Research and Rabbit Holes - Am I Crazy?

Here are my notes from the research I did on this case:

I looked up all the players in the Gibson Family. I found some interesting articles that I will link to below. If you’re at all interested in their story I recommend digging into it. I’m not going to go through everything here, but there are some points I want to make.

Paris Gibson

I didn’t find anything wild about him, though I wanted to note that his death certificate listed him as a retired real estate agent.

Philip Gibson

Son #1 Philip is the first of the sons to die at Warm Spring Montana State Hospital in November of 1912 after spending only 6 days there.

Per his death certificate:

Cause of death Exhaustion of Paresis

Contributary: Paresis duration 3 years

Wife: Miss Mary Douglas

Paresis (from Google AI)

Theodore Gibson

Now Theodore (the one who allegedly killed his mother) also died at the same hospital and with a similar cause: 

 “Exhaustion of General Paralysis (not Paresis) of the insane” But when Steve reads it, he stops short at “pare–” probably because he realized that it says Paralysis not Paresis. But then he says “Same thing,”

It’s not really. Not exactly according to the internet so we know it’s right. Any doctors out there want to weigh in?

Oh lookee here, our old pal syphilis rears its ugly head again.

Valeria Gibson

Now here’s where it gets good. Valeria was quite an interesting person.

You know how Steve said there was no info on her, no articles, no photos? Well there are. At least now, there are. I found a nice article with a lot of info, it’s called  More Than Just the Founder’s Wife and I will link it below.

She was born  November 30, 1838 and died August 18, 1900

In August 1858, Gibson married Valeria Goodenow Sweat, she was 19 years old. who was born in Brownfield, on Nov. 30, 1838.  

This photo is from the article linked below: More than a Founders Wife.

In 1959, shortly after Philip was born they moved to…. Drum roll…

Minneapolis!

We know about Theodore and Philip, their two sons. But they only briefly mentioned that they had two other children who died young. One girl, Helen, who died at 13 months old and another boy (Paris Jr.) who died at the age of two.

This photo is from the article linked below: More than a Founders Wife.

Five years later, in 1870, she was voluntold to take care of her younger siblings, brother and sister John and Jessy Sweat. Her mother had passed and her father wasn’t “up to the task”.

So they came to live with her here in Minneapolis. 

Nine years later (1879) Paris left Minneapolis “to see a new fortune in Montana and took son Philip with him. He was the eldest and would have been 20. Theodore then joined them later that same year. So she’s stuck in Minneapolis with her two siblings that she’s looking after. I think they were teens because it mentions them going to college soon after they moved here.

But when they graduated college they went to Great Falls too and all her siblings and kids were married and living there while she was in Minneapolis alone.

Valeria made her first visit to Montana in 1885, but due to her poor health, she was unable to stay.

“She was able to come and witness Great Falls in 1887, but again her poor health drove her back to Minneapolis. Paris and Valeria would not reunite permanently under the same roof until 1894” (from article)

The Park Hotel

Lastly I looked into the hotel. I was curious how close it was to the house, because Kelly said Valeria's body was carried in a tunnel from her house to the hotel.

By the way, this is lore. I’m not saying Valeria didn’t tell Kelly in her dreams. I’m just saying this was a rumor even at the time, apparently.

I also looked up the house. Being Season 1 TDF wasn’t great at covering up identifying info so it wasn’t too hard to find it. Weird thing is that while I can tell that Kelly still owns it, there is no mention of any previous owners in the public records about the house.

I did reach out to Kelly and I await her response!

Links:

Paris Gibson Man of Mystery

https://visitgreatfallsmontana.org/paris-gibson-man-mystery/

Paris Gibson at Find a Grave

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7127671/paris-gibson

Philip Gibson: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37206168/philip-gibson

Theodore Gibson: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37206340/theodore-gibson

More Than Just the Founder’s Wife

https://www.greatfallshistorymuseum.org/blog/valeria-gibson-more-than-just-the-founders-wife

Valeria at Find a Grave

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37392836/valeria_goodenow-gibson

Timeline for Valeria Gibson

If anyone has info about any of this being wrong, please let me know!

• DOB November 30 1838
• Married Paris August 1858 - but other accounts say she was 16.
• Philip Born July 2 1859 then they all moved to Minneapolis
• 1861 Helen was born
• 1862 Helen died at 13 months
• 1869 Theodore was born
• 1865 Paris Jr. was born
• 1867 Paris Jr. died
• 1870 She took in her sister and brother Jessie and John Sweat (her mother passed and dad was unable)
• Both sibs went to the U of MN, Jessie also to Wellesley College
• 1879 Paris leaves Minneapolis for Montana taking Philip with him. Theodore joined later that year.
• 1880 John Sweat gets his MC from Bowdoin College and goes back to Minneapolis
• "soon" everyone was settled in Great Falls, she was alone in Minneapolis.
• 1885 Valeria goes to Great Falls but doesn't stay long, as she's sick (we don't know with what)
• 1887 tried again, went home.
• 1890 The city created Valeria Library and she donated a bunch of books to get started
• 1892 Library sold to the city
• 1894 She moved to Great Falls for good and she and Paris lived at the Park Hotel.
• DOD August 18 1900
• 1903 New library was built next door and this became a community center and YMCA
• 1961 Library building demolished after being ruled unsafe