John Mackay: Silver King in the Gilded Age (Wilber S. Shepperson Series in Nevada History

297 Pages·2009·1.59 MB·English

by  Michael J. Makley

John Mackay
Wilbur S. ShepperSon SerieS in nevada hiStory
University of Nevada Press Reno & Las Vegas
M J. M
ichael akley
J o h n M ac k ay
Silver King in
the Gilded Age
For Randi Lee
Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in Nevada History
Series Editor: Michael Green
University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada 89557 usa
Copyright © 2009 by University of Nevada Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Design by Louise OFarrell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Makley, Michael J.
John Mackay : silver king in the gilded age /
Michael J. Makley.
p. cm.— (Wilbur S. Shepperson series in Nevada
history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-87417-770-1 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mackay, John William, 1831–1902. 2. Silver mines
and mining—Nevada—History. 3. Capitalists and
financiers—Nevada—Biography. I. Title.
hd9537.u62m335 2009
979.3'02092—dc22 2008041623
The paper used in this book is a recycled stock made
from 30 percent post-consumer waste materials
and meets the requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi/niso
z39.48-1992 (r2002). Binding materials were selected
for strength and durability.
First Printing
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 5 4 3 2 1
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Prologue 1
1. Starting Out 8
2. The Fountainhead 16
3. Hale & Norcross 35
contents
4. Competitors 48
5. The Con. Virginia 58
6. Bonanza Silver and Kings 73
7. 1875 83
8. Responses 101
9. Status and Scandal 119
10. To Try Fortune No More 134
11. A Changing Cast 146
12. The New War 159
13. Near Disaster 174
14. Losing Control 191
15. Universal Eulogy 204
Notes 213
Bibliography 247
Index 257

(following page 158)
John William Mackay
Louise Hungerford Mackay
The Mackay house in Virginia City
James G. Fair
James C. Flood and William
Shonessy O’Brien
List of Illustrations
The French Mill
A view of Virginia City
c Street
The Con. Virginia’s shaft house
Miners
Comstock’s “fissure vein”
Leaving the Bonanza mines
Louise Mackay
Mackay at age fifty
Principals in James Fisk’s death
Jay Gould
Cartoon of Uncle Sam
confronting Gould
Mackay-Bennett cable hauled ashore
at Manhattan Beach, New York
Clarence Mackay
John Mackay near the end of his life
Statue of Mackay
vii

Preface
John Mackay regarded Virginia City, Nevada, as his home although he lived
two-thirds of his life elsewhere. The sentiment is understandable, since the
silver he took from the town’s Comstock Lode made him one of the richest
men in the world. Moreover, because he rose from the ranks of the miners
he was always considered “one of the boys,” and owing to his honesty and
generosity, when he succeeded he was lionized in his adopted state.
San Francisco interests ran nineteenth-century Nevada mining opera-
tions. Because hard-rock, deep-fissure mining required great amounts of
capital, the San Francisco stock market, with its sale of shares and assess-
ments, allowed the mines to be developed. But the story of Mackay on the
Comstock is of a local miner overcoming the dominance of corporate San
Francisco. Although two of Mackay’s partners were San Francisco brokers,
it was Mackay and fellow “Comstocker” James Fair who out-maneuvered
the San Francisco Bank Ring, and it was miners under their direction who
brought the Bonanza silver to the surface.
The importance of Mackay to western history would be significant if his
story ended with his mining successes. Other histories and biographies have
presented considerable information regarding that episode of his life. But
only cursory attention has been paid to his second career: building a world-
ix