Eustace Gibson (1842-1900) - Find a Grave Memorial

US Congressman. Elected as a Democrat to represent West Virginia's 4th District in the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses, he served from 1883 to 1887. At age 14 Gibson went to Kansas with a group of pro-slavery agitators and participated in the "Bleeding Kansas" unrest before returning to his native Culpeper County in 1857. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1861, but had scarcely begun practice when the Civil War erupted. In June 1861 he volunteered for Confederate service as a Private and was elected First Lieutenant of Company K, 49th Virginia Infantry Regiment. On August 5, 1863, during an engagement with Federal gunboats along the James River, Gibson was wounded so severely he was not expected to live; he gradually recovered and was placed on the retired list with the rank of Captain. After the war he took part in the 1867 and 1868 Virginia Constitutional Conventions, moved to Huntington, West Virginia in 1871, and was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1877 and 1878 (the first term as Speaker). During his second term in the US House Gibson was Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice. He failed to gain his party's Congressional nominations in 1886 and 1888, and spent the rest of his life as a practicing attorney in Huntington.

Bio by: Bobb Edwards