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.
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.[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.