Los Angeles County
Biographies
HORACE WILLIAM EDMONDSON
EDMONDSON, HORACE WILLIAM, Mining Engineer, Los Angeles, California, was born in Bradford, England, June 23, 1877, the son of Joseph Souden Edmondson and Maria Louise (Wray) Edmondson. He married Louise M. Sahlberg of Osage City, Kansas, at Santa Ana, California, May 25, 1909.
Mr. Edmondson, who is one of the practical men of the mining world and an engineer of experience, has spent the greater part of his life in the United States. He was brought over here by his parents in childhood and spent his boyhood in the city of New York. He received his preliminary education in the public schools of the metropolis and followed this with two years’ attendance at the College of the City of New York, in the civil engineering department.
Leaving school when he was eighteen years of age, Mr. Edmondson went to the West and from that time down to date has been actively engaged in mining work, holding at the present time commissions from one of the most successful mining corporations in the United States. From 1895 to 1905 Mr. Edmondson was employed in various engineering and mining operations, working in Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and other parts of the Northwest. He had charge of underground work, assaying and other branches of mining engineering in these different sections and also spent a large part of the ten years in the management of mines.
By the year 1905 Mr. Edmondson was established as one of the expert metallurgical mining engineers of the country and in that year was appointed General Manager of the Parral Corporations, Limited, which owned extensive mining property in Parral, State of Chihuahua, Mexico, and served in this capacity for more than a year. At the same time he was Consulting Engineer for the Balsas Valley Company, operating in Mexico.
Resigning his commission with the Parral Corporation, Mr. Edmondson took up the duties of General Superintendent and Constructing Engineer for the Rio Plata Mining Company. This company owns valuable silver deposits in Chihuahua and Mr. Edmondson had charge of the construction of the plant which has turned out a large amount of silver bullion in the last few years.
In 1907, his work completed for the Rio Plata Mining Co., Mr. Edmondson accepted the position as Manager for the Quebradillas mine, mill and smelter in Parral and operated the work for more than a year. In addition to his duties in his position, Mr. Edmondson maintained a general practice as Consulting Engineer and made examinations for various mining interests in Mexico.
The Rio Plata Mining Company offering him the position of General Superintendent of its property in 1909, Mr. Edmondson accepted it and has been with the company continually since. For the first two years after rejoining the company he spent practically all of his time at the mines in Mexico, but in 1911, with the work of Consulting Engineer added to his responsibilities, his field was greatly enlarged and for about a year he has been engaged in mine examinations for his company, not only in Mexico, but in sections of the United States and Canada. In this work Mr. Edmondson has been in close association with D. W. Shanks, Vice President and General Manager of the company, and one of the successful mining operators of the United States. It was largely through the efforts of Mr. Shanks and the men he gathered around him that the Rio Plata was placed among the paying properties of Mexico.
It is worthy of note in connection with this property that Pasqual Orozco, leader of the revolution of 1912 against the Madero Government in Mexico, was a freight contractor engaged in the transportation of silver ore from the mine just prior to the revolutionary outbreak in 1910 which resulted in the overthrow of Diaz.
Mr. Edmondson, who is a giant in physique, has had a picturesque career in Mexico, where war and rebellion have existed all around the scene of his operations, but dislikes reference to this phase of his life. He prefers to be known for his profession only and in this he has attained a splendid standing.
He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and of the Mexican Institute of Mining Metallurgy of Mexico City. He is also prominent in Masonic circles, with the Thirty-second Degree rank, and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.
Transcribed 3-30-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 222,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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