Family Turns Backyard Into Museum Honoring 8 Generations

When Mildred Smith-Gatewood opened the doors to her backyard museum on Friday, she saw a decade-long dream and $20,000 of her own money transform into something priceless: a permanent home for her family's extraordinary story.

The Echoes of Time Museum sits on four small buildings behind Smith-Gatewood's home in Lowndes County, Mississippi. It houses thousands of items including documents, newspaper articles, and military regalia tracing the Wicks family back eight generations to the late 1700s.

The timing couldn't be more perfect. More than 300 Wicks family members returned home this weekend for their 51st family reunion, making them the museum's very first visitors.

"I feel blessed," Smith-Gatewood said. "It's my history that has caused me to be the person I am. Once you have knowledge of your history and once you're educated, no one can take that away from you."

The Wicks family story begins with Ned Wicks, brought to Mississippi from Georgia as an enslaved person in the late 1700s. Despite dying enslaved, Wicks became a local preacher at New Zion Baptist Church and raised six children who would change their community forever.

Those six children purchased roughly 330 acres in the area after gaining their freedom. They donated portions to create memorial gardens, a school, and other community resources that still serve the area today.

Family historian Sharron Harris Coleman has spent decades building a family tree that now includes over 4,000 descendants across eight generations. Family members now live in more than 20 states, many having left during the Great Migration to escape Jim Crow laws.

Every 10 years since 1975, the Wicks Family Organization hosts a reunion in Lowndes County to celebrate their roots. The gatherings include tours of the new museum, the R.E. Hunt Cultural Museum, and the Wicks Memorial Gardens where dozens of family members rest.

The Ripple Effect

Neil Cringler brought his daughter and granddaughter to their first reunion this year, hoping to inspire them with stories of their ancestors. "It's very hard to know where you're going if you don't know where you come from," he said.

Harris Coleman, 72, sees these reunions as more than family gatherings. "We show them that we care about them," she explained. "I find people my age say nobody cares about me, but we're here for you."

Smith-Gatewood credits the tight community that raised her for the success Wicks descendants have achieved across the country. That village instilled education, empowerment, and motivation that continues to shape family members today.

The Lowndes Board of Supervisors recognized the family's contributions in 2016 with a resolution and historic markers honoring Ned Wicks and his children. Additional markers dot Wicks Road, celebrating the community, gardens, and legacy built from resilience.

For Smith-Gatewood and her relatives, the museum represents more than preserved artifacts—it's a bridge connecting past struggles to present triumphs and future possibilities.