The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-05-20

ed the shipment of ore to the smelt-
er. Those were dark days; but they
were the darkness before the dawn.
In June, 1894, the company owed only
1851. In that year the first dividend
was paid Between 1884 and 1900 the
net assets of the company rose to $4.-
1898 and it paid s75O.OOO in divi-
dends besides having a cash reserve
of s266.28S.
The Kellogg tunnel was started in
1897 and reached the vein in 1901, but
il did not cut the main Bunker Hill
ore shoot until 1904. The cost of
driving this adit had to be met out of
current earnings, while the right to
extend it was bitterly contested by a
neighboring company, which event
ually forced the Bunker Hill COM
pany to divert the course of the adit
around certain property lines. The
completion of this work not only af-
forded cheaper facilities for moving
ore from the mine to the mill but it
permitted a large increase in the ton
mage mined and milled, thereby dim
inishing the cost per ton; indeed. il
is not too much to say that if the
edit had not been driven at the time
/ it was and If it had not cut a big
swell of ore where it intersected the
main Bunker Hill ore shoot, there
would have supervened then as close
share for the continuity of profit
able operations as the enterprise ex-
perienced when the mine. plant and
Z nf
these happenings. and of the strike in
1892. 7 shall speak in a separate arti
Gle.
The average cost for 32 years has
been s2.546 per ton. 1t will be noted
that the war brought it's burdens, for
during the period 1915-191S the cost
averaged 1907, or 70 cents more per
ton thain in the preceding four years. |
The service of the Kellogg tunnel !
was the chief cause. as we have seen, |
in reducing the operating cost up p |
1905; when this adit was completed !
the mill was supplied for a time from
one or more large slopes directly at |
the end of the tunnel: since then the |
cost has increased because the ore
different and scattered slopes. and
then hoisted or lowered to the adit
according to its source, before being
trammed to the mill. This factor has
been of persistently increasing inn
pOrtance, and the effect of it has
been as the records show TO augment
the cost from Sl.746 per ton in 1906 to
243S in 1914. an increase of 50 cents
per ton. Since then higher wages,
shorter hours. greater cost of machin-
cry and supplies and of rail transpor-
tation have been unfavorable factors |
eliminating in 1918. in which year |
the average operating cost per ton |
was the highest incurred since 1898.
In 1902, after Hammond and Glenn |
ent had returned from South Africa |
they endeavored to promote a sale of |
the Bunker Hill to the Guggenheims |
at $40 per share. They themselves |
were willing 10 take IS for their stock !
and after Clements death in 1903 |
Mrs. Clement, knowing his views as
to the value of the stock, gave an OPP |
ton to Mr.. Bradley on her 36401 |
shares at So per share. Mr.. Bradley |
gave the principal shareholders a |
chance to buy this holding. but nei-
Their he nor his friends took any ac- |
ton in the matter. UP to that time |
the total dividends had only amount |
ed to 1920 per share. Shortly after |
ward the March ore body was open
ed up and the sale of theTacoma |
smelter in 1905 yielded an extra divi- |
dend of IS per share, just prior to the |
payment of which, Daniel Guggen-
helm and brothers bought Mrs. Glenn
ent's stock at $25 per share. making |
for her a total of $907525. Let us |
call it million to make it romantic, |
for. it did indeed punctuate a roman |
tic story. Flora Smith was a girl of /
JIG when she and her sister arrived in /
he gold mining camp of Murray in |
SS5 Adam Aulbach tells me that
Miss Smith was the belle of that
rontier community, and those who
nave known either Mrs. Clement or
Mrs. Cloman will not hesitate to be-
lieve it. Later she went to Miss
Lakes school in San Francisco for
two years. In 1881 she married Vic
tor Clement at Portland and they
then returned to Wardner on the eve
of the big strike in the Occur d'Alene
She shared that trying experience
with her husband and she also shar-
ed his interesting experiences in
South Africa Utah and Mexico. Four
years after his death she married
Capt. Sidney Cloman of the u. s.
army who in 1906 was military at
tache at the American legation in
London. There she and her gallant b
husband made many friends Captain &
Cloman had retired from service
when the United States declared war
against Germany, but he volunteered
and served in France n
with such distinction as to win the
service medal and the
croix de guerre. They are now liv- =
ing at Burlingame. near San Francis G
co. Mr.. Guggenheim bought Mrs.
Cloman's shares to their mutual ben
eft Since 1902 dividends fOfalina S74