Walter Frank Sibley, sheriff of San Joaquin county, California, may well be termed a self-made man. A native of Maine, he was born in Penobscot county, that state, in 1858, a son of Frank and Julia (Leavitt) Sibley, both natives of the Pine Tree state. Both his father and grandfather were merchants in Penobscot county, and his ancestry in this country dates back to three years after the landing of the Mayflower, when the progenitor of the Sibley family in America made settlement in Renthem, Massachusetts. The Sibleys were represented in the Revolutionary war, fighting for independence.

Walter F. Sibley is one of a family of six sons and three daughters. He received his early education in the public schools of his native county, and at the age of twenty, ambitious to make his fortune in the far west, he decided to come to California. Borrowing a hundred dollars, he purchased a suit of clothes and a ticket, and, with five dollars in his pocket, started for the Golden state. For a year and a half after his arrival here he worked on a farm, and with the earnings he saved he took a course in the Stockton Business College. Then he engaged in farming in a small way, leasing land in San Joaquin county, six miles and a half from Stockton, where he prospered and where he has accumulated property to the amount of six hundred acres, which he still owns and operates, wheat and barley being his chief crops.

Mr. Sibley has always been an enthusiastic Republican, was the choice of his party in 1898 for the office of county sheriff, and was re-elected in 1902 for another term of four years. He possesses the characteristics necessary for the faithful performance of the duties of this office, and to the same is giving his best energies.

Mr. Sibley married, in 1881, Miss Clarance Beecher, a native of San Joaquin county and a daughter of John L. Beecher, who came to California in 1852 and has for years ranked with the prominent farmers of San Joaquin county. Of their union are two children, Hazel and Gladys. Mr. Sibley is a worthy member of the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias and the Elks.