Who We Were, Are & Will Be Our Family: Gibson

Showing posts with label Gibson. Show all posts

21 July 2021

Wordless Wednesday: Ira Gibson (ca. 1950)

Ira Gibson (1890-1966) was my granduncle on my mother's paternal side.

20 July 2021

Tombstone Tuesday: Emma (Gibson) Calkins Waggener Boll

Emma Gibson Calkins Waggener Boll
Born: September 3, 1898, Kansas
Died: May 7, 1975, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California
Buried: Glen Haven Memorial Park, Sylmar, Los Angeles County, California

Emma was my much beloved grandaunt on my mother's paternal side. Not much of a "tombstone," but a beloved ancestral relative.

25 June 2021

Obituary for Leo Gibson (1892-1967)

From Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (Lubbock, Texas), January 6, 1967, Friday, Page 37 --

Leo Gibson's Funeral Slated

ANDREWS (Special) — Leo Gibson, 71, longtime resident of Eunice, N.M., died at 11:05 a.m. Thursday in Permian General Hospital at Andrews.
Services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday (MST) in the First Baptist Church at Eunice with the Rev. G. A. Magee, pastor, officiating.
Graveside services will be at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Andrews Cemetery. Burial will be under direction of Singleton Funeral Home.
Gibson had been a resident of Eunice the past 30 years, and was a native of Kansas. He retired from Sunray Oil Co. in 1957 after being a pumper for 22 years. He was a member of the First Baptist Church at Eunice.
Survivors include his wife. Mary Josephine; a son, Lewis Doyle, Roswell; a sister, Mrs. Emma Ball of Glendale, Calif.; and two brothers, Bruce, Bcrkeley, Calif., and Wallace, Danville, Calif.

Leo Gibson was my grand-uncle on my mom's paternal side. I don't remember ever meeting any of my grand-uncles, but I remember attending one funeral, for Wallace "Hoot" Gibson (1905-1968). Our relationship with my mom's extended family was always kind of odd. We were super close to her immediate family, my grandparents and her siblings, visiting them frequently, but we almost never saw anyone else.

21 May 2021

Leslie Gibson has "La Grippe"

From the Allen County Herald (Humboldt, Kansas), November 13, 1905, Monday, Page 2 --

. . . .Leslie Gibson has been sick with lagrippe. . . . .

I previously documented Leslie's young death from typhoid in 1908 here. This illness predates his death by three years. "La Grippe" is a way our ancestors referred to influenza, and possibly other viral illnesses. The Spanish Flu that caused the pandemic of 1918 was famously called "The Grippe."

Leslie Gibson (1894-1908) was my maternal grandfather's older brother.

17 May 2021

Discovery of Leslie Gibson (1894?-1908)

From Allen County Herald (Humboldt, Kansas), January 20, 1908, Monday, Page 1--

LESLIE GIBSON DIED SATURDAY
---
Son of Mr. and Mrs. C. O. Gibson Died of Typhoid Fever.
---
Leslie Gibson, the seventeen year old son of Mr. and Mrs. C. O. Gibson, who live in Wakefield's Addition, died Saturday afternoon at 5:30, of typhoid fever. A brother of the boy is seriously ill also.
The funeral services were held by Rev. Engle Sunday afternoon and the body was interred in the Ellison cemetery. On account of the illness of his brother the services were short.
The family moved here last year from Rose, Kansas, where they had lived for several years. They have the sympathy of many friends in their bereavment(sic).

This is actually a pretty significant find for me. I am one of those poor unfortunate souls who got serious about genealogy and family history after my grandparents had passed, so I didn't get to ask them very much. But my grandparents did offer me some info about Leslie. Showing me a page from the family Bible I was told that Leslie was one of three sisters of my grandfather Bruce Gibson (1902-1994) who did not live to adulthood. They could not tell me anymore. They obviously were mistaken, "she" was a "he."

Notes

1) That should read "C.L." Gibson, not "C.O."

2) The family Bible says Leslie was born in 1894, that would make him thirteen, not seventeen.

15 May 2021

Birth Certificate for Brenda Kay Walker Cline Cox (nee. Gibson, 1938-1989)

Maricopa County, Arizona
St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix
Child: Brenda Kay Gibson - female - December 13, 1938, born alive at 10:45am
Father: Bruce Gibson, Flagstaff, AZ,
white, 36 years old, born in Humbolt, Kansas, Logging Contractor - currently for ten years
Mother: (married) Thelma Surpluss, also of Flagstaff, AZ,
white, 35 years old, born in Rosalia, Kansas, Housewife

Brenda Kay (Gibson) Walker was my mother. To be perfectly honest I did not learn anything new from this document, but it is an essential document nonetheless, it supports all my previous research and offers no contradictions.

12 May 2021

Wordless (Mostly) Wednesday: Thelma Gibson (nee. Surpluss, 1903-1991)

My maternal grandmother Thelma (Surpluss) Gibson (1903-1991)

09 May 2021

Happy Mother's Day Mom

From the Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona), 14 Dec 1938, Wednesday, Page 16 --

GIBSON--Born to Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Gibson, Flagstaff, a daughter, in St. Joseph's Hospital, December 13.

This is the birth announcement for my mother Brenda Kay (Gibson) Walker Cox (1938-1989).

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

01 May 2021

Spanish Influenza Takes Life of Sara E. (Gurwell) Gibson (1865-1918)

From The Augusta Gazette (Augusta, Kansas) 31 Dec 1918, Page 1 --

INFLUENZA PROVES A SCOURGE IN THIS CITY

Influenza has made fatal inroads against the people of this community since the last issue of The Gazette. Not that it is considered that the malady is growing worse in severity, but rather because this city and its environs are not unlike others, where the disease seems to take its toll in bunches.
. . . .
After an illness of seven days duration, Mrs. Gibson, wife of Charles Gibson of this city, died at her home on Dearborn street last Friday afternoon. In addition to the husband, she is survived by four sons and one daughter. The funeral services and burial occurred Tuesday at Humboldt, Kans., to which city the body had been sent. The Gibson family has lived in Augusta a number of years.

Sara Ella Gibson (nee. Gurwell) 1865-1918, was my mom's paternal grandmother, therefore my g-grandmother. According to my research so far, she was my only direct ancestor claimed by the Great Spanish Flu Pandemic. Although I have found one ancestral relative it also claimed, my 1st cousin 2x removed, Guy Truman Walker (1886-1919).

30 April 2021

Gibson Brothers Trucking Begins Work in Williams, Arizona

From the Williams News (Williams, Arizona) 29 Jun 1928, Page 1 --

Gibson Bros. Outfit Working for Lbr. Co.

Gibson Brothers, of Dallas, Texas, arrived in Williams on the 21st with a fleet of twelve trucks and a force of sixteen men.
The Gibson Brothers have taken a contract to haul logs for the Saginaw and Manistee Lumber Company, from their camp located about nine miles south of town.
Their outfit consists of nine International trucks, one Coleman, and two Outo-cars with a combined carrying capacity of 120,000 pounds at one haul, or approximately 21,600 board feet.
Three trips are now being made daily from the camp to the mill, but the firm plans to add another loading crew a little later, which will enable each truck to make four or five deliveries a day. With three deliveries a day, approximately 65,000 board feet are delivered to the mill daily, and as stated above, this will be considerably augmented with the addition of another loading crew. Bruce Gibson, Ira Gibson, and Wallace Gibson comprise the firm.
It is estimated that from eight months to one year will be required to complete the hauling from this camp.

Bruce Gibson (1902-1994) was my maternal grandfather. He would later become the sole owner of the trucking company.

22 April 2021

Gibsons Arrive in Arizona from Texas

From the Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) 28 Jun 1928, Thursday, Page 15 --

Ira Gibson, Wallace Gibson, Bruce Gibson and their father, C. L. Gibson, arrived here Friday with 14 trucks, their families and household goods, and will locate here permanently in the trucking business. For several years they have been engaged in hauling gas pipe in Dallas, Tex., and they began work here this week in trucking logs from the timber, four miles south of town, to the lumber mills. Their families have rented houses here.

Bruce Gibson (1902-1994) was my maternal grandfather, and his father Charles Lewis Gibson (1858-1938) was my g-grandfather, of course. This article pinpoints the year and date they migrated to Arizona.

If the genealogist is committed to spending hours researching, Newspapers.Com is a worthwhile site. Yes, it has a search engine, but it is not sophisticated. The responsible researcher uses it as a tool, but does his/her own research.

21 August 2020

Yearbook Photo of Thelma (Surpluss) Gibson (1903-1991), Age 16

My maternal grandmother. I miss her horribly.

06 August 2020

Surprise Find is also a Reminder to Be Careful

Growing up we visited my maternal grandparents Bruce and Thelma Gibson frequently. And like most loving grandparents they had at least one picture of each of their grandchildren in their living room where everyone resided in the evenings. I got very familiar with the picture they had of me --

-- in a brass frame on a shelf next to where my grandmother would sit for hours and knit or crochet.

When my grandparents died, my aunt Barbara Butler was the executrix and she gave the picture to me still in its frame. Jump ahead almost twenty years, and my son asks for a baby picture of me to compare to his daughter, my granddaughter, whom he swears is my spittin' image.

I go to get the baby picture of me to scan and send to my son. When I open up the frame, I am surprised to find inside another picture --

-- My brother and I are confident that is a picture of my (living) aunt and maybe her prom date? We are pretty sure it is not our uncle.

So what's the sum? I went to retrieve a baby picture of myself, and in opening a frame that had not been opened in six decades I discovered another family picture behind it. Lesson learned? Don't assume what is inside things. Be they books, shoe boxes, pictures frames, or whatever. Look inside, you never know what you might discover.

03 August 2020

Civil War Relatives

For the last month I have been obsessed with the Civil War, from a family history perspective. I have been working on getting the National Park Service to give the grave of my gg-grandfather a marker; I have been researching the current location of the regimental flags for the 33rd Illinois, and I have been researching the oral history that one of my gg-grandfathers was a Union spy.

In the meantime, I did put together a list of all my grandfathers and granduncles who served. I have not done cousins yet. This list is complete as best as I can determine (the seven names of gg-grandfathers have been bolded; the five names of those who died in service have been italicized) --

RANK NAME REGIMENT STATE COMPANY

Henry M. Walker, Sr. 33rd Illinois A

Capt Harvey J. Dutton 33rd Illinois A

Horace S. Dutton 108th Illinois E

Charles H. Chesley 8th Cavalry Illinois K

John P. Chesley 13th Illinois G

Leonard Chesley 13th Illinois G

Sgt Luman F. Ward 98th New York D

David Ward 2nd Artillery Ohio C

Corp Arthur H. Needham 2nd Cavalry Iowa E

John H. Needham 155th Ohio A

Horatio E. Needham 29th Iowa E

Sgt George E. Needham 177th Ohio A

Benjamin E. Needham 41st Ohio D

Samuel R. Porter 17th Illinois I

Lt Col Dr. Frank G. Porter -- Surgeon --

Alexander W. Porter 39th Pennsylvania B

Sgt John W. Porter 39th Pennsylvania B

Corp Alfred Gibson 33rd Kentucky D

Sgt David Gibson 27th Kentucky E

Thomas R. Gibson 35th Kentucky B

William Gurwell 14th Ohio E

Jesse Jones 13th Kansas B

Lt Edward W. Hall 3rd Iowa B

George Hall 26th Illinois K

Corp Levi Hall 33rd Illinois C

Wilbur Hall 2nd Artillery Massachusetts M

Josiah McKee 33rd Illinois C

-- Twenty-seven names in total. All blue, no grey. My gg-grandfather James G. Gurwell is said to have served, but I can find no record, so he is not included. Six of these Illinoisans were at Vicksburg, and their names are cast in bronze inside the Illinois memorial there.

Expanding the list to include cousins will be quite a chore but is within my plans. I know that will expand my connection to the 33rd Illinois even further, at last count I had seven ancestral relatives in that regiment. And I am not sure, but I think I have one Gibson cousin who went to Texas and fought on the side the Confederacy, ruining my perfect record of all Union ancestral relatives.

26 July 2015

Abstract of Death Record of Emma (Gibson) Calkins Waggoner Boll, 1898-1975

This abstract was contracted from a professional researcher by a Calkin's cousin --

Death Record

Source: L.A. County D/R D1975 0021735

Decedent: Emma Boll

Personal: Female, Cauc, Widowed, 76

Address: 110-D W Maple, Glendale, CA

DOB: 9-3-1898 POB: KS

Occupation: Companion, 20 yrs

Industry: Mary Gower, Companion

Father: C.L. Gibson, b. KY

Mother: Ella Gurwell, b. KS

In County: 32 yrs

In California: 43 yrs

Citizenship: USA

DOD: 5-7-1975, 8:55pm

POD: Glendale Convalescent Hosp; Glendale, CA (409 W Glenoaks Blvd)

SSN: 565-09-9843

Spouse: -----

Informant: Walter D. Calkins, 110-D W Maple; Glendale, CA

Disposition: Cremation, Westwood Memorial Park

Funeral Director: Westwood Village Mortuary

Cause of Death: Metastatic Carcinoma of breast, 18 mos

Contributing Cause: Left Carcinoma of breast, 2 yrs

Other: -----

Autopsy: No

Emma Gibson Boll was my great-aunt on my mother's paternal side.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

27 June 2015

G-Grandpa Gibson owned an "Empire 20?"

From The Chanute Daily Tribune, Chanute, Kansas, Mon, Dec 26, 1910 --

Charles Gibson and Earl Bogle went to Chanute Sunday in Mr. Gibson's Empire 20, and S. M. Pickens went in his remodeled Model 10 Buick.

"Empire 20" automobile? What the heck is that? Well howdy, howdy! A picture and an advertisement for the 1910 Empire 20 --

(Click to Enlarge.)

Here is the entry at Wikipedia, not a lot there --

Empire (1910 automobile):

The Empire was an American automobile manufactured from 1910 until 1919. Marketed as "the little aristocrat", the Empire 20 was a four-cylinder shaft-driven runabout built in Indianapolis. The model "A" was a conventional runabout for three passengers with a rumble seat. The model "B" had two bucket seats, a longer hood and was geared higher to attain faster speeds.

I had never heard of such a vehicle! No record yet if he owned the Model "A" or the Model "B." Charles Lewis Gibson (1858-1938) was my great-grandfather on my mother's paternal side.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

07 June 2015

Gibson Family Bible: Births

(Click to Enlarge.)

C.L. Gibson was born January 26, 1855
Ella Gibson was born July 31, 1865
Ira Gibson was born June 28, 1890
Leo Gibson was born September 18, 1892
Leslie Gibson was born August 5, 1894
June Gibson was born January 8, 1897
Emma Gibson was born September 3, 1898
Stacy Gibson was born September 17, 1900
Bruce Gibson was born June 5, 1902
Wallace Gibson was born December 16, 1905

This is my great-grandfather's family. Bruce Gibson was my grandfather. I don't know who has the original copy of this Bible. I have a copy of a copy that was made decades ago in negative. I don't even know who has the original copy in negative! But these copies were given to all the family forty-years ago. My mom had one, my aunt had one, her cousins each had one. The writing is in all one hand so I think the dates were entered at once and not over time. The dates match other records except for my great-grandfather Charles Lewis Gibson's birth year. It is actually 1858. But research shows he lied about his age frequently.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

05 June 2015

Gibson Family: Then (1948) - Forty Years Later (1989)

(click on picture to enlarge)

Gibson Family Circa 1948

back row: oldest daughter Barbara Gibson (1931-2014), father Bruce Gibson (1902-1994),

mother Thelma Gibson (1903-1991); front row: middle daughter Brenda Gibson (1938-1989), youngest daughter living.

(click on picture to enlarge)

Gibson Family 1989

back row: Barbara Butler, Brenda Walker Cox, living daughter

front row: Thelma Gibson, Bruce Gibson

This is my maternal grandparents and their three daughters, Brenda Walker Cox being my mother. The 1989 pic is on the occasion of my grandparents sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. Seven months after the picture my mother will pass away from a relapse of breast cancer.

Life is short.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

28 February 2015

Obituary for Sara Ella (Gurwell) Gibson 1865-1918

From the Augusta (KS) Gazette, Dec. 31, 1918 --

INFLUENZA PROVES A SCOURGE IN CITY

....After an illness of seven days' duration, Mrs. Gibson, wife of Charles Gibson of this city, died at her home on Dearborn Street last Friday afternoon. In addition to the husband, she is survived by four sons and one daughter. the funeral services and burial occurred Tuesday at Humboldt, Kans., to which city the body had been sent. The Gibson family has lived in Augusta a number of years.

Sara Gibson was my great-grandmother on my mother's paternal side. Thank you to my cousin Rick for thinking of me when he found it in research.

The timing of receiving this was serendipitous, I had just finished doing some lengthy research into the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 in relation to a relative on the other side of my tree who died because of it.

Copyright © 2015 by Kevin W. Walker

12 January 2015

Barbara Jane Butler, 1931-2014

From the December 17, 2014 issue of the Napa (CA) Valley Register --

Barbara Jane Butler, 83, of Calistoga and St. Helena, died Tuesday, Dec. 16.

She was born to the late Thelma and Bruce Gibson, March 27, 1931, in Phoenix, Arizona. Barbara graduated from El Cerrito High School in 1949 and subsequently received her R.N. from the Sanitarium in Independence, Missouri. She married the late Richard K. Butler in 1955, and then resided in Hayward, California, until her husband’s passing.

Barbara worked in various routine and supervisory nursing roles in the East Bay.

Looking for a challenge, she applied to and was accepted to Stanford School of Medicine’s inaugural class of Physician’s Assistants in 1971. As a P.A. and C.N.P. she worked in family practice and emergency medicine in San Jose, Nevada and Merced until her retirement in 2000.

After relocating to Calistoga, Barbara was active in ensuring seniors’ access to affordable housing. She was an animal lover and loved to read and discuss religion and politics.

Barbara is survived by two children: Rhett Butler of Guadalajara, Mexico, and Cynthia Butler of Calistoga. She is also survived by two grandchildren, Hana Butler and Elijah Egger.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to the American Vet Dogs.

A celebration of life gathering will be held at Silverado Orchards, 601 Pope St., St. Helena on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014, from 2-4 p.m.

Condolences may be shared with the family online at TulocayCemetery.org.

My aunt Barbara, my mother's sister. As you can see from her obituary she was quite accomplished.
This is a big one for me. I was not close to a lot of relatives, but I was close to aunt Barbara.

Copyright © 2014 by Kevin W. Walker