San Francisco County
Biographies
FREDERICK
EMERSON HOAR
The distinguished record of Frederick Emerson Hoar in engineering is based on his notable achievements in the United States, in the Orient, and in military service, and his name has been associated with many of the most important engineering projects advanced during his generation. He maintains his offices at 995 Market street in San Francisco.
Frederick E. Hoar was born in Kern county, California, July 24, 1877, and is a son of the late Rev. Samuel Everett and Martha Jane (Price) Hoar. The father was born in Salem, Massachusetts, a member of an old English family of that state, and was a cousin of Senator Hoar, notable figure in the upper house of congress. Rev. Hoar was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, but on account of ill health was obliged to abandon his calling. In 1852, he came to California by the Cape Horn route, and in 1873 he settled in Kern county, where he established a cattle ranch. His tragic death occurred in Arizona in 1879, when he was robbed and killed by desperadoes. Rev. Hoar was a splendidly educated man, having been a graduate of Dartmouth College, and his inability to give his career to the ministry was a distinct loss to that noble profession. His wife was born in Richmond, Virginia. Her paternal ancestors were of English extraction, while on the maternal side she was of German stock. The Price line is authentically traced to ancestors who came to America prior to the American Revolution. In 1882, Mrs. Martha Jane (Price) Hoar became the wife of the pioneer lawyer-poet, Edward Jackman, by whom she had a son. She died in Oakland, California, in 1929, when she was in the seventy-ninth year of her age. By her marriage to Rev. Hoar, she was the mother of three children, namely: Elijah Henry, of Bakersfield, California; Frederick E.; and Mary Jane, who is the widow of William E. Mansfield.
Due to the death of his father, Frederick E. Hoar’s education was confined to the common schools, but this handicap did not deter him from securing the knowledge he desired from other sources. The fact that he has attained the heights in his vocation through channels of his own making is one of the most laudatory features of his career. Practical experience, inspired energy, natural ability, and diligent application are a few of the very adequate substitutions he made for collegiate training. Until he was twelve years of age, Mr. Hoar remained on the home ranch, and then he went to live with an uncle in Placer county, California. When he was seventeen years old, he secured employment with a railroad surveying party, his wages having been one dollar and fifty cents per week, with his board added. This, however, was the foundation of his later career. He found the work to his liking, and with youthful enthusiasm he absorbed knowledge of the work far beyond the confines of his duties. He continued in surveying and engineering until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, at which time he enlisted and was assigned to Company I of the First California Volunteer Infantry. He served with the first American expeditionary force and participated in the campaign against the Philippine insurrectionists. He was honorably discharged from the United States military service in Manila in 1899. After his discharge he remained in the Orient for four years, engaging in general contracting, and on his return to his home soil in 1905 he settled in San Francisco, where he has since been successfully and eminently active in his profession. Among the numerous and diversified projects with which Mr. Hoar has been connected are many in the Orient, in Mexico, in Central America, in South America, in the Dominion of Canada, and in the United States. He was consulting engineer and latterly engineer for the Northern California Power Company from 1907 to 1912, and from 1912 to 1917 he was gas and electric engineer for the California railroad commission.
Perhaps some brief mention should be made to indicate where his right to the title of “Colonel” originated: “In 1917, after completing special war-time investigations into the production of high explosive base materials, the production and conservation of petroleum and its products, and the coordination of electric power resources, Mr. Hoar, then a reserve officer, was ordered into active service as captain of engineers. Early in 1918 he was called upon to assist in the organization of engineer training schools, was superintendent of construction at Camp A. A. Humphries (Va.) and had charge of the general construction school, the mechanical school, the electrical school and numerous other schools for the training of officers and enlisted personnel of the Engineer Corps, United States Army. In recognition of this service he was promoted in 1918 to the grade of major of engineers, and assigned to the staff of Major General George W. Goethals. After the signing of the armistice he became a member of the Board of Sales and Contract Termination at Washington and early in 1919 he was relieved from active service and transferred to the organized reserves with the rank of lieutenant “colonel.”
He was chief engineer for the Northern California Power Company, Consolidated, in 1919, and in the same year was consulting engineer for the city of San Francisco. From 1921 to 1922, he was associated with General George W. Goethals in general engineering work. He has made extensive investigations and reports on flood control in the Yangtze-Kiang valley in China, also of the concessionary railways of China, with particular reference to the Manchurian situation, the port of Vladivostok, Siberia, and inter-relations between railway transportation, harbor development, resources and transportation facilities tributary to the gulf of Pe-chi-li in China. He has had important assignments in regard to the water and power resources of northern Mexico; the power resources of the upper Columbia river basin; the economics of power development in the Colorado river; the natural gas situation in the state of California; and in the east bay transportation problem, in particular reference to the economical aspects of a trans-bay bridge connecting the cities of Oakland and San Francisco, which project is now in the hands of the contractors and will in due course of time be a reality. Since the year 1919, Mr. Hoar has reported and appraised more than six million dollars worth of property in California, and has been associated with many other important projects which are not enumerated in the above brief summary. Those given, however, indicate to the reader the wide scope of his activities and the sheer brilliance of his accomplishments in the work which first inspired him as a young boy.
On November 14, 1925, Mr. Hoar was married to Emily Marie Bowlan in San Francisco, her native city. She is the daughter of Captain John C. and Mary E. (Hagan) Bowlan. Her father, descendant of a pioneer family of the bay region, is a member of the San Francisco fire department. Mr. and Mrs. Hoar reside at 675 Twentieth avenue in this city.
The political support of Mr. Hoar is given to the republican party, and his religious affiliation is with the Presbyterian Church. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, holding membership in San Francisco Lodge, No. 360, F. & A. M., and Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Union League Club, the Commonwealth Club, and the Public Spirit Club. Since 1904, he has made a special study of radio in connection with the Marconi Company, this being one of his chief diversions. He is also fond of motor touring, and enjoys the scenes and pleasures connected with all outdoor life. Just as his fine ability and achievements have brought him the profound respect and admiration of his fellows, his affability, democratic character, and public-spirited ideals have won for him the affection and true friendship of all with whom he has come in contact.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 328-332.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S SAN
FRANCISCO BIOGRAPIES