James Gamble

Gamble was born on 3 April 1803, at the Graan near Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, Ireland, and went to Portora Royal School. His father George Gamble, who was a Methodist minister, decided with his family to escape the depression in Ireland. They emigrated to the United States in 1819. The Gambles arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, on a flat boat down the Ohio River destined for Illinois. His family stopped in Cincinnati when he was seized with an illness. Staying in the city, his father established a nursery and Gamble apprenticed as a soap maker. Cincinnati then was a major pig-butchering center and produced large amount of pig fat used for making candles and soap. He attended Kenyon College and manufactured soap on his own in 1828.

Gamble and Elizabeth Ann (née Norris) Gamble had ten children, including James Norris Gamble (9 August 1836 – 2 July 1932) who became Vice President of Procter & Gamble and was the chemist who devised the formula for Ivory soap. James Norris Gamble married Margaret Penrose; he died in his sleep on 2 July 1932 in Cincinnati and is interred in Spring Grove Cemetery. Another son, David Gamble, built the Gamble House in Pasadena, California.

Gamble's grandson, William, married Franzeska Wilhelmina (née Fanny) Nast, the daughter of clergyman William. Fanny was the first woman to graduate from German Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. As one of Cincinnati's biggest proponents of Methodism, Gamble was a prominent member of Westwood Methodist Church and donated money to construct Methodist churches throughout Greater Cincinnati.