Sacramento County
Biographies
ERNEST M. KIMBERLIN
ERNEST M. KIMBERLIN.--A successful, representative Californian, whom the citizens of Sacramento have come to esteem and also to admire, is Ernest M. Kimberlin, the popular manager of the Owl Drug Company, well known, as is his enterprising establishment, throughout and beyond Sacramento County. On May 8, 1882, at Selma, in Fresno County, he entered the family of Olin B. and Mary D. (Bassham) Kimberlin, the grandson of J. M. Kimberlin, who had come across the great plains to California as early as 1845, and had become one of the pioneer seed men in this section, and also one of the first presidents of the University of the Pacific, filling that office with distinction for several years. He was a scholarly man, and was eminent as a linguist. His father was a grain farmer in Kern County, at one time, and he bought and sold cattle. He was a native son, having been born in Santa Clara County. Mrs. Kimberlin was also born in California, the daughter of Senator Bassham, one of the first merchants in San Jose, and the first senator from Santa Clara; in early days, a man actively interested in mines.
Ernest Kimberlin went to the lower grades of the public schools in Santa Clara, and pursued the high school courses under private tutors. He followed his father in raising grain, and then he was in the oil business for two years on the property of the family. Next he entered Heald's Business College, and then he was with the Kern County Land Company. Next he traveled with his grandfather, handling seed. On his return, he finished his high school work, and then he learned the drug business, as an apprentice, in Selma. Then he entered the University of California, from which he was graduated with the class of 1905, receiving the degree of pharmaceutical chemist.
After that, Mr. Kimberlin bought a business at Kingsburg, in Fresno County, in 1910, and while in that town was elected and served as the first city clerk, helped to form a charter, and became one of the board of directors. He was also the first director of the Union high school. Selling out his drug store, he removed to Berkeley, where for eight years he was the manager of the drug store of Messrs. Powell & Ellis. His increasing reputation as a man of experience in his field led to his associating himself with the Owl Drug Company; and on July 7, 1920, he took charge of the Sacramento store; and since then he has had the real satisfaction of much increasing the volume of the company's business. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Retail Merchants' Association, and also a director in the Ad Club.
At Cupertino, Santa Clara County, in 1907, Mr. Kimberlin was married to Eldora P. Freeman, of Santa Clara, a graduate of the high school of that town, and also of the Stanford University, which conferred upon her the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Two children have been born of this union, Dorothy E. and Olin E. Kimberlin. Mr. Kimberlin has been active in the Masonic order since becoming a Mason, and is a past master. He is a director of the Y. M. C. A., and also of the Boy Scouts, and he belongs to the Lions Club.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County, California
With Biographical Sketches, Page 774. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.