JAMES WALTER GIBSON
Among the younger set of Mount Vernon's successful men James Walter 
Gibson takes prominent rank as one who has already made rapid strides 
in his chosen work, and who has a worthy and brilliant career before 
him. As assistant cashier of the Ham National Bank, Mr. Gibson is the 
incumbent of a highly responsible position, and he has held similar 
positions for the past ten years, establishing for himself in that 
time a reputation that stands for reliability, integrity, energy and 
various other kindred virtues. 

James Walter Gibson was born September 25, 1874, on a farm three and 
a half miles south of Mount Vernon, being the son of Samuel and 
Angeline (Newby) Gibson. The father was born in 1828, in the little 
town of Muskingum, near to Zanesville, Ohio, and was the son of James 
Gibson, a native of Scotland, who in his young manhood migrated to the 
United States and finally settled on a farm near Zanesville, where 
he passed a quiet and uneventful life in the tilling of his farm and 
rearing his little family. His son, Samuel, the father of James Walter 
Gibson, migrated to Illinois in 1849, when he had reached his majority, 
and became engaged in the occupation in which he was reared, that of 
agriculture. He passed his subsequent life on his Illinois farm, with 
the exception of one interval when he became a soldier in the One 
Hundred and Tenth Illinois Volunteer Regiment of the Union army, 
serving throughout the war and winning for himself and his posterity 
a record of heroism and bravery that will be to them a gracious 
heritage of intrinsic worth for all time. His wife, and the mother 
of James Walter, was the daughter of Hezekiah Newby, an early pioneer 
settler of Illinois and a native of Tennessee. She passed away in 
December, 1895, leaving husband and children to mourn her loss. They 
were the parents of ten sons and daughters, but six of whom are now 
living. They are here named in the order of their birth: Augustus, 
deceased; Ida and John A., also deceased; Dr. O. N. Gibson, of 
Eldorado, Illinois; Thomas Otis, a farmer near Mount Vernon; Adella, 
deceased; Ernest, in Bozeman, Montana; Samuel A., on a farm near 
Mount Vernon; Mrs. R. S. Mernagh, whose husband is manager of the 
Alton Brick Company, St. Louis, Missouri; and James Walter, assistant 
cashier of the Ham National Bank of Mount Vernon. The education of 
Mr. Gibson was of a most liberal nature, beginning with a thorough 
course of training in the Mount Vernon High school, from which he 
graduated in 1895, and finishing with one term in the State Normal 
at Normal, Illinois. In 1900 Mr. Gibson became a clerk in the Mount 
Vernon post office, which position he retained until December, 1905. 
He then entered the Jefferson State Bank as assistant cashier, and 
was in that institution until May, 1906. He next became cashier of 
the Jefferson State Bank of Mount Vernon, serving in that capacity 
until January 1, 1911, when he resigned his position and became 
connected with the Ham National Bank as assistant cashier, the 
duties of which position he is still performing in a manner highly 
creditable to himself and to the institution. Mr. Gibson is a member 
of a number of fraternal societies, among them being the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He is a member of 
the First Presbyterian church of Mount Vernon. 

On October 13, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Gibson with 
Cora C. Young, the daughter of W. L. Young, of Mount Vernon.


Source: History of Southern Illinois George Washington Smith, 
M. A. VOLUME I - III ILLUSTRATED 
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912
Page 1158 - 1159 

Submitted by Robert W. Loman