Oscar Lewis - Silver Kings

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK,
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC .

Copyright 1947 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce not more than three illustrations in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. Published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart Ltd.

PUBLISHED OCTOBER 23, 1947

eISBN: 978-0-307-82804-0

v3.1

I N recent years the story of Nevadas Comstock Lode has been told in numerous works of history and fiction; it is not the purpose here to cover again a subject that has already received extended treatment elsewhere. The present volume is primarily biographical. Its aim is to present, objectively and in some detail, the life stories of the four men who, by their discovery and control of the richest strike of precious metals in American mining history, amassed very large fortunes and for many years made themselves potent factors in the affairs of the entire Pacific Coast.

The writing of these biographical sketches presented certain problems in both the assembling of material and its interpretation. The last surviving member of the bonanza firm died almost half a century ago; all four lived in obscurity until they were well past thirty, and the record of their early years is incomplete and sometimes conflicting. After they had become important figures in Western industry and finance, their activities were reported at length in newspapers all over the Coast. But these references were almost exclusively concerned with their then current enterprises, and such light as they throw on their lives and characters is usually both indirect and unintentional. Yet it is on this mass of newspaper comment much of it biased, for few of the Coast journals took an impartial view of the groups activities that the biographer must mainly rely.

Thus, although the Comstock era is one of the most fully documented chapters in Far Western history, the four men who rose to power on the profits of its mines have received comparatively little attention. Few extended sketches of their lives or serious appraisals of their characters appeared during their lifetimes or later. No full-length biography of any of the group has yet been published. Such biographical material as exists is scattered through Coast newspapers and magazines, in books on the history of the Comstock, in the reminiscences of pioneers, and in brief and uncritical eulogies in such subsidized publications as Bancrofts The Chronicles of the Builders.

Yet the influence of the four was so great that during the years they controlled the bonanza mines they were almost continuously in the public eye. From the early seventies until well into the nineties there was hardly an issue of an important West Coast newspaper that did not contain reference to some phase of their activities. Moreover, most of this was prejudiced in viewpoint and heated in tone, for the partners operations closely affected many thousands in all walks of life. That they were able to exert so decisive an influence on the regions economy is of course an indication of the caliber of the men themselves. Three of the four were strong characters, typical of the group that shouldered their way to the top all over America during the final third of the past century. They were men of consuming ambition, resourceful, acquisitive, and uncommonly able, and, like most of their class, relentless in their opposition to whatever stood in the way of their drive toward wealth and power.

In their attitude toward the Silver Kings, citizens of the Coast were long divided into two camps. Those who shared, or hoped to share in their enormously profitable enterprises looked on them as instruments by which the entire West was to enjoy an era of sustained and universal prosperity. Another group took an exactly opposite view: these could see in the firms operations only a series of shrewd maneuvers by which the capital of the region was drained off from legitimate channels of investment and poured into mining stocks, creating great fortunes for a few while it impoverished tens of thousands. Numerically, those who held the latter view were before long in the majority, for the early popularity of the four declined as their field of operations broadened and their methods came to be understood. From the middle seventies on, fewer than half a dozen of the Coasts newspapers consistently supported the policies of the firm; all others were given over to frequent and violent denunciations.

Little of this mass of material is of interest to present day readers, yet this record of forgotten controversies is important for the light it throws on the characters, aims, and business ethics of the four. These biographical studies have, therefore, been chiefly based on contemporary accounts of their activities as they are preserved in the files of Virginia City, San Francisco, and Sacramento newspapers from 1873 to the end of the century. However, other sources of information are not entirely lacking. Western magazines of the period contain occasional references to the activities of the group, as do numerous books and an imposing array of pamphlets. The latter are mainly official reports put out by the managers of the bonanza mines and designed to justify their methods and confound their critics, with a sprinkling of counterblasts sponsored by their opponents. There is also a considerable bulk of manuscript material: official records of the mines and the business correspondence of the controlling partners, plus certain dictated statements gathered by agents of the historian Bancroft and preserved in the Bancroft Library. It is from these sources, pieced out by personal recollections of the few Comstock pioneers whose memories run back sixty years and beyond, and by certain family reminiscences passed on to the descendants of participants, that this record of the lives and times of the Silver Kings has been compiled.

Acknowledgments to individuals and institutions, and a listing of sources, will be found at the end of the volume.

C STREET, VIRGINIA CITY, 1877

GENERAL GRANT AND PARTY INSPECT THE BONANZA MINES, OCTOBER 28, 1879

INSIDE THE BIG BONANZA

A SECTION OF VIRGINIA CITY, 1878

A SECTION OF THE CALIFORNIA PAN MILL

A VIRGINIA & TRUCKEE TRAIN CARRYING COMSTOCK ORE

ENTRANCE TO THE SUTRO TUNNEL

JOHN W. MACKAY

MACKAYS RESIDENCE IN VIRGINIA CITY, 1872

MACKAYS CABIN ON THE MOTHER LODE

NEWSPAPER SKETCH OF MEISSONIERS SUPPRESSED PORTRAIT OF MRS. MACKAY

MRS. JOHN W. MACKAY

COLONEL DANIEL E. HUNGERFORD