Person:Andrew Gibbons (5)

BIOGRAPHY: Additional Biographies Original Pioneers of Utah Gleason, John Streater

Gibbons, Andrew S., one of the original pioneers of Utah, was born March 12, 1825, in Union township, Licking Co., Ohio. When he was an infant his father gave him to a family by the name of Smith, a relative of the Prophet Joseph Smith. By them he was trained in the principles of the gospel and married Rispah Knight, a daughter of Bishop Vinson Knight in Nauvoo, Ill. After seeing the establishment of a new home for the saints in the Rocky Mountains, he returned to Winter Quarters with Pres. Brigham Young, and in 1852 came again to Utah with his family and located in Davis County. In 1854 he was called to strengthen the settlements in Iron County and served as a missionary to the Indians. In the spring of 1861 he located at St. George, where he was elected sheriff of Washington County. In 1865 hewas called to locate on the Muddy River (now in Nevada) to mediate between the white men and the Indians. In 1880 he moved to St. Johns, Arizona, where he died Feb. 9, 1886, as a member of the High Council of the Eastern Arizona Stake of Zion. (Bio. Ency., Vol. 2, p. 194.)

Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia Volume 2 Biographies Echols, Samuel

Gibbons, Andrew Smith, one of the Pioneers of Utah, was born March 12, 1825, in Ohio. When an infant his father gave him away to a family by the name of Smith, a relative of` the Prophet Joseph Smith. This circumstance, no doubt, caused him to become a member of the Church and to become well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph. In 1845 he married Rizpah Knight, a daughter of Bishop Vinson Knight, and left Nauvoo in 1846, at the time of the expulsion of the Saints; the following year he came to the Great Salt Lake Valley as one of the original pioneers under the leadership of Pres. Brigham Young. He returned east the same year to his family in Iowa and arrived in the Valley a second time in 1852. He located in Bountiful, Davis county, and later moved to Lehi, Utah county, whence he, in 1854, was called to Iron county to strengthen the settlements which were being made there at that time. Here he became identified with the Indian mission, then in charge of Jacob Hamblin. In 1858, in company with ten other men, he visited the Pueblo Indian villages, east of the Colorado river; in making this journey they traveled through a country then unknown to white men, and crossed the Colorado river at the old Ute Crossing. In the spring of 1861 Bro. Gibbons moved to St. George, where he was elected sheriff of Washington county. In 1865 he was called to the Muddy (now in Nevada) by Apostle Erastus Snow, to locate and mediate between the white and the red men. In 1868 he represented Piute county, Arizona, in the Arizona legislature, which met at Tucson. This necessitated a very long and dangerous journey through a country infested with hostile Indians. At the breaking up of the settlements on the Muddy, Brother Gibbons moved to Glendale, Kane county, Utah, from which point he made several trips of exploration with Jacob Hamblin and James S. Brown into Arizona and New Mexico, looking to the colonization of Saints in those territories. In 1880 he moved to St. Johns, Arizona, where he passed through the trying scenes connected with the settlement of that place. At the time of his death, which occurred at St. Johns, Feb. 9, 1886, he was a member of the High Council of the Eastern Arizona Stake of Zion. He died, as he lived, a faithful Latter-day Saint.

MEDIA: D0194 - Andrew Smith Gibbons from the Belnap Family Organization Photo Section D0195 - Andrew Smith Gibbons from the Belnap Family Organization Photo Section