Storey County NV Archives Biographies.....Mackay, John W. 
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Author: Myron Angel (1881)

JOHN W. MACKAY



Is a good sample of those men who, leaving Europe without capital, save that of

brains and muscle, come to America and by dint of hard work and good judgment,

accumulate fortunes which, even by princes are considered colossal. Astor,

crossing the ocean with a few dozen musical instruments, his sole capital,

commences trade in a modest way, and Boon establishes a system of business which

leads to fortune. It may be said of these colossal fortunes, while they are

often used to oppress the public, they serve to show the possible results of

industry, guided by good judgment, and thus induce thousands to emulate the

owners in devoting themselves to work, and in a measure atone for the evils they

otherwise promote.



  Mr. Mackay was born in Dublin, Ireland, November 28, 1835, and is the youngest

of the "Bonanza" firm. He received his education in Dublin, where it is said the

purest English in the world is spoken, consequently he shows very little of the

brogue in his speech. He came to America in 1850, and was engaged for a short

time in a commercial house in Boston. The discoveries of gold in California were

then shaking the foundations of values, and breaking up the old routines of

business, and young Mackay thought proper to bid good-bye to that old and highly

respectable, though somewhat fossilized specimen of eastern cities, and push out

for California, the country of boundless possibilities, where the customs,

habits and thoughts, had not petrified into a social bedrock which could not be

penetrated with shaft or tunnel, or blown up with giant powder.



  In the spring of 1852 we find him hard at work close up to the snow-banks of

that elevated town, Downieville, in Sierra County. It is not related of him that

he made a fortune there in mining, or that he lost one, but here he met the

talented and accomplished lady who afterwards became his wife. Pew- made

fortunes in those days at mining; the miner's dust, as a usual thing, came in

small quantities, and only made a bulk after it was gathered in by merchants and

speculators, who laid all kinds of games and pit-falls to induce the miner to

part with it. Mr. Mackay was not of that kind, so he delved away until the

breaking out of the Washoe fever, when he changed his location, and also his

luck, though as far as that term is concerned nothing could be more inapplicable

to his case than the word luck, for if ever man achieved a fortune out of hard

and persistent endeavor, together with good judgment, it was John W. Mackay; but

this is anticipating. He commenced a tunnel in company with other miners, in

what is now known as the Union Ground, and soon exhausted all the results of his

California mining. He did not curse Washoe and leave it as so many others did,

but went to work on the Comstock at four dollars per day, which, however, was

but a small portion of the benefits he derived from the labor he performed, for

while engaged in this way he was gradually acquiring a knowledge of the great

silver lode, and preparing the way for the big work of his life.



  He soon began to acquire feet, and made a respectable raise out of the Kentuck

Mine in Gold Hill. This enabled him to operate still more largely, and a few

years later he felt safe, from the condition of his purse and his knowledge of

the Comstock, to enter upon the project of original explorations. In company

with James G. Fair he undertook, by contract, in 1869, to develop the Hale &

Norcross Mine, which had previously paid large dividends. Heavy assessments were

then in order, and the stock fell in the market, but the contractors, having

faith in the mine, induced Messrs. Flood & O'Brien, successful mining operators

of San Francisco, to aid in securing control, when shortly after another

"bonanza" was opened and dividends resumed. This laid the foundation for the

great fortune since acquired. With the profits of successful mining and

successful speculations the firm, now composed of Messrs. John W. Mackay, James

G. Fair, J. M. Walker, James C. Flood, and William S. O'Brien, extended their

possessions until they had control of some 3,000 feet of the Comstock vein north

of the Hale & Norcross, and along that property they sent an exploring drift.

Mr. Walker becoming discouraged, sold his interest to Mr. Mackay, giving the

latter a two-fifths interest in the firm.



  The result of the drift was the discovery of the "bonanza" in the Consolidated

Virginia and California Mines, which paid between the years 1874 and 1879,

$100,000,000 in dividends to its stockholders. It was on Mr. Mackay's judgment

that the territory afterward known as the California and Consolidated Virginia

was purchased; that in addition to the money paid for the ground, $500,000 was

spent in tunneling and crosscutting before a sight of the ore body was obtained.

It may be asked why Mr. Mackay believed in an ore body? Why did he induce others

to invest also? It must be answered that he had studied the lode in its

entirety. He had compared its formation with the great lodes of Mexico, which

had been deposited in similar openings between the same kind of walls. He had

calculated on the average value of the foot in depth and length, and the chances

of an ore body in so many hundred feet long and deep. There might have been

nothing. It was entirely possible the ore bodies should skip his ground both in

length and depth, as much as it is possible for a man to go through a hundred

battles without harm. He had, however, no right to expect more than the average

deposit, and when the great body of ore was found, the largest, the richest the

world ever saw, that much was luck or good fortune, just as you choose to name

it. Though millions have come at his call, he still is studying among the

levels. He dons the mining suit, takes his hammer and candle and goes prodding

around 2,000 feet under ground, observing the dip of the wall rocks, the

stratification and character of the ores, and is just as keen in searching out

the secrets of the mine as when he was pleading with Flood and O'Brien to test

the ground. He knows from the shade of ore whether it is good or bad; whether to

order it mined out for milling, or whether to let it remain where the great

convulsion left it. With him it is a science. He searches out the secrets of the

Comstock as the astronomer studies the stars, or the movements of a planet or a

comet; as the botanist the structure of a plant, or a politician  the secrets of

political economy. Though money is a factor in the problem the strong motive is

the love of knowledge, in his ease the knowledge of mines. Let no one, because

silver is in the lode, say that such knowledge is beneath any man's attention.

When we look at the convulsion of the earth in which the Comstock fissure had

its origin, the wonderful circulation of subterranean currents (solfataras)

which fill the fissure with minerals, when we look for the sources of the

mineral, the sources of the power that lifted up the rocks, and set them in

order, we are lost in wonder, as much as the star-gazer, or the theologian.



  Fortune has not spoiled Mr. Mackay as a citizen. When not beset with

adventurers he is as plain and approachable as when swinging a pick in the Union

Tunnel, or putting a set of timbers in to a Belcher drift. Like all wealthy men,

he is annoyed with applications for charity and assistance, many of which are

doubtless deserving cases, but far the greater part are impositions, deserving

only contempt. The very circumstances compel a hedging about of forms for

self-defense.



  Mr. Mackay married, in 1867, the daughter of Col. Daniel E. Hungerford, who

had served with distinction in the campaign against the Indians in 1860. This

was before the discovery of the "bonanza," and must have been a union founded on

mutual respect and esteem. He has had two children by her, a boy and a girl. She

is a most accomplished lady, and resides most of the time in Paris, where she

represents well the culture and wealth of the United States, and is doing much

to bring about a feeling of respect for the citizens of the wonderful Republic,

whose sources of wealth and power are unfathomable, and whose progress in

culture and refinement is a marvel to the world.



  Mr. Mackay's house is a home for all worthy Americans, a stepping-stone to the

best society of Europe. Our ex-Presidents, our Generals, our millionaires, all

feel honored by being entertained by the Queen of the Comstock.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:



History of Nevada with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its

Prominent Men and Pioneers



Oakland, Cal.: Thompson & West

1881



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