Walter George Gibbons, vice president and cashier of the Chestnut-Gibbons Grocery Company, a wholesale concern, doing business in Muskogee, has since 1908 been in charge of this establishment. The business was founded here in 1902 and since Mr. Gibbons took charge material advance has been made in the trade connections of the firm. This results from his close study of every phase of the business, his persistency of purpose and his thorough application.
Mr. Gibbons was born in Tiskilwa, Illinois, October 1, 1868, and is a son of George and Mary (Cook) Gibbons, the former a harness manufacturer, devoting his life to that business in order to provide for his family.
Having acquired a public school education Walter G. Gibbons secured a position in a railway office in Chicago and was employed in that field of labor for a period of six years. In March, 1895, he came to the Indian Territory, settling first at Wagoner and in 1902 he established a grocery business there organizing the Chestnut-Gibbons Grocery Company, for the conduct of a wholesale business. He has since been active and prominent in the management and control of the enterprise and is now vice president and treasurer of the company. In 1908 he came to Muskogee the company having established a wholesale grocery house in this city in 1906.
Through the intervening years to the present time Mr. Gibbons has concentrated his energies and attention upon the up building of the trade here. He has thoroughly systematized every department of the business and is seeking that substantial success which comes only from a minimum expenditure of time, labor and material in the accomplishment of maximum results. The methods of the house are thoroughly reliable, earnest effort is put forth to please its patrons and thus year by year the business of the firm has grown. Mr. Gibbons is also a director of the Commercial National Bank.
In public life, too, Mr. Gibbons has figured quite prominently and served as a member of the city council in 1920 and 1921. This is an office which carries with it no pecuniary compensation, so that his service was given solely for the benefit of the city. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, is a Knight Templar and a Consistory Mason and is a past potentate of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a past exalted ruler of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and he has been much interested in assisting the Day Nursery and the Salvation Army in their work.
He served on the Council of Defense during the World war, participated in all the drives for the support of the army and was particularly active in assisting the Red Cross. He has membership in the Chamber of Commerce, belongs to the Sequoyah Club and also to the Town and Country Club and for recreation turns to fishing and outdoor sport. Ask his fellow townsmen about Walter G. Gibbons and all speak of him in terms of warm regard; ask those who are close companions and they tell you that he is a friend worth having.