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 * rwlmn@aol.com