John Gibb (1829-1905)

John Gibb (March 14, 1829 – August 27, 1905) was a cofounder of the dry goods house of Mills & Gibb.

Biography

Gibb was born on March 14, 1829, in Forfarshire, Scotland.[1] He left his father's farm at the age of 14 to apprentice for four years in a draper's shop at Montrose, Angus. Later, he went to London and was in the largest wholesale house in that city. In 1850, he became acquainted with a member of the firm of E. S. Jaffray & Company, who induced him to come to New York, where became a buyer of embroideries and white goods.[2]

In 1865, he formed the firm of Mills & Gibb with Philo L. Mills, with whom he remained partners for over forty years. When the company incorporated in 1903, Gibb became president, while Mills, vice-president, moved to England to take charge of the company's foreign business. Gibb was a director of the Brooklyn Trust Company, a member of the advisory council of the Thrift Savings, Loan & Building Fund, the Brooklyn Club, Long Island Historical Society, Penatquit-Corinthian Yacht, Merchants‘ Central, Hamilton and Olympic Clubs, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History. He was for a term president of the Brooklyn Park Commission and was a trustee for YMCA.[2]

Personal life

In 1852, he married Mrs. Harriet Balston (died in 1878). Seven years later, he married Sarah D. Mackay.[1] He died in 1905 at his country residence, "Afterglow" in Islip, Long Island.[3] Five sons survived him, I. Richmond, Arthur, Walter, Elmer and Louis and four daughters, all married.[2]

References

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Black's "Dry Goods Guide" (1905)

  1. 1 2 The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. IV. James T. White & Company. 1893. p. 158. Retrieved December 3, 2020 – via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 3 Dry Goods Guide (Public domain ed.). Black Publishing Company. 1905. pp. 11–.
  3. ↑ "Death of John Gibb at His Home in Islip". Brooklyn Eagle. Islip, Long Island. August 28, 1905. p. 5. Retrieved December 3, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.