Frank Gibson

Biography:

Mr. Frank Gibson was born in the winter of 1860 near Westminster, Maryland.

He was most likely enslaved, although record of his enslaver has not yet been found. His father was Mr. Peter Gibson. His mother may have been Ms. Ann Marie Dorsey.

In 1870, the first census after general emancipation, Mr. Gibson is living with Mr. Josephus Hoppe. Also living in the Hoppe household are Frank’s older brothers, Charles and Jessie. County court records show that Mr. Hoppe had purchased the right to enslave Ms. Ann Marie Dorsey in 1860. From this fact, we might suppose that Mr. Hoppe enslaved her and that these three boys were her children.  Of course, this conjecture is thin and we do not find Ms. Ann Marie Dorsey in the 1870 Census. Later records show Charles’ mother’s name as Ms. Matilda Pills. We do not find Ms. Pills (Gibson?) in any other contemporary record.

Mr. Frank Gibson and one brother, Charles, continued to live with and work for the Hoppe family through 1880.  Mr. Gibson married Ms. Mary Elizabeth Bruce, who was profiled last week, in about 1897. They lived on Union Street. Mr. Gibson painted houses for a living, while Mrs. Gibson took care of the household. Four children lived with them, along with Mrs. Gibson’s mother.

The couple continued to live on Union Street through the early 1900s. Mr. Frank Gibson died in the summer of 1935. He is buried, along with his wife, in an unmarked grave in Ellsworth Cemetery in Westminster, Maryland.