Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-03-13
KEARNS STRUCK 1T RICH
How Utah's New Senator Made
His Great Strike.
A FINE ILLUSTRATION OF PLUCK.

| On Easter morning in the year 1890
| Thomas Kearns, miner, now United
| States senator from Utah, made his
strike and laid the foundation for his
fortune.
For years he had had the miners
| fever" With a run of bad luck that
would have disheartened most men and
lasting seven years, he kept steadily at
| it, believing that in time he would
make his strike. And he did. The
| story of his trials and tribulations reads
| more like a romance. But, then, it has
| often been said that truth is stranger
than fiction, and his case at least fur
| nishes one of the strongest proofs.
Born in Woodstock, Ont, of Irish
parentage, young Kearns removed to
| this country with his family when 10
years of age. His father was a farm
er of moderate circumstances, and he
received his first wages as farmland.
A few years later, when gold was dis
covered in the Black Hills, young
Kearns moved with the flood of pros
pectors westward. For several years
he engaged in the business of freight
ing and with his desert ship hauled
provisions and miners tools into that
wild region, which was swarming at
the time with redskins. 1t was no
easy undertaking, fraught with innu-
merable dangers and requiring the
hardest kind of work But this associ-
alton with miners proved to be the best
sort of schooling for the man who
few years later was to startle the min
ing world with one of the biggest dis
T. ~ nd
frankness won the admiration of all
whom he encountered, with the result
that young Kearns was much sought
for when any freighting was to be
done.
Gradually the great railroads of the
country threw out their arms, and in
few years the "ships of the desert
gave way to the putting steam engine.
His occupation gone, young Kearns
followed a group of miners one day
and located at the mining camp of the
Ontario mine, which is still one Of the
best paying mines in the west. En-
dowed with the happy disposition of
Erin'S sons, he cheerfully took up the
work of miner and with pick and shOv-
el engaged with the Ontario shift. He
furnishes one of the best illustrations
to the youth of this country of what
pluck and integrity can do.
Interesting though the life of Sena-
tor KearnS may be, the reading public
is more concerned with the actual sto-
ry of his strike than anything else.
1t was the Mayfiower that brought
over the pilgrims and showed them a
new and beautiful country. 1t was the
Mayf1ower mine that opened up a new
life for Senator Eearns and brought
him wealth.
While he was working in the Ontario
mine he prospected one day in the vi
cinity of the Mayflower, as yet an IN
developed property claimed by a man
who had found on the surface few
pieces of galena ore. Day after day
young Kearns prospected the property
and after awhile became convinced he !
had found q mine that it would pay to
develop.
He told his story to his partner, and |
then the two set about TO acquire the
property. First of all it was necessary
to "bond" it-that is, to give a sufficient |
bond and proceed with the develop |
ment of the property, the idea being to |
finally purchase it. a shaft was sunk, |
and there is no better illustration of |
the character of the man than this
he worked 16 hours a day during the |
next year. Eight of these hours he |
devoted to the Ontario mine for wages; |
the other eight he spent in the May
flower working for himself. Deeper |
and deeper went the great shaft until |
IS men were necessary to carry on the
work.
Just at this time the property got in |
to litigation, and a man of less deter
mination would have thrown up the !
whole matter, disheartened. AS yet, |
however, no ore in considerable guam
titles had been found to warrant the /
belief that the mine was a rich one.
On Easter Sunday morning. after the |
drills had been at work for hours,
Kearns stopped the men and directed
that the mine be shot This means
that the holes drilled were to be filed
with giant powder and touched off.
There had been many such operations |
before, but they had not materialized |
ore in any quantity. 1t was always |
with Kearns, well, the next one will /
bring the ore" And he was right in |
this instance, for after the blast had
gone off an immense piece of lead ore
weighing in the neighborhood of 200
pounds and as large as a mans body
was found lying near the scene of
the explosion. At last his financial
light had shone. and he fervently
thanked God for his good fortune. But
was it to be good fortune? The mine
was still in litigation, and if it had
ever become known that such a large
body of ore had been found the fight
against him would have been waged
with greater energy. AS it was, he
was enjoined by the courts from max
ng personal use of the small amount
ne had been taking out and was re-
luired regularly to pay it in TO the
court.
In the Mayfower mine IS men held a
secret that meant, if it were divulged,