Yolo-Siskiyou County CA Archives Biographies.....Gibson, William Byas 1831 - 1906 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com December 7, 2005, 11:15 pm Author: Tom Gregory WILLIAM BYAS GIBSON Among several farmers and stockmen of note lost to the country around Woodland, Yolo county, Cal., during recent years, was William Byas Gibson, who passed away at his home February 15, 1906. A man of noble qualities and exceptional business ability, his generous assistance toward the development of the county will be long remembered by his co-workers. May 30, 1831, Mr. Gibson was born in Louisa county, Va., forty miles from Richmond, which region his parents left six years later, settling in Howard county, Mo., where the son acquired a public school education. His father, William B. Gibson, Jr., a skilled brick mason, also a native of Louisa county, was born in the year 1800, the second eldest son of William B. Gibson, Sr., of Irish descent, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and afterwards prominent in Virginia, where he owned a large cotton plantation and held numerous slaves according to the custom in that state in that period. William B. Gibson, Jr., married Miss Susan Turney, who was born near Richmond, Va., and who passed away in 1875 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Emma (Gibson) Cooper, at Napa, Cal., her husband having died in Missouri in 1846. In 1850, William Byas Gibson, of this review, intending to join his brother Thomas, who had come to California with some other '49ers, left the home of his youth with a party of "over-landers," using as his means of transportation a wagon drawn by a six-mule team. The party crossed the Missouri river March 29, in the year mentioned, and followed the westward trail for three months, until Mr. Gibson made his last camp in Yolo county, Cal., near Woodland, and built a modest home on Cache creek. October 30 he went to Scott Bar, where he mined for a time. July 5, 1851, he returned to Cache creek and homesteaded a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, four miles and a half northeast of Woodland, where he entered upon a successful career as a grain-grower and stock-raiser. Six years later he sold this property, but soon afterward bought three hundred and twenty acres adjoining the present town plat of Woodland, which was the nucleus of his later three thousand acres estate in Yolo county. In connection with general farming he made a specialty of the breeding of high-grade cattle, selling his stock throughout the state, and was the owner of seventy-five registered Shorthorn Durhams. Besides his property in California, he had a ranch of six hundred and forty acres in Pecos county, Texas. December 23, 1857, Mr. Gibson married, in Yolo county, Miss Mary Isabelle Cook, a native of Boyle county, Ky., who had moved to Jackson county, Mo., with her parents, Joseph and Elizabeth (Chiles) Cook, of Kentucky birth, and had come with them to California in 1853, by way of the overland trail, making the journey with ox-teams and consuming five months en route. The family located in Yolo county, and here Mr. Cook became a farmer and achieved honor as a citizen. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Gibson, in his eighty-seventh year, April 1, 1901, his wife having passed away in her seventy-third year, August 22, 1893. To Mr. and Mrs. Gibson three sons were born: Robert J., of Woodland, who married Elnora Boot, of Zomora, and has a son, William Byas; Thomas Ballard of Woodland, who married Virginia Lee Boot and has a daughter Zellah, who is the wife of Dr. Elberg of San Luis Obispo, Cal.; and Joseph, who married Surene Allen of Winters, Yolo county, and died November 20, 1897, leaving four children: J. Wray; Coloma L. (Mrs. Snaveley), of Woodland; Onida B. (Mrs. Chester Sackett) of Winters; and Gazena. The evening of life found Mr. and Mrs. Gibson blessed with the world's comforts, even with its luxuries, and surrounded by loving friends and relatives who honored them for their noble qualities of head and heart; and since he passed away she is, if possible, held doubly dear by all who know her. Politically Mr. Gibson was a Democrat, a firm supporter of the principles of his party and keenly alert in his apprehension of timely economic questions. His success in life was universally conceded to be the result of his own inherent qualities of thrift and perseverance. Of humane and generous principles, he became widely known for his kindliness and for his material assistance of deserving people in trouble. In a public-spirited way he responded promptly to all demands in the interest of the community. Mrs. Mary Isabelle (Cook) Gibson, a woman of rare tact and sympathy, still lives at the old home which has been hers ever since her marriage and continues the charities in which her husband was interested in the days of his active life. Additional Comments: Extracted from HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH Biographical Sketches OF The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY TOM GREGORY AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yolo/bios/gibson94bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 5.6 Kb