Although it is generally reported that the Virginia Mining District’s revival began in 1879 with the arrival of the Boyles at the settlement, it had really begun a full year earlier in the early spring of 1878, with the reappearance of William D. Brown. Why Brown chose to return when he did can only be guessed at, but there is some information on where he had been in the intervening years, since the exposure of the Pyramid Range Silver Mountain Company stock float fraud.
1874 – 1878
In 1874, Brown had been indicted by a San Francisco Grand Jury and arrested on a charge of conspiracy – to which he pleaded not guilty – in connection with the Treadwell/Roberts fraud suit which arose from the New Mexico Mining Company’s sale of shares to Treadwell.⁵ The case had collapsed, and with it the charges against Brown. Lingenfelter writes that in October of that year “Professor” William D. Brown, together with his brother Robert and a Raphael Cueruo, was at the Coso Mining District in the Panamint area of Death Valley, California. Here they discovered “massive deposits” of rich silver-lead ore which led to the development of the mining camp of Darwin.⁶
In the spring of 1875, “the systematic” Brown and his brother found another large, rich deposit to the east of Death Valley, samples of which assayed at $60/ton of silver and which they named the “Balance.” Together with George Hearst the brothers formed the Balance Consolidated Gold and Silver Mining Company, laid out a town-site and established a vegetable farm, fruit orchard, and saw mill.⁷In 1877, Balance Consolidated sold its properties and the town-site to the Los Angeles Mining and Smelting Company. Originally named Brownsville, the town-site was then renamed Tecopa.
1878 – Return to Ralston City
April of 1878 saw Brown’s return to Ralston City and the Virginia Mining District; bearing in mind his reputation for success he must have had a good reason. By now just about every single one of those claims made or bought by the New Mexico and the Burro Consolidated Mining Companies of 1870 was open for relocation, none of the legally required annual maintenance work having been carried out on them. Brown must have been aware of this and perhaps this is what led him to return to the District.
Between April 3rd and August 30th of 1878, Brown was co-locator on nine claims in the Virginia Mining District: the “Atwood”, “Antelope”, “Bibbins”, “Evening Star”, “Dale Monte”, “Veta Grande”, “Brown”, “Henrietta” and the “Yellow Jacket.” Of these all except the “Henrietta” were located by varying combinations of the same group of people; the “Henrietta” was located by Brown and John Evensen alone. Also located at the same time was the “Henry Clay”; Brown was not involved in this claim, but it was located by two members of the group – Benjamin Lake and C. W. Seeley.⁸ The wording of the records relating to these claims confirms that at least some of them were re-locations of properties which had previously belonged to the New Mexico Mining Company. The records for the “Henry Clay” for example state that it had previously been known as the “Valley” mine, this indeed had been one of the New Mexico Mining Company’s properties. At least one of the claims of the San Diego and Arizona Mining Company had also lapsed by this time too, the claim for the “Brown” stating that it was “first known as the ‘Bowman Angle Ledge or Mine.”
On August 16, 1878, the group sold all of these properties with the exception of the “Henrietta”, which appears to have been owned independently by Brown and Evensen, to the Arizona Mineral and Land Company of San Francisco. This consortium was comprised of W. D. Brown and eight associates, all of San Francisco, California. The mines were sold for the grand total of $5.⁹
1879
Brown must have remained in Grant County for some time. In January of 1879 he and William Atwood made a joint claim for water rights and a mill site, together with five acres of land for mill/furnace use, at the western end of Ralston “near the upper well.”¹⁰ The following month, Brown was in Silver City recruiting men to work on his Virginia Mining District properties and expressing his “unabated confidence” in the worth of the District. He felt that with the coming of the railroad, Ralston would become an important center of mining.¹¹ The proximity of the railroad to the Virginia Mining District would certainly have helped to offset some of the costs associated with the transportation of ore from the District to processing centers further afield, making it more economically viable to mine those ores. This might have been one factor which had induced him to return to the District. In August of that year he was a founding member of the Shakespeare Militia, and in September he endorsed a mining claim as “Wm. D. Brown. Dist. Recorder.”¹² His name continues to appear in County records at least until July of 1882, when he sold a one-third share in each of three mines in the Cook’s Mountain Mining District to C. P. Crawford.¹³
Others too were active in the year immediately preceding the arrival of William G. and John Boyle. Taking April 4, 1879¹⁴ as the beginning of William G. Boyle’s involvement in the Virginia Mining District, in the twelve months leading up to and including this date, five claims were recorded by John Evensen, two by C. Ross Woods, and two more on which D. C. Leroy was co-locator, but without a doubt the volume of claims increased markedly from the time of W. G. Boyle’s arrival.
The next installment looks at the various Companies formed to manage the claims at (with one exception) the Virginia Mining District. Although this might seem tedious, it is necessary to an understanding of what was going on at the District, in particular to the relationships between people such as the Boyles and Price, both within and between the various Companies.
The fact that there were so many Companies involving the Boyles and Price formed and merged and given new names has led to much muddying of the waters over the years, resulting in the present inaccuracies.
©2007-2024 Jim & Erica Parson
REFERENCES FOR THIS INSTALLMENT
Note:
Documents located at the Grant County Clerk’s Office (1400 Hwy. 180 E. Silver City, NM 88061) are denoted by (GCCO).
Documents located at the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives (1205 Camino Carlos Rey, Santa Fe, NM 87507) are denoted by (NMSRCA).
⁵Daily Alta California. September 9 and 10, 1874.
⁶Lingenfelter, Richard E. (1986). Page 131.
⁷Ibid. Page 137.
⁸Mining Locations, No 1 (1871-1880). Pages 449-451, 453, 475-476. The group comprised the following people: William D. Brown, T. L. Bibbins, Benjamin Lake, James Hutchison, A. S. Cook, W. T. Atwood, C. W. Seeley and W. Townsend. (GCCO)
⁹Deeds. Book 3. (February 1876-May 1880). Page 309. (GCCO)
¹⁰Ibid. Page 365.
¹¹[Grant County] Herald Supplement. February 22, 1879.
¹²Mining Locations, No 1 (1870-1880). Page 601. (GCCO)
¹³Mining Record of Deeds Book 7 (September 1880-September 1882). Page 737. (GCCO)
¹⁴The date of April 4, 1879 is used as this is the earliest date found in Grant County records for a mining location made by William G. Boyle [Mining Locations, No 1 (1870-1880), page 519]. The earliest date for a location by John Boyle is April 23, 1879 [Mining Locations, No 1 (1870-1880), page 532]. (GCCO)
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