I appreciated seeing the Cripple Creek one earlier in this thread. My mothers maternal line was up there during its heyday before they carried on to SoCal. My great-great grandfather struck it kinda rich once, but lost it pretty quick re-investing those dollars back into his operation hoping for something even bigger. I think this was rather common.
Anyone have anything from Bodie, Grass Valley (Eureka Mine), or Virginia City / Carson City to post?
On my fathers side, his great uncle managed/leased the railroad up in Bodie for over two decades and that helped him go from a poor kid on a Napa area farm in the 1870s to one of those rich San Francisco moguls. He started his career a mechanic that came up with locomotive brake and cylinder patents and leveraged that into management. Then he started trading in real estate all over northern California.
And on my mothers side, her great grandmother Emma Goldsmith was an famous red-light worker and opium entrepreneur (as famous as one could be I suppose, not exactly a normal celerity there) who spent her final years in Bodie. She knew the businessmen and workers on a different level.
Emma had a son in the 1880s when she was more tied the post-Bonza Carson City and Virginia City with a very powerful San Francisco iron works mogul, ship builder, educator, and politician. This son worked as a "mining engineer" as he labeled himself in the Eureka Mine in Grass Valley for a while before just wandering the west trying to strike his own claims when not in the Southwest hoping to get lucky with Spanish treasure.
My hoard of '82s is up to 241! 218 BC x 1, 118 BC x 3, 18 BC x 1, 82 x 1, 182 x 1, 282 x 2, 382 x 1, 582 x 2, 682 x 1, 782 x 2, 882 x 1, 982 x 4, 1082 x 1 1182 x 8, 1282 x 2, 1382 x 1, 1482 x 6, 1582 x 13, 1682 x 17, 1782 x 60, 1882 x 68, 1982 x 45
Posted 11/04/2018 07:29 am
