c1883-1887 – The Sweetwater Mining Company silver ingot comes to us from the Western Collections of Richard Gooding, a major collector in Texas, who passed away a number of years ago. He had major collections of guns, Wells Fargo, and mining ephemera, all now long disbursed except the ingots, which were retained by the family until now. Family members also had strong mining ties, particularly with Alaska. This trapezoidal ingot is engraved on all six sides, burnished along the top edges. At 6 ounces, it measures 2.” x 1” x 0.5”. The ingot is marked:
- Top: Sweetwater Mining Co. Treasure Hill, Nevada
- Front side: Eugene D. Robinson, Managing Director
- Right end: S.F. Paul, Superintendant (Supt.)
- Back side: Chas W Havemeyer, President (scratched through)
- Left end: F. W. Bouton, Secy.
- Bottom: 6.ozs
The ingot appears to be an exhibition ingot used for public display, since it is not presented to any one person, or made by an assayer for a specific mine. It is one of less than five ingots from the White Pine region of Nevada, which held an important role in the mining history of the West.
The Sweetwater Mining Company was formed in about 1883, having purchased or leased mine properties from the British funded Eberhardt & Aurora Company. The key mine in their holdings was the Original Hidden Treasure Mine–one of the best mines of the district–but they also owned the Stafford and other properties on the north end of Treasure Hill. Treasure Hill was one of two main mining camps in the White Pine (the other Hamilton) which were integral to the White Pine Rush of 1868-1869. The district was perhaps most famous for a “boom and bust” mentality, though production was nearly continuous for 100 years in different parts of the district. British investors quickly tied up all of the key mines, which left little room for speculators staking claims on worthless ground. The Sweetwater Mining Company had working sites at the north end of Treasure Hill as early as 1884. They had 14 properties, according to Burchard (1885). He further reported that since 1883 through the end of 1884, the Company had precious metal receipts of $73,350 (not reported in Couch & Carpenter). The Sweetwater MC ran a tunnel to the lower areas of the Hidden Treasure. 900 feet during 1883-4, and planned another 450 feet in 1885. The tunnel was being driven to search for deeper ore. The mine had been a winner for the Eberhardt and Aurora Mining Company, but the lack of near surface ore combined with fires at the mills in 1872 helped along their temporary demise. Eberhardt & Aurora successfully found some deeper ore at the Ward-Beecher in 1875. The Eberhardt & Aurora Company gave up in 1885 after spending a reported $5 million in exploration with little results, having sold off or leased various properties, including the Hidden Treasure to outside investors that included Havemeyer, Robinson et al. San Francisco assayer Thomas Price was sent to evaluate the area by the British interests, but his recommendations had to wait for new investors. The British abandoned their interests about 1885. While the district produced a reported $22 million from 1868-1885, little detail of the latter period is discussed in Jackson’s Treasure Hill. (1963) The district, however, never completely died. According to Roscoe Smith in Mineral Resources of White Pine County (1976), the mines at Treasure produced a little all the way through 1966.
From the records I was able to locate, activity by the Sweetwater Company ceased by the end of 1887. Stock certificates are known from the Sweetwater Mining Company.
The men whose names are engraved on this ingot are a typical cross section of the nineteenth century Nevada mining culture. One is a New York financier, one is a Nevada mining manager. Another is an assayer, and the third possibly a “corporate secretary.”
Chas. W. Havemeyer, president (scratched out).
Charles Havemeyer was a New York sugar merchant. He was part owner of a sugar refinery in New York City owned by his family. In the late 1870’s, five different Havemeyer (brothers?) owned three different businesses on Wall Street, nearly all adjacent to each other: Havemeyer, Estwick & Co., Havemeyer Bros., and Havemeyer & Elder. Charles lived on Long island [Trows New York Directories, various]. The scratched out name as it appears on the ingot may indicate that the ingot never belonged to Havemeyer, but may have belonged to Robinson, and Havemeyer may have become disassociated with the company.
Eugene D. Robinson, managing director; no records in Nevada census. Robinson appears to be a western mining man. He owned a store in Hamilton, where he may have amassed some wealth, which was partially parlayed into mining. Robinson is credited with building a large mill at Seligman, near Treasure Hill, circa 1886. Seligman had originally been called Leadville. A few of the merchants were those that moved to the new camp from Hamilton after the fire. Effie Read gave a quote from the White Pine News that gives a glimpse of Seligman at the time: “ Hong Hing was sent over from Seligman to Hamilton to await the grand jury on a charge of running a banking game of Fan Tan and keeping an opium den. There are about forty of these boss heathen there.” (pp36-37, White Pine Lang Syne, 1965) Robinson’s name appears on a number of Treasure Hill area stock certificates, and was thus a very active mining man locally. What is not known is whether he was one of the many African-American mining men that were a big part of the White Pine rush. (See my story on the Small-Saunders silver ingot several years ago.) Seligman was named for the Seligman brothers, British brokers who promoted the Eberhardt & Aurora Company.
S. F. Paul, mine superintendent. Born in Missouri, 1832. Assayer at Treasure Hill, 1870’s to 1880’s, according to various directories. By 1900, when Hamilton was all but gone, he had moved to the new mining camp of Ely and established himself as an assayer there. Paul was a county commissioner of White Pine in 1885 when the tragic and massive fire hit Hamilton and burned the court house. He and two others moved what was left to another building. Paul was involved in a shooting on 31 March 1886. Paul shot and killed James F. Rielly, an old time merchant and postmaster in Hamilton “during star route mail frauds”. A few months later, Reilly was “exonerated” and the “bells rang all day long”. The star route mail frauds were well known throughout the US at the time, but few knew that the mail frauds were as alive and as bad in White Pine County as anywhere in America. “Few perhaps knew that these frauds were practiced as boldly in White Pine County as any other section of the country”, wrote B.F. Miller in Nevada in the Making, (Part 2, NHS Papers, Viv, pp255-474; and White Pine Lang Syne, Effie Read, 1965.) Indeed, in a story that could come out of the 21st century, Federal investigators found that the Postal Service was paying exorbitant fees to some of the route operators. The Hamilton to Pioche route operator received $48,000 per year for years until it was uncovered, while the postmasters locally got less than $3000, except one in Hamilton, who got more than $3000 per year by buying enough stamps to make it look like they ran a large business. That postmaster got in trouble (caught) when he paid too many of his bills in stamps. Paul himself became Postmaster of Treasure City in 1879 and later Hamilton in 1892. (Patera, Rush to White Pine, 1988.)
F. W. Bouton, secty. Bouton appears to be a lawyer in New York, but this is an uncertain attribution. He is not found in Nevada records, San Francisco records (where most of the western mining companies were headquartered), or other easily searched mining records. As a mining secretary, he would likely be a broker or lawyer.
[12/2012] https://www.icollector.com/Sweetwater-MC-Engraved-Trapezoidal-Silver-ingot-NV-Treasure-Hill_i14654250 ($13,145)