In the State of Ohio he h and always discharged thei faction of those who had co In 1809, he was elected by one of the Judges of the S next year was reëlected, an Judge of that court. In 1 insufficient for his support, the bench, and resumed th afterward held several offic of high responsibility.* "On the 13th day of bosom of his family, and su spirit peacefully departed, groan, to the God that gave By his brethren of the b esteem. On the second d *Finley's Sketches of Western Me Extract from proceedings of the members of the bar of Ross county met in Chillicothe, and adopted resolutions expressive of their high veneration for his memory. The Scioto Lodge of Masons also passed similar resolutions, in which they state that "he met death with calmness and manly resignation;" that, "after a long life of usefulness, honorable bearing, and beneficent liberality, he confronted death with an unquailing eye, and passed away from earth, to realize that future which God has promised to the pure in heart." But it was his Christian character that shone with brightest luster. As a pioneer preacher in Kentucky, he spent two years in the itinerant service of the Church, faithfully prosecuting the great work of the ministry; and then retiring to the local ranks, he still devoted every energy within his power to the welfare and prosperity of the Church he loved so well. To locate-hazardous as is always the stepdid not release his conscience of the obligation to preach the gospel, nor did it weaken his desire for the salvation of the people. As long as he remained in Kentucky, he faithfully prosecuted his ministerial calling; and when he settled in Ohio, he at once became a representative man in the infant cause. Through a long and eventful life he held fast his profession, maintained his ministerial standing, and everywhere avowed himself a follower of the "meek and lowly Jesus." No wonder, then, that he met death with composure, and felt ready for the summons. It is always a cause of regret to the Church, when a laborious and useful minister of the gospel to the Salt River Circu the Cumberland; and altogether. The name of Tobias the Appointments in find him, for the same Circuit, in North Ca "Union-Tobias Gibs find sufficient evidence spent any portion of t of his cotemporaries, any allusion to him in and in the brief accou lished in the General 1 ever is made to his app probabilities are that h year in the South; ye * V refer to him in this connection. He was a native of South Carolina, and was born November 10, 1771, in Liberty county, on the Great Pedee. He lived only thirteen years after he entered the traveling connection; three of which were spent in South Carolina, four in North Carolina, one on Holston; and the last five years in Mississippi, as missionary to Natchez-where he died on the 5th day of April, 1804. Among the early Methodist preachers there was no one more self-sacrificing or more zealous in the prosecution of his labors than Mr. Gibson. His biographer says: "What motive induced him to travel, and labor, and suffer so much and so long? He had a small patrimony of his own, that, improved, might have yielded him support. The promise of sixty-four dollars per annum,* or twothirds, or one-half of that sum—just as the quarterly collections might be made in the circuitscould not be an object with him. His person and manners were soft, affectionate, and agreeable. His life was a life of devotion to God. He was greatly given to reading, meditation, and prayer. He very early began to feel such exertions, exposures, and changes, as the first Methodist missionaries had to go through in spreading the gospel in South Carolina and Georgia-preaching day and night. His feeble body began to fail, and he appeared to be superannuated a few years before he went to the Natchez country. It is reported that, when he *The salary, at that time, of a traveling preacher. sages from the Cumberland He continued upon his sta from the Western Confere solicited help in his own of a very sick man."+ The labors of Mr. Gibson could not have been othe cause of Christianity. Al not show large accessions t four years he traversed the and preached to the peopl foundations of Christianit the ground that has since b vest. At the close of the he died, there are reported one hundred white and two c His last sermon was pre *The Mississippi. †General Minutes, V |