The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-05-24
How the Guggenheims Became Smelter
Kings---From Lace to Lead
Gen Frank Hall in Denver Mining Record.

and Dennis Sheedy. Holden was
good talker and in 1886 he, with the
two bankers, built the Holden smelter
near Denver. Holden then went back
to Leadville and began shipping the
ores he bought as samples to the
Holden smelter. Holden sampled the
ores, but the bankers sampled them
again, and trouble arose as to which
should obtain in the settlement be-
tween Holden and the smelter.
1t was then that Holden met the
tenderfoot, Meyer Guggenheim, and
with stock in the Holden smelter to
sell he had an answer to all of Gug-
genheims questions. The shelters
were getting the lions share, he said.
He said further that KOuntze and
Sheedy were making just about all the
profits there were in ore. So Guggen-
helm concluded that II smelters were
making all the money there is in min
ing what's the use Of having mine
unless you have smelter. Mr.. Holden
agreed with him that there was none
at all, and Guggenheim tried It. He
took about $4,000 of. Holden smelter
stock, and as a stakeholder he investi-
gated from the inside. He obtained
for his sixth son, Simon, a position
there and Simon appeared on the pay
roll as timekeeper at $50 a month. The
light poured through the Opaqueness
of smelter arithmetic. What Meyer
Guggenheim could not understand as
q mine owner or as smelter operator
grew wondrous clear and pleasing to
him. Meyer Guggenheim read the
profit and loss books for year. 1t was
enhancing literature. On the profit
side, il is said, he read this, $50 per
cent? 1t was large profit at any
rate, and Mr.. Guggenheim could not
get smelter fast enough,
He and Holden formed the Denver
Smelling company, with 100000 capt.
tai, intending to build at Denver But
a delegation of business men from
Pueblo offered them a site free of
taxes for ten years. So Guggenheim
and Holden went to Pueblo and
changed their name to Philadelphia
Smelling & Refining company, in
honor of the lace peddler's first Am
erican home.
At Pueblo they built the Philadel-
phia smelter. This was in 1883. Ev-
entually it cost .$1,250,000. Part of
that big cost the Guggenheims, father
and sons, must charge to smelter edu-
cation. They had much to learn yet,
and 1t cost something. One of the
mechanical engineers who built the
smelter said that the old man and
Bonnie were both of them always
wanting to change the plans or pro-
posing innovations that to metallurg-
lists would have been ridiculous. The
greatest word was poster" this en-
gineer said Wherever he turned,
there was always Guggenheim in the
way with questions and suggestions.
They Learned the Game by Keeping
at il.
Nevertheless the Guggenheims
learned the smelter game though they
left wrinkles on the face of The man
who had to teach them.
Back east the older boys had to
learn the business, too. Isaac, in 1886,
took charge OF the New York Office of
the Guggenhem smelter business and
David began the study of railroad
rates. Maurice. the third, learned
the legal end. Solomon, the fourth,
was studying also. to become later the
chairman of the American Smelling &
Refining company, and William, the
seventh. still youngster, left the
study of law for courses in chemistry
and metallurgy in the University of
Pennsylvania. Then he came west as
superintendent of the Philadelphia
plant,
Meyer Guggenheim was glad he
came to Colorado as smelters spelled
big profits. Why not more smelters?
He was smelling ores from Mexico.
Why pay freight on these ores? The
thing to do was to smelt the ores in
Mexico So in 1891 Meyer sent his
son William to Monterey, and there
William built the second Guggenheim
smelter. For ten years he remained
in Mexico as general manager of the
famly's interests, buying mines, max
ing contracts with mine owners, and in
1894 building at Aguas Calientes yet
another smelter. Meyer Guggenheim
objected to paying refineries to treat
his bullion and matte, and therefore
he established refinery in Perth AM
boy, n j.. and put Bonnie in charge,
leaving Simon In Colorado.
In the meantime the Gugeenheims
bought at Leadville all the shelters
then in operation and closed all but
one of them, the Arkansas Valley
smelter, and proceeded as usual They
bought control of the A. Y. & Minnie
mine and worked it, 1t proved a rich
and extensive mine.
In course of time the Guggenheim
Exploration company was formed, with
William C. Whitney as hacker They
picked out the best mines in Mexico,
Colorado and South America end then
bought them outright. This gave them
plenty of ore for the smelters. This
business was Incorporated in June,