JACOB GIBSON

The life of Jacob Gibson flowed along quietly and without many great events, but he nobly performed his part toward his family and the several communities in which he dwelt, and his place could only with difficulty be filled by any one else. He reached his seventy-seventh year, 1900, when he could look back along the pathway he had traveled with few regrets, and justly feel that the world was the better for his sojourn here.

A son of Thomas and Sarah (Wiley) Gibson, our subject was born June 6, 1823, in York county, Pennsylvania. His father, of Scotch-Irish descent, also was a native of the Keystone state and a farmer by occupation. His mother was of a Scotch family. The only sister of our subject, Mary, is deceased.

The boyhood and early manhood of Jacob Gibson was spent in his native state, where he learned the trades of blacksmithing and wheelwright. In these lines of business he was actively employed for many years, accumulating sufficient means to purchase a fine homestead when he came to the west. It was in 1865 that he moved to Peoria county, Illinois, where he continued to dwell for some six years, at the end of which period he located in Kapioma township, Atchison county. The farm contained one hundred and forty acres of arable land, most of which was under high cultivation, yielding abundant harvests. On the place stood a comfortable residence and barns.

The marriage of Mr. Gibson and Leah High was celebrated in August, 1851, in Clearfield county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Gibson's parents, John and Sarah High, were of German extraction. Eleven children were born to our subject and wife, namely: Mary Johnstone, John, George W., Susan Hunn, A. Lincoln, Philip, Emma Huston, Lizzie Cathcart, Lillie Brooks, D. William and one who died in infancy. Six of the number have been engaged in teaching, but at the present time only D. W. is so employed. A. Lincoln died when twenty-nine years of age. All of the children received as good educational advantages as it was in their parents' power to afford them. The father had been for years a member of the local school board. In his political belief he was a Republican. He was, as are his wife and children, connected with the Methodist Episcopal church of Arrington, in which he was a trustee and a zealous worker in the Sunday school. His death took place March 16, 1900, and was the occasion of sincere mourning among many friends.