Kings County
Biographies
E. J. GIBSON
A Pennsylvanian by birth, born in Lawrence county April 19, 1849, E. J. Gibson was reared and educated there and lived there until he was twenty-two years old. He then went to Kansas, but soon returned to Pennsylvania and two years later went to Missouri, where he farmed on rented land three years. Going back to Pennsylvania, he was married in 1879 to Miss Nanny Alcorn, a native of that state, and returned with his bride to Missouri. In 1885, his wife requiring a change of climate, they came to California and Mr. Gibson bought sixty acres of land six miles southwest of Hanford. Two years later he sold off twenty acres of this tract and planted the remainder to orchard. Afterwards he sold twenty acres more and bought twenty-seven acres adjoining his original purchase. Next he traded the remaining twenty acres of his original sixty-acre place for land adjoining his twenty-seven-acre purchase and bought thirty-three acres adjoining this, then owning in all eighty acres in a compact body. In 1902 he bought twenty acres north of the city which he sold in 1904 to L. D. Porter; after this transaction he returned to Pennsylvania, visiting among old friends and relatives of his family and Mrs. Gibson's. In the fall of 1907 he bought his present home place, twenty acres, three miles west of the city. He has sold twenty-seven acres of his old eighty-acre purchase and the remaining fifty-three acres of the tract is farmed now by his son, Fred Gibson, who has thirty-five acres of it in orchard.
For his present homestead Mr. Gibson paid $400 an acre and twelve acres of the twenty is devoted to peaches, seven to vineyard. He has put on the place all the improvements visible there now, including his fine residence which was erected in 1908. Taking an interest in Hanford and the country round about that thriving little city he has public-spiritedly assisted all local interests to the extent of his ability. He is a member and supporter of the Presbyterian church of Hanford and he and his son affiliate with the Hanford lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The latter, Fred Gibson, married Kate Simpson, a daughter of Dr. R. G. Simpson, of Indiana, and she has borne him three children, Glenn, Gertrude and Lucile.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 688-689
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ABSALOM BURTON
One of the successful general ranchmen of Kings county is Absalom Burton, born in Missouri, February 18, 1852, a son of Absalom Burton, Sr. In 1866, when he was about fourteen years of age, he came to California with his father's family, and for three years thereafter helped the elder Burton at his work in the coal mines at Mount Diablo, Contra Costa county. In 1873 the Burtons moved into the part of Tulare county which is now Kings county and took up land ten miles southwest of Hanford, the title to which was subsequently secured by payment on the part of the young Absalom Burton's brother Richard. Absalom worked two years on the construction of the People's ditch, then started a herd of sheep, which he drove through a wide range of country round about and which he eventually sold to take up ranching. In 1873 lie pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land, nine miles southwest of Hanford, on which he made some improvements while working out on ranches in the neighborhood. Later he sold eighty acres of this tract to his brother. He bought land six miles northeast of Visalia, which he sold after having farmed it a few months, and then for six years he farmed a rented half-section on the lake. After that he engaged in hog raising, a few years, subsequently turning his attention to dairying. At present he milks twenty cows, raises about one hundred hogs annually and keeps an average of about two hundred stands of bees. About forty acres of his original eighty is under alfalfa. In June, 1908, the family bought eighty acres east of his old homestead, forty acres of which he set out to peach, apricot and other orchard trees. The remaining forty acres he devotes to general farming.
In 1882 Mr. Burton married Mrs.. Elizabeth (Robinson) Ogden, a native of England, who bore him a son, A. F. Burton, who assists him in the management of his business. By a former marriage with John Ogden, Mrs. Burton had two children, William and Lettie. Mr. Burton is a generously helpful man, actuated by a lively public spirit.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 689-690
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler