San Bernardino County and Riverside County, California Biographies

History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties 
By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County 
And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County 
With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period 
of growth and achievement.
Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922, 
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL

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 JUDGE HIRAM C. HIBBARD
 
 
          Judge Hiram C. Hibbard, well-known and popular attorney of Riverside, 
comes almost under the head of pioneer, for he has practiced continuously
in that city since 1886, and no one stands higher with the legal profession
or the people of the district. He has also served twelve years as justice of the
peace and has gained the soubriquet of the "marrying justice" on account of
the many ceremonies he has performed. Judge Hibbard has all his life been
active in politics, and prior to removing to Riverside held many public positions
and since then has served his party well in various capacities. He was born in
Fulton County, Illinois, March 28, 1847. His father was James A. Hibbard, a 
native of New York, by occupation a farmer. He was for a time County
Commissioner of Johnson County, Kansas, where he moved after the Civil
War. He comes of an old American family of pre-Revolutionary stock and of
Scotch ancestry. The mother of Judge Hibbard was Jeannette F. (Webster)
Hibbard, a native of New York and descended from an old American family
of English descent. Judge Hibbard was educated in the public schools and 
high school in Kansas, and for a short time in the University of Kansas. Prior to
going to the University he enlisted for service in the war of 1862, first as a 
teamster with the army in Arkansas and Missouri, but was home in 1863 on
account of illness. On January 28, 1864, he joined Company I, Eighth Illinois
Cavalry, and served until the end of the war, receiving his discharge in July,
1865. He was with the Army of the Potomac, under General Lew Wallace, 
engaging in the battle of Monocacy, which Wallace claimed prevented Early
from getting into Washington. Judge Hibbard returned to Illinois, and later
joined his father, on a farm near Olathe. He attended private and public
schools then, and the University of Kansas at Lawrence. He taught school in 
Kansas for six years and while so engaged, was admitted to the bar in that
state, and has followed that profession ever since. He practiced law in Kansas
until the fall of 1886, and then came directly to Riverside. He had been west
during the summer of that year on an exploring expedition, and Riverside came
nearest to being what he was looking for, and ideal location for a permanent
home. Here he commenced practice on February 8, 1887, and for over thirty-
one years had the same offices in the Central Block. In politics he is a 
republican, and has always taken an active part, serving as a delegate in both
state and county conventions in Kansas, on county conventions in California, and 
has served on the County Central Committee in both California and Kansas. He 
was superintendent of public instruction for five years in Kansas and was also
county clerk for one term in Russell County, Kansas. With but a few intervals 
during his service he has occupied the position of justice of the peace of 
Riverside County for twelve years. He is a member of Riverside Post, G. A. R., 
of which he was commander in 1900. He has been a member of this most 
since coming to Riverside. He was also commander of the post in Kansas
during his residence there. He is a Mason and is a past high priest of the 
Royal Arch Chapter. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, and has been through all the chairs of the local lodge. He was past
grand of the Kansas lodge with which he was affiliated. He is a member of the
Improved Order of Red Men, and has been through the chairs of the local lodge
and was great sachem of the state during the years 1912-13. Judge Hibbard is
also a member of the Independent Order of Foresters, and has been through
the chairs of the local court, if which he is past chief ranger. He is a member of 
the Foresters of America and is a past chief ranger. He was a Maccabee until
the age of retirement, and has been through the chairs of that order. He is a 
member of the Junior Order United American Mechanics, through the chairs,
and is a past chief counsellor, and is also a member of the Fraternal Brother-
hood, of which he has been through the chairs and of which he is a past
president. He married on September 18, 1878, in Russell, Kansas, Sonora L.
White, a native of Indiana. She died in Riverside in January, 1889. They had one
son, Duane Hibbard, a resident of Oakland, California. Judge Hibbard married
on July 15, 1908, Julia Yerger, a native of Kentucky, and a daughter of Charles
Stoessel.
 
Pages 1077 to 1078.
 
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, February 2010.