MAJOR GEORGE C. WIMBERLY, city engineer of El Paso, is a native of Georgia, his birth having occurred in Richmond county about eleven miles form the city of Augusta. His parents were Richard and Sarah D. (Kent) Wimberly. The father spent his entire life in Richmond and Burke counties, where he died in 1867. He was a prominent planter with extensive and profitable business interests. His wife, also a native of that state, likewise passed away in Georgia.
Major Wimberly received a good education with special preparation for the profession of civil engineering. Much of his study was pursued in Waynesboro, Georgia, and later he was graduated from Bryant & Stratton’s Commercial College in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1871.
The year 1886 witnessed the arrival of Major Wimberly in Texas and he located first at Fort Davis in what is now Jeff Davis county, Western Texas, then all a new country in which the seeds of civilization had scarcely been planted. For a year he remained there and then came to El Paso, being connected with the engineering corps of the Mexican Northern Railroad then in process of building. To that work he gave his time and attention until the latter part of 1890. Returning from Mexico he entered the office of John L. Campbell, then city engineer of El Paso, in the capacity of assistant city engineer, and in 1894 he was elected city engineer, succeeding Mr. Campbell and by re-election has been continued in the office to the present time, covering a period of eleven consecutive years. When he took charge of the office there were only about three miles of sewers in the city and now there are forty-five, about forty miles of main sewers having been constructed under his administration and guidance, while other public works have advanced in a corresponding ratio at the same time. At this writing, in October, 1905, bonds to the value of one-hundred and seventy-five thousand dollar have just been voted for street paving. Major Wimberly is practical, progressive and enterprising in all that he does, and is a popular and efficient officer whose labors in behalf of El Paso have been extensively beneficial and far-reaching and have won for him commendation and high encomiums from the majority of his fellow townsmen.
Major Wimberly was married to Miss Frances Caruthers, daughter of Judge William E. Caruthers, of Jackson, Tennessee, December 11, 1894. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow and also has membership relations with the Woodmen of the World, the Elks and the Red Men. He has gained a wide and favorable acquaintance since coming to Texas, and his business interests, while proving a good source of income to himself, have also been of a character that has benefited the community at large.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. I, pp. 482-483.