THOS. S. SELBY
Founder of Selby Smelting Works,
director Diamond Co.
At a stockholders’ meeting the following board of directors were elected to manage the affairs of the corporation: Wm. M. Lent, A. Gansl, Thomas Selby, Milton S. Latham, Louis Sloss, Maurice Dore, W. F. Babcock, William C. Ralston, William Willis. George B. McClellan and Samuel P. Barlow were at the same time elected directors, with headquarters at the City of New York. Mr. Lent was then chosen president, W. C. Ralston, treasurer, and William Willis, secretary. David D. Colton resigned from his position with the railroad to become general manager.
Only old timers can recognize what these names meant. All the owners of them are long since dead. Some of them went into a financial eclipse before they died. But in 1872 they stood as the last word in the financial and commercial world of the Pacific Coast. I might mention here for the benefit of the later generation that A. Gansl was the representative of the House of Rothschild on the Pacific Coast.
Such was the lineup. The biggest men of San Francisco were solidly behind the enterprise. Two distinguished citizens of New York represented the company as resident directors there, and in the Old World the famous house of Rothschild became the company’s agents. The interest of Slack and Arnold was wiped out finally by a cash payment of $300,000, which was turned over to Arnold personally, he having a properly executed power of attorney to act for Slack. Thus, the decks were cleared.
CHAPTER XXX.
“Old Miner” Draws on His Imagination and Tells Wild Tale of Single Gem as Big as a Pigeon’s Egg.
Winter Causes Lull, But Cold Fails to Chill the Ardor of Men Counting on Millions in Spring.
On July 30, 1872, the articles of incorporation of the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company were formally filed and the report of Expert Janin was made public. As yet, however, the exact location of the diamond fields was undisclosed, because the company’s rights to the great territories claimed were not completed, although a recent act of Congress changing the mining laws gave ample opportunity. The wildest tales concerning the new discoveries were at once turned loose. An article in the New York Sun, signed “Old Miner,” located the exact position of the fields somewhere in Southeastern Arizona, a guess that happened to be out of the way by some seven or eight hundred miles. The “Old Miner” further stated that the company had in its possession a single gem larger than a pigeon’s egg, of matchless purity of color, worth at a low estimate $500,000. You may be sure that this started a good-sized stampede for Arizona.
The directors had several meetings and decided to proceed with extreme circumspection. For one thing, they sent a large consignment of diamonds to the House of Rothschild in London for examination and sale. At the same time a party of fifteen, including miners, surveyors and others interested, were dispatched to the diamond fields for the purpose of exploring, surveying and securing our rights. In the meantime not a share of stock was placed on the market, although the excitement was intense.