San
Francisco County
Biographies
WILLIAM
ASHBURNER
The cosmopolitan character and wide range of
subjects to be taught in the Leland Stanford, Jr., University was an inducement
to the master mind who founded it to select for trustees those who by education
or experience had become expert in some branch of industry. The subject of our
sketch has had large experience in mining, and whose scientific education would
be of much value in the direction of a mining bureau. He is a native of
Massachusetts, and entered Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge,
Massachusetts, at 18 years of age. After studying two years at this institute
he went to Paris, where he studied the profession of mining engineer at the Cole des Mines, until he became expert
in the profession. From that time until 1860 he was employed in the examination
of various mining properties in the Lake Superior region, and in exploration on
the island of New Foundland. (sic)
In 1860 he came to California as one of the chief assistants in the State
geological survey, under Prof. J. D. Whitney. In 1864 Governor Low appointed
Mr. Ashburner one of the commissioners to take charge
of and manage, in the interest of the State, the Yosemite Valley and the
Mariposa Big Trees, which office he filled until 1880. For a period of twenty
years he has been engaged in his profession as a mining engineer, and traveled
in North and South America, Mexico and Asia. In 1874 he was appointed Professor
of Mining in the University of California, and in 1876 he was appointed by the
Regents Honorary Professor of Mining. He is also one of the trustees of the
California School of Mechanical Arts, founded by the late James Lick, and was
appointed by Governor Perkins one of the Regents of the State University. We
make the following quotation from a sketch published in the Resources of California:
“Owing to close application to his
professional work Mr. Ashburner has never taken an
active part in politics, nor does he interest himself in that direction,
further than to cast his ballot for the men who, in his judgment, will best
administer the affairs of the State and Nation; but in all that concerns the
growth and development of the Pacific coast Mr. Ashburner
takes a warm and active interest, and we believe that, for one of the Trustees
of the Leland Stanford, Junior, University, no better selection could have been
made.”
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Illustrated Fraternal Directory Including
Educational Institutions on the Pacific Coast”, Page 75, Publ.
Bancroft Co., San Francisco. Cal. 1889.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.
San Francisco County Biographies