GEORGE W. GIBSON

For three-score years George W. Gibson has made his home in LaSalle county, having come here from Ohio with his parents in 1838, and he is not only familiar with the history of the county, but has also contributed his part toward its growth and development.

Mr. Gibson was born in Marysville, Kentucky, March 22, 1826, and along the agnatic line traces his origin to Scotland. His grandfather, Robert Yates Gibson, was a Scotch army officer, and when a young man emigrated to this country and settled in Pennsylvania. In Cumberland, Pennsylvania, John Gibson, the father of George W., was born and reared. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. He married Elizabeth C. Yates, like himself a native of Pennsylvania and a descendant of Scotch ancestry. Some time after their marriage they removed to Marysville, Kentucky, where they remained for two years, going thence to Licking county, Ohio, and in 1838 coming to Illinois and establishing their home in LaSalle county, where the father purchased a farm and where he and his good wife passed the rest of their lives and died, her age at death being seventy-five years, while he attained the venerable age of eighty-six. She was for many years, and up to the time of her death, a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church. This worthy couple reared six children, as follows: Martha, wife of C. McKinley, is deceased; Maria is the widow of James Trenary; William, who died in Eldorado, Kansas, was a veteran of both the Mexican and civil wars, being colonel of the Fourth Illinois Infantry; George W., whose name graces this sketch, is also a veteran of the Mexican war; J. M. was likewise a soldier in the Mexican war; and Theodore, also a veteran of the Mexican and civil wars, was major of the Sixty-fourth Illinois Infantry, and has for years been a resident of Ottawa, Illinois.

George W. Gibson was a lad of eleven years when his parents first sought the Illinois prairies, and was reared in the vicinity of Ottawa, attending the Ottawa schools. In 1849, in company with his brother Theodore, he started westward to seek the gold fields of California; they made the trip with ox-team and were six months on the way. En route they passed large herds of buffalo and were often in terror on account of the bands of Indians along the trail. For three years he remained in the west, engaged in mining, returning to Chicago at the end of that time and thence to his home in LaSalle county. The return trip was made by way of the Isthmus of Panama and New York city. Aside from this western mining experience, Mr. Gibson’s life has been quietly devoted to agricultural pursuits. Although now seventy-three years of age, he is still active and vigorous, both physically and mentally.

Mr. Gibson was married first in 1856, to Miss Cynthia Robinson, and to them were born two children, Lewis and Clara. Lewis married Miss Flora Ditch, and they have two children, George P. and Mabel. Mrs. Cynthia Gibson died in 1861, and for his second wife Mr. Gibson married Miss Rachel Green. There were born of this marriage two children – John and Alta, who became the wife of William Miller, of Pennsylvania, and who has one child, Gertie. Mrs. Rachel Gibson died in 1883, and in 1889 Mr. Gibson was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary Ann Poole, his present companion. She was the widow of Joseph Poole, who was a native of England, and she is the mother of five children, three sons and two daughters.

While he has never been a politician in any sense of the word, Mr. Gibson has always in local affairs given his support to the men best suited for office, while in national affairs he has voted the Democratic ticket.¹

George Gibson’s second wife, Rachel, was the daughter of John Green of Dayton. She is buried in the Dayton Cemetery.

1. Biographical and Genealogical Record of La Salle County, Illinois (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1900), 1: 281-283.

Cora Belle Dunavan was born June 20, 1879, the daughter of Samuel Dunavan and Amanda Miranda Munson. She was the granddaughter of Joseph and Nancy (Green) Dunavan and the great-granddaughter of John and Barbara (Grove) Green. Her maternal grandmother was Rachel Hall, one of the sisters captured by the Indians during the Indian Creek massacre in 1832.

She married Harry Wallace Watts on October 7, 1904. They lived and farmed near Leland, until Harry’s death in 1949.

As can be seen above, Cora lived a long and productive life, dying in Ottawa May 22, 1964. She was generous with her paintings and gave them away freely. I own several. One is a copy of a picture postcard of a Bavarian castle I visited and greatly admired, but my favorite, which hangs in my living room, is a picture of the home in Dayton where I grew up.