California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


GEORGE HENRY GIBBS.� By those who are well qualified to know it 
is said that Mr. Gibbs is one of the most adept sawyers on the coast, and his 
long retention in his present position with the Union Lumber Company in 
this capacity may well furnish grounds for the statement. He is a native 
son of the state, and was born in Mendocino October 7, 1878, the son of 
William Gibbs, a native of Maine. William Gibbs came to Mendocino county 
during the early period of its history and to him as much as to any other pio- 
neer settler of the county is due credit for its splendid standing as a field for 
business opportunity. Throughout the period of his active business life he 
worked for the betterment of his adopted home in the west, which was term- 
inated only by his death in 1881. 

The youngest of five children born to his parents, George H. Gibbs was 
reared in Mendocino up to the age of eleven years, when the removal of the 
family to Fort Bragg made it necessary for him to take up his studies under 
new conditions. He was not permitted to continue his schooling as long as 
he would like, however, for when he was only about fourteen years old he 
started out to make his own way in the world. He then entered the employ 
of the Union Lumber Company in a lowly capacity and from this small be- 
ginning he has steadily risen until he is now band sawyer, a responsible posi- 
tion which he is well qualified to fill, and which he assumed in 1904. It was 
Mr. Gibbs' privilege to run the first double-cut band saw in Mendocino county 
and the proficiency with which he fills his position gives rise to the statement 
in the opening paragraph. 

The marriage of Mr. Gibbs in Fort Bragg united him with Mrs. Josephine 
(Cortez) Winfield. a native of Noyo, Mendocino county, and the daughter of 
George Cortez, a Spaniard by birth, but a pioneer settler in Mendocino county. 
Mrs. Josephine Gibbs passed away in July, 1913, leaving one child, Forrest 
Gibbs, by this marriage, and by her former marriage a daughter, Mrs. Myrtle 
Ordway, of Fort Bragg. Mr. Gibbs' fraternal associations are with Fort Bragg 
Lodge No. 360, I. O. O. F., which he has served as noble grand, and with 
Redwood Encampment, also of this place. Politically he is a stanch Repub- 
lican, standing for the candidates of that party in so far as their qualifications 
for the office in question will permit.