Group II Letters
These consist of three letters written from Ralston City by M. L. Power who was Roberts’ and Harpending’s Superintendent of Mines. Of all the letters discussed here, these are the most valuable. These three letters alone, independent of any other information, provide more than enough proof that the extravagant claims which were being broadcast about both the ores at the Virginia Mining District and the San Franciscans’ plans for the development of the claims there, were nothing less than falsehoods.
M. L. Power to Messrs. Roberts & Harpending, Ralston, July 24, 1870
This is the very first letter which Power wrote from Ralston, as in it he states that he had arrived “at 7 A.M. this morning.” In the letter he gives Roberts and Harpending an overview of the current state of affairs at the Virginia Mining District claims. He refers to those claims which had been jumped, naming the “Capital”, “Roberts” and “Ophir”, along with “a portion” of both the “Washington” and “Jefferson.”
Power informs Roberts and Harpending of the amount of work carried out on the various claims, that is, the work required by Virginia Mining District law to secure a claim. This entailed the digging of a five feet square, six feet deep shaft. That has been done on the “Washington”, “Jefferson” and “Lee”; the work was carried out by John B. Slack, who had yet to be paid. Meanwhile, Brown has been “doing all he could for the interest of the Co.” and was currently working on the “Harpending” where he was “getting good ore.”
Power writes that, as no ore had been forwarded to San Francisco lately, he would ensure that some samples were sent on the next mail. He refers to D. O. McCarthy and Sam Jones as being the leaders of those who had jumped the mines, but says that at present neither McCarthy “nor his crowd” had any funds; it was believed that they had been unable to pay the men working for them. Cryptically Power says “if he [McCarthy] goes to San Fran. you can help him out in the manner he has been helping you here. The New Mexico Mg. Co. will have possession of their mines & will hold them too before he arrives in San Fran.” McCarthy was to leave Ralston for California “by stage in an hour.”
Power also reports that some town lots had been jumped at Ralston, and that Slack was in the process of writing to the surveyor “who laid out your town”, requesting that he return to Ralston to run the lines out again. The letter is signed “in haste, M. L. Power.”
The Weekly Arizonan of July 23, 1870, had reported Power’s arrival in Tucson, stating that he had arrived from California “on Sunday”, that is, July 17th. He is described as being “an old and experienced miner, representing the interests of a San Francisco company.”
Here we reproduce much of the Arizonan’s column, which describes, as far as the newspaper is aware, why Power was being sent to Ralston:
The feeling in San Francisco, and, in fact, throughout California with regard to the ‘Burro mines’, he [Power] represents as entirely favorable … It appears however that San Francisco capitalists in times past sustained some heavy losses by investing too readily in mining stock and are determined to know exactly and from the best authority, the true character of the Burro mines before going to any very considerable expense in fitting up machinery, etc. With this object Mr. Power has been sent by a company of capitalists to examine and report upon these mines; and upon his representation rests the fate of the Burro. A “diamond drill” with the engine and other machinery necessary to put it in operation, to be employed for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of the rock at different depths, is now enroute from San Diego. Mr. Power left for the mines yesterday. We have no apprehension that his report will be otherwise than favorable as we do not consider it probable that so many skilled miners heretofore reporting could be deceived.
With reference to Power’s letter, there are a couple of points to note. Firstly, there is no mention of Brown’s strange behavior as reported by McCallen; rather he is reported as being hard at work for the Company. Secondly, although we cannot determine an exact time frame, Power’s statement that no ore samples had been sent from Ralston “lately” leads one to question the Arizonan’s July 16 report concerning returns from various assay offices. As regards the above quoted newspaper item, the statements relating to machinery similarly bring into question the Weekly Arizonan reports of May 23 and July 16 that a mill/mills had been shipped and were on their way to Ralston.
M. L. Power to Messrs. Harpending & Roberts, Ralston, August 23, 1870
This second letter contains a wealth of information and, together with Power’s next letter, provides us with the bulk of evidence pointing to the fact that the mines were indeed a bilk.
Power begins by providing an update on attempts to refine and assay ore samples at Ralston; a house has been rented for Meyer, the assayer, to work in, and a small furnace constructed for the refinement process. Previous attempts at refining by using the blacksmith’s forge had failed, due to its inability to generate the necessary degree of heat. Meyer was taken ill “again” on the day that the furnace was completed – August 19th – and had remained ill until the time of Power’s writing.
The “jumpers” are reported as being idle for want of money, however, “one of them, the Deputy Recorder” had assured Power that they were worth a half a million dollars, and would shortly be contracting to sink a 100 foot shaft on one of their mines.
Power states that the election for District Recorder is to take place on the 17th of the following month, and assures Harpending and Roberts that he is confident of being able to secure the election of “our man.” At the time that this letter was written, John S. Crouch was the Recorder for the Virginia Mining District.
There follows another summary on the state of the various mines: Developments on the “Harpending” and “Red Cloud” are reported as being good, with a shaft being sunk on the latter and tunneling commenced on the former. Power has been prospecting on the “Brown” ledge; on that ledge, and on the “Jackson” and the “Potosi”, he says he discovered what he considered to be “good milling ore.” The “Washington” and “Jefferson” are reported as containing “a good deal of lead”, and the ores from them will need roasting, if not smelting, due to their nature; he tells the San Franciscans that “there is more base metals in these two than in any of your mines.” He describes the “Capital” as being perhaps “the freest” but not as rich as the “Harpending”, “Stonewall”, “Jackson”, “Potosi” and “Brown”, but states that the dip of the “Capital” “looks well it contains more copper than any of the others.”
It is possible that this letter was not all written at the same time, for on page three of the four page letter Power writes that he hopes to be able to send the results of some assays that Meyer has planned “provided he can succeed with his crude furnace. He has some doubts.” He reminds Harpending and Roberts that assaying apparatus is needed, and cautions them not to be “in a hurry with your mill for a little while until some assays are made new and we get the result and the character of the different metals.”
At the time of writing, Power had only four men at work on the claims; he was unable to obtain any black powder at Ralston, and was waiting for some to arrive from Camp Bowie, at Apache Pass, if that failed to arrive then the camp would have to remain idle until some could be obtained “from the Rio Grande.” During his first week at Ralston, he had “about 20 men at work a portion of the time in order to complete the necessary work required by law and which sadly, was only half done” when he had arrived at Ralston.
He tells Harpending and Roberts “I have had some wood chopped so as to be ready for the Steam Drill”, and that the “jumpers” are surprised that the San Francisco contingent does not already have a mill in operation. At one point he informs Harpending and Roberts that he had spent some money on whisky “in order to harmonise and become acquainted with the boys.” This generosity had ceased however as soon as he had “found out all he could, friends from foes.”
Again he refers to Meyer’s sickness, writing that “Capt. Curtis, Mr. Meyer, Major Dickinson and Mr. James have been very ill the past week”, and that “Messrs. Harpending, McGoodwin, Johns and Mayson had their turn the week prior.” Curtis in particular had been so sick that Power feared he would not recover – “I thought he had lung fever or some kindred disease.”
He finishes the letter by informing those at San Francisco that he intends to buy a four horse wagon if one can be found at a reasonable price; four of the mules belonging to “the Curtis party” will be utilized to draw the wagon, or perhaps sold if a wagon is unobtainable. He asks permission to go ahead and sell them should it be necessary. He says that he is enclosing with the letter “one of the notices found on the ‘Harpending’ a week ago”, that no town lots had been sold over the past week, and that “Mr. Gillette”, who had also been sick, was leaving for San Francisco the following day. He signs the letter “M. L. Power – Supt.”
This letter is dated August 23, 1870, the first day of the Federal Census enumeration at Ralston. This was in all probability around the time when the population of Ralston City was at or very close to its maximum. The census gives a total population of 174. A variety of trades and professions are represented amongst the men at Ralston: liquor dealers, a restaurateur, grocers, dry goods merchants, blacksmiths, butchers, 10 carpenters (one of whom was John B. Slack), a locomotive builder, and an engineer included, together with 97 males who gave their profession as that of miner, and 15 laborers. Ralston had everything that a booming silver mining camp needed; everything, that is, with the exception of one thing – any significant quantity of actual silver! For a place that was touted as being so rich in that precious metal, a place where it was reported as being almost pure in nature and was returning the most fabulous assay figures, it is telling that Power makes absolutely no mention of silver in his letter. His only references are to copper, lead and base metals, and the true worth of even these had yet to be determined.
Power says that, at the time of writing, he had only four men at work and that “the first week was a lively one” when he had about 20 men working for some of the time; these 20 working mainly on completing the necessary initial shafts. The Weekly Arizonan of August 6th and 13th respectively, reported that there were 30 and 40 men at work there, employed by the San Francisco company; the latter edition also reported the population of Ralston as being “somewhat in excess of three hundred men, the great majority of whom are old miners and frontiersmen.” This reference to old miners would seem to belie the Daily New Mexican report of August 22nd which claims that little development work was being carried out at the Ralston mines “as both experienced miners and money was scarce.” This same report put the population of the town at several hundred.
An examination of the census contradicts the statement that experienced miners were scarce at Ralston; this claim may be seen as part of the stalling tactics. Among those present at Ralston, as well as Power, were people such as Thomas R. Harris, W. D. Brown and George Warren.³⁶ From the wording of the letter it is apparent that Power, like McCallen, is unaware of Roberts’ and Harpending’s true intent for the Virginia Mining District. He was employed to be Superintendent of Mining operations there; to provide Roberts and Harpending with regular reports on the mines and those present at them. This is exactly what he does – compiling honest and factual reports, warts and all. Part of his purpose there was certainly to provide an added layer of legitimacy and credibility to the venture. Being an “old and experienced miner” his presence at the Virginia Mining District would most certainly not have harmed the District’s much publicized image.
Power’s letter reveals one more piece of information. From it we learn that, although the census enumerated 174 residents at Ralston, there were actually more than that number of people present. Power refers to several people whose names do not appear on the Ralston City census – Capt. Curtis, Mr. Meyer and Major Dickinson; neither does Power’s own name appear. As was the case with John D. Sagemiller and John Evensen, those people did not consider themselves residents. Power’s name is found on the census for San Francisco, while Curtis, Meyer and Dickinson had been enumerated at Florence, Arizona Territory, on August 1st.
Power also refers to Messrs. Harpending, McGoodwin, Johns and Mason (Mayson), and to Mr. James and Mr. Gillette. Harpending was C. Ben Harpending, the 21 year old nephew of Asbury; he too appears on the Florence census, as do Gillette, McGoodwin, Johns, Mason and James. The last four men were also enumerated at Ralston three weeks later.
In the next installment we will make a slight detour in order to take a closer look at this group of men and their relationship to George D.Roberts and Asbury Harpending, and at what befell them on their journey to Ralston City.
©2007-2024 Jim & Erica Parson
REFERENCES FOR THIS INSTALLMENT
³⁶George Warren is listed on the 1870 Census at Ralston City as a 30 year old miner, born in New Jersey. Warren would be elected President of the Virginia Mining District at the 1874 convention. He is most famous for being credited with the discovery in 1877 of the large body of copper ore upon which the Copper Queen mine would be established. This would become one of the most productive mines in Arizona, and close to it would develop the town of Bisbee. A photograph of Warren taken at Bisbee in 1880 would serve as a model for the miner depicted on the Seal of Arizona. Warren made and lost a fortune, dying a pauper at Bisbee in 1893.
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