John Peter Shindel Gobin was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania on January 26, 1837, the son of John S. and Susan (Shindel) Gobin. He was named for his grandfather, the Rev. John Peter Shindel, a pioneer Lutheran minister in Northumberland County. He learned the printing trade at the Sunbury American, then studied law and was admitted to the Northumberland County Bar in 1858. During the Civil War, Gobin served as captain of Co. C, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and rose to command the regiment as colonel by the end of the war. On March 13, 1865, he was made a brevet brigadier general of volunteers for gallantry at the Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina. After the war, Gobin returned to the law and politics, serving in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1885 to 1899, followed by a term as Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1899 to 1903. He died at Lebanon, Pennsylvania on May 1, 1910.
-John Deeben