San Francisco County
Biographies
MAURICE E.
GIBSON
In the first rank of attorneys in San Francisco, California, is Maurice E. Gibson, whose offices in this city are situated at 1 Montgomery street, and who is specializing in corporation practice. He was born in Stanford, Kentucky, November 26, 1892, and is a son of John Bell and Mattie (Curd) Gibson.
Mr. Gibson is descended from authentic colonial ancestry. The Gibson family is of Scotch and English descent. The first of the name in America came from Scotland and settled in Virginia. They were prominent plantation owners, and at least two of the family served in the house of burgesses in Virginia. John Bell Gibson, who was a native of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, his birth having occurred in 1860, was a minister of the Christian Church in Kentucky. He was pastor of the Christian Church in Stanford, when he passed away in 1895, at a comparatively early age. His wife is also a native of the Blue Grass state, her birth having occurred in Williamsburg in 1867. She is of English descent, and her ancestors were also settlers in Virginia in colonial times.
Maurice E. Gibson finished his grammar school education in Los Angeles, California, in 1908 and graduated from high school in that city in 1913. He had become a resident of Los Angeles in 1900, having previously lived in Williamsburg, Kentucky, since he was two years of age. After receiving his high school diploma, he took up his more advanced studies at the University of California in Berkeley, and in 1920 this institution conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Law was his chosen life’s vocation, and he began his preparation for the same at Harvard College and in 1923 received his degree of Bachelor of Laws therefrom. In the same year, he began the practice of law in San Francisco, and has continued therein with marked success until this date. As noted, he is specializing in corporation litigation, which branch of the law he has made the subject of special study.
On November 23, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts, Mr. Gibson took as his wife Miss Phebe Wood, who was born in Port Washington, Long Island, New York, August 4, 1898, and is a daughter of Clifford and Charlotte Belcher (Fairbanks) Wood. Mrs. Gibson is descended from English stock, and from true colonial ancestry. Her paternal grandfather was Brigadier-General Henry Clay Wood of the United States Army. Her maternal great-grandfather was Hiram Belcher, a U. S. Representative from Maine, and her maternal grandfather was Joseph W. Fairbanks, a lawyer, a state senator in Maine, a civic leader, and one who did much for the town of Farmington, Maine. Clifford Wood, father of Mrs. Gibson, was born in Winthrop, Maine, in 1864, and is now a resident of Boston. Mrs. Charlotte Belcher Fairbanks Wood, his wife, was born in Farmington, June 5, 1860, and died May 5, 1914. Mrs. Gibson holds membership in the Women’s Athletic Club, the Oakland Forum, the Charity League of Piedmont, the Mayflower Descendants, and the Fairbanks Society of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Mr. and Mrs. Gibson have made their residence in Piedmont, California, since 1923. To their marriage have been born three children, namely: Maurice E., Jr., whose natal day was October 28, 1924; Shirley, born July 1, 1926; and John Bell, born December 21, 1928.
During the period of the United States’ participation in the World war, Mr. Gibson gave patriotically of his services to his county. From April until August, 1917, he assisted in organizing the aviation ground school at the University of California. He then entered the second officers training camp at the Presidio, and in November, 1917, was commissioned second lieutenant and assigned to the Eighth Infantry, Eighth Division of the regular army, at Camp Fremont at Menlo Park, California. He was commissioned first lieutenant in 1918, and in the same year was appointed aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General W. C. Short of the United States Army. He was assigned to the Sixteenth Division at Camp Kearny in San Diego in 1918, and then served with the Twenty-seventh Infantry as a part of the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia from February, 1919 until July, 1919. He resigned from the military service in the last named month and year.
In politics, Mr. Gibson accords his support to the republican party, although he has not been a candidate for public office. He belongs to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, the Berkeley Tennis Club, the Phi Kappa Sigma collegiate fraternity, which latter he joined in August, 1916.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 454-456.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S SAN
FRANCISCO BIOGRAPIES