220 MEMORIAL OF GEORGE GIBBS. 



Colonel Gibbs brought the resources of his well-stored mind. Within 

 was Ills fine library, abounding in the works of the best authors, and 

 ill many tongues; added to this, a mineralogical collection. It may be 

 here mentioned that the extensive and valuable collection now in the 

 possession of Yale College was made by Colonel Gibbs himself while 

 abroad. These incidents in the life of the father are alluded to here as 

 having a direct bearing upon the career of the son. 



The mother of George Gibbs was Laura Wolcott, daughter of 

 Oliver Wolcott, the Secretary of the Treasury under Washington 

 and the elder Adams, one of tlie fathers of the couutry. It is not 

 needful in this city, where her true, brave character, her well-stored 

 and independent mind are stiirfresh in remembrance, to dwell upon the 

 influence of such training upon her rising family. The original purpose 

 of Colonel Gibbs was to give his son a West Point education and to fit 

 him for an army career; this "and the navy were at that time considered 

 as the onl}' true occupations for the sons of gentlemen. As a prelimin- 

 ary step he was sent to the Eound Hill School, at Northampton, Mass., 

 then kept by Mr. George Bancroft, the historian, and Mr. Cogswell, the 

 late learned and distinguished superintendent of the Astor Library. 

 At seventeen, it having been found impossible to secure for the youth an 

 appointment to the Military Academy — political favor then, as now, 

 being mdisi^ensable to success — he was taken to Europe by his maiden 

 aunt. Miss Sarah Gibbs, and for two years enjoyed the advantage of 

 foreign travel, observation, and study, the influence of which upon Ms 

 education and character w^as never lost. Though the family were disap- 

 pointed in tlieir wish to enter the eldest son as a military student, their 

 efforts were not relaxed ; as the one grew beyond the age at which alone 

 the candidate is eligible, the claim for an appointment was transferred 

 to tlie next son, and as persistently urged. Those who know the family 

 on both sides of the honse know of the unwavering determination with 

 which they press to the point in view. The second son, in turn, was 

 compelled to give up his ambition, and entered Columbia College, to 

 take high rank as a scholar, and is now well known as tlie professor of 

 chemistry at Harvard College. Later, a third son, the late Maj. Gen. 

 Aided Gibbs, received the long-sought commission, and history has 

 already inscribed his gallant deeds on her imperishable scroll. 



On his return from Europe, George Gibbs commenced the reading of 

 law, and in 1838 took his degree of bachelor of law at Harvard Univer- 

 sity. His first essay in literature w^as here made. In 1834, the very 

 year of his entrance, he published, at Cambridge, a work entitled "The 

 Judicial Chronicle, being a list of the judges of the courts of common 

 law and chancery in England and America, and of the contemporary 

 reports irom the earliest period of the reports to the present time,'' in 

 octavo. On his return to New York he entered the law-office of the 

 late Prescott Hall, and by degrees attached himself to his profession 

 and engaged in such practice as he could obtain. With this agreeable 



