Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Processing History
Collection Number
Biographical Note
Collection Scope and Contents
Collection Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: John Debo Galloway papers
Date (inclusive): 1905-1940
Date (bulk): 1920-1940
Collection Number: WRCA 039
Creator:
Galloway, John Debo, 1869-1943
Extent:
10.19 linear feet
(22 boxes)
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Abstract: The collection consists of correspondence, reports, photographs, and miscellaneous material, relating to various bridges,
dams, water supply systems, and hydroelectric power installations in California, including the Hetch Hetchy Project, the Los
Angeles Aqueduct, the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and to electrical distribution systems in
California and British Columbia.
Languages: The collection is in English.
Access
The collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the University of California, Riverside Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives.
Distribution or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission
of the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions apply, permission for distribution or reproduction from the applicable
rights holder is also required. Responsibility for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Preferred Citation
[identification of item], [date if possible]. John Debo Galloway papers (WRCA 039). Water Resources Collections and Archives.
Special Collections & University Archives, University of California, Riverside.
Acquisition Information
Provenance unknown.
Processing History
Processed by Water Resources Collections and Archives Staff, 1998.
Collection Number
Collection number updated January 2019. Legacy collection number was GALLOWAY. This change was part of a project in 2018/2019
to update the collection numbers for collections in the Water Resources Collections and Archives.
Biographical Note
John Debo Galloway, the son of James and Emily Myers (Hoover) Galloway, was born on October 13, 1869, at San Jose, Calif.
His ancestors were residents of Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania prior to the American Revolution. His parents died
when he was still quite young. Left to his own resources, one of his dominant characteristics, self-reliance, early came to
the fore. His boyhood experiences, some of which were acquired at Virginia City, Nev., bound, when that city was the center
of the great mining activity incident to the discovery and development of the famous Comstock Lode, made a deep impression
upon him. At the age of eight he was taken to live with friends in Napa Valley, California.
His technical education was gained at Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Ind., and was graduated in 1889. Upon graduation
he was employed in railroad work in the Pacific Northwest. From 1892 to 1896 he was chief engineer for Healy-Tibbitts Construction
Company of San Francisco. In this capacity he personally directed the construction of important bridges, harbor works, sewers,
and difficult foundation work. From June 1896 to September 1897, he was employed in the engineering department of Pacific
Rolling Mill Company of San Francisco, on designing and detailing steel building frames.
From September 1897 to October 1899, he was an instructor in drawing and mechanics at California School of Mechanical Arts
in San Francisco. In this capacity he made a deep impression on his students, many of whom became leaders of the engineering
profession. Among them was Arthur H. Markwart, who later became Mr. Galloway's partner. From October 1899 to May 1900, Galloway
was chief engineer for Colusa Stone Company. After May 1900, he maintained an independent practice as a consulting engineer.
For the California Gas and Electric Company, predecessor of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, he directed the design
and construction of the cable span across the Straits of Carquinez. This span, which was a part of the world's then longest
transmission line, was also the then longest cable span.
From 1900 to 1906, the period just prior to the San Francisco earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906, he designed and supervised
hydraulic and structural construction for several hydroelectric plants which were later absorbed in the system of the Pacific
Gas and Electric Company. He also designed the hydraulic and structural features for the first two hydroelectric plants of
the system later owned by the California Electric Power Company; and the structural elements of some of the city's principal
buildings including the Mutual Savings Bank Building, the St. Francis Hotel, the Shreve Buildings, the Schroth Building, the
Syndicate Building of Oakland, etc. He was one of the earliest advocates of earthquake-resistant design, and the merit of
his reasoning was fully demonstrated by structures designed by him, when they were subjected to the effects of the great earthquake.
Immediately after the earthquake he formed a partnership with John Galen Howard, as Howard and Galloway, Architects and Engineers.
William C. Hays and Mr. Markwart were junior partners. This firm took a leading part in the design of San Francisco's reconstructed
commercial district. The firm also designed and supervised the construction of buildings and grounds for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific
Exposition at Seattle, Wash.
At this time he also served with Charles D. Marx and Wynne Meredith on the Board of Advisory Engineers on the design and
construction of the Stanislaus Hydroelectric Power Plant, California.
From 1908 to 1920 he was associated with Mr. Markwart on consulting work. Galloway and Markwart designed and built several
railway and combined highway and railway bridges in the Sacramento Valley, California, a hydroelectric power plant in Yosemite
National Park, and a number of important buildings. The firm made investigations and reports upon utility properties, including
those of Oro Electric Corporation, Butte and Tehama Power Company, City Electric Company, Yolo Water and Power Company, and
Santa Barbara Gas and Electric Company. Galloway investigated and reported on existing and possible additional power developments
on the Menominee River, Michigan and Wisconsin; on power possibilities on Deschutes River in Oregon; on power developments
on the Feather River and Yuba River in California; on development of hydroelectric power on Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada;
and on power projects on Pit River, California. He also conducted extensive examinations and reports, in many instances including
appraisals on irrigation systems. Among the properties concerned were those of Turlock Irrigation District and Modesto Irrigation
District; Honcut-Yuba Irrigation District; Fresno Canal and Land Corporation; Mendota Irrigation District; Tulare Lake Basin
Water Storage District; and Sutter Butte Canal Company. With J. B. Lippincott, B. A. Etcheverry, F. C. Herrmann, W. L. Huber,
and F. H. Tibbetts, he was a member of the Board of Advisory Engineers on the Sacramento Valley Division of the Central Valley
Project in California. This board made studies of dams on the larger rivers giving special consideration to the Shasta (Kennett)
Dam and the use of water in the Sacramento Valley.
Galloway rendered extensive service to Great Western Power Company-first in connection with the design and construction of
extensions and additions to its Las Plumas Plant on Feather River; and later in connection with the design and construction
of its Caribou Plant on the same stream. As consulting engineer, he represented the company on the construction of the Bucks
Creek hydroelectric power plant.
With Frank G. Baum and W. F. Durand, Galloway was a member of the Board of Consulting Engineers on the location and design
of the Moccasin Creek hydroelectric plant on the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct of the City of San Francisco. For Pacific Gas and Electric
Company he served as consulting engineer in connection with the concrete masonry dams for Pit No. 3 and Pit No. 4 power plants
on the Pit River, the enlargement of Fordyce rock-fill dam on Yuba River, and the design and construction of the 328-ft. Salt
Springs rock-fill dam on Mokelumne River. With Robert Ridgway, Arthur N. Talbot, and M. M. O'Shaughnessy, he was a member
of the first Commission of San Francisco on the location of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
He was married on April 19, 1894, to Nettie Mabel Barnes whom he had known since early childhood in Napa Valley. Mrs. Galloway
died on June 14, 1941. He had two daughters, Mrs. E. Ronald Foster and Mrs. Alice Wilder, and three grandchildren, John D.,
Margaret Ellen, and Rosemary Foster.
John Debo Galloway died on March 10, 1943 in Berkeley, California.
Excerpted from:
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Vol. 109 (1944).
Collection Scope and Contents
The collection consists of correspondence, reports, photographs, and miscellaneous material, relating to various bridges,
dams, water supply systems, and hydroelectric power installations in California, including the Hetch Hetchy Project, the Los
Angeles Aqueduct, the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and to electrical distribution systems in
California and British Columbia.
Collection Arrangement
The collection is arranged topically.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Dams -- California
Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, Calif.)
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (Calif.)
Hydroelectric power plants -- California
Los Angeles Aqueduct (Calif.)
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (Oakland and San Francisco, Calif.)
Water-power -- California
Genres and Forms of Materials
Correspondence
Photographs
Reports