Eustace GIBSON

     Eustace GIBSON, son of Col. Jonathan Catlett GIBSON and Mary Williams SHACKELFORD, was born on 4 October 1842 in Culpeper County, Virginia.^1,2 He attended the common schools, studed law, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in 1861.²

Eustace GIBSON appeared on a census, enumerated 30 July 1850, in the household of Mary Williams GIBSON in Culpeper County, Virginia. He was nine years old.³

Eustace GIBSON appeared on a census, enumerated 16 June 1860, in the household of his mother Mary Williams SHACKELFORD in Homeland, Culpeper County, Virginia. He was recorded as Eustace Gibson, 21.

Eustace began military service on 18 June 1861 at age 18 in Giles Court House, Culpeper County, Virginia, when he enlisted as first lieutenant and quartermaster in Company K, the "Sperryville Sharpshooters," of the 49th Virginia Infantry, serving under his brother Jonathan C. Gibson who would rise to the rank of colonel of the 49th. He was later promoted to captain before retiring in 1863 on account of a severe abdominal wound from a shell explosion at Gettysburg. He miraculously recovered.^4,5,6

Eustace GIBSON was the subject of a letter written by his younger brother, Edwin. In 1867 Edwin left Culpeper to reside with Eustace and penned the following letter to his mother from Giles County. He gave her a long description of the scenery and weather before finally getting to the information she really wanted to know:

Giles C. H. March 7th 1867
My dear Mother:

I found upon my arrival here just such a little village as I expected to see from the descriptions I had heard of it before leaving home – tis a very little place in the midst of high, rugged mountains that seem to shut it out from the rest of the world.

The town is like many other little towns I have seen in Va. with only one street about three hundred yards long, and houses scatteringly built, good, bad & indifferent. At each end there is a church & on each church there is a steeple. About the center of the town is the court house which also has a steeple. And these buildings give the place an appearance distingue peculiar to most county seats. So much for the capital. The surrounding country is rather more striking. Tis much more mountainous than I expected to find it- and along some portions of the road between here & the railroad the scenery is very wild and grand. But until today we have had falling weather ever since my arrival. Last night a heavy snow fell about three inches deep. Today is warm and sunshiny, but the previous rains together with the melting snow have made the ground so soft & roads so muddy as to render walking out of the question. So for these reasons I have not seen much of the country or people.

I room with Eustace in his office, about which you and Bessie were so curious to learn. Tis a little room at the east end of the village about fifteen feet square, more or less, chock-full of furniture, and everything else pertaining to the office of a lawyer. I have seen Eustace’s sweetheart, have called upon her twice. Her name is Mattie Lackland. She is a music teacher and boards with a Dr. Easley whose house is across the street about 20 or 30 yards from this office. I do not think her very pretty. Eustace does – visits her at least once a day and generally oftener.
I shall look impatiently for letters from home. Write to me some & make Bessie do so too.
Your devoted son
Ned

“Bessie” was their sister, Elizabeth Gibson. Eustace married Miss Lackland in December 1867.⁶


Eustace married Mattie Lacklin in December 1867 in Giles County, Virginia.^7,8,6

In 1867 and 1868 Eustace was a member of the constitutional convention of Virginia. He settled in Huntington, West Virginia in 1871 and was a member of the State house of delegates in 1877 and 1878. He served as speaker of the house in 1877. He was twice elected as a Democrat to the 48th and 49th U. S. Congress from 1883 through 1887, serving as chairman on the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice. He ran unsuccessfully for re-election in 1886 and 1888, and again resumed the practice of law.²

Eustace GIBSON died on 10 December 1900 in Clifton Forge, Virginia, at age 58.² He was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery, Huntington, West Virginia.