Reyburn, Joseph Davidson

Joseph Davidson Reyburn, born in Burlington, Iowa, on December 25, 1840, was a progressive pioneer who braved primitive conditions to help develop early California. He crossed the plains by mule team in 1862 to Oregon and moved south to California in 1863, working briefly as a teamster in Nevada and Stockton. By 1864, he settled on the Stanislaus River to homestead 320 acres while simultaneously operating a lumber business on the Tuolumne River. He farmed grain on this property until 1881, when he sold his expanded 400 acre holding to relocate his family and operations to Fresno County.

In Fresno County, Mr. Reyburn purchased vast tracts of land and became a prominent specialist in wheat cultivation for thirty-eight years, eventually expanding his properties to include a handsome residence, orchards, and vineyards. He married his first wife, Mary Ella Lester, with whom he had nine children before her passing in 1893, and later married Annie P. Buckley in 1897, who bore him six children. Deeply involved in his community, he served as a Clovis church elder, a director for the Jefferson school district, and the first master of the Salida grange branch. He spent the final six years of his life at Pacific Grove, where he passed away in 1914 as a highly respected citizen.