Duval-Leon County FlArchives Biographies.....Gibbons, Cromwell 1869 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 4, 2008, 2:28 pm Author: B. F. Johnson Cromwell Gibbons Major Cromwell Gibbons, of Jacksonville, is an excellent example of the typical American turned out by that great national crucible which, taking people of many nationalities and different strains of blood, is molding them into a new national type. On the paternal side of Irish extraction, he is on the maternal side lineally descended from the brother of Oliver Cromwell, that great Englishman who ruled England during an important period of its history. Major Gibbons is a native of Middletown, Conn., where he was born on January 21, 1869, and is now in the prime of his strength and usefulness. His father was Henry Gibbons, son of a native of Ireland, who came from that country and located originally on Long Island. His mother's maiden name was Josephine Oliver Cromwell. Her father was Oliver Cromwell, a lineal descendant of Richard Cromwell, brother of the great Oliver. This branch of the Cromwell family on coming to America located in South Carolina. By intermarriage he is a relative of the Calhouns of South Carolina, his maternal grandmother having been Mary Calhoun, a cousin of the celebrated South Carolina statesman, John C. Calhoun. After the Civil War Major Gibbon's father and mother met and married in 1867. Major Gibbons was educated in the private and public schools of Connecticut and New York and spent much of his early life with relatives in South Carolina and absorbed the Southern spirit of his ancestors. He entered the scientific school of Yale University, but did not complete the full course. On leaving school, he took up newspaper work for certain New York and Southern journals. In 1888 he first came in touch with Florida, and in 1891 was admitted to the practice of law at Tallahassee. Though a native of a rock-ribbed Republican State, he is a life-time Democrat in his political affiliations; and to say that a New England man is a Democrat is at once to put him down as one of the straightest of the sect. Major Gibbons' abilities and force of character at once won recognition in Florida, and in 1892 he was elected Judge of Jacksonville. In 1903 he was sent to the Legislature and made Speaker of the House. His political services to his party have been notable and arduous. He was Chairman of the Duval County Democratic Committee in 1900 and 1901 and has served as a member of the Platform Committee from the State of Florida in the national convention. He has also been urged the past four years by strong political friends to become a candidate for Governor but has declined for business reasons. He has never, however, allowed his political activity to absorb so much of his time as would interfere with the large business operations with which he has been connected. Possessed of much public spirit, he is at present serving as a member of the Publicity Executive Committee of the United States, of which the Hon. Perry Belmont, of New York, is chairman. Both in the Legislature and outside, by the written and spoken word, he has taken a very active interest in this cause. He belongs to that excellent class of our citizenship which is ready to give service both in peace and war, and in 1898, during the Spanish-American War when a member of the State Naval Militia he entered the navy and was commissioned an ensign. He has seen ten years of service in Florida State Troops, rising by merit from the position of private in the Jacksonville Light Infantry to be Major of the First Battalion of the First Florida Infantry, in which position he is now giving most efficient service. His business life has been along the line of the practice of the law and commercial development. As a lawyer during the past eight years he has had many large and important cases before the Spanish Treaty Court in Washington. This has necessarily compelled him to give much time to the study of Cuban conditions. He has succeeded in recovering judgment for large sums, and has become well known to the leading international law writers and practitioners. His largest measure of success, it may be said, however, has been won in commercial lines. He has succeeded in placing several large organizations on a sound financial basis, among them the Ucita Investment Company, which has built in Jacksonville the Seminole Hotel, the largest and most modern hotel in the South. Of this company he is now the vice-president. Becoming interested in Cuba, he has succeeded there in establishing the Redencion Sugar Company, of which he is the president, and which is one of the largest now operating upon that island. Interested in everything which will contribute to the moral, as well as material, betterment of the community, he is a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and holds membership in all the leading clubs of Florida, such as the Seminole, Elks, Power Boat Club, Country Club, and Florida Yacht Club. The judgment of such a man is of pronounced value, and he is strongly impressed that the best interests of Florida are to be promoted by the encouragement of the immigration of industrious persons, and by encouraging such people to develop to their fullest extent the vast reaches of fertile Florida country now lying open and unproductive. His business judgment tells him that Florida needs more people, but they must be the right sort of people; and he favors therefore such an intelligent system of advertising as will reach these good citizens in the North and West who are contending with the adverse conditions brought about by a hard climate. To these people Florida is a revelation, both as to climatic conditions and the productiveness of its soils. On December 14, 1892, Major Gibbons married Miss Bertha Sollee, a daughter of Capt. Francis C. and Rebecca (Hopkins) Sollee. Of this marriage there are two children—Francis Cromwell and Juliette Vibert Gibbons. Barely forty years old, Major Gibbons has already accomplished great things in the State of his adoption; and it cannot be doubted that should he be spared for the usual length of life he will leave behind him as a monument a great increase of the general wealth of the community in which he lives as the result of his labors, added to which will be the ever-widening circle of influence emanating from a strong man who believes in civic righteousness. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. 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