Luther C. Tibbets

Luther Calvin Tibbets (June 26, 1820 – July 21, 1902) was a Maine merchant and farmer who supplied the federal government from New York City during the American Civil War, had a store in Virginia after the war, and moved to Riverside, California in 1870 as one of the early pioneers. He sold retail goods and then wholesale goods to the federal government from New York City during the American Civil War. With his wife Eliza Tibbets, he was known for growing the first two Washington Navel orange trees (from grafts) in Riverside, California about 1875. Their success and the qualities of the fruit resulted in a conversion of citrus orchards to this variety and rapid expansion of the California citrus industry.

Luther C. Tibbets was born in South Berwick, York County, Maine to a farming family. He learned about many aspects of farming as a boy and had some education in local schools. He started clerking at local stores.

Tibbets began working in the mercantile grocery business. During the American Civil War, while based in New York City, he was successfully involved in wholesale grain and cereal dealing with the federal government. He said he refused to become involved in corrupt operations, and could not compete with rivals, who drew off most of his business.

In 1863, he began a relationship with Eliza Lovell Reveal, but they did not marry for several years. After the Civil War and a short period in Tennessee, the couple relocated in 1867 to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he had a store. He identified as a Radical Republican and complained in affidavits to the military Reconstruction government about treatment by local businessmen and courts. White Southerners were hostile to those they considered carpetbaggers and the couple suffered persecution. Tibbets was litigious while in business the post-United States Civil War southern states. Tibbets was involved in a number of lawsuits and complained of threats purportedly by Ku Klux Klan members. He gave law enforcement letters which he said had been delivered to him, threatening KKK action unless he left town.

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