The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-11-24
TIE COMSTOCK LODE
m IT'S EARLY DAY WOMEN WE'RE
SCARCE AND MONEY WAS PLENTY,
And ~oid Man" Comstock Paid Five
Hundred Dollars for n wife-what
che P~rospectors Found.


uents that were soon to follow said John
y Clark, once Familiarity known as 'Ophir
Jack"
w were then aking out about a nail
keg fun Of dust every week. and naturally
We 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 20 strike, that produced over sl3, 600
20 the ton. Money was very easy with us
at that time. and COmstock would doubtless
have been willing to pay more for the only
woman in the camp had his first offer not
been accepted. Carter. his wife and her
brother came overland in a wagon, and
when they struck our camp we offered him
a job. and it was while he was carrying
dirt out OF the mine and keeping a judicious
watch over his domestic at the same time
that Comstock said:
Carter. what will you take for your
wife,
What will you give?' replied Carter.
simply.
Five hundred dollars
II you viii 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 saloon. New
man being one OF the witnesses. Carter
went back to work and stayed around for a
few days, and then took his horse and left.
] never heard OF him again. After Com
stock sold his interest in the ,ophir. he and
Mrs. Carter went TO Placerville. and there,
in a few months, they had a row and sep
srated.
Il was one of the seven men who dis
covered the Comstock lode" continued Mr..
Clark Joe Winters and / were working
near Forest City. making, small returns.
when | gave Joe money and told him TO 60
terest for $50. There were seven in the
party-old man Comstock, Pat Mclaughlin,
as we called him: sKaintuck Osborne. Joe
Winters and myself. We had no tents and
slept in our blankets under a big spruce
20 50 a day. where we were working. Going
back and forward between the spruce tree
over What Vas afterWard the ophjr mine.
without paying attention 10 the bright sand
At that point. One day Comstock, In
BOYS. this sand looks very bright and
he picked w a handful and csrried it to
ono of our rockers
SANDS RICH WITH GOLF.
"Just as soon as the water struck II we
saw that what we had for weeks been care
lessly walking over was the richest sand we
had ever seen or heard of. You may be
sure we were not long in changing the base
OF our operations. We constructed an ordi-
nary F-shaped chute to carry water from
the spring. about a quarter of a mile away,
and went TO work. The bulge of soft. dis
integrated earth was about twelve feet
across a1d nearly circular. Its edges We're
clearly defined and went down with "A slight
dip 20 the east. The dirt was extraordi-
narily rich. some of IL running as high as
six dollars an ounce. Our washings were
measured almost literally by the bucketful.
We divided our wealth by weighing 1t on a
common set or grocers' scales. II was not
NnnU HFnfrI nfrH wtaA al 49, ~ H.
known. and miners came from all direc-
lions during the following winter. and the
en-. worthless miner called 'Virginny.' rap
IDLY sprang into existence
But no one found dirt like that We
struck The great crowd skipped out as
lively as II came when the Plutis went on
the warpath In the spring Of 1860. | feel
event. Major ormsby. who kept a store
and the overland stage station, when he
heard about she Indians, said. Whenever
down. He got together all the miners who
had guns and pistols and marched for the
Indians the men had shot away all of their
ammunition at rabbits and birds, and when
the Puts showed up the miners. instead of
seeing the Indians running. skipped them
selves. and most of them didn't stop run
ming until they were back in California.
were not disturbed. however, and
soon afterward. at the depth Of about nine
Seet. 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 cir
c~umstances. IT must be that i'm
those days we did not know much about
mining and did not have any facilities at the
down In the mouth about the mine running
out. for we had each made a handsome
stake. but while we all thought we had run
into a bed OF iron. we had sense enough TO
reflect that II H. was iron ore. where did the
pocket we had worked come from? I in
EfEFAH that ne 49, - -A y
hired "A train OF pack horses. and after dig
ging about 900 pounds of the rock I placed
u IN charge of a mar named Judge Walsh
ana gave him the money TO take the rock TO
san Francisco and have Ii assayed. While
ne Mas gone we did nothing. In about three
ter-of-fact way confirmed our general opIn-
ION that we had struck iron ore.
There IS a little gold in it, he said.
10 anything. and isn't worth working
GETTING AT THE TRUTH.
The fact was, as We afterward learned.
that the ore Walsh took with him assayed
over $1,000 TO a ton. and the 900 pounds
produced a total of over $3.50. The men
m Frisco who heard about it were so as
tonished that they could scarcely believe
the report. a scheme was concocted 10 de-
preciate the find and get control of il. /
never could discover ali or the details. but
Judge Walsh was TO report to US that our
nine was of no account. and the others i'm
the plot were TO quietly buy up the claim.
Inc ore Was stored in Davfdson's bank. and
= SUIT IN repIevin had afterward TO be
brought to get il.
While we all had no reason 20 doubt the
ruin or Walsh's report. the fact that he
brOught no certificate OF the assay with
nm caused some talk. but In those days We
We're careless. In n few days two mud
WagonlOads OF men came, and they quietly
nesan trying TO buy out our interests. Joe
winters aud / had a sixth between US In
: short time Mclaughlin sold his one-sixth
Tor &.uD and Comstock, Penrod and Os-
b9rne for about the same amount. They
oueTed Reilly $4,000 for his one-sixth. and
When he. after consideration. refused. they
increased the offer to $4,000. He didn't
take that. either. and I think he afterward
sol something like $4,000 in all.
winters got rather nervous and wanted
10 sell. but I told him IL looked very sus-
picious for those men to be anxious 70 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
besan Developments. Some one called Il
the Ophir, and the mine ever after has gone
oy that name. It paid dividends from the
vefy start. The vein was about six feet
VIDE, aud for 800 feet the ore continued TO
maintain its most unexampled richness. /
notlce by the last. report that a total OF
L.ol4.2f0 In dividends had been paid.
Of the seven original discoverers OF the
Somstock. only Joe Winters and myself are
n.ing. so far as I know. IL Is possible
NANNY Perrod still lives. He had a ranch
m = -