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Joe Gibson was born in Portadown, Northern Ireland on March 19, 1888. Joe married Olive in Vancouver in 1911. They came to Langley in 1919, and was successful in no less than six businesses. He died in 1971.
See Also: Gibson's Real Estate, Insurance & Auctioneers.

From the Langley Advance: Read more: http://www.langleyadvance.com/news/Gibson+those+created+Langley+City/4980676/story.html#ixzz27EeR02WP


It wasn't long after Joe Gibson moved to Langley in 1919 that he started changing the face of the community.

He would end up owning many local businesses but would also become involved in politics and the movement to create Langley City.

Joe opened an electrical supply shop in the Theatre Block in 1922. In 1926, he expanded the electrical shop to include hardware. He added a real estate office in 1930.

In 1931, he sold the store but put up a building supply store that his son Colin ran. When he died in 1933, Joe closed the store.

In 1934, he and his wife Olive reopened the Langley Theatre, running it until 1945 when it was sold to Peter Barnes and his sister Myrtle. The theatre had been built around 1915 and was demolished in 1958. From around 1930 until Gibson purchased and reopened it, the theatre had been used as, of all things, a hardware store.

In 1938, Gibson opened his most successful venture, an auction house, running Thursday auctions that were vital to this still agricultural community. He also had auction houses in Cloverdale and Chilliwack.

Gibson's Auctions was owned by Mickey Gibson after Joe retired in 1958.

Despite having many business ventures, Joe was still active in the community. It was at Gibson's Auctions that a group of Langley Prairie residents met to discuss creating a new municipality, separate from Langley Township. Gibson also served a couple of terms on municipal council and pushed for the formation of the City.

He was involved with the Langley Hospital board, the Lions, the Elks, the Legion and the Shriners.

Joe had married Olive in 1911 and she followed him to England when he went overseas with the air force during the First World War.

When the family celebrated their 55th anniversary, Joe paid tribute to Olive.

"He said 'I wish I could spend another 55 years with her,'" recalled Elaine Vaughn, one of his grandchildren.

He was an electrician in the air force and he put what he learned to use in his electrical business here. His lifelong love of animals was evident by his purchase of a farm at Jardine (near Fort Langley), where he kept livestock.

Joe and Olive's family included Colin, Eveline, Grace and Mickey.

Vaughn said he could be strong-headed in his business and political life but was a loving Irish grandfather to her and her cousins. All the Gibson kids worked for their father's businesses and some of the grandkids as well.

She recalls hanging around the auction yard, which was on Fraser Highway at 203rd Street. (Today there's a tattoo parlour and u-brew operation in the same building where cattle were once paraded through.) There were the auctions of goods in the mornings and livestock in the afternoon, she recalled.

"Langley was a great place to grow up," Vaughn reminsced. The community was a place where everyone knew each other.

Joe Gibson started his business ventures in the 1920s. His first was an electrical supply shop that he opened in the Theatre Block in 1922. By 1925 Joe was involved in real estate, and in 1926 he expanded the electrical shop to include hardware. In 1931 he sold the store, but built a new building supply store in 1932 that was run by his son Colin until his death in 1933, when the store was closed. In 1937 Gibson added insurance to the services he offered at his location on the corner of Glover Road and Fraser Highway (then Yale Road). At this point, Gibson reopened the Langley Theatre and his wife Olive ran it until 1944. In 1938 the Gibsons entered the auction business, running the weekly Thursday auctions that became an important part of Langley's routine. It turned out to be the most successful of all of his enterprises. Gibson sold the real estate business to Len Goble in 1945. Gibsons son Mickey Bladen Gibson ran and owned the Gibson's Auctions after his father retired in 1958. The site was rebuilt as The Auction Centre in the 1970s and later the building housed Fraser Valley Auctions.