Biography - John Gibson
JOHN THOMAS GIBSON, who has lived on his present farm in Goreville Township for the past ten years, was born in Calloway County, Ky., in 1855. He is a son of George E. Gibson, who was born in Middle Tennessee in 1824, and who is now a farmer in Goreville Township. Of George E. Gibson, whose biographical sketch appears elsewhere in this volume, it is often said that there is no better citizen or neighbor in Johnson County.
Our subject, John T. Gibson, is one of a family of seven children, three sons and four daughters, and he is the third child and first son. There are now but five of these seven children living. He was reared on the farm and received a fair common-school education, and afterward spent one term at Ewing College. He then taught district school one term, and remained at home until he was twenty-four years old. He was married February 1, 1880, to Ida Whitnell, who was born in Johnson County in 1863. She is a daughter of Constantine and Matilda (Jones) Whitnell, the former of whom is from Kentucky, and the latter a native of Johnson County. He died in Goreville Township at his farm home in 1865 in the prime of life, at about fifty years of age. His widow is now Mrs. Michael McNeely, her husband being a farmer of Goreville Township. She had four children by her first husband, two sons and two daughters, and by her present husband she has five children living, three sons and two daughters. She has buried two sons and two daughters. Mrs. Gibson is the only one living by her first husband. Constantine Whitnell was a brother of D. J. Whitnell, who was a farmer and physician, and who dying left a good estate.
Mr. and Mrs. Gibson have four sons and two daughters, viz.: Charles, twelve years old; Nettie, ten; Ernest, seven; Oscar, five; Lindolph, three; and Ruth, four months. These children, all that are old enough to study, take great interest in their books, and are all bright and promising children. Mr. and Mrs. Gibson began married life on their own little forty-acre farm. After living upon it one year he sold out and farmed on his father's farm two years, and in the fall of 1883 they moved to their present farm of one hundred and twenty acres, a dowry from Mrs. Gibson's father. They have since added forty acres to the farm, making it consist now of one hundred and sixty acres. This is a good farm, having one hundred acres under cultivation. Mr. Gibson carries on general farming, raising for the most part wheat and corn. While he is not cropping his farm heavily, he is bringing it up by a system of rotation of crops and frequent seeding down. His wheat yields about twenty bushels per acre, and his corn about forty bushels. He has just enough of live-stock, horses, cattle and sheep for his own use, and does not raise to sell. Mr. Gibson is a Republican, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Extracted 21 Sep 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, page 297.
