Hyde, William Birelie, 1842-1882

Hyde was a surveyor and engineer, of Oakland, Calif.

California surveyor and engineer. Worked for both the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads; later for the San Francisco Water Works Company.

Biographical Note

William Birelie Hyde was born February 14, 1842, in or near Baltimore, Md., the second child of Oliver Hyde, Jr. and Harriet Kean Hyde. He and his family traveled overland to California either in 1851 or in 1853, and settled in Benicia, where he later attended the Benicia Collegiate Institute. After attending the Rensellear Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N.Y., Hyde graduated with distinction in 1861.

At the start of the Civil War, he formed a company of fellow students and drilled them in Troy and Albany. He then applied to Gov. Morgan of N.Y., who then commissioned him major and ordered him to form a regiment in northern N.Y. state. So successful was he, that on October 30, 1861 he was promoted to Lt. Colonel of the 9th N.Y. Cavalry. After serving a tour of guard duty near Washington, the regiment served on the Peninsula with McClellan. Resenting the inactivity of the regiment, Hyde resigned in favor of a more active commission with a regiment of New York roughnecks. After drilling the men sufficiently to produce a well-ordered regiment, Hyde was disgusted to learn that he had been passed over in favor of someone more suitable politically. He resigned once more, and joined an emigrant party bound for California. On this trip he met Clarence King, geologist, and James Gardner scientist.

Hyde parted company with his companions at Gold Hill, Nevada. Here, at the Gold Hill Foundry, Hyde assisted his father. Once again, ill fortune faced Hyde. Shortly after the foundry burned, Hyde left for the Yosemite Valley where he rejoined King and Gardner, who were involved in a government survey of the valley for Prof. F. L. Olmstead. The correspondence of the Hyde Papers begins here.

Hyde was an engineer and Washington lobbyist for the Terminal Central Pacific Railway from December 1866 to May 1869. Letters concerning this period are found in Letterbook #1. Also mentioned are the Yosemite survey, his marriage, and a Russian-American telegraph survey. Letterbook #2 (1869-1873) covers the period after Huntington squashed the Terminal road and took on Hyde for the CPRR. At first, Hyde served as a Sacramento lobbyist, field man and general surveyor of southern California routes. He later became Special Agent for the S.P.R.R. in the fight with Scott, Donahue and Downey in procuring Los Angeles County for the S.P., and in laying out the required 50 miles of road. An apparent down-grading of his duties thereafter caused Hyde to resign.

Hyde later held a series of positions: minor railroad jobs, an ice plant, etc., before he designed water works for the San Joaquin-San Francisco Water Works Company. Letterbook #3 (1873-1877) details all these projects as well as a report on the reclamation of Union Island and various family letters.