Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1899-05-06
How Fair, Mackay, O'Brien
and Flood Became Multi
MilliOnaires.
From Poverty to BoundIess
Opulence i'm Less Than
Ten Years.
Marriage Will Unite the VAN
derbilt and Fair For
tunes.
MADE MUD PIES LIKE OTHER GIRLS

The recent Vanderbilt-Fair wedding
united two families prominent in the
development of the East and West,
besides combining two large fortunes.
Both are estimable young people of
American birth, who have chosen life
companions at home instead of Joining
III the unsavory scramble for foreign
titles
Quite large slice of the Fair and
Vanderbilt millions will be combined by,
this marriage. William K. Vanderbilt.
Sr., the groom, is the grandson of the
founder of the Vanderbilt fortune. Miss
Virginia Fair, the bride, is the daughter
OF James G. Fair, and was born in and
bears the name of the city where her
father made his fortune. The elder
Vanderbilt got his start as a ferryman in
New York. Fair struck the trail to
fortune at Feather River, California.
Transportation was the making of the
first; gold and silver mines reared Fairs
fortune and linked his name with the
greatest and most successful mining
venture in the history of the United
States.
The history of the Vanderbilt fortune
is commonplace compared with that of
Fair. The former is a prosaic story;
the slatter is a succession of thrilling
incidents, of grit, endurance, foresight
and the romantic feature inseparable
from gold hunters career.
James G. Fair was one of the big four
of California and Nevada. His associates
were John w. Mackay, James c. Flood
and William S. O'Brien. Fair and
Mackay were the miners in Nevada,
Flood and O'Brien the Spectators in San
Francisco. All four were natives of Ire
land-all but Mackay have passed away.
Fair and Mackay were the chief factors
In rearing the fortunes of the Bonanza
firm. Within less than ten years they
were raised from poverty to boundless
opuience, and the manner in which the
deed was done throws in the shade the
Oriental fables detailed in "The Arabian
Nights" The discovery and development
of the far-famed Comstock lode on the
eastern slope of Mt. Davidson, Nevada,
poured river of gold into the Golfers of
the owners. From the. various mines of
that treasure mountain 1920, 1000, 900 were
taken out between 1850 and 1879, and
more than one-third of this great sum
went to the big four.
week after he had been paid for his
Nevada county mine Fair went over the
mountain range to Calaveras on visit
He had known there a family named
Rooney from the north of Ireland, and
they had been his friends in his struggles
upward. There was a jolly, ambitious
girl in the family, and she and Jim had
become great friends while she waited
on the miners in her fathers little
merchandise store at Douglas Flat. She
had promised Jim to marry him when he
struck it rich. Now Jim claimed his
bride.
They were married by Father Casey.
A fortnight later the bride and groom
started from the Comstock lode at Vir-
with mule team and in big lumber
wagon, over the Placerville and Red Dog
trail 200 miles across the mountains to
Nevada. All their household effects were
in the back of the wagon. and their cap
ital was in inns leather belt and his skill
for mining. Years later when James G.
Fair was the richest miner on earth, he
used to say the days of that journey were
his happiest.
All the Fair children were born in a
little two-story plain wooden house in
Virginia City. The daughters inherited
their fathers dark, bright eyes and his
pink and white complexion. When little
children they were like the other chill
dren of poor mining laborers all about
them. The elder Fairs were never
different after they became enormously
rich from what they were when they
were poor. The Fair girls were always
popular with their associates. Today
everyone who remains in the decayed
old mining camp has anecdotes of how
Mrs. Herman Oelrichs and Miss Virginia
Fair used to play out in the street with
the girls of poor Cornishmen and found
fun in making mud pies with children
reared in poverty. The Fair girls received
their education in convent schools.
Miss Theresa Fair married Herman
Oelrichs IN royal style in San Francisco
several years ago. Mrs. Fair died at
her home in October, 1898, and Miss Vir-
ginia Fair went to live with Mrs. Oelrichs
in New York.