The Gamble Family, December 1925 - left to right, back row: George, Cary, Dick and Lee; foreground, Cary, Elizabeth and Bessie. (Roberts)

The Gamble Family, Circa 1915 - left to right, back row: Richard Whitaker, George Peterkin, Cary Brickenridge; foreground, Elizabeth (Bessie) Peterkin, Cary, Edmund Lee and Elizabeth. (Roberts)

 Episcopal Priest

Born:

December 31, 1869, Tallahassee, Florida

Died:

March 20, 1970, Selma, Alabama

Buried:

New Live Oak Cemetery, Selma, Alabama

Notes:

•  Son of Edward Watts Gamble (1928 - 1911) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Whitaker (1837 - 1898). - Ancestry.com

•  Marriage 1898 in Wood, West Virginia to Elizabeth (Bessie) Hanson Peterkin, daughter of The Right Reverend Constance Lee Peterkin, the first Bishop of West Virginia. She was born in 1875 and died in 1941. - Ancestry.com

•  Father of:
     George Peterkin (1899-1986)
     Cary Breckenridge (1902-1970)
     Richard Whitaker (1904-)
     Edmond Lee (1907-)
     Elizabeth P. (1909-1985) - Ancestry.com

•  Educated at University of Virginia and the Virginia Theological Seminary. - Roberts

•  Ordained a priest in 1898. - Roberts

•  "On April 19, 1909, the vestry called the Rev. Cary Gamble, of the Diocese of Virginia, to be the sixth Rector of this Parish. He began his work on July 1, 1909, and served for 27 years as Rector. Shortly after he had come to Huntsville, a store building, formerly on the site of our present Parish House, was purchased in the loving memory of Miss Mary Anne Cruse. Mr. Gamble's long Rectorship carried the Parish through World War I and the depression of the 1930's. The present Parish Library was given recently as a gift of thanksgiving of his ministry here." - Gill

•  "One thing that attracted Mr. Gamble to Alabama was the fact that his twin brother (Edward W. Gamble) was at that time Rector of St. Paul's Church, Selma. Both clergymen continued their faithful ministries in Huntsville and in Selma, respectively, until the time of their retirement from the active ministry." Rev. Cary Gamble retired in 1938. - HHR

•  Served on the diocesan Commission of Social Services and later on the Department of Social Services. "areas of concern included child welfare, child labor and education, prisons, jails, and abolishment of the convict lease system, and the regulation of liquor traffic to eradicate intemperance." - Roberts

•  "Cary Gamble remained a strong supporter of Bishop Beckwith when some of the clergy in the diocese attempted to challenge his authority." The story of this conflict is woven into the Roberts' account of Rev. Gamble's tenure. - Roberts

•  "A Boy Scout and a Camp Fire Girls group were organized in 1913 by H. O. Sexsmith, being Madison County's first Scout groups. When Sexsmith left Huntsville during the year, the Reverend Carey Gamble was left in charge of the Scout groups." - Record


Related Links:

•  Ancestry.com - Page owned by Mark Rusnak and can be viewed only with an Ancestry.com paid subscription. (Originally found at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/46176818/person/6567751909.)

•  Find a Grave - Page created by JDC and photo of the tombstone added by Rennis Howard.

•  Gill - Article titled "The Church of the Nativity (Episcopal)" by Virginia Gill for Commemorative Album, Celebrating our City's Sesquicentennial of Progress, Huntsville, Alabama, by James E. Taylor, General Chairman, 1955, page 154.

•  HHR - Article titled "A SHORT HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN HUNTSVILLE as compiled from material located in the vertical files of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library" for Huntsville Historical Review, Volume 12, #1 & #2, Jan-82, Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, page 36.

•  Record - A Dream Come True: The Story of Madison County and Incidentally of Alabama and the United States, Volume II, by James Record, 1978. page 151.

•  Roberts - Sesquicentennial History of Church of the Nativity, Episcopal 1843-1993 Huntsville, Alabama, by Francis C. Roberts, 1992. Because Rev. Gamble was a minister at The Church of the Nativity for 27 years, an entire chapter (Chapter VIII, pages 73 - 96) is focused to his life, his family, and his ministry. Also on pages 97, 106, 108, 121, 130, 132, 136, 166.

The Following Pages Link to this Page:
•  Gill
•  HHR
•  Record