Napa-Stanislaus County CA Archives Biographies.....Kilburn, Guy November 17, 1836 - January 23, 1903
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Jamilah Vittor jvittor@yahoo.com October 9, 2007, 10:32 pm

Author: Prof. J.M Guinn

History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California

by Prof. J.M Guinn, A.M., The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1905

GUY KILBURN. Numbered among the more prominent and prosperous of the earlier 
pioneers of California was the late Guy Kilburn, of Newman, who came to this 
state in 1852, and from that time until his death, January 23, 1903, was 
actively identified with its agricultural and industrial prosperity. A man of 
sterling worth and integrity, honest and upright in all of his dealings, he 
gained the respect and good will of the community in which he resided, and his 
death was deeply deplored as a public loss. He was born November 17, 1836, in 
Tioga county, Pa., which was also the birthplace of his father, Wells Kilburn. 
Reared to agricultural pursuits, Wells Kilburn was engaged as a tiller of the 
soil in his native state until 1852, when, with his family, he came by way of 
the Isthmus of Panama to California, being shipwrecked while en route. Taking 
up land in Napa county; he was there engaged in his independent occupation of 
a farmer the remainder of his life. He married, in Baltimore, Md., Ann Guy, a 
native of that city. 

Having obtained the rudiments, of his education in his native county, Guy 
Kilburn completed his early studies at a college in Baltimore, Md. Coming with 
the family to the Pacific coast, he assisted his father in improving a farm, 
and afterward engaged in farming on his own account in the Napa valley. 
Removing to Contra Costa county in 1867, he followed his chosen occupation in 
Antioch for a year. In 1868 Mr. Kilburn located at Hills Ferry, and having 
purchased the ten hundred and twenty acres included in his homestead, which 
lies four miles north of Newman, he began the improvement of a farm. He was 
for many years successfully employed as a grain raiser, but devoted the latter 
years of his life to stock-raising and dairying, carrying on an extensive and 
profitable business until his decease. 

In Napa , Cal., Mr. Kilburn married Jeannette A. Smith, who was born near West 
Liberty, Iowa, a daughter of Egbert T. Smith. A native of New York state, Mr. 
Smith was born and reared on Long Island, his birth occurring in 1817. When a 
young man he journeyed on horseback to Ohio, locating in Franklin, where he 
took up a tract of timbered land, from which he cleared a farm. In 1835 he 
continued his journey westward to Iowa, where he continued as a tiller of the 
soil for nearly a score of years. Coming from there to California via Panama 
in 1852, he was employed in mercantile pursuits at Marysville for two years, 
and then went to Napa county, where he took up land, which he managed during 
his remaining years of activity, living in Napa until his death, in 1879, at 
the venerable age of eighty-five years. Mr. Smith married Sarah Schencke, who 
was born in Ohio, a daughter of Rev. William Schencke, and died, in 1851, in 
Iowa. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Kilburn nine children were born, namely: 
Stella, wife of William C. Smith. of Stockton, Cal., Ada, at home; Ruth, wife 
of George Stewart, of Stanislaus county; Kate, wife of F.M. Eachus, of San 
Francisco; E. S., living at home; Ella, wife of W. G. Wilson, of Madera 
county; Mabel, wife of L. M. Doty, of San Francisco; Charles L., of San 
Francisco; and Guy, at home. Politically Mr. Kilburn was a stanch Republican 
in his views; religiously he was a member of the Episcopal Church; and 
fraternally he was an active and influential Mason, having passed through all 
the different organizations of the Masonic order, and taken the thirty-second 
degree. He became a Knight Templar in the Stockton Commandery. Since the death 
of Mr. Kilburn, the family have sold the dairy business and two hundred acres 
of land. The balance of the property is rented for dairy purposes. 


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