The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1917-03-03
SEMI-CENTENN|AL
OF COMST0CK MINE
WILL BE CELEBRATED FOURTH
OF JUN by VIRGINIA
CITY MINERS

CITY MINERS
Next Fourth of July the miners
union of Virginia City will hold a
jubilee in honor of the golden an
niversary of the organization of
that body of men. This union has
been unlike every other union in
the country and the men who went
down the holes made famous in
history represent the best
blood and brains of the western
American people. The union, which
has been identified with the rise
and decline of Virginia City, is a
insignificant body of men
to the day when thou
sands of the finest physical speci-
mems of American manhood re-
ported at each shift in faultless
raiment fashioned by the highest
priced designers that ever drew the
mould of fashion. The Virginia
City miners were as unique a body
of men as ever drew the breath of
life, and to their energy and initia-
tive rests the glorious fact that the
added nearly a billion
to the wealth of the nation
before it's sun passed the zenith of
its orbit. The handful of miners
still engaged on the old lode an
nounce they are going to hold a
celebration of such magnitude that
draw back to the historical
camp many of those who owe their
fortunes to the hammer wielders OF
that district. The announcement
comes as a timely hint to adjacent
towns and cities to refrain from
making extended preparations for
observance of the national holiday
which might detract from the sue
cess of the program arranged by
these hardy men who have re-
NAMED true to their first love in
face of the waning fortunes and the
greater allurements of and
more modern camps. Let the day
be one in which the miners of the
entire state will be invited with
their wives and daughters to renew
acquaintance with the progenitor OF
all Nevada camps. Make it a home
day to which all former
residents will be invited with assur-
ance of that hearty and spontaneous
hospitality that never seems to die
in the breast of the Comstocker.
Let the survivors of the pioneer
days get together and thresh out
for themselves the disputed honor
of settling the proper credit for the
discovery of the camp.
On this point there is a dispute.
The honor of naming the Comstock
has been ascribed to "Old Pancake"
who, from the accounts
Of veracious chroniclers, appears to
boen nothing more than an
interloper. Men of the contem-
pcraneous period insist that the
original discoveries of the Com
stock were two sons of Erin, named
Mclaughlin and O'Riley, who found
the Ophir vein and made the proper
location to protect their rights. 1t
is held by friends of this pair that
while the two young Irishmen were
engaged making their first cleanup
they we're accosted by Comstock,
who insisted that he had some time
before filed on a ranch of $50 acres
in the ground located. He
also claimed the water right that
was essential to the panning process
which was the only means of saving
the values at that particular time.
To avoid trouble, Comstock was
counted in. Then, not satisfied with
the apportionment, Comstock in
sisted on taking in a friend named
Penrod, with a segregation of 100
feet of ground to pay separately
fer the water. Comstock was the
big noise and got credit for the dis
ccvery, while Mclaughlin and
O'Riley, the real finders of the lode,
were little heard of. Mclaughlin
sold his sixth interest in 1859 for
$500, while o'Riley held his longer
and got 40.0O0.-Tonopah Bon
MA.