Sacramento County
Biographies
CHARLES E
GIBBS, JR.
CHARLES E. GIBBS, JR.--Classed among the enterprising, progressive, and
influential ranchers of Sacramento County is Charles E. Gibbs, Jr.,
born May 14, 1892, at Alameda, Cal. He is the only living child (his sister
having passed away) of Charles E. Gibbs, Sr., a native of California. His grandfather was also named Charles E.; he
came to the Golden State from the East in 1849, during the gold excitement, being a member of
the firm of Scotchler & Gibbs, the first cannery
firm in California. They built
the old Black Diamond Cannery at Pittsburg, Contra Costa County, which the elder Gibbs
operated until 1896, when he retired.
However, he was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his labors, for he
died soon after his retirement. The
father of our subject is now a broker in San Francisco, but making his home in Alameda. In early days he had married Emma May George,
born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Charles
E. Gibbs, the third, was educated at the Alameda public school and the
Belmont Military Academy of San Francisco, where he was graduated in 1911, and
that year, at the age of nineteen, he began to make his way in the world as a
buyer for George A. Webster, a produce merchant of San Francisco. For three years he worked for Mr. Webster,
buying potatoes, chiefly in the delta country of San Joaquin County. He then obtained a position with Wolf &
Son of San Francisco, with whom he was employed but a short
time. An early opportunity came to him,
and he associated himself with the California Fruit Canneries, now the
California Packing Corporation, as a buyer, and seven years were spent in the
delta country from Rio Vista to Newcastle, Placer County, in the employ of this
company. Then for a year he represented
the American Fruit Growers, at Sacramento.
In 1921,
Mr. Gibbs leased Mrs. Cowing’s 150-acre ranch at Walnut Grove, Cal., and since that time has
operated this property, 100 acres of which has been developed into a splendid
orchard of pears and plums, while the balance is open land. He also leases 200 acres on Andrus Island, which has been devoted to
asparagus and celery. In 1922, with a
partner, J. W. Burchell, Mr. Gibbs purchased 738
acres of the Brack tract on Hogg Slough in San Joaquin County. This property was formerly a part of the
Jacob Brack estate.
It has seventy-five acres of pears and 500 acres in asparagus; the
balance is used for pasture and grain.
The ranch is operated by tractors and horses.
On
October 18, 1916, at Sacramento, Charles E. Gibbs, Jr., was married to Gladys Grey Duhain,
a native of Sacramento, and the daughter of
Charles and Marie (Grey) Duhain. She was left an orphan while still an infant,
and was reared by her aunts and educated in the schools of Sacramento and San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs were the parents of two
children: Grey Marie; and Charles E., the fourth. Mr. Gibbs was bereaved of his faithful wife,
June 10, 1923, whose death was a great loss to the community, and to her family
and many friends. Mr. Gibbs is a
Republican and a member of the Sutter Club in Sacramento.
Transcribed by Suzanne Wood.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 521-522.
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Suzanne Wood.