Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1899-03-30

week, OF Miss Virginia Fair to w. K.
vanderbilt, Jr., another brilliant chap
Ter will be added to the romance of
the bonanza miner whom every old
timer on the Pacific slope knew as Jim
falr; OF the poor, tattered Irish boy of
CalaVeras county, whose life ranged
from the lowest depth of poverty to
Inc most extraordinary wealth, and
whose children are soon to become al
lieu at once to the most powerful
FAMILY IN American finance and to the
proudest name in the British nobility.
The story deals with the finding of
the richest body of gold and silver ore
yet discovered; of the rise of four men
from poverty to untold wealth; of the
ups and downs of mining stocks, and
OF the vast influence of Comstock gold
and silver in the political, social and
financial worlds in the last quarter of
a century.
The grizzled miners of the Pacific
coast delight in telling "reminiscences
OF days when Jim Fair worked for
wages alongside the other boys in the
mines and dined on bacon and beans.
Miss Virginia Fair the old fellows re-
member as baby in the camp at Vir-
glnia City, and her approaching mar
rage has started such flood of mem
cries as nothing else has done in MANY
a day.
James G. Fair was the son of Mi
chael Fair, of Clougher, County Ty-
rome, Ireland, where he was born in
December, 1881. The family in 1a1s
came to America, settling in central
Illinois. James Fair became famous
farm worker when a mere lad. lie
ran away in 1S47 and walked to Chi
cago, thence to New York in 1S4S.
The news of the gold discoveries in
California reached the Atlantic coast
in the fall of 1S4S, and young Fair
caught the fever. He had $40 saved
up from his wages on the docks, and
getting job on a Panama vessel he
set out for California by the Isthmus
route, reaching San Francisco in Feb
ruary, 1850. For fifteen years Fair
worked in the gold mines with little
success. A redwood shack that was
his home in his bachelor days is still
pointed out in the vicinity of Rough
and Ready, Nevada county. He lived
in tent on the Feather river for over
year, and for several years he
washed out flakes of gold from creek
beds in Calaveras county. Only
sound constitution saved him when
fever spread through the camps in
1860. He Joined the Frazer river
stampede in 1858 and nearly lost Ills
life by exposure in British Columbia.
Jim Fair was reckoned an observ-
ing and well-trained miner. His old
companions agree that he had a won
derful nose for smelling gold lodges.
He was an industrious and saving
man, and his habits were good In
1865 he struck good ledge in Nevada
county. His hunger and heartaches
were forgotten when he blasted away
the rocky surface and opened the
Hopewell mine. When he sold his in
terest for $4,000 he felt rich.
He had known a Miss Rooney, a
pretty girl in Calaveras county, where
young women were scarce. The news
of Jim Fairs luck went far and near,
and when the miner went over the
range to Jamesoffs Bar and proposed
he was accepted. The news that sui
phurets on the Comstock were paying
well had been coming across the Sier-
ras for over year. So Jim Fair and
his bride started with mule team and
wagon over the Placerville and Red
Dog trail for Virginia City-then a
mining camp of about 5000 men and
400 women.
Fairs ability was quickly recogniz-
ed. He invested his tiny fortune in
the Hale and Norcross mine and be-
gan work as boss of laborers. In
few months he was promoted The
day he was thirty-seven he was super
intendent of the Ophir mine. John
w. Mackay, now president of the Pos
tai Telegraph company and worth
$50, 900. worked as assistant super
intendent in the California mine. The
salaries of the two men were about
$500 year each.
Mackay and Fair came from the
same part of Ireland, and had been
fast friends in California. They had
two friends in San Francisco, James c.
Flood and William O'Brien. The lat
ter were of Irish parentage, but born
in New York city. Flood and O'Brien
kept in Washington street, San Fran
cisco, a saloon which was a rendezvous
for miners who had come over the
mountains from Virginia City. Flood
and O'Brien we're agreeable hosts.
ripsy miners revealed secrets about
the ore they we're working on the
Comstock lode. Flood and O'Brien in
vested their earnings in stock in the
Hale and Norcross and California and
virginia mines. Mackay and Fair be-
came their allies.
In 1869 rumors went abroad that the
Comstock mines were petering out.
Several mines closed for few months
and reopened with half shifts. The
ore from the California and Virginia
) mines had not paid mining expenses