Archie D. Gibbs, 1875 - 1948

Archie D. Gibbs, of Norwich

Utica Saturday Globe, November 1899

 

Archie D. Gibbs

1895-1948

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  A late addition to the bar of Chenango county is Archie D. Gibbs, who successfully passed the bar examination at Syracuse on October 17 last and was sworn in before the Appellate Division, Third Department, in Albany, November 14.  No young man in Norwich has entered upon his chosen calling with brighter prospects or with a larger share of well wishes for his success.

 

Mr. Gibbs was born October 16, 1875, on his father's farm in North Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], and first attended school in district No. 16, in the "little red schoolhouse," which is the counterpart of so many such school houses in Chenango county.  In 1890 he entered the ninth grade of the High School and in 1895 he graduated in the Latin, English and German course. He acquired a reputation as a humorous speaker and took third prize in competition in '94 with a humorous selection. At the class day exercises in '95 he was class humorist.  In the fall of 1895 he entered Cornell University in the scientific course, and after completing one year's work in that course entered the College of Law, graduating in 1898 with the degree of L.L.B.  In the summer of 1898 he entered the law office of Howard D. Newton and remained there until January, 1899, when he went to Albany as one of the general Assembly stenographers assigned to Hon. Jotham P. Allds.  Since the close of the last Legislature he has been clerk and private secretary to Mr. Allds, in whose office he has taken up quarters to practice his profession for the present.  Last February he was elected justice of the peace to succeed William  H. Sullivan, and will assume the duties of the office January 1, 1900.

 

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Obituary

Chenango Union, February 19, 1948

 

Archie Dana Gibbs, lawyer and Chenango county election commissioner since 1911 died early Monday in Chenango Memorial Hospital where he had been a patient since December 26.

 

Attorney Gibbs was born at North Guilford October 16, 1875, the son of Joseph B. Gibbs and Mae E. Westcott.  His birthplace was the farm cleared and settled by his grandfather, John Gibbs, in the early 1820s.

 

Mr. Gibbs' early education was in district school number 16 of the town of Guilford, attending there until the fall of 1890 when he entered the ninth grade of Norwich high school, presided over by the late Mina Blackman.  He was graduated in 1895 and entered Cornell university on a competitive scholarship in the fall of that year.  After a year in general study he entered the law college of Cornell and was graduated with the degree of L.L.B. inn June 1898.

 

In the winter of 1899, Mr. Gibbs accepted a position as stenographer of the state assembly ways and means committee presided over by Hon. Jotham P. Allds.  He continued with the late Mr. Allds, after his election as state senator, through the winter of 1904.  In May, 1904, Mr. Gibbs took the position of stenographer of the Chenango county surrogate's court under the late Judge Albert F. Gladding and held this position until January, 1908.  In February of 1908 he was appointed special county judge by Governor Charles E. Hughes but failed of election in the fall of 1909.  During the legislative session of 1909 Mr. Gibbs again went to Albany as clerk of the senate finance committee and in 1910 served as clerk for Mr. Allds, temporary president of the senate.  In the spring of 1909 Mr. Gibbs and Harry Ingram of Potsdam, were chosen by Andrew S. Draper, state commissioner of education, to prepare an analytical subject and section index of the consolidated laws of the state of New York. The consolidation at that time consisted of 4,547 pates of printed matter and the completed index made up a volume of 875 pages. This index was described as the most complete and comprehensive ever prepared.  However owing to the constant changes made in the state laws, the volume has now become obsolete.  It was in August 1919 that Mr. Gibbs was appointed the Republican member of the Chenango county board of elections and he held that position until this year when his retirement became effective after two time extensions had been granted by the state board of pensions.  Mr. Gibbs was noted as an authority on election laws and his administrative work with the board of elections brought him frequent praise from the New York state board of elections.

 

Mr. Gibbs was a member of Emmanuel Episcopal church and an active participant in the affairs of the parish.  He was a member and past master (1927) of Norwich lodge 302, F. and A.M. and in 1938 prepared a history of the three Masonic lodges which have existed in Norwich since 1804.  This volume of 114 pages contains not only a comprehensive history of the three lodges, but includes also much local history as a background, much of it obtained from original records and never before placed in print.  On June 26, 1901, Mr. Gibbs was married to Anna F. Eccleston, daughter of Charles G. and Minnie C. Eccleston of Oxford.

 

As an attorney-at-law, Mr. Gibbs specialized in titles of real estate and for about 10 years following 1923 was attorney for the Federal Land Bank of Springfield, Mass.  In 1933, he became attorney for the Chenango Cooperative Savings and Loan Association.  In both of these connections he searched hundreds of titles and was considered an authority and expert on the validity of land titles.

 

Besides his wife he is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth, now Mrs. Clark Metzger of this city; also a granddaughter, Miss Sallie Metzger.  Services were held at the Breese funeral home Wednesday morning at 10:30, Rev. Lloyd S. Charters, rector of Emmanuel Episcopal church officiating.  His body was placed in the Mt. Hope chapel vault [Norwich, NY] awaiting burial in the family plot in the spring.