The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-10-19

1t is not necessary to take trip TO
Klondike or to wend your way to the
mountains of the far west to find the
gold fields. They lie close to home.
It may prove surprise to many to
know that gold in quantities of pay
ing nature are being every day taken
from the rocksunear Mccormick, S.
c., and that the wells of McDufie
county, Ca, wait for the man who
will put in the necessary machinery to
bring forth the yellow metal. Even
the sand of Rae's creek has gold in it
and the bed of the Savannah holds
grains of the oniferous substance.
Men in the past have worked these
places and added to their store of gain
by finding gold.
The Mccormick mine has most
interesting history.
To hear of the ups and downs of the
men who first discovered gold there,
one should get Mr.. VIM. Howard, of
the Great Eastern Shoe Company, to
! tell the story to them. BE was inter
viewed by the Herald man and here
is his story Of the Old Dorm gold
mine:
Lighting a cigar, Mr.. Howard be-
gan.
aWay. back yonder in the early ff-
ties old Billy Dom owned much land
near McC Cormick. He discovered that
gold was in the soil. That was after
he had returned from a fruitless
search for the yellow metal in Califor-
{ MIA, having gone out there with the
many in the days Of '49, when the
mad rush Of the gold seekers took
place. Among those who went was
Mr.. Joseph Bell, who visited Mr..
Dora shortly after the latter had
started mining near McCol nick in
crude way, using such implements as
he could find to get out the gold from
thc sand Of Persimmon Branch, nearby.
Mr. Bell tried to persuade Mr.. Dorm
to put in mining plant, but the old
man decided to toll on in his crude
way taking out more gold than one
would suppose.
Bell had learned scientific mining
in California and saw that not only
was there gold in the creek, but that
there was gold plenty in the many
rocks that lay about. In fact they
we're literally filed with the precious
metal. It was what miners called in
visible gold. To get the gold out q
crusher was needed. The rocks had
to be ground up finely and the par
tioles washed and put through certai'.
other processes before any pure gold
could.be obtained.
Finally Bell didspersuade old man
Dorm t.. go in with him and procure a
pounding mill. The mill was erected
on the branch and the rocks hauled to
it by means Of steer teams. The idea
was q good one, the gold in the rocks
was obtained in large quantities. The
tyr, men got out from $500 to 81, 900
worth Of gold per day.
s.Dorn got enormously rich. He
had discovered that ne had veritable
Klondike, or that is what he would
have called it had he lived in this
day.
sHenwas:. :.most generous with his
new found wealth. None asked aid
but what we're given freely. He
helped kbuild many churches, gave
funds towards all kinds Of missionary
work, paid all the debts Of his rela-
tives and2lived in simple way with
all his.wealth.
s'When all the rocks near about had
been used, it was found that the foun-
dation stones of several negro cabins
on Persimmon Branch were the stones
that contained gold. Dorm came to
the cabins and thesrock was ground
up. e..tchimney composed Of the
stones panned out $1,000 worth Of
gold.
ssThe, idea Of sinking shaft and
mining under ground then was sugges-
ted and..Mr. Dorm and his partner
sunk shaft and worked towards the
south Of the creek. They did not dis
cover SO much gold in this way as he
had otherwise, and it never occurred
to them to work north of the creek.
ssMr.oDorn finally sold the mining
land to Mr.IMcC Cormick, the inventor
Of the Mccormick reaper. The 200
acres brought 1875, 900, small price
considering the gold there, but Dorm
was Of the belief si,at the land had
been worked out. The ways Of fate
are strange and Dorm died bankrupt,