Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 1

(Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 19, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

My Father and Mother

Andrew Smith Gibbons as a young man

DBG:    This is Wednesday, September 19, 2001.  This is Daniel Bay Gibbons1 speaking.  I’m sitting here with my father, Francis Marion Gibbons,2 in his apartment at 1204 Canyon Road Towers, 123 East Second South in Salt Lake City.  This will be the first of many interviews I will conduct with Dad about his life.  Dad, I think we’ll start by talking about your parents.  Let’s focus on your father, Andrew Smith Gibbons.3  Why don’t you start, Dad, by giving me an overall appraisal of your father.

Overall Appraisal of My Father

FMG: I suppose that you would like this appraisal from the perspective of my growing up in his home. When I was born on April 10, 1921, my father was the Judge of the Superior Court of Apache County, Arizona.  He had been serving in that capacity for approximately three to four years when I was born.  At the time of my birth my father was forty-one years old.  That does not seem like too old of an age to me now, about half the age of what I am, but at the time of my birth and for the few years thereafter, it seemed to me that he was a very old man.  He was a man of intellect, a man of character.  He was very serious in his demeanor. He was not jovial, although he was pleasant and was kindly, but he was not one to engage in any kind of joviality. Any aspect of that quality in my family derives from my mother’s side.  

My Father’s Childhood

I think that part of my father’s serious nature derived from his childhood. He was born in 1880 into a polygamous family.  His father, A.V. Gibbons,4 had married my grandmother Elizabeth Harris,5 and later had married Elizabeth Harris’ sister, Ella Harris.6  This period of my father’s birth and the more than ten years thereafter was a period of great turmoil among the Latter-Day Saint community, and especially among those who had entered into polygamous marriages.  It was the era of the Underground.  

The two families of A.V. Gibbons. A.V. married sisters, Nancy Elizabeth and Sarah Ella Harris.
Andrew Smith Gibbons is standing behind his mother, beside his full sister, Nancy Naomi ("Noni").
In front are "Aunt Ella's" two children, Marion and Orpha, Andrew's half siblings.

Evading the Federal Officials

My father has told his family of instances during that trying period while he was growing up as a boy of being concerned about the presence of Federal officials who were seeking to arrest and prosecute polygamists. He could remember instances where signals were given by the position on which clothing was hung on the clothesline to indicate whether it was safe to come home or not.  One can imagine the impact that that kind of a childhood would have had on a growing boy.  So I have always attributed my father’s rather austere demeanor to those early childhood experiences.  

My Father’s Education

I think, too, that his demeanor was conditioned in large part by his educational background.  He had attended a prep school on the peninsula south of San Francisco, preparing to enter Stanford University.  He had later, of course, attended the University of Utah and then Brigham Young University from which he graduated in 1911.  Parenthetically, the only personal item that I have in my possession that belonged to him is the graduation certificate from Brigham Young University signed by President Joseph F. Smith, the President of the Church, who of course was the President of the Church Board of Education.  And that hangs on the wall here in my study.7  

My Father’s Teaching Career

St. Johns Stake Academy

Then to my father, in addition to this scholastic training, had become a teacher, and a very effective teacher I am told by those who had studied under him.  He was a teacher at West High School from about 1912 to 1914 or thereabouts, and then he was on the faculty at the Brigham Young University where he occupied the chair of mathematics.  There is a good reference to his service at the BYU in the history of Brigham Young University prepared by Ernest Wilkinson confirming the fact that he did hold the chair of mathematics at Brigham Young University.  

My Father Studies Law and Passes the Arizona Bar

And then, too, later he studied law on his own and was an exceptional student, and though he had done all of his study by reading and by correspondence courses, the tradition in the family is that when my father took the bar examination in Phoenix, he told my mother that he didn’t have any idea that he would pass, but he wanted to take the examination to see how he did.  And the tradition is that he passed that bar exam with the highest school of anyone who had taken it.  

My Father’s Personality and Character

So, all of these things combined formed the personality and character of my father.  He was well educated, he was brilliant, he was articulate, he had confidence in his abilities.  I really think he felt that anyone he associated with he could meet with them on an equal plane in terms of experience and education and intelligence.  There was no arrogance in him, yet there was a quiet self confidence that he was a man of ability and he knew it.  So putting all of those things together, by the time I was born, his character and personality were pretty well established.  I was born into a home headed by a man of that character.

Overall Appraisal of My Mother

Adeline Christensen as a young woman

My mother8 was a woman of high intelligence, but had had no scholastic training beyond the High School in St. Johns.  She was a woman of self confidence – extreme self confidence.  She was a woman of talent.  

My Mother’s Musical Talents

She performed with a musical group in St. Johns with their guitars, and I think other string instruments.9  It was a group that got together regularly to perform.  They did it for their own enjoyment, and also they performed among groups there in St. Johns.

DBG:    Did she sing with the group or play an instrument?

FMG:    Yes, they sang and accompanied themselves singing with these guitars, and so forth.  

My Mother Sings in the Tabernacle Choir

She had a fine voice and she used to solo. Then when she and my father lived here in Salt Lake a block and a half from Temple Square, she was admitted to the Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir and performed with the choir for perhaps two years.  She was always very proud of that and could always remember her seat number.  She used to tell us about the fines that were imposed upon any member of the choir for being late or absent without excuse. I think they charged them twenty five cents, which at that time was quite a substantial amount.  So my mother was a woman of intelligence, a woman of talent, a woman of self confidence.  

My Parents Plans to Move to Chicago for Law School

She and my father had planned after their stay in Provo at BYU, that my father would attend the Law School at the University of Chicago.  As I understand it, all the arrangements had been made for him to do that.  In the summer before they were scheduled to go to Chicago, my mother went to St. Johns, where she stayed with my parents, and my father wound up his affairs there in Provo, preparatory to going to Chicago. While they were separated, my mother sold magazine subscriptions in St. Johns to get money to help them financially when they went to Chicago.  

My Father Offered a Teaching Contract in St. Johns

During that absence, during that separation, there was a man, I think his name was Sainsbury,10 who sought out my father in Provo, and offered him a teaching contract to teach in St. Johns.11  He used as an argument that my father and mother would be there in the midst of both their families, with young children who would be a joy to grandchildren on both sides, and my father could make a living wage teaching school in St. Johns, and he could still pursue his ambition in the law by studying on his own and becoming a member of the Arizona Bar.  At that time the graduation from an accredited law school was not a condition to taking the bar examination or becoming a lawyer.

DBG:    Dad, among Grandpa’s contemporaries in the law in Arizona, do you have a feel for how many were law school trained as opposed to law office trained?

FMG:    I don’t know of a one in Apache County who was trained in a law school.  I don’t know of a single one.  There could have been, but I don’t know of one.  So it was not an unusual thing for someone aspiring to the law to study on his own or by correspondence and to become qualified.  

My Father Decides to Return to St. Johns

So, this all seemed very attractive to my father.  I think that another element that entered in here that was important was that my grandfather, A.V., had given my father some financial assistance during part of his studies at the University of Utah and BYU.  I think my father was very sensitive to that.  My grandfather [AV] was not a wealthy man, although he had been a successful rancher and farmer and had some means, but it had been a drain on him financially to assist my father, who had a young growing family.  They had three growing children by the time this issue of Chicago came up.  So I think my father felt a heavy responsibility to be there near his parents, to have an assured income and to begin to be able to pay back some of the money his father had given him to assist with his education.  So because of all of these factors, my father made the decision on his own to accept this offer to teach school in St. Johns.  When he returned to St. Johns and joined with my mother she was mad.  I shouldn’t say mad, she was upset because she had her heart set upon going back to “ChicAAAAgo.”  (Laughter)

DBG:    Dad, did you say that you understood Grandpa studied with a correspondence course?

My Father’s Law Studies in St. Johns

FMG:    Yes.  LaSalle.  He studied with the LaSalle Extension University, and in addition to that, of course, he had Blackstone.12  I think he had a full set of Blackstone.  He studied with this correspondence course.  If you will check my little biographical sketch of him, you will find a letter attached to it from either Ike Barth13 or Maurice Barth,14 who had mentioned that he and my father had done some study together with LaSalle, and that Barth was very impressed with my father’s mental abilities to pick out an issue immediately that didn’t require any great elaboration as to what the issue was.  So Barth was very impressed with my father’s mental capacity.  

DBG:    Dad. I can determine that there were at most one or two attorneys in Apache County in the 1915 to 1917 era, other than Judge Crosby.15  Do you know if he was close to any of those men, Isaac Barth, Fred Nelson16 or Judge Crosby, in that time?

My Father’s Early Acquaintance with Other Lawyers

FMG:    I don’t know the extent to which he was acquainted with them.  I do know that he had a lot of dealings with both of the Barth sons, both Ike and Maurice.  I can remember after we moved to Phoenix in the 1930's, I guess it was Ike Barth who was in trouble with the bar association, and he later was disbarred.  He sought out my father to help him.  On one occasion my father took me to Barth’s apartment there in Phoenix.  I can remember the apartment, and Barth being there.  He probably knew Crosby, knew Nelson. The extent to which knew them well or associated with them, I don’t know.  

Notes

1 Daniel Bay Gibbons (“DBG”): The son of FMG, he conducted these interviews.  Born 10 July 1957 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, the youngest child of Francis Marion Gibbons and Helen Bay.

2 Francis Marion Gibbons (“FMG”): The subject of these interviews.  Born 10 April 1921 in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona to Andrew Smith Gibbons and Adeline Christensen. Died July 16, 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

3 Judge Andrew Smith Gibbons (“ASG” or the “Judge”): The father of FMG.  (Not to be confused with his namesake grandfather, the Pioneer Andrew Smith Gibbons).  Born 16 December 1880 in Glendale, Utah Territory, to Andrew Vinson Gibbons and Nancy Elizabeth Harris.  He served as Superior Court Judge of Apache County from 1918 to 1930.  Died 18 December 1940 in Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona. 

4 Andrew Vinson Gibbons (“AV” or “Grandpa Gibbons”): Father of ASG and grandfather of FMG.  Born 3 April 1849 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the oldest child of the Pioneer Andrew Smith Gibbons and Rizpah Knight.  The Pioneer and Rizpah gave names of great personal significance to each of their children.  In AV’s case, he was named for his father and for his grandfather Vinson Knight, who had been a counselor in the Bishopric of the Kirtland Ward, the Bishop of the Church at Adam-Ondi-Ahman, a special land agent for the Church, Bishop of the Lower Ward in Nauvoo, and pursuant to D&C Section 124 and the memory of President John Taylor, the Presiding Bishop of the Church.  Vinson died as a young man in his 30's in Nauvoo in 1842.  AV was a pioneer, an Indian missionary with his father, a settler of many Mormon communities in Utah, Arizona and the Mormon colonies in Mexico.  He was a rancher and farmer.  He served on the St. Johns High Council and as a member of the 5th Territorial Arizona Legislature.  He died 12 January 1932 in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona.

5 Nancy Elizabeth Harris (“Grandma Gibbons”): The mother of the Judge and the grandmother of FMG.  Born 6 August 1858. Married Andrew Vinson Gibbons 6 December 1875.  Died 17 August 1950.

6 Sarah Ella Harris (“Aunt Ella”): AV’s plural wife and the sister of Grandma Gibbons. Born 3 April 1849.  Married Andrew Vinson Gibbons 20 December 1878.  Though her first name was “Sarah,” she was always called “Ella.”

7 Upon FMG’s death, he directed that this graduation certificate be given to FMG’s granddaughter, Dr. Elizabeth Gibbons Bailey, who is a professor at Brigham Young University. It now hangs on the wall of her office on campus.

8 Adeline Christensen (“ACG” or  “Nana”): The mother of FMG and wife of the Judge.  Born 1 July 1884 in St. Johns, Arizona Territory, to Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas.  Married Andrew Smith Gibbons 28 December 1904 in St. Johns.  Died 26 October 1975 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

9 This is probably “the Guitar and Mandolin Club” which is mentioned in the history of Nana’s future sister-in-law, Nancy Naomi Gibbons (“Aunt Noni”, the older sister of ASG).  Aunt Noni was one of the “founders” and “charter members” of the Club.  A Turning of Hearts, page 380.

10 Robert H. Sainsbury: Principal of the St. Johns Stake Academy from 1909–1911.  He held a B.S. degree. Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church , p. 731.   See, also , Wilhelm, A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 59.

11 Robert Sainsbury was the principal of the Academy only through 1911.  His successor was Moroni O. Poulson, who served from 1911 through 1917.  Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church , p.731. Poulson held a B.A. degree, like the Judge. It seems likely that Sainsbury was a contact of ASG at the time his call to serve an “education mission” was issued by President D.K. Udall, but that Poulson was the one who induced him to return to St. Johns at the end of the Utah sojourn.

12 William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England (published in England between 1765 and 1769) is the most influential book in the history of American Law.  It not only became the single most used source of law for practicing lawyers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it served as the basic text for the study of law itself.  Prior to the end of the 19th century there were very few law schools in the United States, and so lawyers from Abraham Lincoln’s day down to the early years of the 20th century – especially those in rural areas – used Blackstone as a tool for a private legal education.  

13 Isaac Barth: A friend and colleague of ASG.  The oldest son of St. Johns merchant Solomon Barth, Ike Barth was one of the most colorful characters in St. Johns after the turn of the century.  A born entertainer, he attracted a crowd wherever he went.  On one occasion, when asked the place of his birth, Ike said that he didn’t know.  “Two states are quarreling over my birthright,” he said.  “New Mexico claims that I was born in Arizona, while Arizona insists that I was born in new Mexico.”   See, A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 147. A newspaper editor, and perhaps the earliest practicing attorney in St. Johns, he was a member of the both the New Mexico and Arizona bars.  He served as Apache County Attorney in 1907.   A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 255.  He was disbarred by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1935 for conduct arising out of a case he was handling in Apache County Superior Court, the court where the Judge presided.   See, In Re Barth , 46 Ariz. 281,  50 P.2d 564 (1935).

14 Maurice Barth: A friend and colleague of ASG.  A younger son of Solomon Barth, he was a St. Johns attorney and cattleman.  He studied law with ASG.  He served as Apache County Attorney in 1925.   A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 255.  

15 Judge George H. Crosby, Jr.: A friend and legal colleague of ASG.  He was the immediate predecessor of Judge A.S. Gibbons as Superior Court Judge on the Apache County bench.   See 13 August 1918 appointment letter written by Arizona Governor George W.P. Hunt in Gibbons, Nana and the Judge , page 111. Oldest son of George H. Crosby, Sr., the first Bishop of the Eagar Ward.   A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 195.  He served as Apache County Attorney in 1905, then as Superior Court Judge from 1915 to 1919.   A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , pages 255 - 256.

16 Fred W. Nelson: Friend and legal colleague of ASG.  He was a prominent St. Johns attorney who served as County Attorney from 1909 to 1915 and again from 1918 to 1919.   A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 255.  He was also President of the St. Johns State Bank.   A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , pages 145 - 146.