Los Angeles County
Biographies
JULIUS KOEBIG, Ph. D
KOEBIG, JULIUS,
Ph. D., Chemical and Mining Engineer, Los Angeles, California,
was born in Mettlach, a manufacturing town near the
city of Trier, in the Valley of Moselle, Germany, March 9, 1855. His father was Christian Koebig
and his mother Julia (Schmeltzer) Koebig. His grandfather on the maternal branch of the
family was a prominent Professor of Natural Science in the University of Trier, Germany.
This institution has been a leading University for centuries, but was
closed by the great Napoleon at the beginning of the last century during his
reconstruction work among the States of the Federation of the Rhine. The Koebigs have
been a prominent family of tanners in the city of Homburg,
in the Palatia, Germany,
for centuries and have furnished many officials and
mayors for that city. The first mayor
from the family mentioned in German history dates back to the Thirty Years War,
1648, and the tannery at Homburg, which has been the property of the Koebigs for centuries, is still owned by the family. On December 5, 1889, at San
Francisco, California, Dr. Koebig married Marie P. Kohler, the daughter of Charles
Kohler, a prominent wine merchant of that city.
There are two daughters, Julie and Theodora, and one son, Hans Koebig.
Dr. Koebig was educated in the German schools at Karlsruhe,
in the Grand Duchy of Baden, one of the States of the German Federation. He took his preparatory studies in the
Gymnasium, from which he graduated at the age of sixteen years. He then entered the Technical University of
Karlsruhe, from which he graduated as a Chemical and Mining Engineer in
1874. Upon graduation he was appointed
Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Technical University of
Stuttgart, Germany, which he held for a year.
In the fall of
1875 he entered the German Army as a one-year volunteer and just one year later
received the qualification of a commissioned officer. About the same time he was appointed
Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in the University
of Strassburg, Germany. This institution conferred on him, in June,
1878, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Early in the
following year he left the University to accept the position of Directing
Chemist for the rebuilding and remodeling of the celebrated Aniline Dye Works,
near Frankfurt on the Main, Germany. When Dr. Koebig
took charge of that business there were only seventeen men in the employ of the
company. When he resigned three years
later the establishment had grown to such an extent that there were employed
almost four hundred men. The aniline Dye
Works is now recognized as one of the largest and most successful of its kind
in Germany.
Upon leaving the
position of Directing Chemist at the dye works Dr. Koebig
devoted one year to private studies at the Universities of Darmstadt and Munich. While studying there, during the winter of
1882, he was called by the European-American Tunnel Company of Denver,
Colorado, to make an investigation of the mining
resources of Gilpin County, Colorado. The object was to construct a working and
drainage tunnel to facilitate deep mining in the mining properties of the
county. The mouth of the tunnel was to
be located below Central City, Colorado. This important investigation occupied six
months, and in the summer of 1883 Dr. Koebig was able
to return to Germany. He immediately resumed his scientific study
and research work there, continuing it until the winter of 1883.
Before the year
closed he returned to the United States,
and in conjunction with his brother, A. H. Koebig,
opened offices at Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
as Consulting Mining and Chemical Engineers.
The chief work accomplished by the Koebigs
there was the investigation of the iron deposits in Wisconsin
and Michigan and particularly
along the Gogebic range. After a
thorough study of the mineral resources of this famous range, there appeared
the first scientific report on the iron deposits of that region, the work of
Dr. Koebig and his brother.
In the latter
part of 1884 Dr . Koebig
left Milwaukee to take charge of silver mines in Calico, California,
where both he and his brother were heavily interested. At first this property gave promise of great
production, but a fall in the price of silver soon made that mine unprofitable.
Dr. Koebig settled at San Francisco,
California, in 1886, where he constructed
and operated a fertilizer plant in connection with the Mexican Phosphate and Sulphur Company.
This business proved a success and Dr. Koebig
continued in it for four years, withdrawing in the spring of 1890 to enter a
new line of his profession.
At that time he
became a member of the firm of Kohler & Frohling,
wine merchants in San Francisco, in
charge of scientific work.
Dr. Koebig returned to his favorite engineering profession in
1894, at that time opening offices in San Francisco
as a Consulting Chemical and Mining Engineer.
He developed and maintained a large business in that and surrounding
cities, and became known in that section of the State as one of the most
substantial men of his profession. He
continued in the north until 1902 when he moved his offices to Los
Angeles, California, where he
has since remained.
During the years
1894 and 1895, while operating in San Francisco, the University
of California, located at Berkeley,
California, sought his services as a
lecturer and engineer. He traveled
through the different counties of the State in the interest of promoting beet
sugar in California in connection
with the Farmers’ Institute. About this
period Dr. Koebig also gave a course of lectures on
the manufacture of beet sugar at the University
of California.
Dr. Koebig’s principal work has consisted in inspecting mining
properties and manufactories. He has
also made an extensive study of agriculture.
His latest study has dealt with means for the development of the great
untouched resources of Southern California in connection
with the establishment of the manufacture of heavy chemicals.
Dr. Koebig is a member of the Bankers’ Club of Los Angeles, the
Society of Chemical Industry of London, England, and is Ex-President of the
German General Benevolent Association, which operated the German
Hospital at San Francisco.
Transcribed 12-29-08
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 157,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2008 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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