My Genealogy Hound

Dr. William A. Gibson, one of Mill Creek’s leading citizens and physicians, was born in Franklin County, Ala., in 1840. He is a son of W. N. and Nancy (Crocker) Gibson, both born in the year 1815, the former in Tennessee, and the latter in North Carolina, and were united in marriage in the State of Alabama, where they have resided ever since, with the exception of several years’ sojourn in Texas. In religious faith both parents have been Primitive Baptists for a great length of time, and the father for a number of years was tax collector and assessor of Walker County, Ala. He is at present justice of the peace of his county, and has held that office several years, having also been a member of the A. F. & A. M. for the past forty years. His father was Jacob Gibson, of Tennessee, who resided in Alabama some length of time, but died in the State of Arkansas. The father of Jacob Gibson was Jacob Gibson, a Revolutionary soldier of early days, who died in Walker County, Ala. On the mother’s side, James Crocker, Mrs. W. N. Gibson’s father, was an Irish man, who emigrated to the United States when a young man. His wife was also a native of Ireland, but they were married in North Carolina, and, after a long residence in Alabama, both died in that State. Dr. William A. Gibson is the second child of two sons and one daughter. He was educated at the common schools, and, by a close application to his studies himself, and, after having thoroughly mastered his books, he taught school for a number of years, in the meantime reading physic all the while. After the war was over he attended the Mobile Medical College, and immediately set out to carve his name in the temple of fame. He practiced in Alabama until the year 1874, and then moved to Sharp County, Ark., where he still resides. The Doctor owns 160 acres of land on Mill Creek, of which forty-five acres are under cultivation. When he first arrived in Sharp County he had very little, if anything at all, in the way of wealth, but, by his shrewdness in trading, his energy and his natural abilities, besides being a skillful physician, he soon placed himself in an independent position. In 1867 the Doctor was married to Mrs. Eliza M. Wilkins, a daughter of Thomas and Sidney Price, of North Carolina, and by this marriage has one son, Ellis Lee. In politics he is Democratic, and gave his vote to Cleveland in 1888. He has been a member of the A. F. & A. M. since his twenty-first year, and at present belongs to Smithville Lodge No. 29. Mrs. Gibson has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for twenty-four years.