Vermont Historical Society

GIBSON, Ernest Willard, (father of Ernest William Gibson, Jr.), a Representative and a Senator from Vermont; born in Londonderry, Windham County, Vt., December 29, 1872; attended the common schools and Black River Academy, Ludlow, Vt.; graduated from Norwich University, Northfield, Vt., in 1894; high school principal 1894-1898; attended the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1899; admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Brattleboro, Vt.; register of probate and deputy clerk of the United States district court; member, State house of representatives 1906; member, State senate, serving as president pro tempore in 1908; served in the Vermont National Guard 1899-1908, retiring as a colonel; returned to service 1915-1923; State’s attorney 1919-1921; secretary of civil and military affairs for Vermont 1921-1922; chairman of the board of commissioners of Brattleboro, Vt., for eight years; vice president of Norwich University; elected on November 6, 1923, as a Republican to the Sixty-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Porter H. Dale; reelected to the Sixty-ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from November 6, 1923, to October 19, 1933, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury (Sixty-ninth Congress), Committee on Territories (Seventy-first Congress); appointed in November, 1933, as a Republican to the United States Senate and subsequently elected on January 16, 1934, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Porter H. Dale; reelected in 1938 and served from November 21, 1933, until his death in Washington, D.C., June 20, 1940; interment in Morningside Cemetery, Brattleboro, Vt.