Ella Elvira Gibson, a Winchendon native, was a writer, lecturer and the first female chaplain in the United States Military. Gibson was born on May 8, 1821 in Winchendon. Her family was originally from Rindge, moving back there when she was 5 years old, according to Karla MacLeod, President of the Rindge Historical Society.
In school, Gibson was at the head of her class and at age 15 began teaching in Rindge as well as in Winchendon, Ashby and Fitchburg. At 27, she gave up teaching due to ill health. “She dealt with ill health throughout her life,” MacLeod said.
Gibson then went on the lecture circuit speaking on anti-slavery, woman’s suffrage, temperance, and the Spiritualism movement, begun in March of 1848 by Kate and Margaret Fox of Hydesville, N.Y.
After arriving in Wisconsin as part of her lecture circuit, Gibson became romantically involved with Rev. John Hobart of Fall River, with the two marrying on July 26, 1861. Hobart was the Unit Minister for the 8th Wisconsin Militia Unit, known as the Live Eagle regiment, with their mascot their mascot being a live Bald Eagle named Old Abe, Macleod stated.
Hobart’s husband became injured and while recovering in Memphis, Ella returned to Wisconsin working for the Soldiers Aid Society that collected food, blankets and other items for Union soldiers. She was also active in the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which cared for those in battle and were similar to todays Red Cross. Soon she was on the lecture circuit again, at Army Hospitals, speaking on living a good life as a field soldier.
It was at this time, Gibson wrote her book, “A Soldier’s Gift,” which “extols the views of an exemplary life recruits should follow.” She dedicated it to her husband and all of those supporting the war effort, said MacLeod.
She sold the book for 10 cents a copy and profited the Chicago Soldiers Home. She sold 1,300 pamphlets in the initial sale and over time, 10,000 copies were sold, Macleod continued. Gibson was soon working at Camp Randall in Madison, Wis., with a goal of becoming a recognized Chaplain in the Union Army, MacLeod said.
While serving the First Wisconsin in Virginia, Gibson and her husband divorced and she assumed her maiden name again. In 1864, she was appointed Chaplain of the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery by Colonel Charles Meservey. The appointment was then forwarded to August Gaylord Adjutant General for the State of Wisconsin. It was the first case of a woman receiving an appointment as a Military Chaplain.
Gaylord recognized the appointment might not automatically be approved and might require a special order to muster into the Army and be paid. Wisconsin Gov. James Lewis thought a special order might be needed as well.
In a Nov. 10, 1864 letter to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, President Abraham Lincoln stressed that he “had no objection to her appointment,” MacLeod said. Edwin Stanton did not want to create a precedent for this.
However, Edwin Stanton and Congress subsequently did pass a bill granting full pay for her time as a chaplain. Despite this, on account of phraseology of the bill by 1874 was still not paid.
After the Civil War, Gibson continued lecturing on women’s rights, temperance, and Negro Suffrage including a July 19, 1865 lecture she delivered on Negro Suffrage at Metropolitan Hall in New York, MacLeod said.
Eventually, Gibson became disabled from malaria acquired during the war, as well as other possible illnesses, passing away in Barre on March 8, 1901. Upon her death, she requested that instead of being buried she be cremated and that there be no monument to her. “She was always kind of bitter as widows received a pension yet she didn’t even though she had served in the war,” MacLeod said.
In 2002 in the National Defense Authorization Act signed by George W. Bush, Gibson was given the title Captain as all Chaplains are officers and thus became recognized as the first Woman Chaplain in the United States Military.
In 2012, the Rindge Historical Society applied for a veteran’s grave marker for Gibson through the Office of Veterans Affairs. After having the request rejected several times and being required to find a Gibson family descendent to sign the application (Ella had no children of her own), the marker arrived and was placed at the Meeting House Cemetery near her relatives, MacLeod said. The town of Rindge honored her on Memorial Day 2013.
The Rindge Historical Society has a copy of her “Soldiers Gift” as well as another book she wrote, “The Godly Women of the Bible by an Ungodly Woman of the 19th Century,” MacLeod said.