CHAPTER LXIX.

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 Fair in as a partner and the two men secured control of the mine, rescinded an assessment that had been levied, and began paying dividends.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.

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[Illustration: HON. J. P. JONES.]