Hebert Hoover was born on August 10th 1874, in West Branch, Iowa, to Jesse Clark Hoover and Huldah Minthorn Hoover. His father died of typhoid fever when he was only six years old, and three year after that his mother died of pneumonia. Hoover went to live with his uncle Henry John Minthorn who was a county doctor in Newburg Oregon.
In 1888 Dr. Minthorn moved to Salem, Oregon, where Hoover attended night school while working in his uncles land settlement business as an office boy. He entered Stanford University at the age of 17, and got his engineering degree. .
After Hoover graduated from Stanford University he worked odd jobs in gold mines in California, and Colorado. He started working for Bewick, Moreing and Company a British mining firm in 1897 at the age of 23, he was there chief of mining operations in Western Australia. But a year later Hoover accepted the position as chief engineer for Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. .
Before leaving for China Hoover, returned to the United States after his stay in Australia, to marry Lou Henry (they had 2 sons, Herbert Jr. and Allan). They were married on February 10, 1899. They left for China as soon as they could so that Hoover could get to his new job; they arrived in China in March 1899. While they were there Lou would work in the hospitals.
In late 1901 Hoover and Lou sailed to London via California after Hoover accepted an offer from Bewick, Moreing and company, for a junior partnership. This job left him traveling the world, some of the places he would go to are: Ceylon, Burma, Australia, Egypt, Japan, and Europe. This job gave him a worldwide reputation in the engineering community, so much so that he became known as the "Dr. of sick mines". He was in this partnership until 1908.
The American Ambassador to England asked Hoover to organize and direct an American relief committee when World War I began. This committee assisted 120,000 Americans in getting home to the United States, because this role made Hoover a public figure, he was appointed head of commission for relief in Belgium.
