The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-18
BIT OF COAST HISTORY.
SOME ADVENTURES WITH FINDERS
OF THE OPHIR.
Told by n Man Who Was One Of the
seven Lucky SIiners-He Says the
Find Has Yielded Nearly Five Mill
ion Dollars in Dividends.

1889, / little thought of the enormous de-
velopments that were soon to follow" said
John E. Clark. Familiarity known as
"Ophir Jack"
I'VE were then taking out about a nail
key full Of dust every week and naturally
thought we had the biggest thing on top
Of the ground, but that was nothing to
speak of compared with the ore we were
soon &c strike. that produced over $1,000
TO the ton. Money was very easy with us
at that time and Comstock would doubt
less have been willing to pay more for the
only woman in the camp had his first Of
fer not been accepted Carter, his wife and
her brother came overland in a wagon,
and when they struck our camp we Of
fered him a job. and it was while he was
carrying dirt out of the mine and keep
ing a judicious watch over his domestic
establishment at the same time. that Com
stock said:
Garter. what will you take for your
wife?'
What will you give?" replied Carter
simply.
Five hundred dollars"
of you will throw in your horse, saddle
and bride. all right and the bargain was
concluded.
"Comstock wanted a bill of sale and it
was regularly drawn up, signed and wit
messed in Johnny Newmans saloon, New
man bein5 one of the witnesses. Carter
went back to work and stayed around for
a few days and then took his horse and
left 1 never heard of him again. After
Comstock sold his interest in the Ophir
he and Mrs Carter went to Placerville
and there in a few months they had row
and separated.
Il was one Of the seven men who dis
covered the Comstock lode, continued
Mr.. Clark. Joe Winters and l were
working near Forest City, making small
returns when L heard of placers over
near Gold HILL and l gave Joe money
and told him TO go there and buy a
claim. He bought an interest for $50.
mere We're seven IN the pdrty-oid man
Comstock, Pat Mclaughlin, Pete Reilly,
Emanuel Penlod, or Nanny as we call
ed him, 'kaintuck' Osborne, Joe Winters
and myself. We had no tents and slept
in our blankets under a big spruce tree.
We were making anywhere from 81 to
So a day where we were working. Going
back and forward between the spruce
tree and our rockers we for long time
passed over what was afterward the
Ophir mine without paying any atten-
ton to the bright sand at that point One
day Comstock in passing said:
Boys, this sand looks very bright
And he picked up double handful and
carried il to one Of our rockers.
Just as soon as the water struck it
we saw that what we had for weeks been
carelessly walking over was the richest
sand we had even seen or heard Of You
may be sure we were not long in chang
ing the base of our operations. We con-
structed an ordinary N-shaped chute to
carry water from the spring, about a
quarter of a mile away, and went TO
work. The bulge of soft, distintegrated
ore was about twelve feet across and
nearly circular. Its edges were clearly
defined and went down with slight dip
to the east. The dirt was extraordinarily
rich. some of it running as high as IS an
ounce. Our washings were measured
almost literally by the bucketful. We di-
vided our wealth by weighing It on
common set of grOoers scales. 1t was
not long until our rich strike became
generally known and miners came from
all directions during the following win
ter, and the town of Virginia City, nam
ed after a drunken, worthless miner
called Virginny,' rapidly sprung into
existence.
struck. The great crowd skipped out as
lively as it came when the Piutes went
on the warpath in the spring of 1850.
feel like laughing every time think of
that event. Maj. Ormsby, who kept a
store and the overland stage station,
when he heard about the Indians. said:
Whenever they see me, boys. those In
dams will quiet down He got together
all the miners who had guns and pistols
and marched for the seat of war. BY the
time they found the Indians the men had
shot away all of their ammunition at rab-
bits and birds, and when the FLUTES
showed up, the miners, instead OF seeing
the Indians running, skipped themselves
and most of them didn't stop until they
were back in California.
we were not disturbed, however, ana
soon afterward at a depth of about nine
feet. our mine 'petered out The soft,
easily washed dirt and sand stopped short
on a bed of hard, dark-gray rock of ore,
that we all thought was iron ore. Then
the discovery of the real Comstock lode
was made under somewhat extraordinary
circumstances. 1t must be remembered
that in those days we did not know much
about mining, and did not have any facili-
ties at the camp for testing. We were
not exactly down in the mouth about the
each
a handsome stake but, while we all
thought we had run into bed of iron, we
had sense enough to reflect that If 1t was
iron ore where did the pocket we had
worked come from? l insisted that we
have the stuff assayed. / hired a train
of pack horses and, after digging about
$500 pounds Of the rock, l placed IL in
charge of a man named Judge Walsh
and gave him money to take the rock TO
San Francisco and have it assayed. While
he was gone we did nothing. In about
three weeks Judge returned, and in a
very matter-of-fact way confirmed our
original opinion that we had struck iron
There's a little gold in it, he said. and
q little silver, but it don't amount to any
thing and isn't worth working
''The fact was, as we afterward learned,
that the ore Walsh took with him assayed
over $4,000 to ton, and the 900 pounds
produced a total Of over Sl6,250. The
men in Frisco who heard about ii were
so astonished that they could scarcely be-
lieve the report. scheme was concocted
of it. never could discover all of the de-
tails, but Judge Walsh was to report to
us that our mine was Of no account and
the others in the plot were to quietly buy
up the claim. The ore was stored in Da-
Wilson's bank and a suit in replevin had
afterward to be brought to get it.
while we all had no reason to doubt
the truth of Walsh's report. the fact that
he brought no certificate Of the assay with
him caused some talk, but in those days
we were careless. In a few days two mud
wagon loads of men came and they quiet
ly began trying to buy out our interests.
Joe Winters and had a sixth between US.
In a short time Mclaughlin sold his one
sixth for $ goo and Comstock, Penrod and
Osborne for about the same amount. They
offered Reilly $4,000 for his one-sixth and
when he, after consideration, refused, they
increased the offer to $40 900. He didn't
take that either and / think he afterWard
got something like $4,000 in all.
Winters got rather nervous and wanted
to sell, but l told him it looked very sus-
piciOus for those men 10 be so anxious to
buy the mine so soon after Judge Walsh
had come back. We refused to sell When
they found they could not get our sixth
they began developments. Some one called
it the Ophir and the mine ever after has
gone by that name. 1t paid dividends from
the very start. The vein was about six
feet wide and for 300 feet the ore contin-
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