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2264

A Rare, Virginia City, Nevada Theall Silver Ingot, c1864

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
A Rare, Virginia City, Nevada Theall Silver Ingot, c1864
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A Rare, Virginia City, Nevada Theall Silver Ingot, c1864
By Fred N. Holabird

Theall’s Assay Businesses:
Marysville (successor to Justh & Hunter) 1859-1863
Virginia City, Nev. 1863-1868
Austin, Nev. 1863-1865
Hamilton, Nev. 1868-1869

Introduction
Nevada Assayer Hiram W. Theall is yet another important New Yorker who came to California for the Gold Rush. Though not associated, he joined the list of John L. Moffat, Augustus Humbert and a line of others who were New York merchants that left New York for the land of gold. Theall’s voyage to California was completely different than the others. He came west as a member of Stevenson’s Regiment for the Mexican War (Co. D, First Regiment, New York Volunteers), arriving March 6, 1847. The company disbanded in the fall of 1848.

Theall was part of a fairly large New York family. Born about 1817 to 1824 (he continually changed his birth date in various public records), he ran his own brokerage business in New York City in the early 1840’s as “H.W. Theall & Co.” at 4 Wall Street. He was one of thirteen Thealls listed in Doggett’s 1842 New York City Directory. Interestingly, Elias L. Theall was a druggist, another of the occupations that led some to become assayers in the West.

Theall Part of the Start of the California Gold Rush
The First Regiment of New York Volunteers played a major part in the California Gold Rush. It became well known to historians today because of the epic “Six Months in the Gold Mines” written by Lt. E. Gould Buffam, published in 1850. I have long stated that this is the finest written early work describing the first days of the gold rush. To find out that Theall was part of Buffam’s Party is nothing short of incredible.
Theall and Buffam came to California on the same ship, the Thomas H. Perkins. It was the first of three ships carrying the New York Volunteers. They disbanded Sept. 18, 1848 in Los Angeles. Buffam chronicled the adventure in great detail, noting how they mined ravines, removing pounds of gold, only to depart for another ravine to see if it held even more riches. Often they would return to a place of good gold only to find a mining camp had sprung up in their absence.

The men of Stevenson’s Regiment who went to the gold regions were many, and included the very first of the gold pioneers. Among them was Henry Angel (Angel’s Camp), Daniel and John Murphy (Murphy’s).

Theall Establishes Home in Sonora, California
The Buffam brigade, as I call it, seems to have disbanded from their gold activities in early 1849. Theall appears to have stayed on in Sonora. He voted in the first election in California June 3, 1849. Theall became the second Alcalde in Sonora when James Frazier stepped down (1849). Frazier was the man who named Sonora. Theall appears to have been a member of what may have been the first Vigilance committee (1849), though Edna Buckbee in “The Saga of Old Tuolumne” (1935) simply stated that he was “among the able and courageous men who dealt with (killings).” He was elected one of the first Alderman in Sonora in May, 1851. In the fall of 1851, Theall and two partners Perkins and Enyart, bought out the first general merchandise store in Sonora previously owned by Green & Holden. He became so well known that a street was named after him by 1852. Later, he was elected Postmaster in May, 1853 retaining that position through the end of 1854. In 1855 Theall moved to Forest City in Sierra County, staying there just a few months during the winter of 1855-1856. He became the Wells Fargo agent there, buying gold dust, issuing exchanges and handling Wells Fargo shipments. It is currently unknown if he was assaying the gold dust, or if he was sending it out to a local assayer, or simply forwarding it to one of the larger Wells, Fargo offices.

Theall Buys an Assay Firm, Justh & Hunter
Later in 1856, Theall moved to Marysville, where he remained with Wells Fargo through 1859 when he took over Justh & Hunter’s Marysville assay and bullion business early in the year. One of Theall’s competitors in Marysville was Harvey Harris. In 1860, Harris was off to the Comstock, where he soon established three assay offices. This must have had an impact on Theall, whose business was probably winding down as gold production near Marysville had begun to shrink in the early 1860’s. The prospects of opening offices in new mining regions to increase profits was a good concept, apparently championed by Harris.
Theall married Louisa Baker in Marysville in 1862, and the couple had a son (Henry Alexander) a year later. But tragedy struck, and Henry died after seven months.

Theall Explores Nevada
Theall may have had old friends in Virginia City in the early years of the Comstock. William W. Thayer was there, who was a druggist in New York City at the same time one of Theall’s relatives was a druggist. Regardless of the various ties, Theall made a trip to the Comstock perhaps late in 1862 and liked what he saw. In 1863 he opened his first assay office in Nevada Territory. Watching how Harris opened offices in new mining camps such as Aurora, Theall then opened an office in Austin at the onset of the Reese River Rush, managed by his associate J. M. Dawley.

In the early days of the Comstock, to survive as an assayer, you had to have contracts with producing mines. Theall lived near the Savage Mining Company’s office, and he probably had a contract with them. The Savage was producing bullion at a high level, so they used a number of assayers, checking the work of each, as well as checking the work of the custom mills that processed the ores. Another important association was with the banking industry. Gold Rush assayers often acted as banks. They bought and sold gold, converted gold to coin, and in this manner acted to assist in paying bills. As the banking industry developed through time in the West, the association of bank and assayer became critical. Theall became associated with Comstock bankers Paxton & Thornburgh. They rode that partnership to Austin, where Paxton & Thornburgh quickly became the main bank, and was the main bank for the largest silver producing company, the Manhattan Silver Mining Company.

Theall’s Austin Assay Office had a succession of operators. Dawley was followed by John Ramdohr, then Eugene Riotte, then Soderling. In November, 1865, he sold the Austin office to Boalt & Stetefeldt.
In 1866 Theall remarried to Susan Matthews.

As the 1860’s were coming to a close, mining was hitting hard times, and a general recession was well under way by late 1867. Theall sold his Virginia City office to W.C. Bousefield in February, 1868, the same month he sold the Marysville office. In an interesting business twist, he returned to his old, original business as a stock broker.

As Theall was settling into his brokerage business, another massive silver discovery was made in eastern Nevada. With it came the Rush to White Pine. Theall was tempted, and was off to Hamilton by late 1868. The White Pine Rush brought in 25,000 people by June 1869. Theall opened an assay office in Hamilton, the center of the region. Theall’s second son Julian was born in Hamilton in early 1869. Active in local politics, Theall was elected as a Hamilton School Trustee in April, 1869.

In May, 1869, at the height of the White Pine activity, Theall suddenly died. The obituaries did not reveal the cause of death. Small Pox and Pneumonia epidemics were in full swing at the time. In rural eastern Nevada, far from any civic center with a hospital, diseases were taking their toll. W.T. Jackson, In Treasure Hill (1963) wrote of the epidemics, which were white-washed by local press at the time. Theall may have been one of the victims, devastating the life of his wife and newborn son.

The Ingot
This ingot weighs 18.05 troy ounces, and is the largest of the six known Theall ingots by three fold. It is 899 fine silver, 063 fine gold, valued at $20.98 silver and $23.50 gold. It is the classic rectangular shape so commonly used by standard assayers, and marked clearly with “Theall & Co.” in a curved line at the top with no apparent city designation in a straight line underneath, as is marked a Theall ingot from Hamilton. It is a classic western assayer’s bullion punch.

The presence of gold in this ingot is typical of the Comstock ingots and of the Comstock mining region. Theall’s other Nevada assay office in Austin would have produced assay bars of much higher fineness in silver, as the ore deposits there are completely different than those of the Comstock.

This bar has the Theall punch partially defaced. There could be a number of reasons, but none would have called his credibility into account, or the ingot would have hit the melting pot. Speculation for the marks is beyond the scope of this paper.

Theall Ingots
There are currently only six Theall assayer ingots known today. These are: 1) Theall & Co., 9/20/1864 with tax stamp; 2) Theall & Co., 2.82 ozs, ornamental reverse for inscription; 3) Theall & Co. 18.05 ozs (This piece); 4) Theall & Co., Silver Chamber Mine, Austin N.T.; 5) 4.10 oz Theall & Co.; 6) a Hamilton, Nev. Bar engraved to B.C. Lake, 6.50 ozs.


City: Virginia City
State: Nevada,
Date:

FHWAC#: 22772
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