Family lore always said that Margrett's mother died giving birth to her, but another Scaff researcher has stated that Elizabeth Jane Hill died in 1850. The gap in years between Margrett and her next oldest sibling would better support the idea that she is the child of Ezekial's second wife.
Little is known at this point about John Gibbs, who was said to be a good bit older and kept by Margrett's family from spending too much time with her due to his consumption. Though Wilcox and Irwin counties are full of Gibbs families in the decades before Margrett's marriage, many of them named a son John, so it has been difficult to determine who his forebears are. Margrett and John Gibbs married in 1881; the 1890 census that might have shown them living together and provided more insight was, of course, lost to fire. By the 1900 census, Margrett was a widow.
I could find neither Margrett nor her daughter Susan Ann Scaff in the 1880 census - not in Wilcox County, Georgia, where Margrett married John Gibbs less than a year later, or anywhere else. I did find a 26-year-old named John Gibbs, living in the household of his cousin; next door is probably the same William M. Gibbs who fought in the Civil War with Ezekial Scaff, and served as a witness for the widow Scaff's pension application.
In 1900, Margaret was included in the household of her brother-in-law, Horton Keen, though she was probably living in a separate house located on his farm: Margaret Gibbs, 46; William J., 15; Bell, 13. In 1910 she and Willie were living in the household of her widowed daughter, Susie Newman.
- Susan Ann Scaff, b. 27 Aug 1875 or 1877; m. William Arthur Newman
- Jasper William Gibbs, b. 5 May 1882; m. Verona Smith
- Belle Gibbs, b. abt May 1887; m. James W. Coleman
Although not generally known or discussed among her children and grandchildren (probably because she was so well-loved and regarded), Susan was born several years before her mother, Margrett, married John Gibbs. It's not known whether John Gibbs is her father; there is some speculation her father might have been one of the Keenes, because of a strong family resemblance. Margrett's older sister, Emily, married Horton Keene and Margrett and her children lived much of the time in a house on his property. Susan used her mother's maiden name of Scaff when she married in 1892.
