Tulare County Biographies

WILFRED S. SIBLEY

Submitted by; Susan Cherry-Boyer

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


Wilfred S. Sibley, former mayor of the city of Porterville and a well 
established fruit packer and shipper of that city, one of the best known 
citizens of Tulare county, is a native of this county, a member of one of the 
real pioneer families here, and has been a resident of this county all his life, 
thus having been a witness to and a participant in the development of this 
section of the state for the past half century and more. He was born on a 
pioneer farm in the Milo neighborhood in Tulare county, June 3, 1870, the only 
son of Stephen and Emma (Strout) Sibley, both now deceased, who had come to 
California in 1864 from the state of Maine. Upon coming to Tulare county Stephen 
Sibley started in as a farmer and stockman in the Milo neighborhood and then 
moved to a ranch northeast of Porterville, where he established his home, 
becoming there a considerable landowner and a large dealer in live stock, and on 
that place his last days were spent, his death occurring there in 1876. His 
widow survived him for many years, her death occurring there in 1917. Besides 
the son here referred to this pioneer couple also had a daughter, Wilfred S. 
Sibley having a sister, Mrs. Angie Tyler of Ducor.

Wilfred S. Sibley was but six years of age when his father died. He was reared 
on the home ranch northeast of Porterville and attended the neighborhood 
district school. As the only son of his widowed mother he early began to assume 
mature responsibilities in connection with the home place and was thus engaged 
in directing the operations of the farm and in raising live stock until 1900, 
when he retired from the farm and became connected with the operations of the 
Earl Fruit Company and in this connection became a thoroughly experienced fruit 
packer and shipper. In 1919 Mr. Sibley set up a packing establishment of his own 
in Porterville and has since been in business as a packer and shipper on his own 
account, one of the best known and most substantial of those thus engaged in 
that line in Tulare county. He sells the products of his packing plant through 
the Randolph Marketing Company of Riverside and is doing very well, his plant 
requiring the services of sixty or seventy persons during the season. Not only 
has Mr. Sibley been diligent in his own business but he has found time to give a 
good citizen's attention to local civic affairs and for four years (1919 to 
1922, inclusive), rendered effective service as mayor of the city of 
Porterville.

In 1895, in Porterville, Wilfred S. Sibley was united in marriage to Miss Eva 
Kling, who was born in New York and who has been a resident of California since 
1893. Mr. and Mrs. Sibley are democrats, the former for years having been 
recognized as one of the leaders of that party in this county, and they have 
ever taken a proper interest in such movements and measures as have to do with 
the general progress of their home town. Mr. Sibley owns forty acres of land, 
all in oranges.

The History Of Tulare County, California Volume II
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago [1926] pages 404-407