Of the numerous young men which Salt Lake has given to the world, as leaders in the sphere of finance and business, none is better known than Alford O. Jacobson. Born in Salt Lake City in 1871, he has, perhaps, of all others engaged in the mining industry, the proud right of saying that he knows it from the bottom of the shaft to the gallows frame, with all its allied branches.

Mr. Jacobson received his early education at St. Mark's, but at the age of thirteen began working in the mines which were just then beginning to attract the attention of the world at large to Utah and its store of precious metals.

Beginning his career at this early age, he literally worked his way through all the gradations of the industry, acquiring at each step a thorough knowledge of that particular phase of the work, until he finally became qualified through the hard school of experience, as one of the best informed and experienced mining men of the country at large.

Men with properties on their hands which needed development at the hands of an expert were not slow in learning of Mr. Jacobson's abilities, and many a despondent stockholder has been raised from the depths of despair by the information that A. O. Jacobson had taken charge of the property in which he was interested.

From the moment that he entered the mines as a boy, Mr. Jacobson has never deserted the field, and, while improving and developing the properties of others, he has not been slow to acquire interests of his own in properties which he believes have a future in store for them. For twelve years he has been identified with a number of propositions in the Tintic District, while at the same time he has been the superintendent of the Columbus Consolidated, at Alta. This mine now has a well equipped plant, but when Mr. Jacobson took charge, it fell to his lot to set up and run the compressors and sharpen his own drills. This he did until ore was reached, and this unflagging zeal in the service of others is perhaps the real secret of his success. At the present time he is not only superintendent of the Columbus Consolidated, but of the Columbus Extension, and is a director of the South Columbus

Mr. Jacobson has served as a justice of the peace in the Alta District with energy and efficiency. Although not college bred, he is an educated man of marked intelligence and well abreast of the times. A man of honesty and integrity of purpose, he is one of Utah's most useful citizens.

From:
Sketches of the Inter-Mountain States
1847 - 1909 Utah Idaho Nevada
Published by: The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake City, Utah 1909