San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDDIE L. HIBBS
An enterprising, experienced and
very successful vineyardist, with some original, progressive views on modern
scientific methods of husbandry, is Eddie L. Hibbs, living on Cherokee Road,
not far from the Houston School, where he has one of the trim ranches so
representative of the industry of San Joaquin County farmers. He was born near Havana, Mason County,
Illinois, on September 22, 1876, and is proud of the fact that he saw the light
just about the time when the elated American nation, having finished with the wonderful
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, was stepping forward on its second
century in the paths of advanced civilization.
His father was George Hibbs, and is mother, before her marriage, was
Miss Mary E. Jackson; and on both sides his parents’ families were early
Illinois settlers. His father passed
away in 1918, but his mother is still alive, making her home with the children,
at the age of sixty-eight, hale and hearty.
They had two children: Ida, Mrs. Closson, residing at Lodi, California, and our subject.
In 1878, Mr. and Mrs. George Hibbs
removed to the vicinity of Lincoln, Nebraska, in Lancaster County, and leased
farms on which they raised grain for the next eight years; but in 1886 Mr.
Hibbs ventured into Cheyenne County, where he homesteaded one quarter section
of land, afterward in the new Deuel County.
In 1890, he proved up the land, and then moved back to Lancaster County,
where he farmed until 1897. Thus it
happened that Eddie Hibbs went to the district schools of both Lancaster and
Deuel counties. When twenty-one years of
age he began for himself and in 1897 he removed to York County, Nebraska, and
farmed there for five years.
In York County, Nebraska, on November
29, 1899, Eddie L. Hibbs was married to Miss Florence Egelhoff,
a native of Indiana, where she was born near Lafayette, Tippecanoe County. Her parents were William and Laura Egelhoff; the former a native of Ohio, and the latter a
native of Indiana. Mrs. Hibbs was the
third oldest of six children and was educated in the York County grade schools,
and remained at home with her parents until her marriage.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs.
Hibbs removed to Dawson County, and there they bought a fine ranch of 160 acres
of farm land, on which they raised wheat and corn; but in 1906 they sold out
and came further west to California. At
first they settled near Lodi, buying ten acres of vineyard southeast of town;
but after one and a half years in California, they sold out and in 1907 went to
Dawson County, Nebraska. There they
remained until 1915, when they came back to California, leaving a quarter-section
which they had greatly improved. Once
again in California, they bought ten acres in the vicinity of Acampo, on the
Southern Pacific Railroad, near the Winery Road, between Cherokee Lane and the
State Highway. This tract he operated
for three years, and then traded it for a ranch in Yolo County, near Madison,
where he had ninety-one acres of alfalfa and grain ranch. He lived there only three months, however,
when he came back to Acampo; and then he bought eleven and one-half acres on
the Cherokee Road, southeast of the Acampo Road, the place he has now. He has his own fine irrigation plant capable
of supplying a three-inch stream. In
1921, Mr. Hibbs bought an orchard of three acres in Woodbridge, which he has
devoted to the raising of cherries and berries.
Four children have made up the
family of Mr. and Mrs. Hibbs. Alma
married W. J. Pope of Lodi, who saw service in the late World War; he was in
the 4th Division of Engineers, went to France, and braved all the
dangers and hardships in the engagements participated in by his division. Leslie is a student in the Lodi high school,
and lives at home. George and Bernice
are pupils in the Houston grammar school.
In politics Mr. Hibbs is an independent thinker and votes regardless of
partisan demands.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1232. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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