CURRENT PHOTOS AND TEXT BY ANNEMARIE EVELAND

HISTORIC PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GIBSONS

I have always been fascinated by windmills, for some time, I have driven by one located in Payson close to where I live without stopping. I finally knocked on the door of the historic, charming, small home where the windmill sat unmoving. It looked like a storybook setting. 

That is how I met the fine couple who delighted me with stories of their past, that happened here in Payson. Rare for this area, it was first a small adobe house with sturdy walls that has stood the test of time for well over one hundred and fourteen years. The home was built in 1909 by their Aunt Julia Randall’s dad, George Randall. George had moved his family to Payson to open the Grand Prize Mine and an early Judge of Payson. 

I was talking with the Gibsons, Don (who was raised in this house) and Erin his wife of over fifty years. Don is from a historic pioneer family line, whose roots are faithfully linked to our early day history of Payson, Arizona. 

Their first well was dug by hand and dug only 50 feet deep. However, their current well at a different spot-on property, is 220 feet deep. I am pretty certain that one wasn’t dug by hand) 

Don’s biological mother had twins and the two boys were born in Miami, Arizona. Their dad didn’t want to be a rancher, so after the war, he went to work in the mines. (I have seen some of our Arizona mines, and it is extremely hard laborious work.) 

Don talked about his childhood. “Our real mother and dad divorced when we were babies.” (I thought a divorce in that early time of our pioneer history to be a surprise.) He continued, “At first, we were put in foster care. There was a lady named Gertie who worked as a court bailiff in Globe. Gertie took us into her home and took care of us for three years.” Don remembers her as a wonderful lady. I learned that Gertie took in lots of foster care kids. Don’s wife Erin added, “She was a mover and a shaker.” 

As time passed, their Aunt Julia (our Payson elementary school was named for this schoolteacher) was in her late 50s and their grandmother was almost 70 years old. Aunt Julia had never been married, and never had children of her own, but taught almost every kid in the town of Payson for over fifty years. 

Erin explained, “She was exceptional in that she taught longer than anyone else in Arizona and was given a trip to Hawaii for her retirement. Julia was also a founding member of the Presbyterian Church, the only church in Payson for several years.”

Don added, “We stayed with Aunt Julia until the end of my freshman year in high school.” 

I learned that even when you were a freshman in high school, you still went to Julia Randall School. Even today this school is still located in near proximity to their pioneer home on McLane where they live. 

Don told me that his dad remarried and moved to Buckeye; so, of course, Don went with him and finished high school there. Don’s brother went into the Navy after he graduated from high school in 1963. Don himself experimented with college but admitted he was not a serious enough student. At that time, the Vietnam War had started and was in full swing. 

“I was thinking of joining the military,” Don said. “You could get drafted if you didn’t keep a good grade point average. I had let my grades slip. I thought that maybe I would get drafted, so I went into the Navy and was stationed in San Diego.”

  Don sounded a little amused when he told me, “The saying about my brother goes that he is older than me (by fifteen minutes.) We are identical twins.” I smiled at the subtle humor. “Our real mother also had a daughter in California and raised her. My half-sister and I met in our adult years.”  

He continued, “Our Aunt Julia and our grandmother never drove, so we never went any place. On that rare occasion that we did, someone else drove and it was a very special treat. Our grandmother married into the Gibson family and moved out to the Gibson ranch which was just at the south end of Payson.”

Erin said, “When my family moved here in 1969, my dad was running the Oxbow Inn. At that time, it was really a very nice place. Many people enjoyed their prime rib dinners, accompanied by the Rinky Tink Piano Bar music. Lodging was a feature with a swimming pool and other nice features that drew people from all over to stay there.

I asked how Don and his wife Erin met. She told me, “When I was 19, I was working in the Oxbow dining room. My husband, Don, who was an excellent musician, was playing in the western bar at Oxbow Inn. Our dining room had a piano that provided easy-listening music for the folks eating their dinners. I was a waitress in the dining room, and we were not allowed to go into the Western Bar. One of my worker friends said, ‘You have to meet Don Gibson. He is playing in there!’ So, I met him in the hotel lobby. And that is how we met for the first time! After two years, we decided to get married in St. Phillip’s Catholic Church. That same church is still in operation here in Payson. We had our wedding reception at the Tonto Natural Bridge Lodge which was run at that time by my sister Maureen and her friend. June 3rd of 2022 was our fiftieth wedding anniversary.” I caught a hint of pride in that statement.

In 2019, they moved back into the original old house after it had been a house for ministry. Over many years, they have hosted and housed many pastors, missionaries, extended family members, and families from the Spanish-speaking church they helped to found. 

They told me the original main part of the house, built with adobe, insulated occupants very well from cold and heat.

“Amazing stuff still works here, plumbing etcetera. Originally there was no electricity, no plumbing. Our old outhouse is still here!” Don added. I was sure I wanted to check out this ancient artifact! 

Erin was born in Illinois in 1951 and ever since 1969, has lived in Payson. Although their address states south McLane, they said that originally the street they live on was called “Old Pine Highway.” Of course, all the streets in and out of Payson were dirt roads then. It was a serious four-hour trip to get to Phoenix in the old pioneer days. The road now called McLane which still goes in front of their house, long ago was the only road north and south, in and out of town. It was called the Old Pine Highway because one would take it all the way into Pine. 

How did they get to Phoenix then? They called it the Bush Highway back then. And you came out in east Mesa past Saguaro Lake. 

I was also curious about this only school then. So, I asked how many kids would be in the school at once. The photo that they showed me looked like a large class. 

“Yeah, but it’s not just one grade. You had first graders through eighth graders,” they explained.

I asked what they thought of the changes and the fast pace of today’s Payson. 

Erin said, “It’s always been Payson, only it had a different name. It was called Union Park. And then some kind of representative got it named after himself.” 

I was struck by how so much of their home has remained steadfast, keeping the old windmill, kitchen stove, building, landscape, outhouse, etc. It truly feels like going back in time and yet they blend it well with the fast-paced time of today’s bustling town of Payson. I asked what they thought of the changes to the town.

I thought that whatever the name of our charming town, it is a special place located in the heart of our Arizona state and from this pioneering family’s perspective, they are still here to stay, live, and carry on their ministry legacy of housing and helping others.  

With hopes that your life still holds historic moments that cherish your heritage and a living legacy that sustains you in today’s world.