Gilbert D. Kingsbury (d. 1877) was a writer, farmer, and postmaster, born in Dartmouth, New Hampshire. He attended Lebanon Academy (1848 to 1850), studied law in New York in 1851, and taught school in Florida (1851-1854). Using the name F.F. Fenn, he returned to New York and married a woman named Anna. As F.F. Fenn, he became the postmaster of Brownsville, Texas, in 1858, and his wife died a year later. A unionist at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was imprisoned and charged with treason. Escaping across the Rio Grande to Matamoros, Mexico, he returned after the Union captured Brownsville. After the war, Kingsbury remarried, had a son, E.G. Kingsbury, and lived as an orator until his death in 1877.
Source: “Kingsbury, Gilbert D.”
The Gilbert D. Kingsbury Papers, 1855-1874, comprise business documents, correspondence, and writings by Kingsbury from Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico. The letters primarily describe his relations with the citizens of Brownsville and Matamoros during the Civil War. Additional letters by E.G. Kingsbury concern his father. The collection also includes an 1859 census of Brownsville, Brownsville public school reports, two account books of the Brownsville post office, and lectures written by Gilbert Kingsbury about the history of Texas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
This collection is open for research use.
Gilbert D. Kingsbury Papers, 1855-1874, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.