The Alaska daily empire., 1915-07-13

Ho0eyor he had no Intention ol n, ycslins in any low srodo proapects. French Pete cried to seil 'i Co him. and finally said, 2 have some freight ln the warehouso and 7 can't get it oo, wilhou, paying the freight chars es ol 526i. li you wln pay my bill for the Neishl will deed you my claim on Douglas Island Ireadveli finally took up Che proposition' and Che mine wos deedod to him. This was In November. 1881
 "rreadwen took 22 sacks Of sam- ples rom different parts of the vein and tock them Go San Francisco with him The ore milled so well ,hat he decided not to sen the claim but to organize a company and develop the property He organized the At aslu Alili & Mining Company and Interested some well.to-do San Fran. cisco mining men ln it James Free born waa selected as president ot the company. and J. D. Fry E M. Fry F. T. shin and F. T.. tiill were chosen as directors They subscribed Sl0Ooo and purchased livestamp mil and also began running a tunnel
 Alter running the tunnel for 46S feet across the vein and still being on good ore. Treadwell realized they had wonderful property He went to san Francesca to urge the building of a 120 stamp mill The company thought a 40 stamp mill was large enough. but Treadwel would not give in and finally had his way
 'I met Treadweu first on Che lit- tie steamer which we had been tray. cling on from sltlsa to Juneau He asked me if was mining man, told him bad mine, but that it was not much good. This made hit with Treadwen He said You arc the first man have met up here whose mine was not the best one up here. They all think they have a bonanza. Treadwel was a very lik able man. He never drank or smok ed. which was unusual in Alaska He worked hard and lived clean. He was builder and an organizer. He put me in his assay office. It is not much of trick to assay for gold or silver. any dub of ordinary intelli gencc can learn. When it came to building the 120 stamp mill they had to own and operate a saw mill to get out the timbers. SO Treadwell put me in charge of the saw mill.
 "In February. 1885, Treadwell was all run down from oyorwork SO he told me ] would have to act as super intendent of the Treadwell mine while he went down to San Francis co for few months. He came back to Juneau but had to return almost immediately New capital had been taken in. SO that at this time the pro prietors were Senator J. p. Jones, J D. Fry. D. M. Fry. Jones Freeburu John Treadwen. IT, l.. Hm and>H. Fl. Shin. For the next five years l re- mained as superintendent of the Treadwell property In 1886 they in creased the mill from 120 stamps tc 240 stamps. Andy Grant, Of San Fran cisco was the millwright Along in the summer of 1889 Treadwel sold his interest to D. o. Mills of New York for S-.5oo.o0O. When TWO had 240 stamps under one roof it was tho largest mill at that time in the world Today they have SSO stamps ham mering away. 300 stamps being un der one roof which is the largest sin gle min in the world The milling cost at present is about $1 ton ana the ore averages about S2 ton in value.
 "ln 1890 retired and went to my old home town. Hastings. Mich. in vested in banks saw mills, flour mills oak timber lands and in anything else that my old friends asked me to. soon had something ike couple of million dollars invested in what seem ed safe and growing propositions The hard times Of 1898 came on, and lots Of my boyhood friends were ur against it SO ! endorsed their paper hung on until 1S97 when ] found that by sacrificing everything had left I could come out square. so did SO. My only comfort was that lots Of men smarter than myself were in the same boat It is no trouble to make money but it takes a smart man to hold on to lt went to San ! Frnnclsco Co atart over again. de-