Edward P. Hilborn, deputy state surveyor general of California, is one of the young, progressive, and able civil engineers of the state, and has made a most creditable record in the profession since his graduation from college some ten or more years ago. He executed some important work for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company before he was appointed to his present office, and he has gained recognition as a thoroughly capable engineer, with a large field of useful endeavor before him.
Mr. Hilborn was born in Suisun, Solano County, California, February 10, 1871, being a son of Edward P. and Mary F. (Wing) Hilborn. His father was born in Maine and died in California in 1897. He was of an old American family, and his grandfather was captain of a company in the Revolutionary War. He came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama in 1852, and after mining for a year or so, located in Solano County in 1854, and during the remaining forty or more years of his life, he engaged in stock farming and in commercial enterprises in Suisun. He was one of the prominent men of the county, and his brother, S. G. Hilborn, was United States congressman from the third California district for three terms. Mrs. Mary F. Hilborn, a native of Massachusetts and of an old family of that state, is still living at Suisun. Her father was one of the first captains to bring a ship around the Horn during the Eldorado mining days of California, and he afterward settled in Solano County. Edward P. and Mary F. Hilborn were the parents of three sons: Arthur, engaged in stock-raising and mercantile business at Suisun; Louis, an attorney at San Francisco; and Edward P.
Mr. Edward P. Hilborn was educated in the public schools of Suisun, and in 1891 graduated in the college of civil engineering at the University of California with the degree of B.S. He soon afterward secured employment with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and took a party on the coast division from Santa Margarita to Santa Barbara. He was in the employ of the company for five years, and then returned to Suisun for the purpose of settling up his father’s estate. In January 1903, he was appointed chief deputy state surveyor general under Victor H. Woods, and has creditably discharged the duties of that office since.
Mr. Hilborn is a Republican, has attended county and state conventions, and was a member of the state central committee from 1898 to 1902, and has been on the county central committee since 1898. His present position is the only political office he has ever held. He and the other members of the family have always exercised much influence in the political affairs of Solano County. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner, and a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Source: Leigh H. Irvine; A History of the New California Its Resources and People, 2 Volumes; New York and Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1903.