part in Paris and London, where she has lived on a scale of magnificence
which has dazzled and astounded foreigners. Mr. Mackay himself has
apparently little inclination for social triumphs; he is well liked
wherever he is known for his quick, genial manners, but seems to avoid
publicity. He alternates, for the most part, between New York and San
Francisco. In New York his office is at the Nevada Bank, in which he is
a large stockholder, owning, in fact, half of the stock. In recent years
he has become largely interested in a cable line to Europe, started in
opposition to other well-known lines. His fortune is estimated at twenty
millions. Mr. Mackay’s step-daughter was married a few years ago to the
Prince of Colonna, who belongs to one of the most ancient and wealthy
families of the nobility of Italy.
[Illustration:
JAMES C. FLOOD.
]
James C. Flood was once a poor boy of New York city, now he is worth
more millions than can exactly be told. He went to San Francisco in
1849, poor and friendless, and in company with the late W. S. O’Brien,
opened a liquor saloon, where he sold whiskey at 12½ cents a glass. He
drew the liquor from casks piled one upon another. In those early days
of the future queen of the Pacific Slope there were no gorgeous saloons
with tesselated marble floors, a dazzling stretch of costly mirrors, and
a gallery of rare pictures. Such resorts as Flood’s, in the slang of the
day, were termed “gin mills,” and in the man who drew whiskey from the
casks rather than tendering a heavy cut glass decanter, it would have
been difficult for the most fanciful to have recognized the future
famous man of millions. He made money and went into mining stocks. The
first great mining speculation in which Flood, with his partner,
O’Brien, embarked was in 1862, in Kentuck and the stocks of other mines
on the Comstock lode. Then they went heavily into Hale & Norcross, one
of the old time favorites. They were generally successful in these
operations, but a crowning and dazzling triumph awaited them. In
February of 1874 there were whispers that the Consolidated Virginia,
which had caused a furore some ten years previous, but had fallen off
materially, and the newer mine, the California, would soon develop rich
bodies of ore. Flood and his partners, who owned these mines, became
certain of this prospective bonanza in the following winter, and early
in 1875 came the announcement of the discovery of the fabulous ore
bodies which made the name of the Comstock lode known round the world,
and lifted the owners of the celebrated mines at once into wealth so
enormous as to make the extravagances of the Arabian Nights seem tame.
The establishment of the Nevada Bank was the idea of Mr. Flood, who is
said to possess a natural aptitude for finance. He became president of
the bank and a large stockholder in it. He is a man of compact robust
build, five feet nine inches in height, with quiet, courteous manners,
and of an energetic, self-reliant and industrious disposition. He has
had a remarkable rise, but has shown himself equal to the surprising
good fortune which has attended his strange career.
[Illustration:
JAMES G. FAIR.
]
It is of interest to recall the fact that the original Comstock
syndicate, most of whom derived such enormous wealth from the Comstock
lode, was composed of Messrs. Mackay, Flood, O’Brien, Fair and Walker.
Soon after these gentlemen became associated in their great enterprises,
Walker sold out his share of one-fifth to Mackay, for a very small
consideration, and this consequently gave that gentleman an interest of
two-fifths, against the one-fifth share held by each of the three others
in the firm, a fact which accounts for Mackay’s greater wealth. Walker,
one of the original parties in interest, afterward not only lost in
mining and other speculations the amount which Mackay had paid him for
his share, but all his other means, and was, in fact, completely
beggared, and died in an asylum for paupers. He had experienced dramatic
vicissitudes of fortune. He ought to have been worth fully twenty
millions of dollars. He died without a penny.
W. S. O’BRIEN.
W. S. O’Brien was associated with Mackay, Flood and Fair in developing
mines on the Comstock, and died in 1878, enormously wealthy. He was born
in New York, went to San Francisco in the early days of the gold
excitement, and at first kept a liquor saloon with Flood. He gradually
engaged in mining speculations, and ultimately met with such success
that he died famous as one of the bonanza kings. It is an interesting
circumstance that four Irishmen secured the lion’s share of the bonanza
millions, and they were all born poor. The harp of Tara’s halls never
was struck to so strange a roundelay as this.
JAMES G. FAIR.
James G. Fair is another of the bonanza kings who has had an interesting
career. He was born Dec. 3d, 1831, near Belfast, Ireland. He came to
this country with his parents in 1843 and settled in Illinois. He
received a thorough business education in Chicago, and at the same time
devoted considerable attention to scientific studies. On the breaking
out of the gold fever in 1849 he removed to California, settling at
Long’s Bar, Feather River, in that State. He mined on the Bar for some
time without much success, and then turned his attention to quartz
mining. Placer mining in those days was conducted in too primitive a
fashion to suit a man of his mechanical ingenuity. Placer, by the way,
is a term of Spanish origin, signifying a gravelly place where gold is
found, especially by the side of a river or in the bed of a mountain
torrent. In quartz mining, on the other hand, the metal is obtained by
smelting after crushing the rock of which it forms a part. Mr. Fair
engaged in quartz mining in Calaveras county, California, and later
became superintendent of various quartz mines in other parts of the
State. In 1855 he became superintendent of the Ophir, and four years
later of the Hale & Norcross. In 1860 he removed to Nevada and became
actively engaged in developing mines. In 1867 he formed a partnership
with John W. Mackay, James C. Flood and Wm. S. O’Brien. The firm, at Mr.
Fair’s suggestion, obtained control of the California and Sides mine,
the White & Murphy, the Central Nos. 1 and 2, and the tract known as the
Kinney ground, and it was in this rich field that the famous California
and Consolidated Virginia mines were developed, the yield of which,
under Mr. Fair’s superintendence, is estimated at about two hundred
million dollars. He began speculative buying of real estate in San
Francisco in 1858, and is now said to own seventy acres of land in
different parts of that city, constituting in itself an enormous
fortune. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat to
succeed the Hon. William Sharon, and took his seat in 1881, his term
expiring March 3d, 1887. In person Mr. Fair is of about the medium
height, of compact, solid build, has handsome features, and is a man who
would be likely to attract attention anywhere. His fortune is estimated
at from ten to twenty millions.
WILLIAM SHARON.
William Sharon was one of the remarkable men developed by the mining
excitement in this country, one of the sagacious, self-reliant men who
inevitably come to the front wherever they are found. He showed his
mettle when the Bank of California was forced to suspend, and when a
commercial pall hung over San Francisco. In the midst of the frenzied
excitement he was one of the few who kept cool and never lost their
courage. The wild excitement on the Stock Exchange of San Francisco was
stopped at his suggestion that the sessions be indefinitely postponed.
Then he called a meeting of the Bank of California directors and made a
stirring appeal to them to stand by the bank in the hour of its
misfortune, and rescue the business interests of the coast from the
paralysis by which they were likely to be seized if they did not take a
resolute stand, put their shoulders to the wheel and acquit themselves
like men. He proposed that each subscribe liberally to put the bank
again in operation, and set the example by a very large
subscription—said to have been five million dollars. Others also
subscribed liberally, and to the astonishment and joy of the city the
bank again threw open its doors for business. He had some years prior to
this become connected in business with the lamented Ralston.
William Sharon was born in Ohio, and early in life began the practice of
law in Illinois. He went to San Francisco, and immediately engaged in
the real estate business, and ultimately became a very large operator in
lands, but failed, and in 1863 went to Nevada to take the agency of the
Bank of California in Gold Hill and Virginia City. The bank had large
loans out on mining property, and as the production of many of the mines
had seriously declined, Ralston grew uneasy, and was greatly relieved
when Sharon offered to become personally responsible for these loans on
condition that the bank advance him a considerable sum to be used in
contemplated mining developments, and allow him two years in which to
meet the loans. The terms were accepted. Sharon ran new drifts here and
there, and in four months, to Ralston’s amazement, paid all the loans,
and placed on deposit three-quarters of a million to his own account.
This feat drew general attention to him; he was consulted in large
operations; he became a director in the great bank. He never forgot
Ralston’s kindness to him. He assumed entire charge of the personal
affairs of Ralston after his death, and settled on Mrs. Ralston nearly
half a million of dollars. He finally entered politics, and represented
California in the United States Senate. He was a conspicuous example of
business acumen and surprising energy, as well as of becoming gratitude
to the knightly Ralston, of whom he always said: “He was my benefactor.”
WM. C. RALSTON.
Wm. C. Ralston was one of the most notable, as he was one of the most
remarkable, of all the financial giants of the Pacific Slope. He
ascended the gilded summits of financial renown, and he fell into a
shadowy valley of stern retribution and utter ruin. No man could be more
popular, none could exhibit greater daring in his business enterprises.
He was a New York boy, but drifted to the West, and became a clerk on a
Mississippi steamboat, finally became Captain, and having amassed some
money, he leaped into speculative waters, like another Leander, to swim
the Hellespont of California finance. He became associated with
Commodore Garrison and two others in the banking business in San
Francisco about 1853. Finally he organized the Bank of California, and
became first its Cashier and then its President. His rise was
marvellous. At one time he was supposed to be worth $20,000,000 or more.
He had a country seat at Belmont, in San Mateo county, that a king might
have been proud to own, and here he entertained in royal fashion. Every
celebrity that visited California was received with regal hospitality by
this monetary prince of the golden State. But as the allied armies
arrayed against Napoleon were often put to rout from being too much
spread out, so this financial Titan, combining the genius and courage of
many in one, was finally overthrown by adverse fortune, because his
enterprises were too much spread out. He had too many projects on hand
at one time. He lost heavily in mining and real estate speculations; he
lost in manufacturing enterprises. Fate struck him suddenly as with the
hammer of Thor. In one fearful storm of trouble all his misfortune
descended upon him at once. All the waves and billows of adversity broke
over him. He had no chance to recover himself. Birnam seemed all at once
to come to his financial Dunsinane. An investigation of the affairs of
the Bank of California was made by the directors of that institution.
Their suspicions had been aroused that Ralston’s administration of its
affairs was open to grave criticism. He attended the meeting of the
directors, and was coldly requested to withdraw during the discussion.
He who had been absolute in the great bank saw that his power was gone;
he stood on the brink of a moral Niagara. He left the Directors to make
the inevitable discovery that he had over-issued the stock of the bank
some $6,000,000, and crazed with grief and despair, found a suicide’s
death in the waters of the bay. He had over-issued the stock hoping and
believing that success in some one of his numerous and gigantic
enterprises would enable him to provide for it, but disaster stealing on
him suddenly, like a thief in the night, frustrated any plan of
restitution, and he paid for his fault with his life. He was a man about
five feet seven inches in height, with a rather florid complexion, a
full light brown beard and kindly brown eyes. He was once the idol of
California, and his one great fault is almost swallowed up in the memory
of his princely generosity, his hearty geniality, and his many other
engaging traits.
JOHN P. JONES.
John P. Jones has had an eventful career. He has made and lost millions.
He was worth at one time five or six millions. He lost very heavily in
railroad enterprises in Southern California. He had been engaged in
mining and had won a big heap of treasure, probably as much wealth as
any one needs, or more, but with the restless ambition of one who would
travel still higher up the glittering heights of financial fame he
sought to emulate Huntington, Stanford and others and become a railroad
magnate. It was a case of vaulting ambition o’erleaping itself and
falling on the other side. He lost almost his entire fortune, but he has
now regained his feet again and is once more wealthy. He profited by the
revival of interest in mines and mining stocks in 1886, and secured,
moreover, a considerable interest in the Alaska mine, in which D. O.
Mills was interested. He bought stocks of once famous mines at low
prices, and when the advance on the revival of public interest in mining
shares took place he was a large gainer. John W. Mackay has within the
last few years shown a disposition to lend him assistance in his
endeavors to recover his former footing. John P. Jones is one of a
number of Englishmen who have won financial celebrity in this country.
He was born in Herefordshire, England, in 1830, and came to this country
with his parents when only a year old, settling in Ohio. For a few years
he attended school in Cleveland. In the early days of the gold
excitement in California he emigrated to that State and engaged in
farming and mining. He acquired a taste for politics. He represented his
county in both houses of the State Assembly. In 1867 he went to Gold
Hill, Nevada, and has ever since been engaged to a greater or less
extent in developing the mineral resources of that State. In his earlier
days he worked hard as a miner in one of the counties of California. He
worked in placers and tunnels; he had many ups and down. He was daring
and ambitious, and sometimes seemingly reckless. He spent a million
dollars trying to develop some mines in Mono, California, and then gave
up the attempt. At one time he controlled the Ophir, Savage and Crown
Point mines on the Comstock lode; he owned large establishments for the
manufacture of ice in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas and elsewhere; he
made large purchases of land in California; he engaged in a multitude of
ambitious enterprises. He had too many irons in the fire. Misfortune did
not daunt him. Like the old hunter of tradition, his motto was, “Pick
the flint and try it again.” He may yet become a financial power again.
He has a certain readiness as a speaker; he is of large frame and not
unpleasing aspect, and his taste for public debate and the excitements
of the political arena have led him into contests for public honors
which have been successful. He was elected as a Republican to the United
States Senate in 1872, and has twice been elected, so that his term will
not expire until 1891.
R. J. Baldwin has become widely known by the sobriquet of “lucky.” He is
59 years old and was born in Ohio. His father moved to Indiana and had a
farm adjoining that of Schuyler Colfax. There he worked till he reached
his twentieth year. He married in the following year and went to a small
place in Indiana and kept a country store; he soon built canal boats to
ply between Chicago and St. Louis. He went to Racine, Wisconsin, in
1850, and engaged in the grocery business with considerable success. He
was keen at a bargain and always had an eye out for the main chance. His
so-called “luck” was in reality business skill. He went to California in
1853, after purchasing a number of horses and wagons and an ample supply
of merchandise. He found a good market for his goods in Salt Lake,
making nearly four thousand dollars on the venture, and further on he
sold his wagons and harness and made up a pack train over the mountains,
and, arriving in San Francisco, sold his teams at good prices. His trip
had been a complete success. He now went into the hotel business, and,
after selling out twice to good advantage, he formed a partnership to
engage in the brick trade, which, proving very successful mainly through
his skill in drumming up business, he decided to go into it alone. He
himself knew nothing about brick making, but he studied up the subject
and eventually became an expert. He obtained remunerative contracts with
the Government; he boarded his men and made for a time about fifteen
hundred dollars a month. He finally sold out and went into the livery
business. He made money and invested considerable in real estate. He
sold out and went to Virginia City, Nevada, at the breaking out of the
mining excitement there. At that point he started a lumber yard. He
speculated in mines and met at times with great success, but once he was
so badly worsted in this great game that he was compelled to mortgage
all of his property; but the tide turned soon and became a flood of
gold. He speculated in such mines as the Crown Point, Belcher,
Consolidated Virginia, California and Ophir. He acquired at one time the
controlling interest in the Ophir. He has speculated heavily in San
Francisco real estate, and with marked success. He erected a building
there that cost, with all its appurtenances, over three million dollars.
Part of it is used as a theatre. He bought sixty thousand acres of land
in Los Angeles county, and had practically a town of his own. He spent
about half a million dollars improving this tract, more particularly his
Santa Anita ranch of over fifteen thousand acres. His sagacity and
industry, rather than mere “luck,” have won him his fortune of ten or
fifteen million dollars.
WILLIAM H. STEWART.
William H. Stewart, another successful man of the Far West, who has
twice represented Nevada in the United States Senate, was a New York
boy, born in Wayne county in 1827. A good many New York boys have
succeeded in the West. He went to California early in 1850. In the fall
of that year, while prospecting, he discovered the Eureka placer
diggings; he built saw mills, worked claims because disgusted with
mining, went to Nevada City in the spring of 1852, and in December of
that year was appointed District Attorney, was elected to that office in
the following year, and in 1854 was appointed Attorney General,
thereupon taking up his residence in San Francisco, where, by the way,
he married a daughter of ex-Governor Foote, of Mississippi. Later he
returned to Nevada City and established a very lucrative law practice,
and remained in that county till the spring of 1860, when the furore
over the Comstock mines induced him to go to Virginia City, Nevada. He
thoroughly understood mining law, and soon had a large practice. The
large sums which his legal talents brought him were invested in mines,
and he became one of the leading operators on the Comstock lode. He
invested half a million dollars in San Francisco real estate. He
rendered important services to mining interests while in the United
States Senate, in preventing the passage of a bill providing for the
sale of all the mineral lands of the country at public auction, a
measure which it was supposed would concentrate much of the mining
property of the United States into the hands of the wealthy.
JAMES LICK.
James Lick, born in Pennsylvania in 1796, was one of the strange
characters of California. He went there in 1847, after having been a
manufacturer of pianos in this country and different parts of South
America. He took $30,000 to San Francisco, which he invested in real
estate, foreseeing that it was to become the great city of the Pacific
Slope. He bought lots by the mile. His profits were enormous. He became
one of the great millionaires of California. He set aside $2,000,000 in
1874, to be held by seven trustees, and to be devoted to certain public
and charitable purposes. In 1875 he desired to make some changes in his
schedule of gifts, and when the trustees expressed some doubts as to
their legal right to give assent, at his request they resigned. The next
year he died, and then followed a litigation by his son and other heirs,
which was finally so adjusted as to leave a large sum to be devoted to
various public and charitable projects. He left $60,000 to be devoted to
a statue of Francis Scott Key, the author of the “Star Spangled Banner.”
He was very eccentric, due, it is said, to an early disappointment in
love. He sought the hand of a miller’s daughter, but was dismissed by
the father, because young Lick did not own a mill. When he became
enormously wealthy, James Lick built a large mill, and adorned it with
mahogany and costly woods as a memorial of his youthful attachment. He
seemed to derive almost childish pleasure in contemplating this splendid
building, which would have so far outshone any that could ever have been
owned by the man who had once spurned him for his poverty. The poor
young men of one generation are often the millionaires of the next. One
of the great monuments to his memory is the great Lick Observatory.
JOHN W. SHAW.
John W. Shaw, who made considerable money in mines and mining stocks, is
one of the Western millionaires who reside in New York. He was a
superintendent of mines, and speculated on his information. He was at
one time prominently identified with the Eureka Consolidated mine. He is
supposed to be worth $4,000,000 to $5,000,000, and is now President of
the Hocking Valley Road. Messrs. Keene, Lent, Dewey, Harpending,
Verdenal and other more or less successful men well known in California,
live here. One of the distinguished lawyers of the West who have come
here to establish a practice is ex-Governor Hoadly, of Ohio. Austin
Corbin, though at one time a lawyer in Iowa, found his true field in New
York, and Alfred Sully, after amassing some means in the same State,
likewise found himself drawn to New York, and won unexpected success in
finance here.
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