FOURTH GENERATION

14. Patrick John GIBNEY (photo) was born on 29 Jan 1870 in Eden Valley, Minnesota. He died on 15 Mar 1952 in Los Angeles, California. He was buried on 21 Mar 1952 in Santa Clara, NM. Patrick began his career working for the Great Northern Rail Road. First as a section hand, then locomotive fireman; working his way up to a locomotive engineer. As a result of working for the RR he and his family lived in many locations---among them Minot, ND; Williston, ND; Sioux Falls, SD; Great Falls, Montana, Havre, Montana etc.

After his wife, Marie, developed tuberculosis he took a leave of absence from the RR, He first took her and the two boys to Denver, Colorado; where they stayed for about a year. The doctors recommended that he take her to a place in New Mexico outside of Silver City---The Cottage Sanatorium. She was in and out of the "Cottage San" until she died in 1914.

During her confinement his first business venture was the "Jitney" business. Running taxis back and forth to the army post outside of SC about 8 miles, called Ft. Bayard. After WW I the post was converted to a Veterans hospital for tuberculars; taking care of the many soldiers who had contracted the disease through being gassed by the Germans.

He then started a stage line from Ft, Bayard to the Grand Canyon; taking patients and nurses there for a holiday. Each stage made one round trip each week----take a load to the canyon and bring home the group it had taken up previously.

The automobile business was a growing field and he became the first Studebaker Dealer in southern NM--- selling, servicing and a unique service for the time which we would call valet today. Patients could not keep cars on the reservation, so they would store them at Pat's garage and call for them to be delivered. He sold them the car, maintained the car, stored the car and provided pickup and delivery of the car.The Depression of the 30's along with his generous granting of credit ( "jawbone" as he called it) caused the business to fail. In 1936 he moved to Los Angeles and lived with his son Lawrence and family.

After his "retirement" when WW II began he decided to support the war effort by taking a job with Lockheed Aircraft as a Mechanical Assembler. One had a choice of the shift they would prefer so he chose the "Graveyard" shift---11pm to 7am. Pat was a very gregarious man and quite popular---in 1944 he was elected the "WOLF of the GRAVEYARD SHIFT"
He held this assemblers job until after the war was over and when he was told he would not be "layed off" because they needed competent help. He quit!! at age 77.

He was married to Marie JEVNAGER (daughter of Anton Arnesen JEVNAGER and Martha (Matte) Mortensdatter BERDAHL) on 15 Jun 1895 in Minot, ND. Marie JEVNAGER (photo) was born on 9 Aug 1878 in Jevnager Farm, Norway. She was baptized on 20 Oct 1878 in Elverum Osterdalen, Norway. She died on 22 Sep 1914 in Santa Clara, NM. Being an immigrant from Norway, Marie experienced many hardships beginning with the arduous boat trip from Norway to this country. After arriving she and her family endured the difficulties and traumas of a long hard trek, by wagons pulled by oxen, across the northern part of the country to North Dakota. This is where they settled, developed their farms, and started the first Lutheran Church of Norway. The families original "home" was a dug-out in the side of a hill with a log front, including one window and one door. They lived in this shelter (all eight of them & soon to be ten, as their mother was pregnant with twins) until they could build their new log cabin home on the Homestead.

She met her future husband, Patrick Gibney, in the town of Villard, ND. As he worked for the Great Northern Rail Road---she became the wife of a Rail Road man---as the Great Northern RR moved so did her family---towns like Minot, Williston, Sioux Falls, Great Falls, etc.

She developed a disease, consumption in those days--tuberculosis today, around 1911. The doctors recommended that they moved to Denver; which they did in 1912. After about a year, the doctors suggested that she might do better in Silver City, NM. So in 1913 they re-located to Silver City, where she became a patient at the Cottage Sanatorium; trying to find a place where her disease could be arrested, but to no avail. Patrick John GIBNEY and Marie JEVNAGER had the following children:

+41 i. Lawrence Walter GIBNEY.
+42 ii. Reuben Leo GIBNEY Sr..
43 iii. Mary GIBNEY (photo) was born in 1901 in Minot, ND. She died in 1904 in Minot, ND. At the young age of 3, Mary contracted a disease "erysipelas" or St. Anthony's Fire. It is a streptococci infection, generally occurring on the cheek. Today it is easily cured with antibiotics but during her time it was frequently fatal. If uncontrolled it could spread into the brain; as it did in her case.

Return to Table of Contents