My Genealogy Hound

GIBBS, BENJAMIN F., far, Sec. 20; P. O. Fort Madison; son of George W. Gibbs, who was born Hamilton Co., Ohio, May 12, 1798; he was the son of Justus Gibbs, a native of Wales, who emigrated to this country and settled at Cincinnati, where he erected the first frame house, built on the site of that now prosperous city; he afterward purchased a tract of land eleven miles below Cincinnati, when the Indians were so numerous and annoying that the settlers lived in blockhouses for safety; the settlers cultivated their land with hoes, and sowed wheat from their hats. George W. Gibbs married Miss Keziah, daughter of John McFall, who emigrated from Virginia and settled in Hamilton Co., where she was born in 1799. Soon after their marriage, they removed to Indianapolis, where he engaged in farming in the summer seasons, and teaming between Indianapolis and Cincinnati in the winter seasons for eight years; after several removes and reverses of fortune, he removed to Jefferson Co., this State, in 1842, where his wife died Dec. 7, 1843. He remarried and removed to Wapello Co., and, in 1858, to Wayne Co., where he died March 28, 1874, leaving a family of three sons and three daughters, of whom Benjamin F. was the second born; he was born in Indianapolis in November, 1823; came to Jefferson Co. with his father, and, in 1848, to Lee Co., where, in 1850, he married Maria, daughter of Dr. Claypoole, whose biography appears elsewhere. They commenced life on her father’s farm, on which they still live and now own, valued at $50 per acre. They have five children — Adaline H., born June 21, 1852, the wife of Francis Drake, of this township; Warren M., born Feb. 11, 1855; George C., March 7, 1863; Angeline K., March 30, 1866; William F., Nov. 15, 1867, died March 28, 1869; Charles E., April 8, 1871.