Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-01-24

Aiter they mad arrived at mans cs-
tate and made money out OF timber, the
brothers and three uephews began the
work of exploring and mapping the
MeSaba. The supplies that they needed
they carried on their backs, fifty and
eighty miles into the wilderness; horses
could not be got through the dense
growth. They endured countless hard
ships for years, and, perhaps harder to
bear, the Scoffing OF all Duluth firm III
the opinion that there was no iron ore
in Desaba--that the Merritts were
merely trying to unload a lot OF worth
less stock oil the public.
Every possible obstacle to the develop
mcnt of the property was thrown in the
way OF the seven indomitable men,
known as the Merritt brothers Finally.
however, they managed to build fifty
mile railroad connecting with another,
giving them an outlet to the ore furnaces
of the world. and, in 1892, they triumph
antly brought ont from the MeSaba their
first trainload OF ore. The world woke
up to the fact that the MerrittS were in
possession of mineral property worth
millions OF dollars.
The next year was the beginning OF
the last disastrous panic M this country.
In developing their property, the Mer-
ritts had moved too fast. and with
money hiding away, they failed Then
it was that John d. Rockefeller, James
J. Hill and others got their clutches on
the Mesaba, swelling their fortunes by
millions of dollars And when every
thing was Strengthened out the Mer-
ritts, instead OF possessing millions, had
only few hundred thousand dollars be
tween them.
Wonderful are these and other ro-
nknces connected with the mining of
copper and iron, gold and silver in
America; but the most wonderful of
all the romances is that OF the Bonanza
Kings-Flood, OBrien. NIackay, and
Fair.
AT a time when it was the general
belief that the Comstock lode was play
ed out. Alackay, the practical, hard
headed miner OF thc trio, was of the
strong opinion that the lode was yet to
know its richest days-that ii was the
biggest bonanza i'll the whole mining
world He convinced his partners that
he was right, and they began to buy up
mine after mine OH the lode, in spite OF
the fact that most of the mines that had
made the lode famous were dry holes >
While the rest Of the world jeered,
the partners went steadily ahead drilling
deepep and deeper into the core OF the
mountains. Everybody had concluded
| that the four men were fit subjects for a
lunatic asylum, when rumor began to go
about that i'll a long deserted drift, and
at great depth, the partners had strucl:
gold and silver Of unheard-of richness
A few days later, when the rumor had
been verified and the last doubt of the
public dispelled, the rush to get stock in
Virginia Consolidated was so great that
| it has not been surpassed to this dav
The mining and speculative world sim
ply went crazy, and their state Of mind
was not improved when the partners be-
gan taking five million dollars a month
out Of the lode and counting their
monthly profits at three-quarters OF mil
lion apiece. In little over half dec
ade they took out three hundred million
dollars worth of ore.
To find their bonanza at a depth ot
twelve hundred feet they had spent I
half million dollars without the qtiiyel
of an eye lid. Their faith in them
selves had been Sublime. Their reward
transended even their most COLDER
dreams by millions OH millions.