July 04

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Dora and Lora Gibson (twins) 1877

Photo: sisters Lora, Julia, Dora

Lora Gibson was my great-grandmother. She married Alexander Oscar Burford Jr. She was a twin, though she and her sister Dora do not look very much alike in the few photos I have of them, so I assume they were not identical twins. For one thing, Dora was quite a bit taller than Lora. 

Photo: Seven of the Gibson siblings.

In the days in which they were born, twins very often did not survive. Twins are usually born prematurely, and our family history is laced with unnamed "twin infants ___" who died at or shortly after birth. (In fact, Adaline Gibson gave birth to another set of twins just four years after Dora and Lora. They are noted in the family records as "twins Gibson." With those two babies included, Asa and Adaline Gibson had a total of 15 children.) Lora was the smaller of the two, and was not expected to live, but -- according to family lore --

"Anyway, Aunt Dorothy also told me that Grandma Burford was so tiny when she was born that the doctor said she would not live.  You know Grandma was a twin.  Dorothy said Grandma was in the bottom part of the womb and Dora was in the top part.  I guess Dora just sat on Grandma and squashed her.  Anyway, Grandma was so tiny she fit into a shoe box after they had put padding it.  The doctor said she would die, and her mother and father believed that was true and they just weren't doing anything to save her.  So Grandma's grandmother asked Grandma's parents if she could take her home with her and try to save her.  They let her do that.  She put cotton seed in a shoe box for warmth - I guess it held heat or something.  She put Grandma in the shoe box with the cotton seed all around her and put her on the back of a wood burning stove to keep her warm.  She fed her with an eye dropper because she was too tiny to nurse or have a bottle.  So by George, she lived and grew and was healthy and everything." 

I have no way to verify whether that is how it really happened or not, but it makes for interesting speculation, anyway. Dora Gibson lived to be 85 years old, and Lora lived to be 93.