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Diary of North Carolina Gold Miner, 1867

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Diary of North Carolina Gold Miner, 1867
SOLD
350.00USDto v******s+ buyer's premium (84.00)
This item SOLD at 2017 Apr 28 @ 17:14UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Diary and financial ledger for George N. Hill for a gold mine in Union County, North Carolina, six miles from the nearest post office, which was Olive Branch, Union Co., N.C. Small diary, about 75pp, 3.5 x 5.5"October 1, 1867 through May, 1868. Hill, at 24 yrs old, has apparently been hired to manage the construction of a mill building and sluice runs for an unnamed mine in Union County. The ledger has fine descriptions of North Carolina in post-Civil war times, and interesting observations about the people and their lives and businesses in the aftermath. The project as a whole bears discussion. Hill and others were brought in to "investigate the vein" physically in advance. No mention is made of assays or of gold content. On the basis of finding the vein in slates, Hill superintends the building of a mill building, a stable, and tail races. The building takes a full month to construct, made entirely of local timber, produced from their own saw mill. The entire project was done during a seasonal downpour that included flooded creeks, unpassable roads and more. No mention is made of the mine itself until after Christmas, when the buildings and sluices were completed. Apparently, an old shaft existed, but was full of water. They dug a new shaft (8' square, 9' deep) within 20 feet of the old one, only to lose the vein within a few feet of the surface. Days were then spent draining the old shaft and in looking for more signs of the vein on the surface. The diary falls short of discussions of actual gold production, perhaps purposefully, as Hill takes the diary with him on travels, and he may not wish its contents to be known. References of gold production are here- hidden, is such things as statements about his saddle bags full of product as he heads to Charlotte (where the Branch US Mint is, and the obvious place to sell gold.) In early 1868, Hill discusses finding "some very pretty pieces of ore" but they appeared to be from a pocket. The accompanying piece is a "day book" of money spent, covering the exact same time period as the diary. Mining in Union County probably had its start in the early 1800's as the result of the discovery at the Reed Mine and surrounding regions. By the time of the Civil War, gold mining was nearly forgotten. The mine subject of these ledgers apparently had at least a prospect shaft before the War, and was ignored during the conflict. The venture that Hill managed is probably the first effort at reestablishing a producing gold mine here. As a lode vein, it was probably discovered after 1825, when several key lode mines were found in Mecklenburg County after most of the alluvial placers were worked out. Union County was formed in 1842 from part of Mecklenburg County. JD Whitney, in Metallic Wealth of the United States (1854), has a good discussion of the early production of the region. Small scale mining took place in Union county for over a half century after the Civil War, tough no mines the size of the larger successful mines of California were found. These ledgers are a factual record of the rediscovery of a gold mine in North Carolina after the Civil War. State:North Carolina City:Charlotte Date:1867-1868 ID#41279