Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/292

 GIBBONS

GIBBONS

He also served as health officer of San Francisco, 1870-73, as a member of the board of health, 1880- 83, and as a member of the board of education, 1889-90. He was made a member of the various medical societies of the Pacific slope and in 1897 was elected president of the California state medical society. In 1871 he was married to Marie Conger, daughter of Samuel Augustus and Mary A. Raymond of Toledo, Ohio.

GIBBONS, James, educator, was born in Westtown, Pa., May 18, 173; son of James and Jane ( She ward ); grandson of James Gibbons; and great-grandson of John and Margery Gibbons. From his parents, who were well educated, he received his early instruction. He was an ac- complished linguist and mathematician and, although not a lawyer, when disjiutes arose among his neighbors, they were generally re- ferred to him for settlement. In 1778 he became treasurer of Chester county and also a member of the general assembly of Pennsylvania. Being a member of the Society of Friends and thus debarred from taking part in war, in 1776 he gave up his public office and retired to his home at Westtown, where he afterward opened a pri- vate school. Subsequently he removed his school to Philadelphia, but after a few years re- turned it to his ancestral home. In 1795 he sold his Westtown farm of six hundred acres, which had been in the family for three generations, to the Society of Friends, on condition that it should always be used for educational purposes, and there the Westtown boarding school was es- tablished. He was married to Eleanor Peters. He died in Birmingham, Pa., Oct. 17, 1823.

GIBBONS, James, cardinal, was born in Bal- timore, Md., July 23, 1834. He was baptized in the cathedral of Baltimore and when very young

CATHtPRAu

was taken by his father to Ireland to be educated. He was confirmed while in Ireland by Arch- bishop McHale. He returned to America in 1853 and resided in New Orleans until 1855, wlien he decided to devote his life to the service of the church and was matriculated at St. Charles col- lege, near EUicott, Md., where he was grad-

uated with distinction in 1857. He then pursued his theological course at the Seminary of St. Sul- pice and at St. Mary's university, Baltimore, Md. On June 30, 1861, he was ordained a priest in the cathedral by Archbishop Kenrick. His first mission was at St. Patrick's church, Baltimore, where he was assistant to the Rev. James Dolan.

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CARPI/MAL JS' RESIPE/MCE.

He was transferred to St. Bridget s church, Canton, where lie ministered to a small congrega- tion till 1865, when Archbisliop Spaulding made him chancellor of the archdiocese and his private secretary. The second plenary council at Balti- more, 1866. made him its assistant chancellor and on Aug. 16. 1868, he was consecrated titular bishop of Adraiiiyttum in jxirtibiis injidel iiiin and first vicar-apostolic of North Carolina, erected by bull of His Holiness, Pius IX., dated March 3, 1868. The ceremony was conducted at the Cathedral of Baltimore by Archbishop Spalding and he took charge of his vicariate, Nov. 1, 1868. He found three churches, two priests, and about one thousand Catholics scattered over the entire state. He opened a school which he personally conducted; built six churches; prepared and ordained a number of priests; introduced into the vicariate the Benedictine order at Belmont, Gaston county, where Mary Help abbey was later erected; established the Sisters of Mercy and built for them a school for whites and one for negroes in Wilmington. They afterward erected Sacred Heart convent at Belmont. He made the personal acquaintance of every adult Catliolic in the state, and met them at their homes, travelling from the seaside to the mountains, up and down the state, that none should be neglected. After four years of unceasing labor lie was translated to the see of Richmoiid, July 30, 1872, as successor to the Rt. Rev. John McGill, D.D., who died Jan. 14, 1872, and he was installed as bishop of Richmond by Archbishop Bayley, Oct. 20, 1873. Here he erected five churches, St. Peter's acad- emy in charge of the Xaverian brothers, and St. Sophia's home for old peoiile in charge of the Little Sisters of the -Poor, in Richmond, Va., and