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:

1. Augustus, deceased
2. Ida, also deceased
3. John A., also deceased
4. Dr. O. N. Gibson, of Eldorado, Illinois
5. Thomas Otis, a farmer near Mount Vernon;
6. Adella, deceased
7. Ernest, in Bozeman, Montana
8. Samuel A., on a farm near Mount Vernon
9. Mrs. R. S. Mernagh, whose husband is manager of the Alton Brick Company, St. Louis, Missouri
10. 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