BIO: Benjamin A. GIBBONEY, Huntingdon County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley: 
Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata and Perry, 
Pennsylvania, Containing Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens and Many of the Early Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. 
Runk & Co., 1897, pages 150-151.
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  BENJAMIN A. GIBBONEY, McAlevys Fort, Huntingdon county, Pa., was born 
at Allenville, Mifflin county, Pa., December 5, 1829. He is a son of 
James and Annie (Horrell) Gibboney. The Gibboney family if of Welsh 
origin. Alexander Gibboney, grandfather of Benjamin A., was a native of 
Bucks county, Pa., born in a part of that county which is now included 
in Berks. He was in the Continental army during the Revolution, serving 
in the commissary department. He was a manufacturer of woolen goods, 
and removed from Bucks county to a place near Belleville, then 
Greenwood, in Mifflin county. Here he started the first woolen factory 
in that part of the county. His home in Mifflin county was a farm of 
thirty acres, which he owned. Alexander Gibboney was a Democrat of the 
early type. He was an active and enterprising business man, and of high 
standing in the community. His wife was a Miss Garver, of Berks county, 
a lady of German descent. They had six children: Davis; Alexander; 
James; Benjamin; Jemima; and Sarah. Mr. Gibboney was a member of the 
Presbyterian church. He lived to the age of eighty-two. His remains are 
buried in the Presbyterian cemetery at Belleville. His son, James 
Gibboney, attended the subscription schools of Mifflin county, but was 
mainly self-educated. He assisted his father in the woolen mills, but 
his chief occupation , and the one in which he was nearly all his life 
engaged, was that of furniture manufacturer. He was a Democrat. For one 
term, beginning October 28, 1833, he was sheriff of Mifflin county, and 
for two terms, from February, 1839, prothonotary. James Gibboney was 
married in Mifflin county, to Annie, daughter of Christopher Horrell; 
she was born in that county in 1801, and was of English descent. Her 
father was a hotel keeper. Their children were: Theodore, deceased; 
Louisa, deceased, wife of John Q. Adams, furnace manager; Sarah A., 
died young, Joseph, deceased; Alexander, deceased; James, of Company C, 
Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, shot at Petersburg, Va., in the 
war of the Rebellion. The father died in Mifflin county, in 1841. His 
wife survived him until 1892, when she died at the age of ninety-one. 
She was an excellent woman, and had many friends. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
Gibboney were faithful members of the Presbyterian church, and took an 
active part in its enterprises.
  In his early boyhood, Benjamin A. Gibboney attended, during the 
winter sessions of three months, one of those primitive log school 
houses so well known to the older residents of interior Pennsylvania. 
His first teacher was one George Fisher. His father dying when Benjamin 
was but twelve years old, he came under the care of his uncle, 
Alexander Gibboney, and very soon began to work in his uncle's woolen 
mill. He continued to do so until 1858, spending in that employment 
over seventeen years. He then bought a mill in Jackson township, owned 
by Robert Stewart, one of the first settlers in that vicinity. For the 
mill and 62 acres of land Mr. Gibboney paid $4,000, making a cash 
payment of $1,000, the amount of his savings while working in his 
uncle's mill, and going into debt for the remainder. Then began a life 
in the woods, a life of steady and diligent work, to which the presence 
of his wife and their little child supplied both cheer and incentive. 
All went on well and hopeful until 1866, when the mill was burned down, 
involving a loss of $10,000, no insurance. A new beginning must be 
made, this time with a still heavier burden of debt, the amount of 
$6,000. But with prompt and cheerful energy affairs were soon moving on 
again. A fine factory on a larger scale was built, run by water power. 
Prosperity has crowned Mr. Gibboney's endeavors; his factory is in good 
working order, and his business relations are profitable. He employs 
seven hands, and uses the latest improvements in machinery. He also 
bought 60 acres of land, in addition to his former purchase; has built 
a dwelling worth $1,000, and made other improvements. Mr. Gibboney's 
long and honorable record has given him an enviable position in the 
community. He has taken a considerable part in public affairs, having 
been school director for one term, and tax collector of both county and 
State. He was also elected on his party ticket, the Republican, as 
justice of the peace, and held the office for five years. He has, 
however, never gone to law on his own account, never having had a case 
in court, nor a suit against man or woman.
  Benjamin A. Gibboney was married in Mifflin county, Pa., in 1856, to 
Martha, daughter of Jacob Richwine, a cooper, and of German descent. 
Mrs. Gibboney was born in Mifflin county in 1836. Their children are: 
Annie, died young; James, who farms the homestead, is married to 
Elizabeth Smith, and has six children; William and Ellen, twins, of 
whom the former is employed in his father's mill, married Laura Davis, 
deceased, and has three children, and the latter was married to John 
Weiler, of Jackson township, and died in 1889; Frank, employed in the 
mill, married Laura Bickett, has three children; Benjamin, employed in 
the mill. The family belong to the Presbyterian church. Mr. Gibboney is 
attached to his church by the associations of a lifetime, having been 
instructed in its Sunday-school in his childhood.