Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-03-01
A MINING KING.
"The Father of Leadyille"
in the City.
A CHAT ABOUT EARLY DAYS.
How the Town was FOunded-The
First Discovery of
Silver.
A MINING KING.
A CHAT ABOUT EARLY DAYS.

At the Nadeau House yesterday
morning arrived one of the most historic
characters in mining annals, being NJ
less a parsonage than Capt. w. II
Stevens who is perhaps better known al
"the father of Leadville." He is &C
companied to this city by his wife, sor
and two charming daughters, the Misses
Annie and Nellie Stew ems, all of whom arr
registered as from Detroit, Mich, for i
is there that the Captain makes hii
headquarters nowadays. 1t was witt
the object of obtaining an account of how
the famous mountain city was settled
that a HERALD man called on Captain
Stevens last night, and his request foI
an interview was at once generously &C.
corded and the newspaper man was in.
vited up to the Captains cosy apart
ments.
cat the outset of the story" said the
mining king, "it is necessary to explain
to you few facts regarding mining leg
islation at the opening of the '70's. In
1866 law was parsed granting to miners
the right to sell lode aud ledge mines,
but there being no arrangements made
for placers, it was found necessary in
1872, to introduce and pass new bill
granting the same privileges for them and
all other mining properties not nomin-
ated in the lode act. But provision
was also made whereby the holder of a
lode had the right to make a claim on
placers, and this was extended on for
two years,so as to give all an opportunity
of ayai1inU fhnmsalvae of IL
Now, then, to Leadville. In
1872, when 1 first reached Orc
City, for that was the name of the
place in those days, it was populated
by only 10 or Is miners engaged in work
ing placers for gold. 1 joined in with
them and while running 14-mile ditch
cred float of lead carbonate the pres
ence of which was known to the other
boys but which they designated heavy
porphyry. Now knew omething about
minerals, forI had been associated with
mines and mining since 1912 and had
been one of the staff of. the geological
exploration of Michigan 30, saw at once
that there must be silver near by in large
quantities but kept my discovery to
myself and pursued my investigations
secretly, doing good deal of work on
Sundays and in the nights. At the end
of about year was rewarded by locat-
ing ledge, and, employing number
of men, set to work to
develop it, still keeping quiet
on account of the provisions of the lode
law. But when the limitation of that
ran out, then 1 heralded my discovery,
compulsorily to certain extent, because
1 had lot of ores on hand that had to
be reduced. The excitement which fol-
lowed is we'll known to the reading world
and from population of 100 or so Lead
vile sprang, inside of eighteen months, to
city OF 10000 inhabitants, with stores,
hotels and all the buildings accessory to
such a place. As luck would have il
the city was located exactly on my
placer land, but when l claimed my
rights they vera refused, and l had to
appeal to the Supreme Court of the
United States, and after four years o.
litigation and an expense of about $780,
900 established my claims and owned
the town. | made an arrangement with
the city whereby they were to give me
$25 for every lot of 25xl25 feet, and,
though granting big section of the
ground to churches and public buildings,
| still had several thousand lots to dis
pose OF. The mining property have
owned ever since, and it has turned out
$40 900 900 of ores gross, and has paid
81 900 900 in dividends, for | formed a
corporation under the name of the Iron
Silver Mining Company, of which l am
still the Chairman OF the Executive
Committee. Leadville to-day is a city
of about 10000 inhabitants, and has a
good, solid foundation, for the excite
ment died away to leave well-estab
lished city, which has ever since beeI
supported by the output of the mines.'
LIVELY TINES.
"I had lively time when 1 started
in," added the Captain with smile, s'fol
the other miners tried to run me out oi
the camp because was working carbo
mates OF which they knew nothing, anC
then again they objected to my having
such big block of property in the place
They came down one night with vigi
lance committee, headed by saloon
keeper named Bill Sullivan, and IS l saw
them coming drew line across the
road with my boot-toe, and told the boy,
that it was the dead-line, and any one
| who crossed it would never get any
further. AS 1 spoke to them | showed
them the bdrrel-end Of couple of re
volvers, and, as ! had little
reputation ahead of me, they held back
and had no shooting TO do. They trieC
it again later on, and among the Grove
was Tabor, now Governor OF Colorado
who at that time was running LITTLE
grocery store in the camp, aud making {
living that was certainly preesrious.
reasoned with the boys, and explained
! to them that was after silver instead o
gold, as they were, and l offered to hell
them to stake out claims adjacent t.
mine. They did so with such results
that afterwards, when the excitemen
came on, one of them sold out for 5000,
900, another for $3.50 100, and Governo
Tabor made 50 600, 900 or $4,000 ,
good deal of which, am sorry to say
he has since squandered. It ha
mostly gone politically, but he is no
poor man yet, for he hold
good deal of property which although
it is mortgaged, brings in more thar
enough to pay the interest, so expec
he will come out all right. l see tha
they are talking of erecting monumen
to me at Leadville," concluded the Cap
tain, "and by the way, it is rather
curious thing that many of those interest
ed formed part of the vigilance COMMITTEE
that tried to run me out of the plac
when l fret started in there"
Captain Stevens, who is now well o.
in years, though still as hale and heart
as of yore, Ia passing the evening of hi