WI BIO - Dane Co - HOBBS, William Herbert
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol II, pp 513-514

William Herbert HOBBS, Ph. D., assistant professor of Mineralogy and 
Metallurgy, University of WI, was born in Worcester [Worcester County], MA, 
02 Jul 1864, son of Horace and Mary P. (PARKER) HOBBS, of that place. Horace 
HOBBS was and is examiner of titles in the office of Register of Deeds in 
Worcester County, MA, and during the late war was Captain of Company H, 51st 
MA Volunteer Regiment. Horace HOBBS was the son of General George HOBBS, 
also a resident of Worcester. Samuel HOBBS, the original ancestor of the 
family who settled in America, came here from England in 1636 with John 
WINTHROP, and located in MA.

William Herbert HOBBS was one year old when his mother died, and later his 
father married Maria KNOWLES, of Auburn, Westchester County [NY]. When he 
was six years old the family settled in Auburn, where he attended school 
until he was fourteen. Then he was a student at Worcester Academy for two 
terms. In the fall of 1880 William Herbert HOBBS entered Worcester Free 
Institute of Industrial Science (now Worcester Polytechnic Institute), where 
he followed a course of drawing and designing, and graduated third in his 
class in 1883. The following winter he was principal of the high school at 
Boylston, MA. In the fall of 1884 he entered Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, MD, where he remained until 1886, pursuing studies in chemistry 
and mineralogy. In the summer of 1886 he acted as Field Assistant in the 
Archaean Division of the U. S. Geological Survey, operating in western MA, in 
the Berkshire hills, and the following winter and spring he spent at Harvard 
University, studying geology under Professors SHALER and WOLFF.

In the summer of 1887 William Herbert HOBBS was made Assistant U. S. 
Geologist. He re-entered Johns Hopkins University the following fall; was 
appointed a Fellow in Geology, and received the degree of Ph. D. in Jun 1888. 
The subject of his thesis was "On the Rocks Occurring in the Neighborhood of 
Ilchester, Howard County, MD." From Jul 1888 until Jun 1889 he was abroad, 
studying petrology under Professor ROSENBUSCH, in the University of 
Heidelberg, Germany, and visiting various points of interest in Germany and 
Italy, especially the volcanoes of Italy.

After his return to the U. S., Professor HOBBS resumed work on the U. S. 
Geological Survey in western New England, and in the fall of that same year 
[p 513] was called to the University of WI as instructor in Mineralogy and 
curator of the Geological and Mineralogical Museum. In 1890 he was promoted 
to the assistant professorship of Mineralogy, and was made secretary and 
librarian of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. He is 
still assistant geologist in the U. S. Geological Survey. [A list of papers 
written by Professor HOBBS has been omitted here. Some titles are in German. 
The titles of his papers show that he studied the mineralogy of the Boston 
Basin, the State of MD (Howard County is mentioned), and Minnehaha County, 
SD.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly