The President Rutherford B. Hayes Silver Ingot – The Hayes party
The Presidential Procession had started in Wells on the Central Pacific Railroad just after the train crossed into Nevada from Utah, stopped at Humboldt where Nevada Governor Kincaid boarded the train, then on to Reno for another celebration and transfer to the Virginia & Truckee Railroad lines, and hence on to Gold Hill and Virginia City. The Virginia and Truckee blew the whistles all the way through American Flat, letting the Comstockers know their valued guests were on the way. Today, thanks to the Gray family, federal & state funding and private grants, you can take the same route on the V&T RR, and imagine what it would have been like in 1880.
The Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, where Mark Twain got his journalistic start, spent the better part of a page describing the presidential visit.
“yesterday morning our people were busily engaged in decorating their houses and places of business. The Bank of Nevada, the Bank of California the International Hotel, most of the leading stores and many private houses along the line of march were handsomely decorated with flags and streamers, while whole lines of balconies were strung with flags, and in several places both here and in Gold Hill large flags were suspended over the streets.” …”toward noon, C Street presented a Fourth of July appearance, though it was still some hours before our distinguished visitors were expected.” (Reff: 9-8-1880 Territorial Enterprise)
The train was a special one. It consisted of the Directors car (“The California”) from the Central Pacific RR, the Union Pacific Director’s car (Hayes headquarters for the trip), a Central Pacific RR sleeper car, and a “drawing room” car from the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy RR.
The presidential party stayed at the fabulous International Hotel overnight. Hayes’s wife had a bushel of her friends along. In all likelihood, most had never been West, so it was a tremendous new experience for all of them.
The parade accompanying the visit was monumental. It was one of the most grand processions to ever hit the Comstock. Included in the party were William Tecumseh Sherman – Union general and California gold rush banker, general McDowell and Kearney’s son, Nevada governor Kincaid, CC Batterman, superintendent of the State Prison, Secretary of War Ramsey, and others . “There was at one time not less than 6,000 persons on the street, and in some places much higher.”
The group were taken to the C & C shaft and taken below ground by Superintendent Patton. Seventeen members of the group were taken to the 2300 level, and toured. They rose to the 1700 level, inspected the Sutro tunnel (this was the connecting level). Mrs. Hayes grabbed a pick and chopped out some ore “saying she wanted to carry away a specimen of her own mining.” General Sherman’s daughter was so impressed, she had the men take her down to the bottom of the shaft, the deepest on the Comstock. VC photographers Noe & Lee took photos of the group dressed in their mining regalia, which are rare today.
The two presidential visits had a lot in common. Both parties took along family and friends as well as other dignitaries.
There were a number of Hayes family working on the Comstock in 1880, but it is unknown the closeness of relation, possibly all “shirt-tail”, since none were named specifically in the articles in the territorial Enterprise.
Neither visit was discussed by Myron Angel, in History of Nevada, 1881, nor Elliott Lord’s Comstock Mining and Miners, 1883.
Some members of the delegation were presented with silver ingots, as was customary. This ingot appears to be the only surviving ingot from the bunch. Mary Thompson Hunt was a member of the traveling Hayes delegation. Her name is not found in US Census records of the period, and she was not the wife of William H. Hunt, an R.B. Hayes political appointee. President Hayes was traveling with General Sherman and his daughter, and we suspect Hunt was a close friend of Miss Sherman. Hunt was also not listed by name in the news articles, thus the assumption that she may have been a junior member of the party.
The President Rutherford B. Hayes Silver Ingot NV – Virginia City, 1880
This ornately engraved presentation ingot was given to Mary Thompson Hunt “as one of the ladies of the Presidential Party” when President Hayes visited the Comstock on September 7, 1880.
The ingot does not carry the name of the assayer or engraver, but does follow in a long tradition of presentation ingots to dignitaries visiting the Comstock, inclusive of Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) and President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1880, there were only four independent assayers on the Comstock, led by two prominent men, Harvey Harris and Conrad Weigand’s firm, whose son took over the business after the death of his father under questionable circumstances (murdered) on May 31, 1880. The other two assayers were E. Terra (Virginia City) and Chris James (Gold Hill). The majority of assayers on the Comstock were all working as employees for producing mining companies, and it might be surmised that there were up to 100 assayers working in the region.
The visit by president Harrison was significant. It was only the second time a United States President had visited the Comstock, the first of which was President Grant on Oct. 27, 1879. Hayes followed in less than a year, probably the result of reports from the Grant party on how exciting it was to be in Virginia City.
The ingot was probably made by either Weigand’s son or Harvey Harris. Weigand was much more political, and his son is perhaps more likely to have followed in his father’s footsteps and made the presentation, though no presentation is mentioned in the Territorial Enterprise.
[01/2012] https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-2BRIC/september-7-1880-virginia-city-nevada-presentation-ingot-to-mary-thompson-hunt-choice-ef ($12,650)
[08/2012] https://www.icollector.com/The-President-Rutherford-B-Hayes-Silver-Ingot-NV-Virginia-City-1880-2012aug-Numismatic_i13391252 ($23,300)
Remarkable 1880 Virginia City, Nevada Ingot Marking the Visit of President R.B. Hayes
8.38 oz September 7, 1880. Virginia City, Nevada. Presentation Ingot to Mary Thompson Hunt.
Measuring: 52.0 x 29.0 x 28.5 milimeters. 260.5 grams (8.38 Troy ounces).
A beautiful presentation ingot, polished on five faces and as-poured on the base. The top face has been delicately engraved PRESENTED TO / MARY THOMPSON HUNT / AS ONE OF THE LADIES OF THE / PRESIDENTIAL PARTY, / VIRGINIA CITY, NEV. SEPT 7TH 1880. Only minor evidence of handling is noted, some horizontal scratches under engraving from the preparation process. The size of this bar is very similar to the Leopold Kuh ingot in Ford XX, but Kuh was probably retired by 1880. It could have been produced by any of Virginia City or Gold Hill’s assayers who were active in 1880.
The visit of Rutherford B. Hayes to the Comstock on September 7, 1880 was an exciting event for the region. Hayes gave a speech at the Imperial Hotel, and among the members of his traveling party were First Lady Lucy Hayes, William Tecumseh Sherman, General Alexander McCook, Secretary of War Alexander Ramsey, and others. He was met by Governor J.H. Kincaid and other important citizens of the region. His visit to Virginia City and Gold Hill, complete with a celebratory banquet and mine tours, lasted only one day, the date given on this ingot.
Hunt’s identity is elusive. We find a Mary Thompson Hunt, wife of Samuel O. Hunt, listed among the members of the Broadway Tabernacle Church in New York beginning in 1871 until her removal from the membership list in 1873. She is noted as being the wife of Samuel O. Hunt. In the 1881 San Francisco city directory, we find a Samuel O. Hunt listed as Vice President of the California State Women’s Hospital which was opened in, perhaps coincidentally, in 1873. The Missouri Historical Society contains a May 1884 letter written by William Tecumseh Sherman–who was also in Virginia City with President Hayes on September 7, 1880–lamenting the death of one Mary Thompson Hunt.
Perhaps she was a companion of Sherman; perhaps he only met her during this trip but found her memorable enough to mention in a letter penned almost four years later. She must have been a friend, wife, or relation of someone who traveled with Hayes and toured the mines of Virginia City with him.
Presentation ingots are very personal souvenirs of the old West. This one, with its connection to the last visit of a sitting President to the Comstock, is particularly interesting and historical.