San Francisco
County
Biographies
BEACH THOMPSON
THOMPSON,
BEACH, Geologist and Engineer, San Francisco, was born in Brooklyn, New York,
December 5, 1865, the son of Samuel and Emma Root (Hubbard) Thompson. His father, who was known in his day as
"Railroad Thompson," built the first railroad from New Orleans to
Mobile, and also the first road from Chicago to Milwaukee. He was a warm personal friend of Abraham
Lincoln, served through the Civil War, and was master of transportation to the
battle of Pittsburg Landing. He was
killed in 1867 while laying out the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railroad. Beach Thompson came to
California in November, 1889, and on February 26, 1896, was married in Berkeley
to Miss Augusta Veeder. Of this marriage one child was born, Barbara
Beach Thompson.
He worked his way through the State Normal
School, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in the years '81-'84. From 1886 to 1889 he was a student at the
University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with the degree of B. S.
and a special diploma in geology. Coming
to California in '89 he entered Stanford University, took an A. M. therefrom in 1892, and continued there for another year on
his doctor's degree as an instructor.
Shortly after severing his connection with
Stanford he entered the mining field, in the Fall of
'94, in Calaveras County. There he
became interested in water rights and in the development of electric
power. After a thorough investigation,
perceiving the possibilities of the Stanislaus River for this purpose, he
organized the Stanislaus Electric Power Company, drew up the engineering plans,
took options on the necessary properties, and raised $6,500,000 in New York city. Subsequently
through the financial panic, the failure of the Knickerbocker
Trust Company, which had $1,500,000 on deposit of the company's funds, and the
California disaster of 1906, he lost control of the company which was
reorganized as the Sierra and San Francisco Power Company.
Mr. Thompson was the first to suggest the
use of steel towers for the transmission of electric power. Like many another advanced thinker whose
ideas seemed chimerical but were later found to be most practical, he was
laughed at at first, especially in New York. The steel towers are now a complete success,
supporting wires capable of transmitting at 104,000 volts pressure.
Among Beach Thompson’s valuable
contribution, both to the world of science and to that of practical affairs, is
the huge Relief dam in Tuolumne County.
This is 140 feet high and 560 feet wide, built with a reinforced
concrete face on a rock fill. He also
selected the site, and bought the ground in Kennedy’s Meadows, for the Sierra
and San Francisco Power Company.
He is now especially interested in
wireless telegraphy, and has the rights for the United States, as well as the
marine right, for the Paulson Wireless, which is now operating between Los
Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Stockton, Cal.; Phoenix, Ariz.; El Paso, and
Fort Worth, Tex., and in Kansas City, Mo., and Portland and Medford, Ore. Mr. Thompson was a delegate to the National
Convention that nominated Mr. Taft for the Presidency. He was educated for the profession of
teaching, but was deflected from his course by politics. He has held the following offices in
important companies: Vice Pres. and
Director of Sierra & S.F. Power Co., Pres. and Director Tuolumne Water
Power Co., Pres. Stanislaus Elec. Power Co., and Pres. San Domingo Mining Co.,
all of which properties have been purchased by the United Rys.
Inv. Co. He is a member of the American
Geographical Society, and his clubs are the Pacific-Union, University, Bohemian
and the Menlo Country.
Transcribed by Suzanne Wood.
Source:
Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 867,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Suzanne Wood.