William Hoover Gibbons (1851-1925)


 * Stake Presidency for St. Johns Arizona Stake (1887-1900)
 * Arizona Pioneer

Gibbons, William Hoover, second counselor to David King Udall (1851-1938) (president of the St. Johns Arizona Stake of Zion) from 1887 to 1900, is the second son and third child of Andrew S. Gibbons (one of the original pioneers of Utah) and Rizpah Knight, and was born Jan. 23, 1851, near Kanesville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa. He emigrated to Utah in 1852, and located at Bountiful. Davis county; he afterwards settled at Lehi, Utah county. In 1854 he was called to Iron county, and in 1858 moved to Santa Clara to labor on the Indian Mission. In 1867 he was called to the Muddy, Nev., to settle and continue labors among the Lamanites. He [p.329] remained there until 1871, at which time the settlements were broken up. Feb. 17, 1871, he married Evaline Augusta Lamb, and moved with his young wife to Glendale, Kane county, in the same month.

In the winter of 1873 he was called with his father and others to make a forced march to the relief of some of the brethren who were laboring among the Navajo and Moqui Indians, their headquarters being in Moancoppy, Ariz. They found the brethren safe and moved them back to Utah. Some Navajos had been killed by non-"Mormons," which had made the Indians hostile. In the summer of 1874 Elder Gibbons was stationed with others at Lee's Ferry, to act as a guard between the Saints and the Indians. He gathered and traded Church horses for Navajo blankets and other articles, while there, these things being used for the benefit of those working on the St. George Temple.

In April, 1875, being released, he returned to his home in Glendale. In October, 1875, in going to conference in Salt Lake City, he was surprised with a call to return to Arizona to labor as an Indian missionary under James S. Brown. Their headquarters were in Moancoppy, at which place Elder Gibbons labored until he spring of 1878, when he was called by Apostle Erastus Snow to do missionary work among the Spanish people in New Mexico. He returned the same fall to labor among the Moqui Indians, helping to build John W. Young's woollen factory at that place.

He was there at the time Pres. Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898) was in exile and had the privilege of being with him some two weeks in the San Francisco mountains, during most of which time he enjoyed Pres. Woodruff's company alone. He still looks back on that time as a bright period in his life. In the fall of 1879 he was released from the Indian Mission by Pres. Woodruff and called to locate at St. Johns, Arizona. When the Ward was organized in 1880, he was chosen counselor to Bishop Udall. In 1881 he was ordained a High Priest by Pres. Jesse Nathaniel Smith (1834-1906). He held the position of counselor to the Bishop, until July, 1877, when the St. Johns Stake was organized, at which time he was chosen second counselor in the Stake presidency, holding that position until December, 1900, when he tendered his resignation. In his frontier life Elder Gibbons has passed through many trying scenes and has repeatedly seen God's power manifested in behalf of His people.