Nevada Territory. Unionville / Buena Vista, Sargent Ledge, Ferguson Company. Silver Ingot to Abraham Bateman
This unusual silver ingot (ex J. J. Ford Collection when it was sold in 2007) is in the form of a presentation plaque, with a hole for (presumably) carrying on a watch chain or perhaps a larger place. It was made by engravers F.W. Schultz & Son, and is marked on the back “F. W. Schulz e. fil. VIRGINIA CITY,” Nevada Territory. According to the inscription, it was presented to A. Bateman by his friends on Christmas Day of 1862, and is made of silver from the Sargent Ledge, Fergueson [sic] Company, presented in Buena Vista, Nevada. Weighing about 3 ounces, it measures 1.7 × 2.1 inches, and is about 5 mm thick.
The ingot was given by “mutual friends” to Abraham G. Bateman, owner of the only hotel in Buena Vista (an early name for Unionville, Nevada). Bateman was 27 years old at the time. He was born in rural Pennsylvania around 1833 to parents of German origin, and probably came west at the tail end of the California Gold Rush, or perhaps specifically to Nevada at the onset of the Comstock and other silver rushes near there, including Unionville. Bateman had sold his
hotel in Buena Vista by 1864 and moved on to another mining camp. He probably wandered about for several years, since he did not register in any US Census except 1880, when he resided in Alameda, California, listing his occupation as mine owner. He must have valued the ingot as a memento, since it has been carefully preserved.
Bateman may have loaned money or provided free lodgings to the “mutual friends” for a share in their Sargent Ledge claim. Such a loan, called a “grubstake,” was a very common practice at the time. On Christmas day, December 25, 1862, the mine owners gave this ingot to Bateman in appreciation. “Buena Vista” refers to the small mining town where Bateman had his hotel. The “Fergueson” (Ferguson?) Company may have consisted of several Ferguson brothers who were living in Virginia City at the time. According to the 1862 Territorial Census. W. N. Ferguson was foreman of the Poorman Gold & Silver Mining Company, while J. A. Ferguson was a bartender at the Nevada Saloon. The Ferguson group was still actively mining in May of 1863, reporting “rich assays” from the discovery of the Miami Ledge.
The Sargent Lode was located centrally in the Buena Vista mining district, and was among the first claims staked there in 1861. Within a year of its discovery, a public company of the same name was formed. In May 1863, the first meeting of the shareholders of the Sargent Gold and Silver Mining Company was held in Unionville. The mine and lode were named after Aaron A. Sargent, a California congressman who led the effort in “procuring the annulment in the Corporation Act of Nevada Territory.” An active mining man, he was highly popular in Washoe County.
The mines at Unionville may have been discovered as early as 1859, according to the 1863 Territorial Directory, perhaps the result of prospecting on the heels of Pacific Railroad exploration. The first claims were staked in 1861 and the associated mining camps immediately sprang up. Towns were built and settled by the summer of 1862, when “there were probably 100 houses erected in three months.” “This is without a doubt the richest mineral district yet discovered in Nevada Territory,” wrote J. Wells Kelly, the author of the 1863 Nevada Territorial Directory.
Incidentally, one of the early claim stakers at Unionville in 1861-1862 was none other than Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), who arrived there in the winter of 1861; he staked several claims and wrote about his adventure in Roughing It.
The Sargent mine, meanwhile, may have been purchased by the Minitowok claimants. All through 1863, the mine was shipping silver bullion. “The rock has yielded $400 per ton on an average,” reported a writer for the Mining and Scientific Press.
F. W. Schultze, who engraved this ingot, arrived there in late 1862, just missing the canvasing for the 1862 Territorial Directory. The ingot was probably made by Assayer Leopold Kuh or E.
Ruhling, the two leading assayers in Virginia City at the time. By about 1870, Schultze had left the Comstock, and does not appear in any US or foreign census, before or after the Comstock.
[Original writeup by Wendell Wilson]
Provenance: From our sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XXI, Lot 3542. Earlier, from Superior Galleries’ Century Collection sale, February 1992, Lot 3430; Superior Galleries’ sale of the Irving Goodman Collection, May 1996, Lot 1096.
[10/2007] https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-AV6Q3/fw-schultz-son-virginia-city-nevada-territory-silver-presentation-plaque-december-25-1862 ($20,700)
[07/2009] https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-B2LGI/nevada-territory-unionville-buena-vista-sargent-ledge-ferguson-company-weight-and-fineness-unmarked-silver ($20,700)