Los Angeles County
Biographies
HERBERT AUSTIN SIBBET
SIBBET, HERBERT AUSTIN, Vice President and Manager Compania Constructora Richardson, S. A., Los Angeles, California, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 24, 1877, the son of John Wesley Sibbet and Anna Elizabeth (Fry) Sibbet. He married Mary Oliver Sampson at Cincinnati, Ohio, December 26th, 1899. There has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sibbet three daughters, Anna May Sibbet, Laura Belle Sibbet and Nan Sibbet.
Mr. Sibbet, who is identified with the diversion of the entire Yaqui River of Sonora, Mexico, to irrigate nearly a million acres of land in the Yaqui Valley, received his education in the schools of his native city. Passing through the grammar grades, he entered Hughes High School of Cincinnati in 1893, and was graduated in the class of 1897. The same year he entered the University of Cincinnati, remaining there until 1900.
At the conclusion of his college work, Mr. Sibbet moved to Los Angeles, where he became Advertising Manager of the “Oil Era” and “Oil, Mining and Finance,” two trade publications devoted, as their titles indicate, to the interests of the special lines named, and by serving in this capacity until 1903 he became familiar with the many opportunities for development work afforded by the great Southwest.
In 1902, while engaged in newspaper work, he became interested in mining in the State of Sonora, Mexico, and since severing his connection with the publications mentioned has been exclusively engaged in mining and development work in that country.
Mr. Sibbet, in 1903, became associated with the Richardson Brothers Company of Los Angeles in the promotion of the railroad now known as the “West Coast Route” of the Southern Pacific Railway of Mexico, and also in the promotion of the Yaqui Valley Land & Irrigation Project. Within a year the Compania Constructora Richardson, S. A., was organized to carry on the enterprises above mentioned, Mr. Sibbet being a Director of the Company, and although the railroad project was soon sold to the Southern Pacific Company, which carried it to completion, the irrigation project was retained by the Richardson Company and associates among whom is John Hays Hammond, the famous mining and civil engineer, and Mr. Harry Payne Whitney, the well-known capitalist.
This project, conducted in the valley of the Yaqui River, is one of the most extensive ever undertaken on the North American Continent, and one which will result ultimately in the colonization of a large part of northern Mexico. The work was begun about 1902, when Porfirio Diaz was at the head of the Mexican Republic, and with the encouragement extended by him and his successors, the American engineers have succeeded in this gigantic undertaking to a degree that has far surpassed their earlier hopes.
For many years capital and American energy have been engaged in Mexico, but these were confined to cattle and mining, for the most part, and it was not until the Richardson project was inaugurated that agriculture under irrigation on a large scale was attempted. With characteristic enterprise, the work has been carried on steadily in the face of tremendous obstacles, including the delays incident to political disturbances and to wars with the Yaqui Indians, last of the unconquered tribes of America. The plans of the Yaqui project include the construction of more than 3000 miles of irrigation canals, a new diversion dam and intake gates to cost approximately $800,000, and a storage reservoir, which in height of dam and storage capacity will exceed the great Roosevelt Dam and Reservoir in Arizona. All of this work is now under way, and 400 miles of canals already completed make water available to over 100,000 acres, 30,000 of which are now (1913) under cultivation. It is hoped to complete the work in the year 1918 at a total cost of approximately $12,000,000.
In 1905 Mr. Sibbet, in the interests of the Compania Constructora Richardson, S.A., moved to New York, where he maintained offices for three years, and was instrumental in obtaining co-operation of powerful interests in financing the project.
To Mr. Sibbet’s efforts while in New York is largely due the acquisition of 300,000 acres of land to the holdings of his Company, the land in question having been held for many years by an organization known as the Sonora & Sinaloa Irrigation Company. This Company, however, had for years been inactive and the property had become greatly entangled. Mr. Sibbet devoted a large part of two years to obtaining this land and disentangling it, but was successful finally, and this vast tract was added to the already large holdings of the Compania Constructora Richardson, S. A., in the Yaqui Valley.
In the promotion of the Yaqui Valley irrigation project, Mr. Sibbet has been one of the important factors, and his judgment and foresight have proved of great value to his associates in the handling of the numerous problems confronting them. Following his departure from New York in 1908, he returned to Los Angeles and was elected Vice president and Manager of the Compania Constructora Richardson, S.A. He is also Director, Yaqui Delta Land & Water Co.; Vice President, Richardson Consntruction Co. and Director, Richardson Brothers’ Co. and Bufa Mining, Milling & Smelting Co.
He is a member, University Club, Los Angeles.
Transcribed 4-27-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 249,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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