William Wayt Gibbs, III

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Genealogy of William Wayt Gibbs, III

This genealogical account was constructed from the family information contained in the biography below. No relationships or life facts have been added from outside sources.

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William Wayt Gibbs, III was born December 16, 1878, in Staunton, Virginia, a son of William Wayt Gibbs, II and Kate Arbuckle Smith Gibbs. His paternal grandfather was William Gibbs, son of William Clark Gibbs and Mary Ann Wayt.

He married Leta Watts, daughter of Newton C. Watts and Betty Barnhart. Their only son, William Wayt Gibbs, IV, married Dorothy Morriss. Their children were Mary Morriss Gibbs, Catherine Gibbs, and William Wayt Gibbs, V.

Family outline

William Wayt Gibbs, III

• Father: William Wayt Gibbs, II
• Mother: Kate Arbuckle (Smith) Gibbs
• Wife: Leta Watts
  • Father: Newton C. Watts
  • Mother: Betty (Barnhart) Watts
• Son: William Wayt Gibbs, IV
  • Wife: Dorothy Morriss
  • Children: Mary Morriss Gibbs, Catherine Gibbs, and William Wayt Gibbs, V

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Source

This biography appeared in History of the Shenandoah Valley: Family and Personal Records, Volume III (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1952), pages 34-36.

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Verbatim biography

The following is a faithful transcription of the original biography. OCR errors have been corrected against the printed page images, but the original wording, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and factual claims have not been rewritten.

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WILLIAM WAYT GIBBS, III—As president of the Clifton-Forge-Waynesboro Telephone Company, the late William Wayt Gibbs attained distinction among Shenandoah Valley executives, and added an exceptional record of achievement to those of previous generations of his family, who have been outstandingly identified with the development of the state of Virginia for well over a century.

Born December 16, 1878, William Wayt Gibbs, III, was a native of Staunton, Virginia, and a son of William Wayt, II, born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Kate Arbuckle (Smith) Gibbs. The father of William, II, also named William, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on January 6, 1817, and died there on May 8, 1863. He was the son of William Clark Gibbs, born November 11, 1795, died February 21, 1817, who married Mary Ann Wayt. Five generations of her descendants have borne the name of Wayt. After completing his preparatory education at Staunton Military Academy, William Wayt Gibbs, III, entered Virginia Military Institute, after which he joined his parents in New York, where his father’s business interest was located. This connection made necessary the removal of the family to the metropolis, where William Wayt Gibbs, III, was employed by the Welsbach Gas Mantle Company. Later, from 1909 to 1911, he was active in the automobile business in Washington, D. C.

Through a number of generations, the Gibbs family had been one of social distinction in the Shenandoah Valley area, and when, in 1904, the precarious health of Mrs. Gibbs made a change of climate necessary, the family bought the acreage, that has since been known as Gibbs Hill, on the crest of a promontory near Staunton. In 1911, after the death of his mother and father, William Wayt Gibbs, III, moved his family to the home place, “Gibbs Hill,” in Staunton, Virginia, and remained until 1915, when they moved to Pennsylvania. Ten years later, in 1925, they again returned to Virginia, and Mr. Gibbs became president of the Clifton Forge-Waynesboro Telephone Company. By the time of his death, on June 24, 1944, he had expanded his telephone interests to include three other companies, all of which were operated as a group and furnished telephone service to Waynesboro, Clifton Forge, Covington, Lexington, Buena Vista, Natural Bridge, and Raphine, and which comprised one of the state’s largest groups of independent companies.

Mr. Gibbs was a familiar figure in all programs designed to promote civic welfare. He was president of the Waynesboro Hotel Corporation, chairman of the board of the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, and head of the United Service Organizations in Staunton during World War II. Intensely interested in the progress of the youth of his community, he helped establish a music course and band in the Waynesboro High School, originated a county-wide chicken raising program and annual show in Alleghany County, and was an enthusiastic backer of the Junior Band. For relaxation, he enjoyed music and chess and devoted to these avocations the same vitality and enthusiasm with which he approached all phases of life. His collection of fine operatic and symphonic records was extensive; and as a chess player he was a past president of the Virginia Chess Association. He put chess on the map in Virginia, North Carolina, and the South, and played correspondence matches, fifty or sixty at a time, with brother chess lovers all over the world.

William Wayt Gibbs, III, married Leta Watts, daughter of Newton C. and Betty (Barnhart) Watts. Newton C. Watts, who had been a pioneer in the building and operation of independent rural telephone lines in the Shenandoah Valley, was identified with this phase of communications for a most formative period of its development. Born near Waynesboro, Virginia, on September 7, 1852, he was a son of Wellington H. and Mary Ann (Faber) Watts, and a grandson of David Watts, who was a farmer in Albemarle County. Wellington H. Watts became a miller as well, operating a farm and water power sawmills near Waynesboro. An earlier record states, regarding the Watts: “While the family were not wealthy, they belonged to the solid and substantial citizens of that locality.” The late Newton C. Watts quite well recalled many episodes of the period of the War Between the States. He remembered the occasion of the John Brown raid on Harper’s Ferry, and accompanied his father to Staunton when the latter, who was past military age, secured his release from army duty. He saw many war-time scenes in the Valley, and became accustomed to the sound of artillery fire during the numerous battles.

In the Reconstruction period, Mr. Watts hauled lumber and logs to the sawmill of his father and uncle, and manual labor was his chief occupation until he was past his majority. When he married, in 1875, he owned only a half interest in a cow, and later he became a partner in his father’s lumber business and also did farming. He subsequently bought a tract of land near Hermitage, Virginia, sawed the timber on it, and completely changed it into a productive place. He built there a new home and other buildings.

While progressing in agricultural pursuits, Mr. Watts made his first acquaintance with public office. He was overseer of the poor for a period of two years, constable for six years, then overseer of the poor again for six years, deputy treasurer for eight years, and deputy sheriff of Augusta County, Virginia, for four years, at one time holding four offices concurrently. In 1891, he was elected sheriff, and filled that office for twelve and one-half years. As sheriff, he was required to travel considerably, and saw much of the north-eastern states as well as spending some time in Canada and Cuba. While still occupying the sheriff’s office, Mr. Watts, in 1895, started a telephone exchange at Staunton. Although encountering great difficulties, his persistence made the enterprise successful. After establishing the Staunton exchange on a profitable basis, he started exchanges at Lexington and Buena Vista, subsequently those at Clifton Forge and Covington, then one at Waynesboro. Following that, he and two associates established the Citizens Telephone and Telegraph Company at Newport News. Mr. Watts was also one of the founders of the Long Distance Telephone Company of Virginia, serving as its president after the property was sold to the Bell Telephone Company. In 1907, he became president of the Virginia and Tennessee Telephone Company of Roanoke, which operated lines over southwestern Virginia and into Tennessee and eastern Kentucky. He remained to his later years president of the Clifton Forge Mutual Telephone Company, the Covington Mutual Telephone Company, and the Waynesboro Mutual Telephone Company. He was active in the affairs of the Democratic party, having been an assistant sergeant-at-arms in the St. Louis Convention of 1904, when Judge Parker was nominated for president, and holding a similar position in the convention at Denver in 1908, when William Jennings Bryan was nominated.

In 1875, Newton C. Watts married Betty Barnhart. Her mother was the former Martha Ann Weade, of Augusta County, Virginia, and her father was Gideon Barnhart, of New Hope. Mr. and Mrs. Watts were the parents of three daughters: Alma Lula, of Augusta County, who married C. B. Coiner, Jr., and became the mother of nine children; Leta, who married William Wayt Gibbs, III; and Mary, who became the wife of Herbert A. Meyer, of Independence, Kansas, United States Representative from that state.

Leta (Watts) Gibbs is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, a past treasurer of the Garden Club of Virginia, a past president of the Augusta Garden Club, a member of the board and chairman of the planting committee of the King’s Daughters’ Hospital in Staunton, and a member of the Colonial Dames and the Magna Carta Dames. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs became the parents of an only son, William Wayt, IV, who was born on December 26, 1910, at Washington, D. C. He received his education at Staunton Military Academy, as had his father, and, during the period of World War II, served for three and one-half years in the United States Army, most of this time in the European Theater of Operations. He received a captain’s commission. William Wayt Gibbs, IV, married Dorothy Morriss of Staunton, and their children, all born at Staunton, are: Mary Morriss, born May 9, 1936; Catherine, born March 24, 1938; and William Wayt, V, born in 1940.

William Wayt Gibbs, III, died in Staunton, on June 24, 1944. As a leading utilities executive, and as one who contributed ably, generously, and confidently to the progress of his community, he will long be remembered by those privileged to know him.

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