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CHAPTER XXIX.

SOME FORMER RESIDENTS OF SHELBY COUNTY AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS. (CONT'D)

CAPT. GEORGE SABIN GIBBS.


Many citizens of Harlan will recall how many a time they saw a bright active boy marching a crowd of his fellows up and down the streets of Harlan, putting them through various military evolutions. It is no wonder that this boy subsequently achieved much distinction as a soldier. Captain Gibbs was born December 14, 1875, at Harlan and is a son of Mr. and Mrs. George S. Gibbs, who were both very early residents of Harlan. Mr. Gibbs being one of the best known pioneer merchants, also serving at one time as a member of the board of supervisors of Shelby county. Graduating from Harlan high school in the class of 1892, Captain Gibbs entered the State University of Iowa, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1897. This university gave him the degree of Master of Science in 1901. He became an associate of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and is a graduate of the Army Signal School of 1912. His first real military experience was in the cadet battalion at the State University of Iowa, where he was a private, corporal, first sergeant and first lieutenant.

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Captain Gibbs left Shelby county, May 3, 1898, for Camp McKinley, Des Moines, Iowa, in command of a draft of recruits from Shelby county to join the Iowa volunteers. He, himself, enlisted as a private in Company C, Fifty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry, being mustered May 30, 1898. He was promoted quartermaster sergeant on same date, and on June 3, 1898, as a first-class sergeant and ordered to San Francisco, California. On June 26, 1898, he sailed for the Philippines as first sergeant United States Volunteer Signal Corps on the steamship "Indiana" as a member of General MacArthur's expedition, landing at Cavite, Philippine islands, July 31. He participated in the campaign against the Spanish forces at the battle of Manila, and was commended for "especially gallant and meritorious conduct in action." January 13, 1899, he was promoted second lieutenant of volunteers and on June 8, 1900, as first lieutenant. He participated in twenty-nine battles and skirmishes of the Philippine insurrection, while engaged in building and operating military telegraph and cable lines. He had the honor of serving on the staffs of Brig.-Gen. Charles King, Major-Gen. Arthur MacArthur and Major-Gen. Henry W. Lawton.

After two years and seven months of Philippine service, Captain Gibbs was returned to San Francisco, but at the end of three months he was selected to build the government telegraph line through north central Alaska, where he had many thrilling adventures and suffered many severe hardships, during which time he constructed some five hundred miles of line and traveled on foot with a dog team and sled over three thousand miles, the work occupying two years and two months' time. On February, 1901, he was appointed first lieutenant of the Signal Corps in the Regular Army, and was promoted to the grade of captain March 2, 1903. He was then ordered to Washington, D. C., and was on duty in the office of the chief signal officer of the army for nearly three years.

When the disturbance arose in Cuba in 1906, Captain Gibbs was there in command of the signal troops of that army, and for two years, until April 1, 1909, was the chief signal officer of the Army of Cuban Pacification. As such he was adviser to the department of telegraphs of the provisional Cuban government and superintended the installation of a chain of high-power wireless telegraph stations. He then went to Fort Omaha as post and constructing epiartermaster, commissary, etc., for one year, followed by two years at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. When the Mexican situation became threatening in the spring of 1911, he was sent to San Antonio, Texas, to command the field company of signal troops with General Carter's division. Returning from Texas in the fall of 1911, he completed the course at the Army Signal School in the class of 1912. In September of the same year he was transferred to the command of the field company of signal troops at the Presidio of San Francisco. In May, 1913, that command was hurriedly transferred to the Hawaiian islands for permanent station, and upon arrival at Honolulu Captain Gibbs, in addition to his duties as commander of the field signal troops, was detailed as department signal officer of the Hawaiian department, and officer in charge of the fire control installation at the coast defense fortifications.

For his skill in laying and concealing wires by means of which communication might be made between points of the field. Captain Gibbs was especially complimented by General Funston. It is safe to say that no one in the magnificent fortifications which the United States has established on the Hawaiian islands is better acquainted with them and their practical operation than Captain Gibbs who once marched his boys' company on the streets of Harlan.


Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, October, 2023 from the Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, by Edward S. White, P.A., LL. B.,Volume 1, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Co., 1915, pg. 551-553.


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