San Bernardino County
Biographies
HON. JAMES ALEXANDER GIBSON,
a member of the Supreme Court Commission of the State of California, was born
August 21, 1852, in the city of Boston, and is a worthy representative of the
best mental product of the Athens of America, and an honor to the bar of
Southern California. His father, Thomas Gibson, was of Scotch-Irish descent, and
a machinist by trade. He left his native land when a youth to accept a clerkship
with his uncle at St. John, New Brunswick, then a prominent merchant there,
where he remained
for some time before coming to the United States. His wife, Judge Gibson's
mother, was born of English-Irish parents, in Ireland. When the war of the
Rebellion broke out his father responded to the call of his adopted country, and
was assigned to General N. P. Banks' command, and during the disastrous Red
River expedition was mortally wounded. The subject of this memoir was thrown
upon his own resources at an early age, and his school advantages were limited
to the common schools of Massachusetts. But, born with a dominant thirst for
knowledge, the lack of educational opportunities only served to stimulate the
boy's insatiable appetite for learning, and he eagerly devoured the contents of
every accessible book on literary and scientific subjects, especially works upon
astronomy and navigation. He started to learn the printer's trade in the office
from which William Lloyd Garrison and Senator Sargent of California graduated;
but having reached the romantic period of youth, and possessing a longing desire
to become a navigator and explorer, the monotony of the composing-room became
unendurable to the adventure loving youth, and he left the office before
completing the trade. A natural fondness for study and for intellectual pursuits
gave the active, ambitious young mind also a bent toward the legal profession;
and while struggling with the problem whether to choose a seafaring life, with
an innate longing to wrest from nature her secrets in unknown seas and lands, or
strive for forensic and judicial honors, older heads, friends of his father,
interposed and advised him to learn a trade and study mechanical engineering and
thus master a tangible and permanent business. Yielding to their counsel young
Gibson sought and obtained a position with the Walworth Manufacturing Company,
one of the largest firms in New England, and remained with them until he became
an expert mechanical draughtsman, and also a practical mechanic at the lathe.
However, on reaching maturer years and thought, he decided to enter the
profession of law and shaped his studies to that end. First crossing the
continent to California he located in Colton, San Bernardino County, and studied
in the office of Mr. William Gregory, formerly from the city of Philadelphia,
now a prominent member of the bar at Portland, Oregon. In June, 1879, Mr. Gibson
was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in San Bernardino as a partner
with Major H. S. Gregory. He subsequently formed a law partnership with Hon.
Byron Waters, and still later with Hon. John L. Campbell, present Superior
Judge. In 1884 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the Superior Bench of
San Bernardino County, and filled that office with distinguished ability for
over four years, until he resigned to accept the judicial position of Supreme
Court Commissioner, to which he was appointed by the Supreme Court on May 16,
1889, for the term of four years. Though perhaps the youngest man to occupy so
exalted a judicial position in the history of the State, Judge Gibson has
already fully demontrated his eminent fitness in both natural and acquired
qualifications for the high office. Being a zealous student and an indefatigable
worker, he has compensated by personal effort for the lack of a university
education. In addition to his extraordinary legal attainments he is also a fine
literary scholar and gentleman of broad general culture. He is of a
philosophical type of mind, and his written opinions are lucid and logical
analyses of the questions at issue, dealing with the philosophy and equity of
the law in its applications to the cases under adjudication rather than with
superficial interpretations or technicalities. His citations from the books are
limited to a few well-selected cases that are plainly analagous to the one under
consideration. In addition to these high mental qualities, Judge Gibson
possesses an inherent love of justice, forming a combination which admirably
adapts him for most successful labor on the bench. He has also served
efficiently in the National Guard of California as Major and Assistant
Adjutant-General and as Engineer Officer on the First Brigade staff.
In 1882 Judge Gibson united in wedlock with Miss Sarah Waterman, of Colton, a native of Missouri, born near St. Joseph, in which city her father, now of Arizona, was formerly a prominent merchant. Mrs. Gibson was educated at the Western Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio, and was a model of her sex. She was ever a living inspiration to her fond husband, encouraging him at every step in his rising and honorable career by her wifely devotion and stimulating words of love. She suffered for a year with bronchitis, and in spite of every effort human knowledge and medical skill could devise to stay its progress, on December 2, 1889, she passed away, buoyed with the Christian's hope that she entertained from her youth, leaving her sorrowing husband and two bright, lovely children, Mary W., aged seven years, and James A. Gibson, five years of age, both of whom were born in the county of San Bernardino. Thus was the measure of their domestic bliss ruthlessly cut short in the noontide of its realization by the untimely removal of the noble wife and mother.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 649-650
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ISAAC V. GILBERT
located in Riverside in 1881, seeking a desirable place of residence and safe investment of his capital. He purchased seven acres of land on Jurupa avenue, in Brockton square, from E.W. Holmes. Upon this tract he erected a substantial cottage residence, suitable outbuildings. etc., and also added beauty and comfort to his home by laying out roads, walks and lawns, and planting ornamental trees and floral plants. He has produced a beautiful and worthy specimen of a California home. His orange grove, of three and one-half acres, is composed mostly of seedling trees, about seventeen years of age. They are some of the finest to be found in that section, and give a yield of $450 per acre, under the intelligent care and fertilization he has given them. He has also a large variety of deciduous fruits, such as apples, quince, peach, prune, plum, etc., and also a large variety of table grapes. He has made his home a model of beauty and productiveness. 1n 1885 Mr. Gilbert and others projected the establishment of a national bank in Riverside, and was one of the original incorporators of one of the soundest banking institutions in San Bernardino County. He was its first president and held that position for three years. Since then he has been on the board of directors, and auditor of the bank. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington and Treasurer of the same. In politics he is a Republican, and has taken a high stand in the financial and social circles of Riverside, and gained the respect and esteem of his associates.
Mr. Gilbert was born in Troy, New York, in 1826. When eleven years of age his parents moved to Illinois and located in Knox County. His father, Charles Gilbert, was a native of Hartford, Connecticut, and previous to settling in the West had been engaged in mercantile pursuits. There he engaged in farming, and Isaac was reared to that calling upon his father's farm, near Galesburg. He received a good education, closing his studies by a term in Knox College. Mr. Gilbert spent his life, previous to coming to California, in agricultural pursuits in Illinois, and was very successful in his enterprise. In 1848 he wedded Miss Hannah Brown, a native of New Jersey. The three children from this marriage are: Mary, now Mrs. Orland Chandler, of San Bernardino; Sarah E., now Mrs. C. O. Perine, of Riverside, and Mattie, who married Alonzo D. Haight, a fruit packer and shipper of Redlands, San Bernardino County.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 650-651
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler