The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-08
EARLY DAYS IN PIOCHE
BY JOSIAH ROBERTSON.

When We opened the office in Phoebe
the embers and charred remains of at
least two score of prominent buildings
stores dwelling houses and salOOns-were
to be seen on both sides of Meadow val
lev and Main street-resuIts of the first
fire in Phoebe, in August or September,
Island the only available place 20 be
obtained for the office was in Earl Hamil-
tons saloon. Come 10 Stay" on the
north side of Main street, That evening
Superintendent Musser wired President
Brigham Young of this fact, and that
while the telegram was being sent said
there were all OF loo sober and drunken
miners and citizens expressing their ap-
probation at the bar" In g week or ten
DAYS afterward we moved into the back
room of Wells Fargo * Co.'S office, re
naming there that winter and sleeping
nightly between rows of silver and gold
bullion. on the floor
These were the days when the big
and Dan Robbins was one Of the princes
Of the ribbons over the best of Jacks four
creams or six sOrrels, on the line.
Cost of Travel.
Fare from Salt Lake to Phoebe, inside
Seats. SS5. or the top, strapped at night TO
the side rails. $25; with the driver, the
preferred seat of all, $40 to so, if it could
be secured. AMI others sitting and coiled
up in the boot; and from fifteen to eigh-
teen passengers were carried many times
on a stage from Salt Lake to Phoebe.
The distance, 35S miles, and the best
time ever made was three days and
half and three nights. the roads being
good and favorable. but in winter-snow,
slush and mud included-tt took four to
five days and nights. The stages from
Pine county TO Phoebe, were similarly
loaded from the summer of Il till the
fall OF '73 and "A.
The main part of our receipts consisted
nd Of no
Virginia City mining stocks on the San
Francisco stock board; J. B. E. Cavalier,
eX-president of the San Francisco stock
board, being the leading broker in that
line, who paid US a check OF $1.026 for his
one months business. after we had al
lowed him a 10 and Is per cent discount,
and during his two years stay in the
camp he so manipulated his buying and
selling OF stocks to the loss OF scores Of
honest miners, merchants and others, to
his personal credit of nearly a quarter of
a million dollars in one OF the, Paris
banks France His chief bookkeeper
proved his innocence, but ne had narrow
escape for his life.
Pat Holland of the Phoebe Record was
a good patron. but his comPositor. Simp-
son, deserves all the credit due the paper
then and its graphic records till il changed
into better hands.
Money Was Plentiful.
Ii was a regular and common occur
renee every Monday morning In Wells
Fargo's office to see the owners of the
Off-eolor houses side and side with the
merchant. stock broker, saloonkeeper and
others. shovel down her gold on the
counter, $2Vs, sos, SIS TO the tune Of
hundreds and beyond the thousand, and
at the opening night of one saloon on
Meadow Valley street the prOprietors net
ted s.. 200.
AS 10 society-every dance ticket was
s.; front and reserved seats in the late
John Maguire,s theatres. and afterward
in Armory hall. s. 50; but John had one
of the finest and best stock companies
that ever played together and for many
years afteTward in the Rocky mountain
region. consisting Of Mr.. and Mrs. Bates.
tragedian John S. Lindsay; the all
around stock actor. Al ThOrne. Belle Bird
and husband and Carrie Carter and hus-
band. There were no grand, scenic, spec
tacular helps on the stage in those sum
mers and Phoebe winters. for the wired at
times. moaning through the crevices of
the lumber theatres. assisted the pianist
and his funeral bell in Kathleen Ma
vourneen.'
Two millions OF dollars in dividends
were paid in seven months to the stock
holders of the Raymond and Ely, and the
Meadow Valley did nearly as well till
emit. The goods that the merchants had
for sale were the best wearing quality
Number and Timber.
Inc LUMBER ana llfilDtE feQulSAlt TOT the
mines and the building and rebuilding OF
the town swice amounted to millions of
feet. three-fourths of which came from
the splendid pine forests of the Beaver,
Little Creek and ParOwan mountains. and
was necessarily hauled over the western
deserts. a distance of 150 miles. The late
Edward Thompson and Willis Coplan OF
Beaver City ran their steam sawmills
from daylight till after dark and kept
their teams of twenty wagons in train
on the road constantly. ANY kind OF
building lumber brought from $50 to $125
per 1000 feet, and mine timbers from So
10 $50 per 1000 feet.
Sherwood Bros of Phoebe, with two and
three steam mills running day and night
for the first two or three years, felled
every grove and bunch of timber that
could be reached on the mountains for
twenty to thirty miles east of the camp
and for a distance of twenty miles north
and south
One of the most touching incidents oc-
CURED In the office in the summer Of ~.