Pope Yeatman (August 3, 1861 – December 5, 1953) was an American mining engineer and consultant. He was known for his work in mining in South Africa, Chile, and Alaska. He was a member of the

War Industries Board The War Industries Board (WIB) was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies between the War Department (Department of the Army) and the Navy Department. Because ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Early life

Pope Yeatman was born on August 3, 1861, in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

's mining school with an Engineer of Mines (E. M.) degree in 1883. His uncle, James E. Yeatman, was a philanthropist in St. Louis. His first name was derived from the name of his grandfather Nathaniel Pope, an early politician in the Illinois territory. As a boy, he lived in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, and with relatives on a ranch in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

Career

After graduating, Yeatman worked in mines in Missouri, New Mexico, Colorado and Mexico. From August 1895 to 1899, he worked in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

as an assistant consulting engineer for the Consolidated Gold Fields Company and then was manager of the

Robinson Deep Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 1960s ...

gold mine. In 1896, he moved from Lydenburg to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. From April to August 1899, he worked as the general manager at the Simmer and Jack mine. He then became general manager and consulting engineer with Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company in

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

. While there, he was an officer of the volunteer mine guard. In June 1904, Yeatman returned to the United States and worked as the chief consulting engineer for M. Guggenheim & Sons (later the Exploration Company). By 1906, he had succeeded John Hays Hammond in his consulting role with the Guggenheims. His first management activities in copper were with the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company, which included the Cumberland–Ely Mines, the Steptoe Valley & Smelting Company and the Nevada Northern Railway. He was succeeded by

Daniel C. Jackling Daniel Cowan Jackling (August 14, 1869 – March 13, 1956), was an American mining and metallurgical engineer who pioneered the exploitation of low-grade porphyry copper ores at the Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah. Biography Early life Born near ...

in the role in 1915. Around 1909, he became responsible for operations at the El Teniente mine in Chile. He negotiated the first flotation contract between Braden Copper Company and Minerals Separation, Limited. He examined the

Chuquicamata Chuquicamata ( ; referred to as Chuqui for short) is the largest open pit copper mine in terms of excavated volume in the world. It is located in the north of Chile, just outside Calama, at above sea level. It is northeast of Antofagasta and n ...

copper mine, property of Chile Copper Company, in Chile for the Guggenheims. In the summers of 1906 and 1909, he did investigative work in Alaska that purportedly led to the

Alaska Syndicate In an effort to thwart statehood and Alaskan home rule from Washington D.C., the "Alaska Syndicate," was formed in 1906 by J. P. Morgan and Simon Guggenheim. The Syndicate purchased thKennicott-Bonanza copper mineand had majority control of the Alas ...

, connecting the Guggenheims with J. P. Morgan. He became a consulting engineer with the Yukon Gold Company. He also did investigate work in China and other parts of the world. In 1914, Yeatman lived in Philadelphia but commuted daily to New York City. His salary at that time was over a year. During

, he was a member of the

. He replaced Eugene Meyer as head of the

non-ferrous metal In metallurgy, non-ferrous metals are metals or alloys that do not contain iron (allotropes of iron, ferrite, and so on) in appreciable amounts. Generally more costly than ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals are used because of desirable proper ...

s division in 1918. During this period, he worked in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

In March 1918, Yeatman was awarded the gold medal from the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America. In 1923, he was awarded the

Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a high award of a nation. Examples include: *Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) (established 1991), awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action * Distinguishe ...

by the War Department for his contributions during World War I.

Personal life

Yeatman married Georgie Claiborne Watkins, daughter of Judge Claiborne Watkins, of

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, on June 26, 1894. They had two daughters and a son: Mrs. Ernest C. Savage,

Georgiana Georgiana is a Catalan, English, Greek and Romanian name. It is the feminine form of the male name George and a variation of the female names Georgina and Georgia. It comes from the Greek word Γεώργιος, meaning farmer. A variant spellin ...

, Pope Jr. His wife was involved in restoring

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...

's Stratford on the Potomac home and was president of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation. She died in 1941. They lived at 1118 Spruce Street in Philadelphia. They later lived at "Five Gables" in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and they had a "Chislehurst" summer home in East Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Yeatman died on December 5, 1953, aged 92, at his home in Chestnut Hill.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeatman, Pope 1861 births 1953 deaths People from St. Louis People from Johannesburg People from Philadelphia Washington University in St. Louis alumni American mining engineers Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) 19th-century American engineers 20th-century American engineers