San Joaquin County Biographies


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




GEORGE H. GIBSON.
 
        A resident of Stockton for more than forty years, during his busy life 
as one of the foremost interior and exterior decorators here, George H. Gibson 
has still found time to take a public-spirited interest in civic and educational 
affairs. A native son of the Golden State, he was born at San Jose, February 5, 
1868. His father, Dr. William Gibson, a native of Pennsylvania, crossed the 
plains to California in about 1851, coming on horseback with comrades. He was a 
graduate of William and Mary College and of a medical school, receiving the M. 
D. degree. He practiced medicine at San Jose until the breaking out of the Civil 
War, when he returned to his home in Hornsburg, Pa., and was commissioned a 
surgeon in a Pennsylvania regiment. After the war he was married at Chicago in 
1867 to Lucy M. Blanchard, born in Boston, Mass., who was teaching music in 
Chicago at the time of her marriage. He brought his bride via the Isthmus of 
Panama to San Jose and there engaged in the practice of medicine until he 
retired, passing away while on a visit at Santa Rosa. Mrs. Gibson survived him 
until 1917, when she was fatally injured by a motorcycle at Alameda.
        The eldest of five children, all boys, George H. Gibson was only eight 
years old when his father died. He went to school in San Jose until he was 
twelve years old, then came to Stockton to learn the painter's trade with Badger 
Bros., and later he was with James Kidd and then with Stoetzer & Bender. In the 
early days he worked on the George Sperry home, the Bours residence, the old Odd 
Fellows block, the Shippee Bank, the Hart & Thrift Grocery and many other of the 
older buildings. About sixteen years ago Mr. Gibson formed a partnership with 
Claude Stewart, this continuing until Mr. Stewart died, then nine years ago he 
joined forces with Julius Eichenberger, under the name of Gibson & Eichenberger. 
This firm has done some of the best work in Stockton, among which the following 
may be named: Smith & Lang Building, Yost & Dohrmann Building, St. Agnes 
Academy, the A. E. Gianelli residence, all the beautiful mahogany finish, 
tapestry hangings, etc., in the Wong Jew home, one of the finest residences in 
Stockton, any many other of the best residences here. In Tracy they decorated 
the new Odd Fellows Building and the Bank of Tracy.
        Mr. Gibson's marriage united him with Miss Mary Polfer, a native of 
Kansas, and they have four sons. Howard A. and Clair A. are assisting their 
father in business, while Louis S. and George B. are attending the Stockton high 
school. Howard was in Company H, 12th U. S. Infantry, for fourteen months during 
the World War and Clair was in the aviation section of the U. S. Army, for 
twenty-three months, being stationed in Texas. The family make their home on a 
ten-acre chicken ranch near French Camp and Mrs. Gibson has shown much ability 
in its management, having an average of 500 laying hens. A lifelong Democrat, 
Mr. Gibson has been a member of the Democratic County Central Committee, serving 
as its chairman for one year. He was elected a member of the Stockton Board of 
Education in 1914, and served on this board until 1918. It was during his term 
of office that many of the new school buildings were erected, the El Dorado, the 
Lottie Grunsky, the Hazelton and the new Weber school. In early days Mr. Gibson 
was a member of the old Stockton Guard, which later became a unit of the 
California National Guard, as Company A, Sixth Regiment, under Captain Eugene 
Lehe. In 1894 this company was called to Dunsmuir, Cal., to quell a strike riot 
of the railroad men. Mr. Gibson is a member of the Woodmen of the World and the 
Red Men, having occupied all the chairs of the latter order.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p   1556       
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.