WILLIAM H. GIBSON was born in Ohio, May 16, 1822, and came with his parents to Seneca County in 1822. His paternal grandparents were from Ireland; maternal grandparents were from Wales. He was reared on a farm, and worked as a carpenter and joiner. He was educated in the common schools, with one year at Ashland Academy. He read law in Tiffin with Abel Rawson and R. G. Penington, and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He was the Whig candidate for Attorney-General of Ohio in 1853, but was defeated. He was elected Treasurer of the State in 1855. He was charged with malfeasance in office, and resigned in 1857. He stood to the charges, and came off acquitted of all accusations, civil and criminal. He entered the army August, 1861, as Colonel of the 49th Ohio Infantry, and commanded a brigade and division in the Army of the Cumberland, participating in the battles of that army, and leading his command in forty-two conflicts. He left the army with the rank of Brigadier-General, and resumed the practice of law in Tiffin. He quitted active practice in 1872, devoting his energies to the securing of railroads to Tiffin with marked success. He bore a conspicuous part in the political campaigns from Missouri to Maine, and achieved national reputation as an orator and political speaker. He has been offered, but declined, various civil positions under the Government, preferring a position at home, in the building up of Tiffin and the promotion of enterprises aiding the development of Northwestern Ohio. Colonel, aside from his superior talents as an orator, possesses a large noble heart, and, whether in private conversation or on the public rostrum, his classic features and manly voice thrill his hearers with emotions that can only be awakened by the words of generosity and good sense.
1874 Atlas
GEN. 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.
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