Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


SYLVESTER A. GEBHART.� Born in Henry County, Ind.. December 
6, 1876, Sylvester A. Gebhart was raised on a farm and received his education 
in the country schools of that district. At the age of twenty years he left 
home and started in life for himself, first finding employment on a farm 
in Missouri, going thence to central Iowa, where he worked for three and 
one-half years on farms and stock ranches. From there he went to South 
Dakota, and spent one season in the harvest fields of that state. 

Mr. Gebhart arrived in Fresno, Cal., November 26, 1901, and here en- 
tered the employ of the Fancher Creek Nurseries, since which date he has 
remained with the firm. He started to learn the nursery business from the 
bottom, drove team for a while, and later looked after the growing stock, 
learning every branch of the work. He had charge as foreman of two nursery 
plants near Sanger for eight years, one located on Kings Bottom, below 
Sanger, and the other two miles south of Sanger, during the busy seasons 
having charge of 160 men and fifty-six head of horses and mules. 

A man of broad sensibilities and progressive in his business methods, 
Mr. Gebhart has established a fine system in carrying on his work, and is 
always looking for further improvements to better facilitate the business. 
His success has been so marked that in 1912 he was made superintendent of 
all the plants of the company, and he brings to his larger field of work the 
same attention to detail and progress which made his beginning so success- 
ful. A self-made man in every sense of the word, Mr. Gebhart has risen to 
his present position solely through his own efforts and enterprise and well 
deserves the success which has come as a result. He is the oldest employee 
but one with the company, in point of service. With a keen appreciation of 
the growing prosperity of Fresno, he has backed his judgment by investing 
in Fresno real estate, and is a ready contributor to all movements which have 
for their object the further advancement of the county. 

Mr. Gebhart's marriage united him with Bertha Sand, a native of Indiana, 
and two children have been born to them: Albert, born in 1909; and Luella, 
born in 1912.