3461

Mackay Gold & Silver Mining Company Stock Certificate, 1897

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Stock & Bond - Mining Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
Mackay Gold & Silver Mining Company Stock Certificate, 1897
SOLD
450.00USD+ (112.50) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2018 Mar 17 @ 15:00UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Never seen by us before. Fantastic mining stock featuring a portrait of "Bonanza King" John Mackay! No. 59, issued for 15,000 shares to company president R.M. Daggett on May 17th, 1897. Signed by Daggett and secretary O'Neale. Not cancelled. Ornate logo and portrait vignette of Mackay. Location printed above the logo: Comstock-Brunswick Lode, Storey Co., Nevada. Printed by Schmidt Lith. & Co. Folds, two pinholes, otherwise very fine. 5.5 x 10.5"

Information on this company is scarce! The Mining Record, Vol 4, (1878) lists the first directors as J.D. Hunt, W. Harmon, M.C. Murtag, E.A. Rouleau, and M.P. Finnegan. Our stock has a new incorporation date of June 24th, 1896. The Sacramento Daily Union (June 25th, 1896) reports the new directors as P.J. Keyes of Virginia City, John M. Dormer, W.T. O'Neale, R.M. Daggett, and Thomas Eager of San Francisco. Was Mackay ever involved? One other reference to this company can be located. An EMJ (Vol. 62) article from Sept. 26, 1896: "The shaft on this company's mine is now down to the 50 ft level and from this point a west crosscut will be run to intersect the vein. The vein on the surface shows a breadth of between 30 and 40 ft. The east or hanging wall is syenite and porphyry with a heavy streak of clay next to the porphyry. The vein is said to be strongly mineralized throughout its entire width and shows a good assay value."

Rollin Mallory Daggett (1831-1901) is listed as stock broker at 1 Meyer's & Daggett's Block in Virginia City in the Collins 1864 directory. He is perhaps best known for his literary contributions to Nevada as member of the "Sagebrush School." He was associated with Joseph Thomas Goodman at the Territorial Enterprise, and the two wrote a play in 1871 called "The Psychoscope" that was produced and performed at Piper's Opera House in 1872 by John McCullough. The play involved depictions of prostitutes that many found shocking.

One last story here that relates Mackay and Daggett, as told in Goodwin's "As I Remember Them": "In his younger days, Mackay had much repute as an athlete and boxer. One day when the Bonanza was at its best, he asked R. M. Daggett and myself to go down in the mine with him. He sent the message by Colonel Obiston, who was then superintendent of the Gould and Curry — one of the Bonanza firm's mines. He said to Obiston : "Those fellows up in the print shop think I get my money easy. I want to show them." We went down into the mine and began to explore it. But Daggett was fat and not much accustomed to exercise, and fifteen minutes of going up and down ladders and into hot drifts was enough for him. He found where an air pipe was supplying the mine with air, sat down in front of it and declared that he had no interest in examining mines that he did not own personally, and making $7,000 reports of them for nothing, especially for people who kept their mines as hot as that was. It must not be forgotten that in a hot summer day, after an hour's visit to a lower level of the Comstock, on ascending, as the cage emerges from the shaft the summer air strikes one like a plunge into a cold bath. On that day, after going the rounds, we were hoisted out of the mine and went to the dressing room to throw off the mining suits, bathe and resume our own clothing. When Mackay had thrown off the gray shirt he ''put up his props" before Daggett, in challenge for a boxing match. Daggett cried out. "Wait until I am ready, and 'T will lay on for Tusculum ; Do thou lay on for Rome." But a moment later he said : "On second thought I decline. When I become excited I strike too terrible a blow, and you are poor and have a family to support." While in the mine that day, Daggett asked Mr. Mackay how much money he had, and he replied : "I have twelve millions of dollars now and believe I have yet twenty-five years of good work in me." He died almost exactly twenty-five years later." Daggett went on to become a Congressman and minister to Hawaii before returning to San Francisco. He died of a brain hemorrhage. (Al Adams Gold Rush Memorabilia Collection) Date: Location: Virginia City, Nevada HWAC# 58461