons never attempted to trace any relationship.
Later events established that the men were actually half-brothers, their father having been married a second time, but neither of them suspected such to be the case.
In the spring of 1888, the Powers boys decided to return to Scott County.
George Gibson immediately quit his job as well, saying that he would go back home when they did.
"Why don't you come along, too, Will?" they asked the other Gibson.
'"You'll like Gate City, and it's some place you ain't never been to, ain't it?"
Will Gibson soon agreed and the men began their journey.
With money in their pockets from the logging work and whiskey easy to come by along the mountain trails, the trip soon turned into a carousing cruise or inebrius expedition, with a fifth, unseen companion, known as The Grim Reaper, tagging closely along.
There were a few scuffles and small fights along the trail, but the real trouble didn't start until the four men arrived at Buffalo Bridge, about one mile distant from Dungannon, Virginia. A large supply of whiskey had been obtained, and the men were drinking heavily. All four were far from sober.
Will Gibson made some jesting remark about "old cross-eyes", referring to Wayne Powers, who was badly affected with twisted optics.
Powers took offense, and a fight ensued, one that was to lead to tragedy and murder.
PART THREE
George Gibson quelled the fight, but then sided with Wayne Powers.
Perhaps he was a bit jealous of the other man who bore his family name, or maybe it was more natural that the Scott County natives would stick together against a near stranger.
Chances are, however, that the whiskey did most of George Gibson's thinking...and talking ...for him.
"What we ought to do is kill him," George told the Powers boys.
"We ought to just kill him and take his money and clothes, and his share of the liquor. That way, we,d not have no more trouble with him."
Wayne Powers, still smarting from the insulting remark about his crossed eyes, fell into the ready agreements.
"Let's do it," he said.
"Let's kill him!"
Jonas Powers objected.
"Aw," he said "We don't want to do nothing like that. That wouldn't be right at all."
But George Gibson and Wayne Powers were too far gone in intoxication and anger to listen to reason.
Each of them grabbed a club and began to beat Will Gibson about the head with savage, powerful blows.
The victim soon fell dead, his skull crushed and beaten to a bloody pulp before the drunken men fully realized the extent of their violent castigation.
The sobering realization that Will Gibson was dead brought the killers to their senses, but panic and terror at their horrifying deed soon clouded their thinking again.
Will Gibson's body was quickly buried in a shallow, hand-dug trench and covered with fence rails gathered from nearby.
They then set fire to the rails, in hopes that the body would be completely burned up, and hurriedly continued their journey to Gate City.
PART FOUR (CONCLUSION)
Two days later, a farmer was working in a nearby field.
Seeing the pile of partially burned fence rails, he decided to investigate, and therefore discovered the grisly sight of the partially burned body.
The arrest of George Gibson and the Powers brothers followed almost automatically, for they were the only travelers who had passed through the Dungannon section within the past few days.
When word of the horrifying crime spread around Scott County, a lynching party was soon formed, and gathered outside the jail, demanding the immediate hanging of the murderers.
Frightened by the angry mob, George Gibson and Wayne Powers confessed to the sheriff that they had killed Will Gibson. They explained that Jonas Powers had not participated in the killing, but the sheriff felt obliged to hold him for trial as well.
The trial was held in Gate City, before Judge H.S.K. Morrison, then considered one of the most able jurists in the state of Virginia. A jury returned the verdict of guilty for George Gibson and Wayne Powers, exonerating Jonas Powers of any part in the crime and setting him free.
Judge Morrison sentenced the two convicted men to death by hanging, declaring that they deserved no mercy, not even the mercy of death. Scant days later, on a warm June day, George Gibson and Wayne Powers paid for their crimes at the end of ropes in Gate City, to a carnival-like atmosphere of spectators and curious onlookers.
Just before the noose was fastened over Gibson's neck, he asked that no funeral be held for him until 38 years had passed.
A strange request, but one that was granted and fulfilled.
