San Francisco County
Biographies
WILLIAM HOOD
HOOD, WILLIAM, Chief Engineer of the Southern Pacific Company, San Francisco, California, was born at Concord, New Hampshire, Feb. 4, 1846, the son of Joseph Edward Hood and Maria (Savage) Hood. His ancestors, who were chiefly English, with a blend of Scotch, were among the early settlers of New England, his father’s family choosing Massachusetts, and his mother’s people Vermont, as their respective places of residence. Joseph E. Hood, a graduate of Dartmouth, with the class of ’41, was a well-known journalist in New England, and for sixteen years an editorial writer of the Springfield Republican. Coming of clean, wholesome, sturdy stock, on both sides of the house, William Hood has evidently inherited the essentially New England characteristics of energy, ambition, and conscientious devotion to the work in hand.
From the time he was eight years old to the outbreak of the Civil War he attended public schools in Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts. Not long after the beginning of hostilities he enlisted as a private soldier in Company A, 46th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, and not only carried, but also fired a musket, through the war, until shortly after the battle of Gettysburg. He then returned home to complete his education. Though he had been prepared for the academic course his ambition to be an engineer prompted him to enter a scientific school. Choosing the B. S. Chandler Scientific School of Dartmouth he studied there until 1867, and in May of the same year began his professional career in California, with a field engineering party, in the employ of the Central Pacific Railroad Company.
Beginning as an axeman he rose in a few months to the post of assistant engineer of the Central Pacific, at that time building the road, with Chinese labor, between Cisco and Truckee. Ninety-one and a half miles had been completed to Cisco, and after the twenty-seven and seven-tenths miles were finished to Truckee the construction moved rapidly toward Salt Lake. In May, 1869, the Central Pacific rails met those of the Union Pacific on Promentory Mountain, Utah. Mr. Hood then returned to the Sacramento Valley and began work on the road which the Central Pacific was building from Marysville, California, to Ashland, Oregon. From that time up to the present, while constructing many thousands of miles of road he has held these positions: 1875-83, Chief Assistant Engineer of the Central Pacific; from June to October 10, 1883, Chief Assistant Engineer of the Southern Pacific; 1883-85, Chief Engineer of the C. P.; and is now Chief Engineer of the Southern Pacific Company.
Among his especially noteworthy achievements, under Mr. Harriman’s control, is the reconstruction of the Central Pacific between Reno, Nevada, and Ogden, Utah, including the Ogden and Lucin cut-off, across Great Salt Lake. He is now busy on the double track between Sacramento and Ogden and on the road now building from a point opposite Mt. Shasta, California, to Natron, Oregon, by way of Klamath Lake as well as on sundry other railroad construction. Mr. Hood’s reputation as a constructive engineer is too well known to require comment. His remarkable sense and memory for detail, topography and other essentials of success have caused his associates to regard him as a “law unto himself.” But though strictly an engineer, in all that term implies, he is not above riding a hobby or two. Chief among these is his recreation of tramping in the hills and making studies, with his camera, in black and white, and in color photography. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Association of Advancement of Science. His clubs are: Pacific-Union, Bohemian and Olympic of San Francisco, California and Jonathan of Los Angeles.
Transcribed by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
233, International News
Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Joyce Rugeroni.