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
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