This is a key chapter as the events described in it are important to both the proposed stock float on the London Stock Exchange, and for the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872 – the two being directly related. It is a long chapter, and will be published in several installments.
Exactly when Harpending left for and arrived in London we have been unable to determine; there are only fragments of information which have enabled us to arrive at a relatively narrow time frame in which he must have done so.
In his letter of November 6, 1870, Roberts states that, the previous day, he had received a letter from Harpending which was sent from Santa Fe; this means that Harpending must have made the journey to Santa Fe and arrived there by at least the beginning of November. Where Roberts’ letter of the 6th was mailed to we do not know. In this letter he refers to Mary, his wife, having arrived in New York by the time that Harpending will receive it; we can assume that Harpending too would be in New York by that time. In his letter of November 13th Roberts writes that Mary had sailed from Liverpool, aboard the “Cuba”, the previous day, and requests that Harpending meet her when the ship arrives at New York.
The New York Times of November 25, 1870, lists “Mrs. G. D. Roberts, servant and courier” as being among the arrivals aboard the steamship Cuba, from Liverpool, which had docked the previous day. If Harpending was indeed there to meet Mary Roberts, this means he was most definitely in New York by the end of November 1870. We know that Harpending was in London by the beginning of 1871, as in January of that year the first edition of his Stock Exchange Review would be published there.
The Companies
At what point it was decided to set the wheels in motion for the stock float of the Virginia Mining District properties is just one more uncertainty. Was the decision to do so hastened by Power’s alarmingly honest reports and the danger that they could possibly become public knowledge? Certainly the consolidation of the claims at Ralston in preparation for the stock float had begun as early as May of 1870, when Harpending, Roberts, Treadwell, C. Ben Harpending and McGoodwin sold all of their interests in 12 claims in the Virginia Mining District to the New Mexico Mining Company. This was followed in July by James McCallen and Philip Arnold’s sale to the Company of all of their interests in the same group of claims, together with their interests in a further four claims. Consolidation was completed on October 1, 1870, when W. D. Brown relinquished his share in all 16 mines to the New Mexico Mining Company. The Company then fully owned the “Ophir”, “Roberts”, “Valley”, “Potosi”, “Arnold”, “Jefferson”, “Washington”, “General Lee”, “Stonewall Jackson”, “Brown”, “Capital”, “Red Cloud”, “Tycoon”, “ Yokahama” and “Shoo-fly” claims, together with all of the “Harpending” ledge.
On October 20, 1870, Philip Arnold and James B. Cooper began another consolidation of claims. Together they bought part or full interest in over one dozen claims in the Virginia Mining District. They also disposed of their interests in a number of mines. Of the claims they purchased, the “Gila”, “Flat Head”, “Dog Star” and “Padrace” were sold to the Burro Consolidated Mining Company on October 28, 1870. That Company had also acquired the “Everett” lode and mine the previous day.
The New Mexico Mining Company was issued with Certificate of Incorporation number 6598 at San Francisco on May 4, 1870. The Company was certified for “the working of mines of Gold, Silver, Copper and Lead” and for the extracting of “precious metals from quartz and sulphurets in the mines of the Territory of New Mexico.” It began life with a capital stock of $30,000,000 divided into 300,000 shares at $100 each. There were five Trustees who would manage the Company’s affairs for the first three months, until successors were elected; those Trustees were Alpheus Bull, G. D. Roberts, G. W. Beaver, J. D. Fry and S. Heydenfeldt.
The Burro Consolidated Mining Company, similarly incorporated under the laws of California at San Francisco, was issued with its Certificate on July 5, 1870. Its capital stock was $9,000,000, divided into 360,000 shares at $25 each. The first five Trustees of this Company were R. F. Morrow, S. Heydenfeldt, James B. Cooper, G. D. Roberts and J. S. Wall.⁵⁰
These two companies would later be consolidated as the Pyramid Range Silver Mountain Company (Limited); the Company which was formed for the stock float, originally planned to take place in New York, but then relocated to the London Stock Exchange.
There has been much confusion over the names of these three companies, compounded to some degree by Harpending’s own memoirs in which he says that “the New Mexico Land and Silver Mining Company” was the name of the Company formed for the London stock float.⁵¹
Milford posits that “it is not clear if the Pyramid Range Silver Mountain Mining Company included the mines of the San Diego and Arizona as well as the New Mexico mining company until the prospectuses or incorporation documents of the three companies are located.”⁵² He also states that “Harpending and his partners had little luck” in selling the stock of the San Diego and Arizona Mining Company.⁵³ This comes as no surprise; this company was a completely separate enterprise and was totally independent of and unconnected to any of Roberts’ and Harpending’s ventures.
Over the next few installments we will look at Harpending’s account of how the plan to float the Pyramid Range Company on the London Stock Exchange came about, and how it’s glowing prospectus led to the monumental downfall of the Company.
©2007-2024 Jim & Erica Parson
REFERENCES FOR THIS INSTALLMENT
⁴⁹Copy of Articles of Incorporation obtained from Secretary of State, California State Archives, 1020 O Street, P. O. Box 944260, Sacramento, CA 94244-2600.
⁵⁰Ibid.
⁵¹Wilkinson, James H., Editor (1938) The Great Diamond Hoax and Other Stirring Incidents in the Life of Asbury Harpending. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Page 126. Hereafter referred to as Wilkins (1938).
⁵²Milford (1999). Page 20.
⁵³Ibid. Page 13.
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