MILLIONAIRE PROPRIETORS.
A chapter giving a few words in regard to persons prominently connected
with the big bonanza and the Comstock lode may be of interest to some
readers. I cannot undertake to give more than the outlines in each
instance. The biography of almost any man who has been ten years on the
Pacific Coast would make a large volume, were all of his experiences
written up.
John Mackey Esq., the millionaire miner of the “big bonanza,” was born
in the city of Dublin, Ireland, and served his time as a ship-carpenter.
He came to California soon after the discovery of gold, and mined at and
near Downieville, Sierra county, for many years. In the placer-mines he
had his “ups and downs” the same as other miners, and often did a vast
amount of hard work for a small amount of gold. Mr. Mackey came to the
silver-mines of Washoe in the early days, and for a time after his
arrival worked for wages at the Mexican and other mines—swinging a pick
and shovel as an ordinary miner. It was not long, however, before he
began to get ahead financially, and, it is said, made his first “raise”
in the Kentuck mine, Gold Hill. He finally obtained a large interest in
the Hale & Norcross mine, Virginia City. Here he took Mr. Fair in as a
partner and the two men secured control of the mine, rescinded an
assessment that had been levied, and began paying dividends. The Hale &
Norcross being “in bonanza,” the partners soon had money with which to
secure other mines. Finally, in company with Messrs Flood & O’Brien, of
San Francisco, they purchased the Consolidated Virginia ground, getting
it for about $80,000, and eventually acquired a controlling interest in
the California mine.
Although Mr. Mackey is now worth fifty or sixty million dollars, yet,
like Mr. Fair, he spends much of his time, when at Virginia City, in the
lower levels. Almost every morning at six o’clock he descends into one
or another of his mines, and often remains underground for several
hours, passing through all the levels where work is being done, when
there is anything that requires his attention. In passing through a
level he sees all that is going on at a glance. Mr. Mackey is one of the
most modest and unassuming of men, yet he is a shrewd observer of
character, and of all that is going on in the world about him. Generally
he has but little to say, but that little is to the point—goes directly
to the bull’s-eye. He is not often misunderstood. He most thoroughly
understands mining in all its branches, as there is nothing required to
be done in a mine that he has not done with his own hands. No man is
more ready to adopt improvements than Mr. Mackey. He is ever ready to
spend money for labor-saving machinery. Those of his men who imagine
they have discovered a new plan of doing any kind of work whereby a
saving in time or muscle can be effected, always find an attentive
listener in Mr. Mackey, and all the encouragement they require. He
frequently stimulates their inventive faculties by telling them of
certain things for which he desires some new mode of working to be
thought out, or some new machine to be constructed.
Although one of the most kind-hearted and generous of men—as the
hundreds he has befriended can testify—I may here state, for the benefit
of a certain class of persons, that he pays no attention to the bushels
of silly begging-letters which he receives from all parts of the United
States and even from the remotest corners of Europe—all are tumbled into
his waste-basket.
[Illustration: HON. WILLIAM SHARON.]
Notwithstanding that Mr. Fair is the superintendent of the mine owned by
the firm, Mr. Mackey also does duty as superintendent, and the pair
generally hold a grand council on all matters of moment. When this
council is in session in the private office at the works, the miners in
passing back and forth hold up their fingers to one another as a sign
that no noise is to be made that will interfere with the deliberations
that are in progress near at hand. No man in Nevada more thoroughly
understands the Comstock lode than Mr. Mackey. He has made it his study
for years. No change of rock can occur but that he knows what it
portends. He appears to know almost every clay-seam, and streak of
quartz, and porphyry that runs through the vein. By looking at a sample
of ore he can tell the amount of silver it contains almost as well as if
he had seen it assayed. He is particularly at home in the northern part
of the Comstock, where he has had most acquaintance with the mines, and
may be said to have that part of the lode by heart. As regards mining
knowledge, Mr. Mackey is the “boss” of the big bonanza.
The Hon. William Sharon, who for many years figured so prominently in
the mining and milling interests of the Comstock lode as to earn for
himself the title of the “King of the Comstock,” was born in Jefferson
county, Ohio, in 1821. His family were Quakers and his ancestors were
among those who settled at Philadelphia with William Penn. When a boy of
seventeen Mr. Sharon thought that the life of a boatman would suit him.
He purchased an interest in a flatboat, and started down the Ohio River,
bound for New Orleans, but “landed his boat” when he reached Louisville.
At this point the boat struck a rock in crossing the falls, and was left
a total wreck. Mr. Sharon then returned to his native town disgusted
with a “seafaring” life, and went to college a few years, then studied
law and practiced for a time in St. Louis, Missouri.
Giving up the practice of law on account of bad health, he figured as a
merchant, at Carrollton, Illinois, until the discovery of gold in
California. He was among those who crossed the Plains in 1849, and in
August of that year reached Sacramento, where he purchased a stock of
goods and opened a store. The floods of the winter of 1849-50 swept his
stock into the Pacific Ocean, leaving him about as he was left when he
struck the falls at Louisville, on the Ohio River.
After his store had been carried away by the flood he went down to San
Francisco and opened a real-estate office. He continued in this business
until 1864, and had accumulated a fortune of $150,000, when he began
speculating in mining-stock. In this he again struck the Louisville
Falls and again “landed his boat,” a total wreck. Being once more
foot-loose and ready for anything that might offer in the way of
business, he was sent over the Sierras to Virginia City, Nevada, by the
Bank of California to look after certain of the affairs of that
institution which required attention. After reaching Virginia City he
soon arranged all the affairs of the Bank of California, and while
looking about and probing into matters in so doing, was shrewd enough to
see that he had at last reached the place where all the money on the
Pacific Coast was coming from. He at once urged upon the officers of the
Bank of California the necessity of opening a branch at Virginia City,
which was done and Mr. Sharon was placed at the head of the new
institution, with unlimited powers. He remained in Virginia City a
number of years as the head of the branch bank in that place, and
finally resigned in order to look after affairs of his own, leaving in
his place an excellent and capable man in the person of Mr. A. J.
Ralston.
Mr. Sharon is the father of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad,
undoubtedly the crookedest railroad in the world, and a wonderful road
in many other respects. In building this road Mr. Sharon secured a
subsidy of $500,000 from the people of Washoe in aid of the project,
constructed as much of the road as the sum would build, then mortgaged
the whole road for the amount of money required for its completion. In
this way he built the road without putting his hand into his own pocket
for a cent, and he still owns half the road—worth $2,500,000 and
bringing him in as Mr. Adolph Sutro says, $12,000 per day. On this trip
he got his boat over the falls in good shape. The road, however, has
been of great benefit to the country, and Mr. Sharon was a good man for
the country while he was at the head of the Virginia branch of the Bank
of California, as he had the nerve to advance money for the development
of mines and the building of mills at the time when no outside
banking-house would have ventured a cent. He saw that, though some of
the mining companies were in “borrasca” there was every likelihood of
their being in “bonanza” soon again, provided they were furnished with a
sum sufficient to make proper explorations.
Mr. Sharon is the principal owner of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco,
the largest and most costly hotel in the world, and of a vast deal of
other property in the city named, and in various places in California
and Nevada. In all he is probably worth seventy or eighty million
dollars. In 1874, he was elected United States’ Senator from Nevada, for
six years, to take the place of Mr. Stewart. Mr. Sharon has a very clear
head, a thorough understanding of financial questions, is a shrewd
business man, and a man of large capabilities in all the walks of life.
[Illustration:
JAMES G. FAIR.
(_Supt. California and Consolidated Virginia Mines._)
]
James G. Fair Esq., one of the principal owners and the superintendent
of the Consolidated Virginia and California mines, was born in the north
of Ireland. He came to the United States in his youth and settled in
Illinois. Upon the discovery of gold in California he determined to try
his “luck” as a miner. He left Illinois, in 1849, and reached
California, in August, 1850, when he went to Long’s Bar, Feather River,
called by the Mexicans _el Rio de los Plumas_—the river of feathers.
On Feather River, Mr. Fair learned the art of mining for gold in the
bars and river channels, among boulders so large that to look at them
made one sick at heart. In 1860 he gave up mining for gold, and made his
way across the Sierras to Virginia City, where he has ever since made
his home, and where he has constantly been engaged in mining and other
enterprises. In 1857 he became the partner of John Mackey in the Hale &
Norcross mine, when both he and Mr. Mackey made a “snug bit” of money.
Since becoming partners, Messrs Mackey & Fair, and their associates,
Messrs Flood & O’Brien, of San Francisco, who are interested with them
in many speculations, have acquired controlling interests in the Gould &
Curry, Best & Belcher, Consolidated Virginia, California, Utah, and
Occidental mines; also, of the Virginia City and Gold Hill Water-Works,
of a large number of quartz-mills, of the Pacific Wood, Lumber, &
Fluming Company, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and are concerned in
various enterprises in California. Messrs Mackey & Fair also have mines
in Idaho, Montana, and Utah—have even reached down into Georgia and
taken hold of some of the gold-mines in that region, sending old and
reliable Comstock mining superintendents to examine and test the mines.
They have probably also viewed the New Hampshire silver-mines through
their agents, and weighed and estimated Silver Isle, Lake Superior.
At the time of the Arizona diamond excitement, and swindle, Mr. Fair had
a man there and all over the ground as soon as the first whisper in
regard to the finding of precious stones in that region had gone abroad.
While nobody in Virginia City knew that he was taking the slightest
interest in the diamond excitement, or that he had even heard of it, Mr.
Fair had “prospected” the whole thing and found out all about it. Still
he said nothing, and probably not five men on the Comstock range to-day
know that Mr. Fair was close upon the heels of the men who put up the
great Arizona diamond swindle and prospected their “salted” ground about
as soon as the “salt” was sown. He now has in his house at Virginia City
a whole drawerful of stones of all kinds that were brought to him by the
agent he sent down into the diamond-fields.
Mr. Fair is a man who never talks when he is acting, and no one knows
exactly what “Uncle Jimmy,” as the “boys” call him, is up to. You see
the hole by which he goes into the ground, but when once he is down out
of sight you never know in what direction he is drifting. Mr. Fair is
worth thirty or forty million dollars, yet he spends as much time in
miners’ garb, down in the seething lower levels, and “poking about” in
all manner of old abandoned drifts, and tunnels, as though he were
working for four dollars per day, and had a very hard and exacting
“boss.” He is a shrewd and enterprising business man, and thoroughly
understands mines and mining. In his mills he is as much at home as in
the mines, and perfectly understands the reduction of silver ores, and
all the operations connected therewith. He is quite unassuming, and
always has a cheerful word for the “boys” of the lower levels when
passing through his mines. Like Mr. Mackey he is ever ready to give all
kinds of machinery a trial and to adopt it if it is found useful.
Captain Samuel T. Curtis, superintendent of the Ophir mine, is a miner
of great experience both in the silver-mines of Nevada and the
gold-mines of California. He was born in the south of Ireland, but came
to the United States when quite young, settling in Western Virginia,
where he lived many years. From Virginia he went to Cincinnati, Ohio,
where he resided until the discovery of gold in California.
[Illustration:
CAPTAIN SAMUEL CURTIS.
(_Supt. Ophir Mine._)
]
In common with thousands of others of an adventurous disposition, he
caught the gold-fever, and in April 1849 started across the Plains.
After many hardships and adventures of all kinds, he landed at Lassen’s
Ranche, in the northern part of California, in November of the year
named. His party started across the Plains with saw-mills, and an
immense train of wagons loaded with all manner of machinery and stores,
but abandoned everything, and were glad to reach California alive. Mr.
Curtis at once made his way to Feather River, where he mined until 1858
when he went to Nevada county and engaged in mining in that place. In
1859 he was elected to the California Legislature, and when he went to
Sacramento to take his seat was the first time that he had been out of
the mountains for ten years—he had seen no towns larger than the mining
camps of the Sierras.
At the time of the Indian trouble in Washoe, in 1860, Mr. Curtis raised
a company of volunteers in Sacramento, and, as captain of the company so
raised, brought over the Sierra Nevada Mountains a timely supply of arms
and ammunition. Being obliged to provision his company for some time
after arriving in Nevada, the part he took in the “war” cost him over
$3000. It was no better as a speculation than bringing saw-mills across
the Plains. During his residence in Washoe, Captain Curtis has had the
superintendence, of the St. Louis, Empire Mill Mining Company, Union
Consolidated, Sierra Nevada, Mexican, Savage and several other mines,
and now is in charge of the Ophir. As a mining superintendent he has
always been very fortunate, and, from his many years of experience in
various mines along the Comstock, he knows almost every foot of the
vein. He has given much attention to the stratification of the vein, and
to the crystalization and other characteristics of the rocks found
within its walls. So fortunate has he been in hitting upon bonanzas that
when he has taken charge of a mine the men say: “If there is anything in
the claim the Captain will find it!” When in charge of a mine he is
indefatigable. He is about as much underground, and about as much at
home there as upon the surface.
The Hon. J. P. Jones, United States Senator from Nevada, is a man who
had much mining experience in California, previous to his crossing the
Sierras and taking up his residence on the Comstock lode. He has long
had control of the Crown Point mine, at Gold Hill, and from its several
bonanzas has extracted many millions of dollars. He thoroughly
understands the business of silver-mining and is an excellent judge of
the ores of the Comstock. He is not only well acquainted with that
portion of the great lode which passes through Gold Hill, but also with
the mines on all parts of the vein. He owns a controlling interest in
the Savage mine, in Virginia City, and still retains the Crown Point
mine which is yielding as largely as ever, though the ore extracted is
less rich than that which was being extracted some years since.
The mills of the Nevada Mill Company, nine in number, and containing 222
stamps, are owned by Mr. Jones and Hon. Wm. Sharon and are capable of
crushing 650 tons of ore per day. The Rhode Island mill, 24 stamps,
belongs to the Crown Point Company. Besides his many interests along the
Comstock range, Mr. Jones has a large number of mines and much mining
property at Panamint, has town-sites down on the coast of California,
and is engaged in enterprises of various kinds in all parts of the
Union. “No pent-up Utica contracts his powers,” he has a genius for
mining and for surface business of all kinds, and when he rises in his
place in the United States Senate can make a good talk—is about as much
at home as though among the men on the lower levels of one of his mines,
giving directions for the opening of a new stope. Mr. Jones counts his
dollars by millions. It is said that he has about five times as many
millions as he has fingers and toes.
[Illustration: decoration]
[Illustration: HON. J. P. JONES.]