USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > History of Salt Lake City > Part 153
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The pay roll of the mine for labor, which begun at $1, 140 per month, has
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APPENDIX.
increased to $50,000 per month, until 2,000 people draw their daily support di- rectly from mine and mill. The outside expenses, which were less than $500 at first, have increased until during some months $60,000 has been paid, which has supported quite as many more people. Thus the mine is a providence to all the people near it.
It is hard to describe the work which has been necessary to keep this prop- erty going. The water very near the surface began to be a troublesome factor. Steam pumps were resorted to, at first six inch Knowles pumps. As depth was attained the flow of the water became stronger and more pumps were ordered. At length, seeing that it was only a question of time when the mine would have to be abandoned because of the water, unless something more effectual was done, ·a tunnel was commenced to tap the vein 600 feet deep. 'That tunnel was driven 5,765 feet to the shaft, at an expense of $22 per foot, and though driven night and day it required two years to complete it. The water meantime increased until it discharged 7,000 gallons per minute. The pumps were increased in size and number until the manufacturers made, expressly for the company, larger pumps than they had ever manufactured before, and twenty-three of these pumps were ceaselessly at work to drain the river which flowed into the fissure. Fearing that the water would flood the mine before the tunnel could be completed, a three com- partment shaft was begun and a Cornish pump of 20-inch plungers and 10-foot stroke was got in position and the great shaft was driven down as swiftly as pos- sible. It was a life and death struggle with the water for the possession of the mine, but pluck and money won the battle. The tunnel reached the shaft and drained the mine to the 600-foot level, and the water below that was but play for the great Cornish pump. The machinery is now prepared and in position to sink 3,000 feet. The mine is opened 1,000 feet deep and has paid in dividends up to this writing-July 18th, 1886-$7,000.000. The main ore chute of the On- tario is 1,400 feet in length of continuous pay ore. No other such ore chute was ever found in all the history of mining. As no one has ever yet seen an ore body that was not as deep as it was long, the future of the Ontario for many years is assured. Inasmuch, too, as the water is under perfect control, the expense of 'working in future will be greatly lessened. It is altogether a wonderful mine. When Haggin, Tevis and Hearst advanced the first $30,000 purchase money they looked upon it as purely a gamble. They have received that money back two hundred times and every month the mine pays in dividends more than double what it originally cost. The chief owners are wide awake enterprising men, the proof is that since the purchase of the Ontario they have spent more than $1,000,000 in prospecting and mining in other districts in Utah and Idaho. The yield of the Ontario has been over $15,000,000 and the mine has paid in dividends over $7,000,000.
ROBERT CRAIG CHAMBERS.
It is said that a shepherd boy, tending his flock high up among the cliffs of the Andes, one day saw something glittering in the rocks, and, prying it out, carried it to the owner of the flock, who pronounced it silver. The boy had taken it from the outcrop of what proved to be the famous Potosi ore channel
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HISTORY. OF SALT LAKE CITY.
which, in the next 250 years, gave to the world $2,000,000,000, and which still yields $2,250,000 per annum. What the shepherd boy was to the Potosi, Her- man Budden was to the Ontario. Doubtless in the old Spanish archives will be found the name of some man who took charge of the lofty mountain crest; built roads to it; opened it out, gave to it a working system and made it a success; fight- ing all obstacles until he triumphed, enriching his company and giving to 'Peru world-wide fame. What that man was to the Potosi ore channel, R. C. Chambers has been to the Ontario, and a history of the Ontario without a notice of Cham- bers, would be the play of Hamlet with the Prince omitted. Mr. Chambers was born in Lexington, Richland County, Ohio, January 16, 1832. His family came from Scotland shortly after the Revolution. He grew up, trained to work from childhood, and through that work acquired the discipline and self-reliance neces- sary to a life-work. When but a lad he determined that there was not more than enough in the family heritage for his brothers and sisters, and so he bade them good bye, and turned his face to the far West. He crossed the Plains, going by the Soda Springs route, and reached Sacramento, California, in July, 1850. He at once turned to the mines and did his first work as a miner on Mormon Island, American River. The next year he followed an excitement to the Upper Feather River mines, in Plumas County. He lived in Plumas eighteen years. There he met Judge Goodwin, the accomplished editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, between whom and himself there was formed a lasting friendship. He went there as a miner. When his sterling worth began to be understood he was elected and re-elected sheriff, serving two full terms; then he employed his means in mer- chandizing-that is he sold goods to the miners and bought their gold dust-later he engaged in both quartz and placer mining until 1869, when he closed up his business and moved to Nevada. He wandered that State over but could not find what he desired ; he extended his search as far as Helena, Montana. He finally made an arrangement with George Hearst, and, as stated above, was managing the Webster and Bully Boy mines in Southern Utah when the Ontario was discov- ered and purchased. Since then his life has been a part of that enterprise. His ability as a mining manager is consummate. He ranks with the fore- most mine managers of the Coast, and in their field they have distinct per- sonalities, as much as Vanderbilt, Gould, Huntington and Garrett have as railroad managers. He has a large, evenly poised head, most prominent in the organs that give a man endurance, tenacity of purpose, clear sagacity, ad- ministrative ability, and that judgment which supplies faith and self-reliance. He has a strong face, which indicates clear judgment, always under the restraint of the original Scotch caution which has come down from his far-back ancestors. He is one of the most of approachable of men, and has not changed in face or manner for twenty years. His monument is the Ontario Mine. A visit to it shows what R. C. Chambers is better than any pen picture can. When we say that he started across the plains a poor boy and by his own energies and charac- ter has accomplished what he has, it is not worth while to extend the description, for the naked fact carries with it the full story of the courage that falters not ; the industry that never flags; the judgment that never proves false; the self- reliance that is enough to control stormy men above ground and rivers of water
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APPENDIX.
below, and the tenacity of purpose which holds on when hope and faith are both ready to faint under the burdens put upon them.
It would be a curious study to try to analyze through what preparation a man is best fitted to bring out all that is latent within him. Of course discipline is necessary ; a knowledge of business and of men is necessary to the carrying for- ward of a great enterprise. But in the case of Chambers it is not improbable that his life in Plumas County was worth to him more than so many years in the schools would have been. The high sierras are a wonderful inspiration to a young mind. Especially was it so in the old flush days. In no place is the mighty moun- tain range more imposing than in Plumas County. The heights are tremendous ; the rivers are torrents rushing through gorges, the valleys and the forests that crown the hills are wonderfully beautiful. Everything carries with it a sense of largeness and power and man grows brave in the presence of the brave pictures that nature paints. The roads are all grades built on dizzy mountain sides ; where the hills become so precipitious that roads are impracticable, trails are sub- stituted; in winter, in the old days, there was no communication with Califor- nia's lower valleys except by snow shoes or dog sleds, and at times a mountain storm would rock those heights like an earthquake; filling the canyons with thirty feet of snow and causing the great pines to toss their giant arms as waves are tossed by the winds, and, as waves roar when in fury they meet a headland, so the gale, making those pines its harp strings, would fill the nights with a diapason as deep and awe-inspiring as Niagara.
Every day there were new discoveries of gold reported on some river bar, or gold quartz on some mountain crest ; every day there were calls upon the people's charities to help some one who was ill, or who in the battling forces around him had become cowed and had ceased to try ; there were free lessons supplied of every phase of human life and there were incessant calls upon every latent resource of brain and heart. At the same time hope was ever whispering in eager ears and failures did not daunt brave souls, for the belief was omnipotent that the evil spell could be exorcised ; that the misfortunes of to-day would make a theme for jest in the fruition of the morrow.
In summer it was incessant toil; in winter the brightest spirits which all sec- tions of the Union and of foreign lands could supply, mingled together there. O, what stories were told ; what songs were sung; what hearts of gold drew in- spiration from each other; what other life had ever half so much of pathos and of excitement !
The outcome of such a school meant for those who could battle successfully against its hardships; its joys ; its enchantments and its temptations, cool and steady brains. All the great miners that we know of took lessons in a school like that. They early absorbed some of the grandeur, the hope, the pluck the endur- ance, the patience and the discipline which high mountains give as an inheritance to the children who love them. Equipped with this schooling, R. C. Chambers entered the desert looking for something large enough to meet the demands of bis ambition. He found it, and his work on the Ontario shows how high he graduated in the mountain school.
34
HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.
JUDGE C. C. GOODWIN.
The Salt Lake Tribune is a great newspaper. Published one thousand miles from the Missouri river and nearly as far from San Francisco, it each morning presents the news from all parts of the world.
Its local page is bright, sparkling and keen, and all of its departments are well sustained, but what has given it fame and influence, is its clear, strong and incisive editorials. These have made it an authority to the Gentile population, and caused it to be known throughout the land. They indicate that upon its force, are men of brains, and that its destiny is shaped and guided by a master- mind. We therefore call attention to one of the leaders of thought upon the Pacific slope, and one of the truest friends, and a brave man, Judge C. C. Good- win, editor-in-chief and part owner of this well known paper. He was born in the Empire State, that grand commonwealth, that has given so many great men to the world. He is 54 years of age, and in 1852 he located at Marysville in the State of California. He first embarked in the lumber business, afterwards he taught school, and devoted his spare moments to the study of the law.
In 1859, he removed to Plumas County, that region of lofty pines and giant mountains, where he was admitted to the bar. £ In those days men's occupations were sometimes manifold, and while young Goodwin followed the practice of the law, he also turned an honest penny in mercantile pursuits. In 1860 he re- moved to Washoe, near Virginia City, Nevada, and there he was elected and served a full term as district judge. He was also a prominent and influential member of the constitutional convention of that State. He was interested in the develop- ment of the mineral resources of Nevada, and to, him belongs the credit of build- ing at Eureka the first smelting furnace. This venture proved a success in every way. In 1874 he became associate editor of the Virginia City Enterprise, which was then owned by the bonanza kings, Sharon and Mackay. He occupied this position until 1880, when he removed to Salt Lake and took charge of the Tribune.
Judge Goodwin has a charming wife and a family of two children. He is naturally modest and retiring and possesses a genial and kindly nature. He is a hater of shams and is fearless and outspoken. Socially he is exceedingly pleasant and entertaining. He has an inexhaustible fund of anecdote, gathered from the rich and varied experience upon the Pacific coast. He is a charming after din- ner talker and is always the life of the social circle. As a writer he is exceed- ingly versatile. His style ranges from the bitterest sarcasm to the tenderest pathos. At times he seems to write with gall, and again with the tears of chil- dren. Running through all his lines there is a vein of poetry. No matter how rough and broken the groundwork of his composition may seem, there is always to be found the vein of pure gold. It is no wonder that this is so. His life has been spent amid men and scenes that bring out the poetry in one's nature. He has slept under giant trees and watched for the coming of the sun over craggy
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APPENDIX.
peaks. He has lived the wild romantic life of the miner. He grew up in the golden days of the Golden State. He has wandered amid the solitudes of nature and listened to God's voice in the fir trees branches or the thunder that rever- berated from crag to crag. He graduated with the highest honors from the great university of nature, and her lessons shine through his every thought. One of the most beautiful lyric gems in the English language is a poem from his pen, which first saw light in The Inland Empire, published at White Pine, Nevada, in 1869. It is so well worthy of preservation and illustrates Judge Goodwin's gen- mus so admirably that we submit it herewith :
THE PROSPECTOR.
How strangely to-night my memory flings From the face of the past its shadowy wings, And I see far back through the mist and tears
Which make the record of twenty years ; From the beautiful days in the Golden State, When Life seemed taking a lease of Fate :
From the wond'rous visions of " long ago"
'To the naked shade that we call " now.'
Those halcyon days ; there were four with me ihen-
Ernest and Ned ; wild Tom and Ben.
Now all are gone ; Tom was first to die ;
I held his hands, closed his glazed eye ; And many a tear o'er his grave we shed,
As we tenderly pillowed his curly head In the shadows deep of the pines that stand
Forever solemn, forever fanned By the winds that steal through the Golden Gite,
And spread their balm o'er the Golden State.
And the others, too, they all are dead ; By the turbid Gila perished Ned; Brave, noble Ernest, he was lost Amid Montana's ice and frost ; And Bennie's life went out in gloom
Deep in the Comstock's vaults of doom,
And I am left, the last of all. And as to-night the cold snows fall, And barbarous winds around me roar, I think the long past o'er and o'er- What I have hoped and suffered, all, From the twenty years roll back the pall From the dusty, thorny, weary track, As the tortuous path I follow back.
In my childhood's home they think me, there A failure, or lost, till my name in the prayer At eve is forgot. Well, they cannot know That my toil through heat, through tempest and snow. While it seemed for naught but a portion of pelf, Was more for them, far more than myself.
Ah well, as my hair turns slowly to snow, The places of childhood more far-away grow ; And my dreams are changing ; 'tis home no more But shadowy hands from the other shore Stretch nightly down, and it seems as when I lived with Tom, Ned, Ernest and Ben.
And the mountains of earth seem dwindling down : And the hills of Eden, of golden crown Rise up, and I think in the last great day, Will my claims above bear a fire assay ? From the slag of earth and the baser stains Will the cupel of Death show of precious grains Enough to ensure me a welcome above, In the temples of Peace, in the mansions of Love ?
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HISTORY OF SALT LAKE CITY.
The history of this poem will be seen in the following correspondence be- tween editorial gentlemen :
"A LITERARY GEM."
"To the editor of the Examiner:
"SIR .- I found the enclosed fragment some years ago at Kanagawa, Japan. It had evidently been copied in a California paper that had wandered over to the far East, and was handed to me by an Englishman, who asked me if I had ever read it complete. I think it is a lyric gem and should be saved from oblivion. With the hope that some of your numerous readers may have and will publish a full copy of the original, I ask that you print it in the Examiner.
" JEREMIAH LYNCH." -San Francisco Examiner, June 20th.
" THE PROSPECTOR."
" To the editor of the Examiner :
" SIR .- Through the columns of your paper, with your permission, I will in- form your correspondent, Jeremiah Lynch, that the ' literary gem' of a poem entitled 'The Prospector,' which first saw the light of print in the Inland Em- pire, published at Hamilton, White Pine County, Nevada, is the production of C. C. Goodwin, now editor of the Salt Lake Tribune. I remember the poem well, having given out the manuscript to compositors myself, I being one of the publishers of the Inland Empire at that time. The poem first appeared some time in the latter part of 1869 or early in 1870. I am sorry that I have no copy of this poem to furnish your correspondent, but doubtless he can obtain one by addressing the author at Salt Lake City.
"C. A. V. PUTMAN. "VIRGINIA, (Nev.,) June 23."
-- Examiner, June 26.
1996
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