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.
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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.
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 of 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.
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