William Merriam Cobleigh was an early professor at Montana Agricultural College (MAC) and was later the head of the chemistry department at Montana State College, Bozeman. His parents were Reverend William and Julia Cobleigh of Corvallis. His father later moved to pastorates in Idaho and Washington. Their original home seems to have been in the Boston area. William Merriam, the only child of the Reverend and his wife, was born in 1872 in Haverstraw, New York. In addition to his teaching, Cobleigh worked for the Missoula Mercantile in Corvallis and matriculating at the College of Montana in Deer Lodge from 1891 to 1894. He also worked as the assistant chemist for the Anaconda Mining Company. In 1894, Cobleigh began looking for a place to do his post graduate education and decided on Columbia University where he earned his master's degree in chemistry in 1899. His parents were in Ilwaco, Washington and later Hoquiam during that time. He continued his post-graduate work at Harvard and the University of Chicago. He was also acting President of Montana State College from 1942-1943. Cobleigh married Esther Rose Cooley, the relative of R. A. Cooley on the MAC staff, in 1901. She graduated as a kindergarten teacher in 1899 and taught in Bozeman after she married William in 1901. They had three children together, Winifred, Lois, and Norman. In addition to his work at the college, Cobleigh was a member of the American Public Health Association and the State Board of Health. He was also a trustee of the Presbyterian Church and a member of the Bozeman Lodge No. 18, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He died in the early 1950s after a long career in chemistry.
From the guide to the William Merriam Cobleigh Papers, 1891-1929, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
