The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-17
4 BONANZA KING DYING.
James C. Floods Romantic Career
from Poverty to Prlnc4ly 4 ffluence.

James &. Il lCCOS hOInInLlC career
from Poverty to Princ4ly = ffluence.
From the Ne,o York Star.
4 dispatch from San Francisco announces
that news has reached that city that the
millionaire James C. Flood, is critically i'll
a. Heidelberg, Germany. Mr.. Flood went
abroad some time ago to recuperate his
health. VIII oh had been rapidly failing for
some time past. He is one of the firm of
bonanza kings whose rise from extreme
noverty to affiuence is one of the romances
Of the age The other three wera John w.
Mackay, Jamss G. Far and William S.
O'Brien. Tbs latter diea in 1878.
Mr.. Flood is Irish ny birth, and went to
California at the outbreak of the gold fever
in 1S49 He engaged in mining with vary
ing degrees of fortune until 1860, when he
removed to Nevada, where he has since re-
sided. and where he has at all times been
extensively engaged in mining, construct
irC huge quartz mills ard water works In
1867 he formed copartnership with John
w. Mackay, James G. Fair and William S.
O'Brien. The firm purchased the control
of the BonanZas and various other we'll
known mines, the yield of gold and silver
from which while under the superintendency
of Mr.. Fair is estimated at about $3.50 600. 600
Mr.. Flood was also extensively engaged in
real estate and building in San Francisco,
ana WIS ldIR0l1 luleItobStl Ndl1OuS Ulduu-
featuring enterprises on the Pacific coast.
Mr. Floods wealth is estimated at about
s25 000, 600 His great fortune was origi-
nallv acquired through the discovery of the
existence of rich ores at great depth in the
Comstock lode, fact which was not then
suspected. James G. Fair was superintend-
ent for Mr., Mackay and worked the dia-
mond drill, and when these lodes were struck
by him in the California and Consolidated
Virginia claims worked by John w. Mac
kay, he was shrewd enough to insist upon
being ''let in the dealn which was subse-
quently contaminated with Messrs. Flood
and O'Brien, by which the stock market
was cornered, and the shares in these Mines
obtained for a song, finally augmented into
fabulous values. Flood & O'Brien were at
that time proprietors of famous saloon in
San Francisco, and had accumulated some
capital by ventures in pointers" in mining
stocks, and the immense wealth of this ''big
four" was acquired through their shrewd
but quiet operations in Comstock lode
stocks. ....-..-
Mr.. O'Brien left at his death an immense
estate Mr.. Fair was elected to the United
States Senate from Nevada, where, with
Mr.. Mackay, perhaps the richest of all, he
controlled the famous bank of Nevada.
Senator Fair is a native of Belfast, Scotch
Irish by parentage. Mr.. Mackay was born
in Dublin, and belongs by birthstock to the
people of the English Isle 1t is a COM
munity of AngloSaxon origin, made more
than Celtic by and since their original trans
fer to the Green Isle. Mr.. Flood was from
one of the central counties and Mr.. O'Brien
was from the west OF Ireland Mr..
Fair was the one member of the bonanza
firm who had a good early education, and
he got that in America. He was brought
here at II years of age, ana went to Cali
fornia when he was 10. Mr.. Mackay is the
son of Dublin physician, who left his
home at IA to seek fortune in the Golden
farmer and small shopkeeper class, and
O'Brien was of Irish cotters and laboring
stock. Both of them were the seniors of
Fair and Mackay, the latter being the
youngest, as he is the brightest, of the four
All four of these men in the early fifties
were not possessed of means enough to build
even San Francisco shanty When in
1860 Messrs. Fair and Mackay went to work
IN Washoe, as the Comstock camp was first
called, the one as a foreman and the other
as a laboring miner, they had only their
wages to depend upon. Flood and O'Brien
were keeping whisky saloon. The saloon
keepers were thrifty and sagacious while
the two miners were industrious and deter
mined. In the course of ten years the
mining men were superintendents at $500
per month each, and by cautious ventures
had accumulated some means. The exist
ence of great deposits in the California and
Consolidated Virginia mines was known to
Fair and Mackay long before the public had
any idea thereof Flood and O'Brien were
the business friends of the two miners In
some way the share market was broken
down, and the holders of stock in the mines
were anxious to sell.
The operators who bought were the four
men named. When they came in contact a
bonanza was uncovered, and they at once
from few dollars to thousands and over
From 1870 to 1879 $3.50, 10000 was taken
out of the Comstock lode Mr.. Flood de-
veloped financial genius of a high order,
and this quality carried him to the head of
the Nevada bank. He launched extensiv ely
into house building, of which the most
conspicuous example is his palace on Mob
Hill, San Francisco, the cost of which has
run far into the millions. The interior
fitting and furnishing is of regal splendor
The exterior of the building is of the
classic order of architecture, composed of
Doric and Ionic, placed on a massive
podium, with portico in front so feet long,
and porte cochere in the rear of similar
dimensions. The size of the building is 100
feet by ITO feet, placed on a block 275 feet
by PIP feet, which is surrounded by a
brownstone wall on three streets, the same
material as the mansion, surmounted by
heavy bronze railing. The grounds arei
entered through three massive bronze fold
ing gates at various positions on the site.
The building was executed from designs and
under the superintendent of Augustus
LAYER, Mr.. Floods architect.