The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-13

costly litigation in the United States
courts in California concerning the Sun
set mine. A blacksmith in San Bernardo
no. Cal. named Warren Udeli. had grub
from June &c September. 1855 udeil
claimed that Fillmore found the vein OF
silver ore in the Santa Anita .counteins
in the month of July OF that year. and
he brought prospectors 10 prove that they
saw Fillmore working At that time IN
the very locality where the Sunset mine
was located Udeil asserted that Fillmore
had covered I'D his find and come Dack
TO San Bernardino and pretended to be
discouraged at his failure to fine ore.
The. he alleged, when the period OF the
grubstake was passed, Fillmore went
back to the Santa Anita mountains. and
pretended 10 have stumbled on the ore,
so that ne would not have TO divide with
his grubstaker The case was bitterly
fought, but Udell won at every point 10
the supreme court of the United States
Fillmore committed suicide in the MIDST
OF the litigation. The mine was sold for
$4,000 Udeli got 100000 for his grub
take of S35.
The wide latitude given to the interpre-
tation of the law of grubstakes is vel
William Hillegas of Oakland. Cal. VIII
lam Hillegas was 4 Dutchman from
Pennsylvania. He came to California in
the fifties. He was poor in health and
of few hundred dollars to help him TO
California. where he was to try his luck
in the gold dlggings and live cut OF doors
in sunshine. Hillegas went to what is
now Oakland. squatted on land. and be-
came small merchant among the set
tiers in Oakland. He grew TO be rich
land owner and died wealthy at about
1884. The Pennsylvania cousins came on
to California. and. under the grubstake
law, claimed from the Hillegas widow
and children a share of the estate. They
alleged that they in reality grubstaked
William Hilegas when a young man and
that while he did not actually, go into
vided him. they were entitled to grub
stakers share in all that he made with
their money as a start They won the
case.
ROMANCE IN THE BUSINESS.
A world of romance surrounds the his
tory of grubstakes in the west. One
hears some most enticing stories in every
gold and silver mining region of how this
or that person became millionaire from
merely grubstaking a discouraged. power
ty-stricken prospector at the very moment
when his fortunes seemed at lowest ebb-
That some very large fortunes IN the
west have come from small Investments
in grubstakeS IS founded on fact The
Bonner estate of Arizona and St Louis
came from grubstaking a prospector.
James Deuchler. young German. in 1913.
Adam Bonner kept small merchandise
store at Yuma. Ariz. He had grubstaked
a dozen DrosDectors for some years. and
had never had even a fair prospect found
for him. He resolved never to be leased
into parting with another dollar for grub
stakes. One day German came along
and showed him peck of sample rocks
found IN the Brea mountains. between
Prescott and Phoenix The allurement
of gruhstaking a man is as potent as a
taste for gambling. Bonner agreed to
take one more flyer in grubstakes. but
the German. Deuchler was so sure of his
find that he made Bonner pay well for
the grubstake. The investment cost some
400. The ledge where the mining town
of Congress IS now booming was found,
Chance located Rom
ner and Deuchler made some 500 900 from
the property and sold it to an English
syndicate about 1890 for over $500. 600
A dentist DR.. Raymond E. Fulton of
San Diego grubstaked Hiram Westcott
among the desolate mountains on the
edge of the Colorado desert in San Der
nardino county. now known as Calico
from the peculiarly colored formation of
rocks there, for four years at SO a
month. He was about to abandon his
grubStake and tell Westcott that he had
no more money for him. But the posi-
bility of stumbling on a fortune was so
enticing that he decided on grubstaking
for the prospector another three months
In that time Westcott found the Yellow
Ben and the Raymond mines. from which
ore to the value of $4,000 a month has
several times been taken. DR.. Fulton is
Westcott died and left his family rich in
Los Angeles two years ago.
Probably the largest fortune that ever
came from very small grubStaEe was
that at the Tombstone mines. when Rich
ard Grid got some g. 000. COO from a grub
stake of a few hundred dollars and some
scientific work. In 1878 Grid. who had
been vainly seeking riches in mines for
dozen years in South America and all
over the Pacific coast, went down to
southwest Arizona The ADaches were
raidins and numbering at that time and
the territory was deserted by white set
tiers Grid was told that he would get a
tombstone rather than a fortune there
Hence the name Tombstone for the
mines. He found no trace of pay ore
where he expected 1t. and was about to
come back to Southern California One
evening he fell in with some prospectors
the Scheffelir- brothers. They said they
believed they had found rich ore but
1 they wanted to have it assayed before
they would risk their lives in that
Apache country digging for something
that would not pay them. Grid was an
assayer. He agreed to do the assaving
at Tucson for the brothers free and 10
give several hundred dollars worth of
food and clothing in the diggings for a
third interest in the mines. providing the
assay proved what he believed il would
be. That was in MAY. 1873 Mr.. Grid sold
his third interest in the Tombstone mines
| IN the following October after the me-
morable STAMPEDE there of 10000 miners
from all parts of the union for g 40 600
That = why Richard Grid has been
grubstaking deserving prosDectors ever
since. He is known all over California as
the uncle of mining DrosDectors.