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You are here: Home / Notes & Quotes / Clippings / The Life and Death of Dr. George Washington Kibbee (Guy Kibbee’s Grandfather)

The Life and Death of Dr. George Washington Kibbee (Guy Kibbee’s Grandfather)

January 11, 2016 By Cliff Aliperti 10 Comments

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While researching the life of character actor Guy Kibbee, I bumped into the story of his grandfather, George Washington Kibbee, who had died before Guy was even born. G.W. Kibbee wasn’t an actor, but a self-made man of the nineteenth century who may have been a snake-oil salesman, was possibly a bigamist, and who certainly died too young, a hero.

GW Kibbee from Phrenological Journal December 1878

Above: Dr. G.W. Kibbee

I’m going to let the newspaper clippings do most of the talking for Dr. Kibbee, but first a little summary about the man. Upon his death Kibbee was hailed by the Phrenological Journal as a “professional character” for having “an uncommonly strong development of Firmness, Approbativeness, and Hope.” One newspaper headline simply referred to him as “Courageous Kibbee,” after the good doctor died on a volunteer mission to New Orleans where he brought his “Fever Cot” with hopes of saving lives during an 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic. Weakened by his travels Dr. Kibbee became afflicted with the disease and his death, which came on one of his own cots, became page one news across the nation.

Fever Cot in Herald of Health July 1873

Above: Dr. Kibbee’s fever cot pictured in the July 1873 edition of Herald of Health.

It was hard for me to believe that the respected physician was the same man who advertised his skills as piano tuner in newspapers for several years, but according to the locals he was one in the same. He hawked his water cure in ads that would probably make Barnum take pause, and also took time to advertise Anderson Spring Bed Bottoms, possibly a precursor to his fever cot. “The doctor was a disciple of the hygienic medical system, also a dentist, a piano tuner, a sewing machine repairer, and general utility man,” wrote the editor of Bloomington, Illinois’ Daily Pantagraph, a paper that carried Kibbee’s various advertisements throughout the late 1850s into the ‘60s.

Guy Kibbee 1930s Danmarks Trading Card

Above: Grandson Guy Kibbee.

The newspaper clippings below follow Dr. G.W. Kibbee from Nashville, TN to Bloomington in 1859. He makes a quick return to Nashville in 1960-61, before heading back to Bloomington as a doctor in 1862. By 1876 he’d moved the family to Salem, OR, which I first thought was his final stop ahead of New Orleans in 1878, but not quite. The Phrenological Journal included a few otherwise unpublished biographical bits that landed him in Oregon from New York (not Nashville or Bloomington) in July 1877, and then sent him back to New York again in the Spring of 1878. Then he moved his family to Highlands, North Carolina, but once the fever broke out in New Orleans he made another quick trip to New York to get his affairs in order before making his final trip south to New Orleans, where he died in late September 1878.

Dr. Kibbee was all over the place, but another descendant, June Kenney, may have revealed part of the reason why when she wrote about her connection to Kibbees in 2001: “As the family story goes, my great-grandfather [G.W. Kibbee] had practiced medicine and fathered one family in the South prior to the Civil War. Then he came north to Cincinnati, OH, met my great-grandmother, an older, well-to-do spinster schoolteacher whom he married. They had three children, my grandmother being the oldest and only girl.”

More on Dr. Kibbee’s background from the Phrenological Journal: “He was born in Connecticut about 1826; he studied Phrenology in 1843, and lectured on that subject with some success. He was graduated in medicine about 1849, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and from that day to the day of his death he had been a worker, wherever opportunity afforded, in ministering to the wants of the sick.” Not before tuning some pianos.

Several clippings chronicling the life and times of Dr. George Washington Kibbee follow, but first, a summary of the 1860 census, which catches up with the doctor and the first of his families in Nashville.

George W Kibbee 1860 Census

Two-year-old James Kibbee later fathers the actor Guy Kibbee, but what’s more interesting is James’ place of birth, Tennessee, as compared to that of his younger brother, Charles, who was born in Illinois. This follows along with Dr. Kibbee’s traveling between Bloomington (or actually Normal, IL) and Nashville during this same period. Further evidence connecting Dr. G.W. Kibbee to Guy Kibbee comes after the doctor’s death: Guy’s father James confirms that Dr. Kibbee was his father in a Texas newspaper.

Below – From the Nashville Union and American, January 25, 1853:

530125-nashville-union-and-american-TN-p2

Below – Same paper, March 28, 1857:

570328-nashville-union-and-american-p3

Below – The Pantagraph of Bloomington, IL, June 15, 1859:

590615-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p3

Below – Also The Pantagraph, October 31, 1859:

591031-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p3

Below – Weekly edition of The Pantagraph, May 9, 1860 (uh oh!):

600509-the-weekly-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p4

Below – Back to Tennessee, from the Clarksville Weekly Chronicle, September 6, 1861:

610906-clarksville-weekly-chronicle-TN-p4

Below – And back to Illinois, from the Daily Pantagraph, August 5, 1862:

620805-the-daily-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p1

Below – Another version of the “Water Cure” ad, in The Pantagraph, September 15, 1862:

620915-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p1

Below – The Pantagraph, February 4, 1863:

630204-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p3

Below – The Pantagraph, August 24, 1864:

640824-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p4

Below – The Pantagraph, October 8, 1866:

661008-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p1

Below – The Pantagraph, November 22, 1866:

661122-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p2

Below – Jumping ahead ten years to Salem, from the Weekly Oregon Statesman, March 10, 1876:

760310-weekly-oregon-statesman-of-salem-p5

Below – Same paper, April 7, 1876:

760407-weekly-oregon-statesman-of-salem-p7

Below – Same paper, June 9, 1876:

760609-weekly-oregon-statesman-of-salem-p6

(That’s “yield fortunes,” though I keep reading it as “yield tortures” for some reason.)

Below – Dr. Kibbee arrival in New Orleans is covered nationwide. Here, the Helena Daily Independent describes his fever cot treatment. September 6, 1878:

780906-helena-daily-independent-p2a
780906-helena-daily-independent-p2b

Below – Beginning of the end. Local coverage of Dr. Kibbee in New Orleans from the Times Daily-Picayune, September 21, 1878:

780921-the-daily-picayune-of-new-orleans-LA-p2

Below – Same paper, next day, September 22, 1878:

780922-the-daily-picayune-of-new-orleans-LA-p2

Below – Same paper, September 24, 1878:

780924-the-daily-picayune-of-new-orleans-LA-p2

Below – Same paper, September 25, 1878:

780925-the-daily-picayune-of-new-orleans-LA-p2

Below – Bloomington’s Pantagraph connects Dr. Kibbee back to Illinois. September 30, 1878:

780930-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p3

Below – Also The Pantagraph, October 1, 1878:

781001-the-pantagraph-of-bloomington-IL-p3

Below – From Texas, the Brenham Weekly Banner, October 11, 1878:

781011-brenham-weekly-banner-TX-p1

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Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: Guy Kibbee

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I write about old movies and movie stars from the 1920s to the 1950s. I also sell movie cards, still photos and other ephemera. Immortal Ephemera connects the stories with the collectibles. Read More…



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Comments

  1. Bob Kibbee says

    February 18, 2016 at 9:33 pm

    Cliff,

    Great job on GW Kibbee. I’m Guy Kibbee’s grandson by his first marriage (to Helen Shay) and have been researching the family for a long time. You’ve found some things I missed, but I can also fill in some other information. Can’t do it all tonight but in brief:

    GW born 1822 in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, son of James Kibbee and Almira Root Kibbee,

    Married Temperance Fox in DeKalb, Kemper County Mississippi and had seven children with her. His three daughters all took the name Root evidently from their mother, but they were definitely his children. Temperance died in 1862 in Metropolis Illinois, in childbirth or from complications. He remarried immediately, perhaps without informing his second wife, Laura Grosvenor, of the first family. That family scattered, although the younger ones seem to have lived with GW and Laura, who eventually had children of their own. The two oldest girls had already or soon left for Texas where they married brothers and raised families. James must have visited them–he too moved to Texas and at 18 took over the Burnet paper and launched a rather chequered career as a newspaper editor. He’s worth a story on his own.

    I have more, if you’re interested.

    Bob

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    • Cliff Aliperti says

      February 19, 2016 at 9:32 am

      Bob,

      Thanks for the information—so I guess I can scratch bigamist from my opening. Oh well, he’s no less a character! Sure, if you’d like to add some more to the Kibbee story, do feel free. I’m likely done researching G.W., Guy, and the Kibbees for awhile, so it’d be great to capture any additional info you may have in this space. Thanks for what you’ve contributed so far!

      Cliff

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    • Deborah Crain says

      June 5, 2016 at 4:53 pm

      G.W. Kibbee’s daughters,Lucy,Alice and Alma (my great great grandmother) from his first marriage to Temperance Fox, used their paternal grandmother’s maiden name.
      Why they did is a mystery.
      If anyone can solve this mystery,please email me, deborahcrain@yahoo.com.

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    • Deborah Jean Crain says

      March 29, 2020 at 2:20 pm

      Where did you find proof of George and Temperance’s marriage? Thanks for your help.

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    • Deborah Jean Crain says

      February 17, 2022 at 9:55 am

      how can you be sure that Lucy,Alice and Alma were his daughters? it looks like they took the maiden name of his mother.
      Deborah Jean Crain
      deborahjeancrain@yahoo.com
      please,anyone email me.

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    • Anonymous says

      July 16, 2024 at 3:41 pm

      His mother was a Root,not his first wife.

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  2. Deborah Crain says

    December 12, 2016 at 6:58 pm

    If anyone knows who Almira Root’s parents were,please email me. She was Dr. George Washington Kibbee’s mother.Thanks.
    Deborah Crain
    deborahcrain@yahoo.com

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  3. Deborah Crain says

    January 11, 2017 at 4:20 pm

    does anyone know where in Lafayette Cemetery number 1,Dr. George Washington Kibbee is buried?
    Deborah Crain
    deborahcrain@yahoo.com

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    • Deborah Crain says

      December 3, 2017 at 9:46 pm

      why did Lucy,Alice Frances and Alma use the name Root instead of Kibbee? I am wondering if they were adopted.
      Please,if anyone knows why,please email me. Deborah Crain djcottdjcott@gmail.com

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      • Deborah Crain says

        March 4, 2019 at 3:31 pm

        Djcraindjcrain@gmail.com

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