Arizona republican., 1898-07-22
WOMEN IN MINING CAMPS.

sIace. Among others described are two successful metal seekers, as fol- lows:
 In former times with the gold hunt CT. whose path lay in remote places, nc Eths, and sometimes years, would pass without the welcome sight Of Woman's face; but the day has gone by when the feminine element in mining camp is something unusual. and at the present time number Of women are actively engaged in search ing for the precious metals. Such a one is Miss Jennie Hilton of Arizona.
 Miss Hilton was born in southern Ohio, and was taken to California when a child Her parents died when she was Is, and she began to make her own way in life asa teacher in the schools of her adopted state 1
 In the meantime she studied geology ana mineralogy, and when in the sum mer of 1890 she visited an older broth CT at Phoenix, Arizona, she resolved Io turn the knowledge she had gained to practical use. Before a month had passed she had persuaded her brother and an uncle to join her in prospect ing tour among the mountains of the G;Ia valley. She returned from this trip empty handed, but convinced that a woman could hunt for gold and sll- yer as we'll as a man. Accordingly, she wrote to the trustees of the school in which she was employed, res1gn1ns her place, drew some of her savings from a bank in Los Angeles an1 be- came a full-fedged prospccsor.
 Miss Hilton spent the winter of 1891 in Globe, then a prosperous mining l hn in mer prospected in the San Rita noun tairs, finding, however, little or noth- ing of value in the way of ore. In the winter of 1892 she opened an assaying office in Prescott The miners liked her methods, and asked her to stay in the town, but in the spring word came from her brother that he had found in the Harqua Hala region the best look ing auriferouS rock in the territory. She closed her assay office and joined hin at once Before the summer had ended she had located seven claims, amcng others the Kansas mine. which she felt from the first would be a suc- cess.
 Her funds were now running low, and time and mSney were required to open the property so that it's value might be better known. Miss Hilton went to Los Angeles to secure the needed capital, and after repeated fail ures induced a locomotive engineer to buy a half interest in the mine for S1,- coo. This was the beginning of her success iWth the $1, ,000 she hired sevs eral 1aborers and opened up the ciaim. When weeks of digging :no blasting had proved it to be valuable mine, she set forth to put it on the market. This she found to be the most diff cult task of all. Capitalists, sceptical of a woman's ability to know good mining property, either refused to lis ten to her or put her off with promises that were never fulfilled. Still, re- peated refusalS only caused her to re double her efforts, and in April, 1896, Higgins Brothers of Salt Lake City bought Miss Hilton's one-half interest in the Kansas mine for $25,00O. With this money she is now developing the other claims owned by her in north western Arizona, and declares that she is in mining for life.
 Miss Hilton is not the only woman prospector in the southwest Another is Miss Nellie Cushman, who some if teen years ago went from Dodge City. Kan, to Tucson. There she fell into the habit of examining the ore as is came from the mines of that famous camp, and soon became as good judge of it's value as her brother, who worked in one of them. Then her fame spread. and the miners, always superstitious, came to believe that to have her around and get her opinion brought good luck. She knew where to dig for ore, too, and some of the ore i'll the hxv fn1I ing her advice in running a drift In Graham cunty, Arizona, she made hit on copper, and when she went to Tombstone afterward she passed her judgment on some mines there Will Han Wiggins sold the Excelsior and Grand View mines on her advice, and the only dividend they ever yielded was the s15, 900 he got for them. Other mines were bought after she had ex- amiped and reported favorably on them. These are now good paying prop critics.
 In Tucson, Bisbee, Tombstone and other camps Miss Cushman had con dhcted general stores and big lodging houses for the miners. She was also in business at Castle Dome. She is as adventurous in pushing forward to a new region as any nomadic miner. No soorer does she hear of a new camp than she starts for it. She has had so much experience that she almost in variably turns it to good account, get ting town lots, placer sites and lode claims for next to nothing and selling them at handsome profit. At first she did not get out of the camps soon enough. Consequently, she has been many times poor. However, she has an abundance of pluck, and if she fails in one place she soon recovers herself. hen going about among the mines or climbing the hills for outcroppings. Miss Cushman wears heavy shoes and strcng bloomers, usually covered with a cloak. She was the first woman in the camp of Harqua Hala, where there were over fifteen hundred nep and no other woman
 NEW LIFE FOR NEVADA.
 Among the late arrivals at tho