oung people obtained the consent of
parents and friends, but it was a time of grief and mourning among young
and old. The young Friends assured the intended bride, that they would
not marry the best man in the Province and do what she was about to do;
and the elder dames, so far relaxed the Puritanic rigidity of their
rules, as to allow the invitation of an uncommonly large company of
guests to the wedding, in order that a long and perhaps last farewell,
might be said to the beloved daughter, who, with her husband, was about
to emigrate to the "far West." Loud and long were the lamentations, and
warm the embraces of these simple-minded Christian rustics, companions
of toil and deprivation, as they parted from two of their number who
were to leave their circle for the West; the West being then thirty-six
miles distant. This was on the sixth day of the fifth month, 1756. More
than a century has passed away; all the good people, eighty-nine in
number, who signed the wedding certificate as witnesses, have passed
away, and how vast is the change wrought in our midst since that day!

Joseph Gibbons was so much pleased with the daring enterprise of his son
and daughter-in-law, that he gave them one hundred acres of land in his
Western possessions more than he reserved for his other and younger
sons, and to it they immediately emigrated, and building first a cabin
and the next year a store-house, began life for themselves in earnest.

It is interesting, in view of the long and consistent anti-slavery
course which Daniel Gibbons pursued, to trace the influence that wrought
upon him while his character was maturing, and the causes which led him
to see the wickedness of the system which he opposed.

The Society of Friends in that day bore in mind the advice of their
great founder, Fox, whose last words were: "Friends, mind the light."
And following that guide which leads out of all evil and into all good,
they viewed every custom of society with eyes undimmed by prejudice, and
were influenced in every action of life by a belief in the common
brotherhood of man, and a resolve to obey the command of Jesus, to love
one another. This being the case, slavery and oppression of all kinds
were unpopular, and indeed almost unknown amongst them.

James Gibbons was a republican, and an enthusiastic advocate of American
liberty. Being a man of commanding presence, and great energy and
determination, efforts were made during the Revolution t