GEN. H. GIBSON. H. GIBSON, born in Ohio in 1822, who, as he says, was "the first male
infant carried into Seneca county." So well is he known that only as a
matter of record is it necessary to mention him. I presume there is not a
county in Ohio in which his voice has not been uplifted in patriotic
utterance, and in many counties many times. I know not one living who has
appeared so much in our State on public occasions as the orator of the day,
especially at out-of-door meetings of farmers and at pioneer celebrations.
And he gives so much gratification that even his own townsmen throng any
public place when it is advertised he is to appear. So, in this case, the
old saying about prophets not being honored at home, fails when he is to
appear in Tiffin.
Gen. Gibson is of the blonde order, with oval face, tall and graceful
person; but his great peculiarity is the clearness and phenomenal powers of
voice that enable him to send every word distinct to the ears of acres of
people gathered around in the open fields. Seldom has been heard a voice
like it since the days of Whitefield. Then he is such an entertaining,
delight-giving speaker, that he will hold a miscellaneous audience of men,
women and children for hours together.
Capt. Henry Cromwell, an old citizen here in Tiffin, said to me, "I have
been hearing Gibson for more than forty years, and I am amazed every time I
hear him. In the Scott campaign of 1852 he introduced Gen. Scott to our
people from the steps of the Shawhan House. A reporter of the New York
Herald present said it was the best speech he had ever heard. In 1842, when
a mere boy, I was present when he delivered the Independence Day oration at
Melmore, then a spot well out in the woods. An old Revolutionary soldier
sat by his side with long flowing white hair, done up in a queue. As he
closed he made an eloquent apostrophe to the flag waving over them, and
then turning round put both hands on the old man's head, saying 'Here is a
man who fought for that flag.' Half of the audience were in tears. In the
course of his life he has participated in twelve presidential campaigns as
a campaign speaker, and seems good for more. In the Lincoln campaign
Harriet Beecher Stowe happened to hear him, and wrote, 'I have heard many
of the renowned orators of Europe and our own country, but I have never sat
two and a half hours under such wonderful eloquence as that of Gen. William
H. Gibson, of Ohio.'"
Gen. Gibson as a youth began work on a farm, then learned the carpenter's
trade, and finally was educated to the law; was elected to the office of
state treasure in the year 1856, on the ticket with Salmon P. Chase as
governor; served as colonel of the Forty-ninth Ohio, and was breveted
brigadier-general on his retirement. Of late, having been duly qualified,
he occasionally serves in the pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
File contributed for use in the Ohio Biographies Project by
Gina Reasoner
GReasoner@prodigy.net
November 22, 1999
Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe LL.D.