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Theall & Co. Memorandum of Bullion for the Savage Mining Company [164615]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Theall & Co. Memorandum of Bullion for the Savage Mining Company [164615]
SOLD
240.00USDto B*********g+ buyer's premium (60.00)
This item SOLD at 2023 Jun 19 @ 06:29UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Very rare; we've only offered one of these over the past 10 years. Bullion deposited with Theall & Co. by the Savage Mining Company, Marysville Mill. Dated January 16th, 1866. Three deposits, .954-.972 fineness in silver. Printed by Towne & Bacon, San Francisco. Folds, creases, and light wear. 5 x 11.75" The Marysville Mill was built in 1861 about 0.75 miles below Gold Hill. In 1866, it has an 18-ton-a-day capacity.

Fred Holabird has previously written extensively about Theall. Our company sold a Theall Virginia City ingot in April 2015 for close to $19,000. Here is an excerpt from that description:

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 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.

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.

Date: 1866
Country (if not USA):
State: Nevada
City: Virginia City
Provenance: