Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/670

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GIBBONS
GIBBONS

modern times, and was the author of a pamphlet en- titled " Exposition of Modern Scepticism," assailing the doctrines of the social reformers led by Fanny Wright. — William's son, Henry, physician, b. in Wilmington, Del., 20 Sept., 1808 ; d. there, 5 Nov., 1884, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1829, practised in Wilmington till 1841, and then in Philadelphia, where he was professor of the principles and practice of medicine in the Philadelphia college of medicine. He re- moved in 1850 to San Francisco, Cal., where he be- came, in 1861, professor of materia medica in the medical college of the Pacific (now Cooper medical college), being transferred to the chair of the prin- ciples and practice of medicine in 1868. He was president of the California state board of health from its establishment in 1873 till his death, and edited the " Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal " for twenty years. Dr. Gibbons was a founder of the California academy of sciences. He published a prize essay on " Tobacco " and several addresses and essays. — Another son, James Sloan, merchant, b. in Wilmington, Del., 1 July, 1810 : d. in New York city, 17 Oct., 1892, was educated in his native city, and in early life removed to Philadelphia, where he became a merchant. He came to New York in 1835, and was connected with banks and finance in that city. He contributed to various literary and finan- cial periodicals, and published " The Banks of New York, their Dealers, the Clearing-House, and the Panic of 1857 " (New York, 1858), and " The Pub- lic Debt of the United States " (1867). His song " We are coming, Father Abraham," was very popular during the civil war. — James Sloan's wife, Abigail Hoi)i)er, philanthropist, b. in Philadel- phia, 7 Dec, 1801 ; d. in New York city, 10 Jan., 1893, was a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper. After teaching in Philadelphia and New York, she mar- ried Mr. Gibbons in 1833, and in 1836 removed to New York with him. In 1845 Mrs. Gibbons aided her father in forming the Women's prison associa- tion, and in founding homes for discharged prison- ers, and frequently visited the various prisons in and about New York. She was the principal founder of the Isaac T. Hopper home, and for twelve years was president of a German industrial school for street children, the attendance at which increased in four months from 7 to nearly 200. Throughout the war Mrs. Gibbons gave efficient aid in hospital and camp, often at personal risk, and in 1863, during the draft riots, her house was one of the first to be sacked by the mob, owing to the well-known anti-slavery sentiments of herself and her husband. The attention of the rioters was first called to the house by some one who pointed it out as the residence of Horace Greeley. After the war she planned and organized a Labor and aid association for the widows and orphans of soldiers. She aided in establishing the New York infant asylum in 1871, and the New York diet kitchen in 1873, and has been one of the active managers of both these institutions. — Charles, another son of William, lawver, b. in Wilmington, Del., 30 March, 1814; d. in Philadelphia, 14 Aug., 1885, studied law in Philadelphia with Charles Chauncey, and was admitted to the bar in 1838. He was for several years a member of the state senate and its president in 1847, chairman of the first Republican state committee, one of the found- ers of the Union league, and the author of its con- stitution. He represented the government on a "commission in the argument of prize cases in the U. S. courts during the civil war.


GIBBONS, James, cardinal, b. in Baltimore, Md., 23 July, 1834. At an early age he was taken by his parents to their former home in Ireland, where his education began. When he was seven- teen years old he returned to his native city, and after a brief experience as a clerk entered St. Charles's college, Maryland. In September, 1857, he was transferred to St. Maiy's seminary, Balti- more, and on 30 June, 1861, he was ordained priest in St. Mary's chapel. His first mission was that of assistant priest at St. Patrick's church, Baltimore, but, in the course of a few months, he was made pastor of St. Bridget's church at Canton, an eastern suburb of the city. While he was performing the duties of parish priest in that ob- scure place, Arch- bishop Spald- ing transferred him to the ca- thedral, made

him his private

secretary,and appointed him to the important office of chancellor of the archdiocese. When the second plenary council of the American Roman Catholic church assembled at Baltimore in October, 1866, he was as- signed to the office of assistant chancellor of that body, which represented the entire hierarchy of tlie United States. In 1868 he was made vicar apostolic of North Carolina, with the rank and title of bishop, being consecrated in the cathedral of Baltimore by his friend Archbishop Spalding on 16 Aug. North Carolina then contained a population of one million, of whom only one thousand were Roman Catholics. But Bishop Gibbons was equal to the duties of the office, and in a few years schools were opened, asylums built, churches erected, and the number of priests increased from five to fifteen. In 1872 he was translated to the A^acant see of Rich- mond, Va., where his zeal and administrative abil- ity were soon made manifest by the establishment of numerous institutions, such as the St. Sophia home for aged persons, in charge of the Little Sis- ters of the Poor, St. Peter's cathedral male acad- emy and parochial school, the enlargement of St. Joseph's female orphan asylum, the founding of parish schools in Petersburg and Norfolk, and the erection of new churches in various parts of the diocese. When, in 1877, the health of Archbishop Bailey, of Baltimore, began to decline he asked Pope Pius IX. to give him a coadjutor, at the same time suggesting Bishop Gibbons for the office. His re- quest was granted, and on 20 May, 1877, Dr. Gib- bons was appointed coadjutor with the right of succession to the see of Baltimore. On 3 Oct. of the same year, on the death of Archbishop Bailey, he succeeded to the vacant see, and thus at the early age of forty-three attained to the highest ecclesi- astical dignity of his church in the United States, for Baltimore, being the oldest, is therefore the pri- mary American see. One of the most important works accomplished by him in his new see was the St. James home for boys, the foundation of which was placed in the hands of Rev. Edmund Didier, pastor of St. Vincent's church, Baltimore. In 1883 Arch- bishop Gibbons was summoned to Rome, with other American archbishops, to confer upon the affairs of the church in the United States. During this visit he was the recipient of several marked favors