Egbert Hambley

Egbert Hambley was born in Penzance, Cornwall, the son of James Hambley (a civil engineer) and Ellen Read Hambley. He was educated at Trevath House School and the Royal School of Mines.Brent D. Glass, [http://ncpedia.org/biography/hambley-egbert-barry "Egbert Barry Cornwall Hambley"] in William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography (University of North Carolina Press 1988).

Hambley spent three years as a young man helping to run the Gold Hill gold mines in Rowan County, North Carolina, 1881–1884.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6214614/egbert_hambley_obit_greensboro_1906/ "E. B. C. Hambley, of Whitney, is Dead"] Greensboro Daily News (14 August 1906): 3. via Newspapers.com {{open access}} After that job, he changed engineering firms, working for John Taylor & Sons at mines around the world, from Mexico to South Africa, from India to Norway. In 1887, he was back in North Carolina, as a consulting engineer, working for British interests in the state.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xPMgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cXQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5546%2C3279293 "To Get British Cash"] The Day (19 April 1888): 4. He was managing director of the Sam Christian Hydraulic Company, and founded the Salisbury Gas and Electric Light Company.

He partnered with George I. Whitney of Pittsburgh to form the Whitney Reduction Company, which had projects in several American states; the centrepiece of their efforts was a planned hydroelectric plant on the Yadkin River,Julian S. Miller, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uo8fAQAAMAAJ&dq=E.+B.+C.+Hambley&pg=PA1045 "The Whitney Development on the Yadkin"] Electrical Review 49(December 29, 1906): 1045–1047. with a model town called "Whitney."[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6216771/laying_out_whitney_on_the_yadkin_river/ "Laying out a Town; Whitney Will Soon be a City"] Salisbury Evening Post (20 April 1905): 1. via Newspapers.com {{open access}} Hambley's sudden death and construction delays meant the project was abandoned and the Whitney Reduction Company was dissolved by 1910.Mark Wineka, [http://archive.salisburypost.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=2003/December/21/Area/21-1_dam_story_w_pix065782001101839479.xml&archive_pubname=Salisbury+Post%0A%09%09%09 "With Badin Lake Down, Visitors Catch a Rare Glimpse of 'Ol' Whitney'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821104607/http://archive.salisburypost.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=2003%2FDecember%2F21%2FArea%2F21-1_dam_story_w_pix065782001101839479.xml&archive_pubname=Salisbury+Post%0A%09%09%09 |date=21 August 2016 }} Salisbury Post (21 December 2003).[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2978006/1910-notice-of-sale-of-all-lands-of-the/ 1910 Notice of Sale of all Lands of The Whitney Company], Roxboro Courier (23 November 1910): 3. via Newspapers.com {{open access}} Their Yadkin dam project was taken over by a predecessor of Alcoa Power Generating Inc. and completed by Alcoa some years later at nearby Badin, North Carolina.[http://www.badin100.com/History_of_Badin.html "History of Badin"] Badin Centennial 1913–2013 website.

Hambley also owned several granite quarries in North Carolina, which he hoped to develop into a large-scale commercial venture.[https://books.google.com/books?id=zJs5AQAAMAAJ&dq=E.+B.+C.+Hambley&pg=PA137 "The Southern Granites"] Stone 20(1)(December 1899): 137–140. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1890.[https://books.google.com/books?id=_Am8AAAAIAAJ&dq=Egbert+Hambley&pg=PA340 Annals of British Geology] (Dulau & Company 1891): 340.

File:Hambley Wallace House Salisbury NC.JPG Salisbury NC, built for E. B. C. Hambley and family in 1902-3]]

Egbert Hambley married Charlotte "Lottie" Clark Coleman, from a prominent North Carolina family,John J. Beck, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2209363 "Building the New South: A Revolution from Above in a Piedmont County"] Journal of Southern History 53(3)(August 1987): 441–470. DOI: 10.2307/2209363 in 1887.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6214711/wedding_of_egbert_hambley_and_lottie/ "Married"] North Carolina Herald (10 February 1887): 3. via Newspapers.com {{open access}} They were married by the Rev. Samuel Rothrock, who was Charlotte's Uncle. They lived on a farm, where Egbert Hambley raised prize Jersey cows as a side interest.David Harry Jenkins, [https://books.google.com/books?id=d53bAAAAMAAJ&dq=Egbert+Hambley&pg=PA304 Famous Jersey Cattle] (Harry Jenkins & Sons 1922): 304.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6214745/egbert_hambley_raised_jersey_cows/ Untitled news item], Wilmington Messenger (7 April 1895): 2. via Newspapers.com {{open access}} After 1903 they lived in an "unusually handsome"Narrative description, [https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/RW0662.pdf Hambley-Wallace House] nomination form, National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior. large house in Salisbury, North Carolina,[https://www.rowancountync.gov/GOVERNMENT/Departments/RowanPublicLibrary/HistoryRoom/TheoBuerbaumsSalisbury/Residences/EBCHambley.aspx "Residences: Residence of the Late E. B. C. Hambley"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160902075146/http://www.rowancountync.gov/GOVERNMENT/Departments/RowanPublicLibrary/HistoryRoom/TheoBuerbaumsSalisbury/Residences/EBCHambley.aspx |date=2 September 2016 }} Theo Buerbaum's Salisbury (Rowan County Public Library). and had five children together before Egbert Hambley died suddenly from typhoid in 1906, aged 44 years.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6214245/egbert-hambley-obit-1906/ "Egbert B. C. Hambley"] Salisbury Evening Post (13 August 1906): 1. via Newspapers.com {{open access}} His death was pronounced "a grief to the whole South," by the Charlotte Observer, "for which section he was doing more than any living man."[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6214486/capt_e_b_c_hambley_dead_charlotte/ "Capt. E. B. C. Hambley Dead"] Charlotte Observer (14 August 1906): 4. via Newspapers.com {{open access}}

A small collection of his papers is archived in the library at Pfeiffer University.[http://library.pfeiffer.edu/Hambley.html Guide to The E.B.C. Hambley Papers 1877 – 1977], Collection Number Mss 19988, G.A. Pfeiffer Library, Pfeiffer University.

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• [http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28715568 Egbert Barry Cornwall Hambley (1862–1906)] at Find a Grave.

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Category:1862 births

Category:1906 deaths

Category:People from Penzance

Category:English mining engineers

Category:American people of Cornish descent

Category:British emigrants to the United States

Category:19th-century English businesspeople