STAFF REPORT
The co-author of People and Places In and Around Historic Buda will share some of her own stories about living in the Buda area in the newest oral history video produced by the Hays County Historical Commission.
Giberson
Mary Giberson will be featured in the commission’s eleventh “Voices of Hays County” video, which will be screened at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, at the Buda City Hall. The showing is free and open to the public.
Born and raised in West Virginia, Giberson moved to Austin in 1946. She met her future husband, Jack, while both were students at the University of Texas in Austin (she received her degree in studio art in 1951, and Jack graduated from UT Law School). The couple married and moved to Buda in 1952.
Interviewed by commission member Bonnie Eissler, Giberson talks about Buda in the early 1950’s, detailing remembrances of the schools and social life of that era. She also talks about Buda’s gradual transition from a rural area of farms and ranches to one with growing subdivisions and commercial businesses.
Another topic in the interview is the Giberson home, built in 1869 by David Crews, who owned one of the first cotton gins in Hays County. The property is part of the land grant given in 1835 to Philip Jefferson (P.J.) Allen, a veteran of the Texas War of Independence.
Giberson’s husband, Jack, and his family operated a dairy and creamery just west of their home from 1942 until the early 1950’s. They had two trucks that delivered bottled milk to Austin stores. The barn, creamery and silo are still standing.
Jack (who passed away in 2007) worked at the state General Land Office for 41 years, while Mary taught art classes at the Hays County ISD for 16 years and was a volunteer docent at the University of Texas Huntington Art Gallery for 12 years. Their four children, Robert, Richard, Marianne and John, attended school in the Buda ISD, which later became the Hays CISD. Giberson has eleven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Now a member of the historical commission, Giberson shares profits from the sale of her book with the Stagecoach House, Onion Creek Post Office and the Buda Public Library. The book, as well as a DVD of the oral history, will be available for sale at the screening.
“Voices of Hays County” is an ongoing project of the HCHC. Richard Kidd is the videographer for the series, Bonnie Eissler is the project chairman and sound technician, and Robert Frizzell is the technical assistant.
