Francis Sarason Gibbs (Brother)

Francis Sarason Gibbs, of Shanghai, China; Agent for Wolcott, Bates & Co.


FRANCIS SARASON GIBBS was born at Sunswick and was a handsome and attractive man of a lovable character. At the age of 20, he was sent to China, accredited to the house of Wolcott, Bates & Company, Canton, and was appointed their resident agent in Shanghai.

He sailed from New York in March 1851 and arrived in San Francisco (via Panama) on May 5th, thence he went to Portland, Oregon, to meet his brother, George, and finally left for the Orient on October 3rd, arriving at Canton, China, in December, where he spent two years. His position was obtained through his relative, Henry D. Wolcott, a member of the firm, which conducted an extensive shipping business to Shanghai, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Penang, Batavia, and Manila.

His later years were spent in New York City and at Nyack, N. Y., from 1871. He was engaged for the greater part of his life in the grain exporting business. Failure of the English firm, with whom he and his partner, Mr. Ledoux, of New Orleans, had large shipments on consignment, caused in tum their failure, and thus left him in straitened circumstances during the last years of his life.

On June 6, 1860, he married Eliza Gay Hosmer, (born October 27, 1836; died November 24, 1885), daughter of Oliver Ellsworth Hosmer and Nancy Post Hawes, of New York. His wife, Eliza, was obliged to travel much for her health for many years. Her children were with her in California for two years, where they received their early education there in Santa Barbara. She was a woman of fine, strong character. She had four children:

George Gibbs (V.) born April 19, 1861, was unmarried and living.

Annie M. Gibbs, born December 16, 1862, died unmarried and died March 5, 1922, in Florence, Italy, where she is buried in the English and American cemetery.

Laura Wolcott Gibbs, born in New York City, on October 8, 1865; married William. H. Miller (born October 15, 1862) of Milwaukee, Wis.,  on September 6, 1891. William died on September 2 3, 1923. Laura has three children:

  1. Marjorie, born July 4, 1892, married W. F. Peterson, on December 1, 1917, living in Baltimore, Md.
  2. Anne McLean, born January 2, 1894; married twice. On October 7, 1915, she married George Holden and later married October 8, 1926, Joseph McGrath. 
  3. Constance, born August 2, 1896, married October 15, 1919, to Robert N. Williams. Both Anne and Constance lived in Milwaukee.

Lucius Tuckerman Gibbs, born February 14, 1869, married Angelica Singleton Duer, on April 7, 1901. He died in Baltimore, Md., in January 1909, where he held the position of Chief Electrical Engineer of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company. He had two children,

  1. Wolcott, born March 15, 1902, married Elizabeth Crawford in 1929, who died in 1930; married Elinor Mead Sherwin, in November 1933.
  2. Angelica, born June 7, 1908, married Robert Canfield on June 7, 1932.