The Fallout
The Pyramid Range prospectus would be held up – at least as far as Marmaduke Sampson was concerned – as the benchmark against which all other such prospectuses were measured. Sampson it seems never missed an opportunity to remind his readers of either it or the Lincoln Gold prospectus.
On January 6, 1872, he published a letter from one M. J. Ryan who claimed to have recently returned from an inspection of the mines of New Mexico, the particular purpose of his trip having been to examine the large ledges of the Pyramid Range. Ryan’s conclusion was that they contained only low grade ore, and that it would become cost effective to work them only when the Southern Pacific Rail Road was completed to a point nearest to them. He concludes his letter “the present state of the case fully sustains your scathing criticism at the time of the attempted floating of the company.”
In June of that year a prospectus was issued for the North American Gold Mining Company; yet another unmissable opportunity for British investors who wished to realize an immediate return, for little or no outlay, on gold mines in California. Gold mines whose worth and potential were vouched for by one D. W. C. Morgan, regarded by the company directors as being a very capable and experience miner. Sampson’s opinion was that:
The only drawback to the attractive character of these announcements consists, perhaps, in the recollection that they are still scarcely so brilliant as those put forward some time back by the Great Pyramid Silver Mountain Company, and also the Lincoln Gold Company, both of which, nevertheless, ended in disappointment.⁵⁹
Despite the promise that in the case of the North American Company an independent expert was to be dispatched to further examine the property, Sampson ponders on the fact that:
The experience hitherto of the independence of mining captains sent out to encounter the sanguine influences that are brought to bear upon them in California has not been such as to encourage reliance on this precaution.⁶⁰
The following month, commenting on a prospectus issued for the Spanish Zinc Company, which yet again promised excellent returns for investors, Sampson wrote that these mines “consist of ‘gigantic deposits of massive calamine’, and the tone of the description given of the value has not been exceeded in the prospectus of any mining company since the issue of that of the Pyramid Range Silver Mountain.”⁶¹
Several years later, Harpending would exact revenge on Sampson when he was party to bringing about Sampson’s downfall by making public a covert alliance between Sampson and Albert Grant. Sampson was dismissed from his position in disgrace. (Spence, p.58, citing Mining Journal, January 23, 1875).
The Ever Loyal Dooner
Meanwhile, it seems that no one had bothered to inform the ever loyal Dooner of the Weekly Arizonan that the Pyramid Range venture had failed miserably. On March 11, 1871, Dooner was still reporting that the news from Ralston continued to be favorable, and that immigration to the mines there was still continuing at a rapid pace. On March 18th, a Mr. Ambreaux had visited Dooner and had spoken in the highest terms of the prospects for the Virginia Mining District, saying that the area had a “wonderful future, and that at no distant day.”⁶²
On April 1, 1871, Dooner published a lengthy report on the Pyramid Range Silver Mountain Mining Company, listing the names of those who comprised the Board of Directors and giving details of the assay results obtained on some specimens – from 86 oz. of silver/ton to 134 oz. silver/ton. The report included Mr. Henry Morgan’s account of “the marvelous character of the Co.’s property, masses of ore etc., etc.” The style of the article suggests that Dooner had actually seen at first hand a copy of the prospectus, which was by now a worthless document.
On March 22, 1871, the residents of Ralston, were celebrating the passage by Congress of the Texas Pacific Railroad Bill, which would eventually give “the unprecedented mineral region of which Ralston is the representative town” communication with the wider world. They were fully convinced that Ralston would be the site of “the happy iron wedding” which would take place when the silver spike, connecting the railroads from the east and west, was driven.⁶³
By April 8th, Dooner, and therefore probably the majority of the readers of the Weekly Arizonan, was still unaware that the Pyramid Range Company had failed. On that date the paper reported that “Harpending & Co.’s agent and employees” who had been at Ralston for the previous six months had passed through Tucson on the 2nd on their way back to San Francisco. Dooner writes that, although many had surmised what this might mean:
The conclusion arrived at and generally adopted is that the San Francisco capitalists are playing to ‘freeze out’ all competition, and eventually come into possession of the whole of these mines.
Inevitably, with the knowledge of what had recently transpired in London, we are forced to come to a somewhat different conclusion; Roberts and Harpending were abandoning the failed enterprise.
If At First…
The failure of the Pyramid Range venture was to prove no great obstacle to the aspirations of either Harpending or Roberts; it in no way dampened their ardor for the stock float business. The duo had no sooner been forced to endure the vitriolic – yet truthful – assaults heaped upon them by Marmaduke Sampson, than that sanguinity referred to by him gathered itself together and the two were ready to commence on yet another foray into the London stock market.
This new enterprise was to be centered on mining property in Nevada; an enterprise which once again involved fortuitous meetings and an eager third party. The name of the company to be formed this time was to be the Mineral Hill Silver Mines Company. Although this was not an attempt at a stock float fraud like the Pyramid Range and Lincoln Gold companies, it would come to leave a bad taste in the mouths of several of those associated with it, and it would involve a by now all too familiar cast of players. Eventually it would result in more than one lawsuit, the most famous of which would once again bring to the public’s attention not only all of the old details of the Lincoln Gold and Pyramid Range affairs, but also many new ones.
On June 22, 1871, Sampson’s “Money-Market & City Intelligence” column in the London Times announced that the Mineral Hill Silver Mines Company had issued 3,000 debentures, or stock bonds, at £100 each in that company. The Company owned mining property in the Mineral Hill Mining District of Nevada. The mines had been thoroughly inspected and reported on by the highly regarded Messrs. John Taylor and Sons of London who verified that the property was “one of the richest groups of silver mines they have ever known.” There were piles of ore already mined, lying on the ground awaiting processing. The Trustees and Directors of the Company were all regarded as being “persons of standing” and Taylor and Sons were to be managers of the property.
The Mineral Hill Mining District had been discovered in 1869; the first claims made there were sold for $400,000 in 1870 to William Lent and George D. Roberts who subsequently formed the Mineral Hill Mining Company. It is said that several hundred thousands of dollars’ worth of ore was mined at the property, but that it was eventually sold to an English syndicate for $1,500,000. Harpending in his memoirs says that William Lent was President of the Mineral Hill Company, and that he himself owned a one-quarter interest in the Company.
As already stated, the Mineral Hill Silver Mines Company does not seem to have been formed for the same purposes as the Pyramid Range and Lincoln Gold companies; it is mentioned here only because of the names of those involved in its creation. It was formed by Baron Albert Grant who bought the Nevada properties from Harpending and Roberts. Grant is described by Spence as being “one of the most questionable of London’s financial wizards.
Harpending writes that while he was in London, at the time of the Pyramid Range failure, “a pleasant incident” occurred, that is, the “renewing” of his acquaintance with Alfred Rubery. Most accounts state that it was Rubery who introduced Harpending to Baron Albert Grant. Harpending makes it sound as though this was the first time that he had been in contact with Rubery since the “Chapman” days; he neglects to mention that he had communicated with Rubery at the time of the Lincoln Gold Company, requesting that Rubery provide Bigelow with the necessary introductions while he was in London.
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The beginning of 1871 must have been a very busy period for Asbury Harpending; there was the organization of the Pyramid Range Company, the launching of the Stock Exchange Review, and the sale of the Mineral Hill property, all within the first month or so of that year. Things then seem to have been relatively quiet until the close of that year when Harpending returned to London.
Harpending’s memoirs give very few dates and at times the sequence of events, when compared to evidence from other sources, appear muddled as they are narrated by him. Whether this is by design or due to the passing of time we can only guess. The memoirs were not written until 1913, first appearing in book form in 1915. They were never on the best seller list. Shortly after publication Harpending disposed of an unsold 1,200 copies by selling them in bulk to a California bookseller, who in turn priced them for sale at ten cents a copy, the original price having been $1.50.
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The next Chapter will begin our coverage of what has become one of Ralston City/ Shakepeare’s greatest claims to fame – the town’s central role in the Great Diamond Hoax of 1872. Two of the main claims are that it was Lee Peak which was chosen as the site for the alleged “diamond fields”, and that it was the resulting massive influx of diamond seekers that led to the town’s population booming to a figure of 3,000 souls.
Most of the claims made for the settlement in relation to this event can be sourced to Emma Marble Muir’s 1948 “The Great Diamond Swindle”. They have been – and continue to be – embellished and repeated unchecked in the years since.
©2007-2024 Jim & Erica Parson
REFERENCES FOR THIS INSTALLMENT
⁵⁹London Times. June 10, 1872.
⁶⁰Ibid.
⁶¹London Times. July 2, 1872.
⁶²Weekly Arizonan. March 18, 1871.
⁶³Tucson Weekly Arizonan. April 1, 1871.
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