El
Dorado County
Biographies
A. E. VANDERCOOK
Vandercook,
A. E., one of the capable and well known mining engineers of the Sacramento
Valley, is general manager of the New Pyramid mine, which is now in course of
development in El Dorado County. He was
born at Jackson, Michigan, on the 12th of June, 1874, and is a son
of Oscar and Harriett (Foster) Vandercook.
His father was active in public affairs in early days in Utah, where he
served as United States marshal during the stirring Mormon troubles.
E.
Vandercook was given the advantage of a good education, attending the public
schools, a military academy and the University of Utah, after which he took the
course in mining engineering under Professor C. Wyman of the Colorado School of
Mines. He served as chief assayer for
the John McVicker interests in Salt Lake City, after which he became assistant
superintendent of the Cedar Valley Gold and Silver Mining Company. Going to Oregon, he served as superintendent
for the Bohemian Mining Company and later had charge of many large mining
properties. For many years he was chief
engineer for the California Extraction Company, and then accepted his present
position with the New Pyramid mine, where he has entire charge of all
development work on what promises to be a very valuable property. During the World war Mr. Vandercook was
called into service by the government because of his knowledge and experience
in mining matters. He has perfected
several patents pertaining to mining and is particularly well known because of
his cyanide process patents.
Mr. Vandercook was united in
marriage to Miss Lillian Mason, whose father was an early California journalist
and wrote a history of Amador County.
Mr. and Mrs. Vandercook are the parents of a daughter, Elizabeth. Mr. Vandercook is a Republican in his
political alignment. He belongs to the
Mining Congress and is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has received
the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. His profession is his hobby and in mining
circles he is held in very high esteem, being recognized as a capable and
dependable engineer, while socially he enjoys a wide acquaintance and is
uniformly well liked.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3, Pages 312-315. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden
Nugget Library's El Dorado County Biographies