George Derby

For the baseball player of the same name, see George Derby (baseball)

George Horatio Derby

George Horatio Derby (April 3, 1823 – May 15, 1861) was an early California humorist. Derby used the pseudonym "John P. Squibob" and its variants "John Phoenix" and "Squibob." Derby served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Topographic Corps. In his spare time, he wrote humorous anecdotes and burlesques, often under the guise of his pseudonyms.

Biography

George Derby was born 1823 in Dedham, Massachusetts, son of John B. and Mary Townsend Derby. His father deserted the family mercantile business to be a poet, spending the family's money on self publishing. He graduated from West Point in 1846 and first served at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo. According to the newly (2010) published Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. One, Ulysses S. Grant was a classmate of "Squibob's" and the General told Twain some stories of Squibob at West Point.

In 1853, Derby arrived in the small outpost of San Diego, California, to begin mapping the region and developing plans for redirecting the San Diego River from the marshy delta of San Diego Bay and directly into the Pacific Ocean. This was to avoid floods that periodically silted up the bay and made use of the bay by ships difficult or impossible.

Derby married Mary A. Coons on January 14, 1854 in San Francisco. His wife's family were wary of Derby because his erratic, flippant manner infuriated his superiors. Coons tricked Derby into marrying her by placing a notice in the San Francisco paper stating that she would depart with her mother back home to St. Louis, Missouri, although she had no intention to do so. Derby read the notice and immediately took a steamer from San Diego to marry her. They had one daughter, Daisy, born 1854 in San Francisco.

While waiting for approval of his San Diego River diversion plans, he had some time on his hands. He supplemented his low military pay by contributing humorous articles to the San Francisco Herald, California Pioneer magazine, and the fledgling local newspaper, the San Diego Herald. He wrote articles that poked fun at the figures and pretenses of high society. These articles were written to appear as if a running narrative from John Phoenix and were the state's first published humor. When another writer started writing articles with his penname Squibob in a competing San Francisco newspaper, Derby wrote an article "killing off" Squibob and continued to write with a new penname, John Phoenix.

In 1855, Derby bought the Herald, which went out of business in 1860. He moved to New York in 1856.

In 1857 Derby had Amaurosis (today, some historians think he had a brain tumor), which prevented him from reading or writing. He requsted leave from the Topological Engineers in 1859 and died in 1861.

In honor of George Derby and his contribution to the lighter, more irreverent side of California history, the local chapter of the organization E Clampus Vitus is named in his honor, using his pseudonym John P. Squibob.

Quotes

• One of our Fort Yuma men died, and unfortunately went to hell. He wasn't there one day before he telegraphed for his blankets.

• It rains incessantly twenty-six hours a day for seventeen months of the year [speaking of Oregon and Washington Territory]

• "Antidote for Fleas" (from Phoenixiana):

Boil a quart of tar until it becomes quite thin. Remove the clothing, and before the tar becomes perfectly cool, with a broad flat brush, apply a thin, smooth coating to the entire surface of the body and limbs. While the tar remains soft the flea becomes entangled in its tenacious folds, and is rendered perfectly harmless; but it will soon form a hard, smooth coating, entirely impervious to his bite. Should the coating crack at the knee or elbow joints, it is merely necessary to retouch it slightly at those places. The whole coat should be removed every three or four weeks. This remedy is sure, and, having the advantage of simplicity and economy, should be generally known.

See also

• John Phoenix, Esq., The Veritable Squibob. A Life of Captain George H. Derby, U.S.A. by George R. Stewart (1937)
• Squibob, An Early California Humorist by Richard D. Reynolds (1990) Squibob Press, Inc. San Francisco, CA. ISBN 0-9618577-5-7 (case), ISBN 0-9618577-6-5 (pbk.)

External links

• Phoenixiana; or, sketches and burlesques (1903) by George Derby. Reprint of original 1856 book. Contains Derby's pieces as "Professor John Phoenixiana" and "Squibob," poking fun at topics such as military survyors and explorers, and contains several travel accounts. (American Memory, Library of Congress)
• "'Phoenix' Revisited: Another Look at George Horatio Derby", The Journal of San Diego History 26:2 (1980) by Canice G. Ciruzzi
• "The Journalism of Old San Diego", History of San Diego (1907-09), part 2, chapter 8
• George Derby biography
• "The Journalism of Old San Diego", History of San Diego (1907-09), part 2, chapter 8 contains a biography and several quotations
• E Clampus Vitus Squibob Chapter "Clampers" chapter was named after Derby's first penname
• Some George Horatio Derby stories are read in Mister Ron's Basement Podcast
• 'The Squibob Papers'by George Horatio Derby (1865) 247 pages of previously uncollected cartoons & satires published posthumously by his widow now available thru Google Books
• George Horatio Derby, Phoenixiana; or, sketches and burlesques, D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1856 - now available thru Google Books

References