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Evelyn Bertie Gibson
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Real estate agent.
Born at Brokenhead on 25 January 1887, daughter of Henry Adolphus Gibson and Fannie Augusta Croll (?-?), she was raised at Beausejour. She moved to Winnipeg as a teenager to attend the Central Normal School. She soon realized that the profession was not to her liking and, in 1906, she took a job at the New York Studios, a photography studio, on Main Street. The following year, she went to work at William Martel Photography Studio, located in the Alberta Building on Portage Avenue at Garry. He soon made her manager of his Winnipeg Amateur photography Supply Limited.
She left Martel in spring 1910 to set up a real estate office across the hall from Martel. Believed to be the first full-time, female real estate agent in Winnipeg, she quickly found success selling houses in the west end and farms to Americans and overseas clients wanting to relocate to the West. She later relocated her office to the Sterling Bank Building on Portage Avenue. In May 1914, the Winnipeg Tribune pronounced: “Winnipeg has many women who are steadily climbing the ladder of success in many lines of work and among these we can truly point to Miss Gibson as one who has pretty well reached the top rung.” In 1917, she partnered with the mostly retired Thomas Guinan. He revived his Red River Loan and Land Company, made Gibson its Secretary-Treasurer, and the two sold a mix of city homes and rural land.
On 17 November 1922, she married Matthew Connell Ryan (?-?) and took time off from work to have a daughter. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1924 where she continued to work in real estate. She died there on 25 August 1940 after a short illness.
Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Another Winnipeg woman succeeds,” Winnipeg Tribune, 23 May 1914.
“Some Canadian women in business,” Macleans Magazine, December 1914.
“Women who have made good in Winnipeg business world,” Winnipeg Tribune, 23 September 1916.
“Obituary - Mrs. Matthew Ryan,” Winnipeg Tribune, 29 August 1940.
“First lady of real estate,” Winnipeg Free Press, 10 January 2016.
This page was prepared by Christian Cassidy.
Page revised: 7 March 2020
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