Gottlieb Hieb, among the more recent settlers in San Joaquin county, is one of the foremost agriculturists of the county. A man of great industry and enterprise, which qualities were his principal capital at the beginning of life, he has worked his way to a front rank among the thrifty and able farmers of his adopted country, and few men can show better results of a lifetime of honest work than he. His homestead near Lodi consists of four hundred and fifty acres, and he also owns a hundred acres near Terminous.

Mr. Hieb is a native of Russia, born about two hundred miles north of the great seaport of Odessa, on March 12, 1853, a son of Balser and Elizabeth Hieb, who were both born in Russia but were of German lineage. Mr. Hieb was reared in his native country, being educated in the German language. In 1874 he emigrated from his native land to America, and went at once to South Dakota. He located at Menno, in Hutchinson county, and for several years was engaged in farming near there, and then went into the mercantile business, which he conducted with large success in Menno for some seventeen years. In 1899 he came to California, and has since been the prosperous citizen of San Joaquin county noted at the beginning of this article.

Before leaving Russia Mr. Hieb was married, in 1872, to Miss Magdalena Mettler, who was born in Russia. Nine children have been born of their marriage, and the five living are as follows: Jacob G., who is in the hardward business in Lodi; Magdalena, wife of Jacob Handel, a hardware merchant in Lodi; Christena, wife of Charles Ulmer, who resides near menno, South Dakota; Caroline, wife of Jacob W. Hieb, of Lodi; and Gottlieb G., who lives with his father.

For one term of three years Mr. Hieb served as county commissioner of Hutchinson county, South Dakota, and he has always been found on the side of public progress and material and social uplift in the various communities where his life work has been accomplished. In politics he is a Republican, and is a member of the German Reformed church at Lodi.

Source: History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II

The Lewis Publishing Company - 1905
Edited by Leigh H. Irvine