Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-07-31
MARCUS DALY'S
LIFE RELATED
STORY OF CAREER INCLUDED IN
VOLUME v NEW DICTIONARY
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHIES

Montana Copper Magnate Started As
Poor Boy Who Came From Ireland
to New York at Age of Is and Be-
came Miner In California.
Included among the life stories Of
Americas great men Is the biography
of Marcus DAILY, founder Of the city
of Anaconda. the Anaconda Reduc-
ton works and company and the
Anaconda Standard. The biography
is published in volume v, Of the Die
tionary Of American Biography under
the auspices of the Learned Societies
of America. The publication will be
released In a short time.
The biography is as follows:
DAILY, Marcus December S, 1871
November II, 1900, miner and capital
iSt. was born in Ireland. His parents,
Luke and Mary DAILY, were very poor
and he grew up with little opportunity
for education. At the age of Is he
came to America. He worked for q
while around New York, then went to
California, where he became a miner.
Employed as a pick and shovel man,
ne soon became an expert on mining.
After a time he entered the service OF
Fair and Mackay in Nevada, where he
displayed ability enough to attract the
attention OF Walker Brothers, and in
1876 they sent him to Butte, Mont.
There he purchased the Alice Silver
mine in partnership with them, but
soon sold his interest for $4,000. &C.
Ologists had declared the Butte mines
to be Of little value. DAILY, however,
believed that the unusual formation Of
4 tho cOJrfVVy oCnnoo1al rtrh hnIc ~ oro
He went to California to seek aid from
some old friends there. He persuaded
George Hearst and others to share his
convictions and they bought the Ana
conda silver mine. 1t was not long
before the silver gave out. but beneath
it was q rich vein of copper. DAILY
closed the mine and quietly bought up
others in the neighborhood and then
started the great copper mining ope-
rations that were to make Butte and
the Anaconda Copper Mining COM
pany famous.
HE mined the coal for his furnaces
and acquired huge tracts of timber.
where he cut the wood for his mines.
He built a railway from Butte to Ana
conda. He established banks, built
power plants and irrigation systems.
and encouraged other enterprises. In
20 years he built up a fortune of many
million dollars.
Built Great Fortune
His feud with William A. Clark
"a. W dominated Montana society and
politics from 1888 to 1900. DAILY and
Clark had been friends, but their Strug-
gle for control of the copper mines
OF Butte had made them bitter enc
mics. Clark had control of the Butte
reduction plants, and DAILY built Ana
conda with its huge smelter a few miles
away. Both men had business and
political interests in MiSSOula, but
when Clark gained an advantage, DAILY
built Hamilton, so miles up the Bitter
Root, and projected a railroad from
Butte and Anaconda through this town
to the Pacific, with the idea of making
it the commercial center Of western
Montana. He established the Ana
conda Standard and made 1t the best
paper in the state. Both men were
democrats, and both built up machines
Of their employees and Of business men
who were dependent upon them. Days
genial and generous disposition, COM
bined with a reputation for courage
and loyalty, gave him popular favor
over the reserved and elegant Clark,
who was accused of timidity and a
willingness to throw over his friends
when they were no longer useful. DAILY
would never seek an Office for himself.
but he loved to exert influence in poll
tics and for 10 years he endeavored
to thwart Clark's ambition. In 1888
his followers brought about Clark's de-
feat as candidate for territorial dele
gate; in 1893 they prevented his cleo
ton as senator; and when Clark final
ly secured his election as senator in
1899, DAILY gave $25, 900 to carry the
fight to the senate committee on cleo
tons, whose adverse report forced
Clark's resignation.
"Daly gave lavishly for any cause
he favored. He started the first state
democratic campaign with a donation
of $40, 900, and followed this with more.
He apparently spent more than a half
million dollars to make Anaconda the
state capital. In 1896 he gave $4,000
to the Bryan campaign fund, out OF a
total of $350,000 from all sources
statement Of j. M. Dixon of a con-
~versation with Senator j. K. Jones,
Bryan's campaign manager).
'Daly was married in 1872 to Mar
garet Evans. He built a house In the
upper BlCLcr hOOC, WllcTe lt OcVclOpCO
one of the finest ranches in the west.
There he planted orchards and gave
a start to fruit growing in the valley
His pet extravaganza was fast horses
Some of these we're among the fastest
in the world, and he showed great
pride in their triumphs on the track
He kept in close touch with the men
with whom he worked as a miner, and
brought many Of them to Butte and
gave them a start to wealth. He was
Interested in his employees and gave
higher wages than were current. His
last achievement was the combination
of a number of mining and lumber
companies into the A~malgamated Cop
per company with a capitalization OF
SIS, 00O, 900.
"(The sources for the life Of DAILY
are very unsatisfactory. There is 8
laudatory sketch of him in Progressive
Men of Montana O901) and G. P. Con-
molly, Story Of Montana McClure's
magazine, Augusta December, 1905, Is
partisan in his behalf. S. E. Moffett
Marcus DAILY. Empire Builder Review
of Reviews IN. " December, 1900, Is
of little value. The files of the Ana
conda Standard, especially November 8
, 1895, express Days views and reflect
: his character; there is a good obitu-
- ~, Hro~ho~ 20 1000 Thor