NV – Virginia City,Storey County – MM Frederick Ingot
NV – Virginia City,Storey County – MM Frederick Ingot
The H. W. Beecher, MM Frederick Virginia City Ingot
This ingot came to our attention earlier this year and is a new discovery. As a presentation ingot, it brings together many of the elements of American politics of the day, all in one piece. It involves Henry Ward Beecher, brother or Harriet Beecher Stowe; M. M. Frederick, a prominent Virginia City jeweler, and in a circuitous way brings Sam Clemens into the picture, America’s favorite humorist.
Beecher – a Theological Lecturer and Reformist
H. W. Beecher (1813-1887) was one of the most conspicuous figures in public life a in his time, according to the Dictionary of American Biography. Beecher was a reformer, working to “improve social conditions directed chiefly against vices commonly existing on the American frontier.”
He was a prolific speaker, one of the best on the international lecture circuit. His charitable and kindly disposition bode well for the main purpose of his life- preaching the gospel. By the late 1840’s he was internationally famous for his direct, clear, picturesque, amusing and very emotional speeches.
Beecher’s speeches led him to an introduction and close friendship with Theo Tilton, an editor and reformist, who reportedly had “unconventional views on marriage and religion”. The two were so close that Beecher performed the marriage ceremony between Tilton and his wife in 1855. Tilton later falsely accused Beecher of improper relations with his wife, but Tilton had power of the pen and press as editor, and began a campaign of crucifixion of Beecher, which even the great orator couldn’t match. By 1874 the circus was in full swing, the “Affair the subject of smoldering gossip”, with Tilton later filing suit for adultery and asking for $100,000 in damages. Two trials, one through the legal system, and another through the Church system, lasted over a year. Beecher was acquitted and found innocent. The trial cost him $118,000, but he remained popular nonetheless.
Beecher took considerable heat for backing Grover Cleveland, who was found to have fathered an illegitimate child.
Beecher and Sam Clemens
As a great lecturer, Beecher was a friend of Sam Clemens. Clemens had begun his career on the Comstock, with the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City. He gave numerous speeches at Piper’s Opera House, and undoubtedly recommended it to his friend Beecher as one of the many western houses that would fill up and pay good money. The two were arguably two of the most popular on the national speech “circuit”, generally drawing hundreds of people per speech.
When General US Grant died, Beecher was preparing a eulogy, and asked Clemens for some inside information, since Clemens was so close to the General. Clemens wrote Beecher Sept. 11, 1885 with some notes, but did not necessarily answer Beecher’s question of whether Grant “had been a drunkard for a time.” The material that Clemens prepared regarding Grant was part of his start into the writing of his autobiography.
Clemens had enlisted a friend, James Redpath, to take dictation of Clemens’ ramblings. But that effort was wholly unsuccessful, because Redpath “edited” Clemens’ words, and in so doing, took all the fluff and color out of it. Clemens was furious, and Redpath was fired.
But Redpath did leave his mark on history. He created for Clemens, adding others later, the “lecture circuit.” The lecture circuit was created and managed by Redpath. In his stable were Clemens Beecher, Anna Dickinson Horace Greely and others – more than twenty to thirty overall. “Beecher, Gough, Nash and Dickinson were the only lecturers who knew their own value and extracted it,” Clemens wrote in his Autobiography. “In towns their fee was $200 and $250. In cities $400.” Clemens was the top earner.
Clemens was aware, as was the rest of the country, about the alleged “affair” with Tilton’s wife.
“Mr. Beecher may be charged with a crime, and his whole following will rise as one man and stand by him to the bitter end…”, Clemens commented.
In April, 1885, Clemens and Beecher joined at the Madison Square Theatre for a public reading of their writings. Clemens called this “a new and devilish invention – the thing called an authors reading.” Unfortunately, Beecher died just two years later.
M. M. Frederick and this Ingot
Frederick was a Virginia City jeweler. He was perhaps the most successful of all the Comstock jewelers, and began by buying out the largest house there in the 1860’s run by Nye. By the 1870’s, he was stamping his name on the back of sterling and coin silver flatware and ornamental silver pieces. Few survive today, and are among some of the most prized silver artifacts by Comstock collectors today.
Frederick engraved this ingot on the occasion of a speech at Piper’s Opera House by Beecher on August 15, 1878. It was a full house, and the summary in the following day’s Territorial Enterprise took up two columns, probably written by Charles C. Goodwin, editor, and employee of William Sharon. Gold Hill News Editor Alf Doten took his wife, commenting in his memoirs on the full house. Several writers for the Territorial Enterprise joined the fray, starting with an editorial on August 11 about whether or not to attend because of the Tilton scandal. But the Territorial Enterprise published three separate reviews in the three days following the lecture, all favorable. The title of the talk was “Waste and Burdens of Society.” An overall review was published on the 16th. The next day, the Territorial Enterprise published a column favoring the theories and critique of education brought forward by Beecher, and on the 18th published a column on obscenities in journalism. They loved his speech.
It is entirely possible that Beecher was presented with this silver ingot while on stage after his speech. It is one of the few, if not only, ingots inscribed to a national figure- not just a western financier.
[11/2011] https://www.icollector.com/NV-Virginia-City-Storey-County-MM-Frederick-Ingot_i11298017 ($25,850)