San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GILBERT McMILLAN ROSS
An eminently experienced, successful
and prosperous mining engineer, Gilbert McMillan Ross, of 444 West Poplar
Street, Stockton, is a native of northern Scotland, where he was born on January
20, 1851. He was educated in England and
south Wales; and after an exceptional training in chemistry and mining
engineering, he came to the United States in 1869. He traveled by way of Panama, and at length
reached San Francisco; and from the Bay City he went inland to Virginia City,
Nevada, where he was assayer and surveyor of bullion in the mines. He was also for a year an assistant assayer
in the United States mint at Carson City, Nevada. From there he went to Virginia City and had
charge of the handling of the bullion and of the assaying in the Big Bonanza Mine,
already one of the big producers. He was
thus closely associated with pioneer miners of the early days in Nevada, and
later had charge of mining properties, some of them owned by himself in
Nevada. Later still, on coming to
California, Mr. Ross had charge of the Copperopolis mines west of the Mother
Lode, in Calaveras and Amador counties.
For the past fourteen years Mr. Ross has been consulting mining and
metallurgical engineer with headquarters in Stockton, and he still has valuable
mining interests in both Nevada and California.
He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Mr. Ross spent months of his time obtaining
the data for the map of the Bret Harte trail which was issued by the Stockton
Chamber of Commerce, furnishing the topographical, engineering and mining
data. This map establishes the mining
belts of central California, including the Mother Lode and the gold and copper
belts. Mr. Ross has also always taken an
active part in civic affairs in the district in which he has lived, exerting an
enviable influence by his pen and his oratory; he has contributed articles to
the newspapers on mining, political economy and educational topics, and as a
forceful, convincing speaker, he has participated in public meetings. He is particularly interested in the
conservation of California water; and although once defeated as a candidate on
the Democratic ticket for a seat in Congress, he continues to work in favor of
this economic reform. He belongs to the
Stockton Water Consumer’s League, and to the Stockton Chamber of Commerce,
where he has served on various committees.
At San Francisco, California, Mr.
Ross was married to Miss Ellen Ward, a native of Vermont; and their union was
blessed with five children, four of whom are living. Margaret has become Mrs. H. E. Zobel of Berkeley, and she has a son and a daughter and also
a grandson. Mary Ethel and Ella B. are
the second and third born, and John R., the youngest, is a mechanical engineer
with the Holt Manufacturing Company; he is married and has a daughter and a
son.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1594. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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