Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-05-28
THE ROMANCE OF GOLD.
Fate of the Men Who Discovered Some OF the
Great American Mines.
Fort Keogh on. I. } Letter.

OAN Mug ~ ~ AseSASAs
The superstitious belief is an old one
that unless the discoverer of a camp
meets an untimely and bloody end his
md viii never amount to anything; and
this seems borne out by facts, since near
ly all the discoveries of the great mines
of the United States. with but few excep-
tons, have, as the saying goes, died with
their boots on" OF thirty eight booming
towns of early days, the locators of twelve
were killed by bullet, three were buried in
their creation by cave-ins and the rest
drlfted away with the tide of immigra-
ton have become lost in oblivion or died
and were buried in paupers' graves.
George ID. Fryer, from whom the cele-
brated Fryer HILL" of Leadville, derived
lis name, died at Denver not long
ago from an overdose of morphine ad
mlnlstered by his own hand. Two years
previous to his death he was worth a
million or so, but he died pauper and
without friend.
Old Nirginny. after whom The "Consoli-
dated Virginia" was named, and who sold
his claim for S25, pony and a bottle of
whisky, came to his death by an over
dose from a buckiug mule near Dayton.
Neb.
Bill Bodie, the discoverer of the great
Standard mine in Mono county, Cal, slept
his life away in a snOwstorm while max
ing his way to the mines
Colonel Storey, who gave his name to
the equity in Nevada where the Comstock
Is situated, was killed in battle by the Ply
ramid Lake Indians.
Thomas Page Comstock died beggar
in strange land. "Old Pancake" as he
was known in the mining camps, COM
mltted suicide at Bozeman, NJ. T., on Sep
TENDER ~, 1870, by shooting himself He
was the leader of the famous Big Horn
Expedition that was sent out by Nevada
capitalists i'll search of the Lost Cabin
mines, supposed to be somewhere among
the Big Horn Mountains. The expedi-
ton was failure, and ComstOck, wheth-
| er from disappointment or some other
cause, while encamped near Bozeman
drove pistol ball through his head and
died instantly. He was buried there, and
his grave is unmarked and unknown.
Near the wild spot where twelve years
ago the hidden treasure of Alder Gulch
was first revealed to him, William Fair
weather was laid down to rest. Like poor
| "Old Pancake this erratic soul stranded
on the shoals of dissipation, although
| each in his day had turned the key-the
one silver, tn other golden--which I'M
locked millions for others but nothing
| for themselves. William Farrell, who
struck Meadow Lake. died a victim to
| remorse in one of the leading hospitals
| of San Francisco 'haunted by the spirits
! of 1000 deluded pioneers and prOspec-
| tors passing and repassing his dying
| bed" The locator of the famous Home
| stake, in the Black Hills, is said to have
| Of ri
| going hard with him he attempted to
stop stage loaded and prepared for just
| such emergencies and he was planted
| along aside the road by the tender-hearted
! express agents whom he tried to rob and
| kill. Homer, of the Homer district, fol-
| lowed in the suicidal tracks of Comstock.
After squandering a small fortune he shot
| his brains out on the streets of San Fran
| cisco. Doughnut Bill, "Old Eureka y
Kelse Austin, Lloyd Magruder, 'sNine-mile
Clark" George Hankinson, Henry Plum
mer, and scores of Others died violent
! deaths in one way or another. and reaped
nothing from the rich finds each had
made in his day.
Doughnut Bill was planted in the Lone
Mountain Cemetery, in Utah, in 1868; a
lone grave under a white pine tree in a
frontier mining town of California, tells
where poor "Old Eureka sleeps his last
| sleep; kelse Austin was killed and buried
in Elko county, Nevada, fifteen years ago.
Lloyd Magruder, while conducting a
number of wagons loaded with treasure
from Virginia City to the nearest railroad,
was murdered and robbed by his team
sters, who were Plummer's outlaws in
disguise. George HankinsOn and Henry
| Plummer were hauled up by yigilantes
and strung up without the delay and for
mality of a trial. Plummer was great
rascal. In the early days of the mining
camps of Montana, Plummer was elected
| sheriff of the camp about Virginia City.
| He was the first locator of the rich ground
about Virginia City, but thought he could
make more money, and quicker, too, by
taking what was already mined, than by
laboring in the gulch day after day and
getting it by hard, honest toll. But he
was tripped up at last and died cring-
ing, miserable coward on gallows of
| his own construction.