RISE OF THE COPPER QUEEN

Edward Riley, a lawyer of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who,  according to Duncan, had invested in a copper mine at Elko, Nevada, and there erected a smelter of which Lewis Williams was superintendent. Very much poorer, Riley came to Arizona, and by L. Zeckendorf of Tucson was directed to the Mule Pass Mountains as a new and possibly rich mining field. He took a bond on the Copper Queen claim, and then proceeded to try to market his option on money loaned by Zeckendorf. In San Francisco he interested a firm of engineers, Martin & Ballard, which took up the bond for the sum of $20,000. Mr. Martin of the firm employed Lewis Williams as superintendent and soon thereafter was erected a thirty-six inch water jacket furnace for the smelting of the ores. Williams arrived June 14, 1880, and had the smelter ready to run in about sixty days. The first run was a failure on account of a too limited water supply, but there was no trouble after that. About the time of this first furnace run arrived Ben Williams, who later managed the mine while Lewis attended to the smelting end. A third brother, John Williams, also came, though only to pass upon some property. About this same time the Neptune Company wasdeveloping a large group of Bisbee claims and had built a small smelter on the San Pedro River, for water was in small supply at the mines. This company failed about 1882 and its property later was absorbed by the Copper Queen.

The Bisbee copper mines had their silver capping, small deposits that were worked by the early miners and that still are found profitable by the Copper Queen, which for years has taken rich silver ore from claims on the hillside, far above the site of the old Bisbee smelter. Toward the end of 1880 there came to Arizona a mining expert already of distinguished reputation. Dr. James Douglas, especially to see the United Verde mine, which he decided was too far from transportation to be profitable. Early in 1881 he paid a visit to his friend Riley at Bisbee, where the little furnace was turning out about one pound of copper for every four pounds of copper ore treated. The adjoining property to the Martin-Ballard-Riley claim was purchased on Dr. Douglas' recommendation by the Phelps-Dodge Company for $40,000. At the end of 1884 Martin found he had only three months' ore left in his mine, and the Phelps-Dodge property adjoining, the Atlanta, was in much the same condition, according to the history of the mine contained in a late address made by Dr. Douglas.

 

 

There was a prospect of abandoning both properties, when from either side of the dividing line drifts ran into what Dr. Douglas calls a "glorious body of ore." Then, in order to avoid possible litigation, the two interests were joined in August, 1885, under the title of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. There were hard times for a while, for copper had dropped to 8 cents, but the price soon raised and since then the Copper Queen has had ahead even years of stoping and has driven hundreds of miles of workings, ever getting deeper toward the southward. The ore has changed with depth and now mainly is a chalcopyrite sulfide, which in the early days would have been impossible to handle, but which now is even more cheaply smelted than are the surface oxides and carbonates such as the cuprite.and malachite ores.

In Bisbee there is a story that the discovery of ore in the old workings was made in defiance of orders. J. W. Howell was foreman and, taking a few hardheaded miners into his confidence, he drifted down the gulch on the 400-foot level of the old incline shaft that started in the open cut above the present library. To this day old-timers refer to the John Smith stope, for it was on John Smith's shift that a blast broke into a rich ore body on what is now the 200 level of the Czar shaft of the Copper Queen. It is impossible within the necessary limits of this publication to give a full account of the expansion of the Copper Queen Company and its absorption of the Holbrook, Neptune and other properties, from which later came its main ore supply. The Copper Queen Company from the time it took over the mines has pursued a policy almost paternal. Notable monuments to the successes of this policy are the public schools, hospital, Y. M. C. A. building and library. The company maintained no boarding house and rented no houses and compelled no man to purchase at the company store. A number of attempts made to unionize the camp uniformly were defeated by the company, which did not hesitate to stop the larger part of its operations when considered necessary to drive agitators out of the camp. The company has led in increases of wage schedules and has in its employ an unusually large number of married men who have been with it for years. A few years ago was established an employees' association for the payment of accident and death benefits. Other companies of the camp have joined with the Copper Queen in the same general policy toward their workmen.

GENESIS OF THE CALUMET AND ARIZONA
In tragedy was laid the foundation of the great Calumet
and Arizona mines. W. W. Lowther was one of the simplest and bravest of men. He was so brave that he didn't need to parade the fact, as did the professional "bad men" of the day. As an example of his type, he permitted a knife-armed drunken printer in Globe to chase him through a saloon and over a bar. Any moment he could have turned and shot, but all that Lowther did was to hunt up the printer's employer, and suggest that the man be disarmed, as "a fellow who was a bit too strong for the camp." On the expiration of Lowther 's term as sheriff in Gila County, he went to Bisbee, where he was appointed a peace officer. In Mule Gulch, a mile below the center of town, was the home of James Daley, a morbid sort of individual, who had been fighting an attempt of the Copper Queen to establish a right of way across his property. All financial recompense, however liberal, offered by Superintendent Ben Williams had been refused. In the course of the continued argument, Daley was shot by Dan Simon, a constable, who was sent to Yuma on a year's sentence for the offense. Then it was that Daley declared he would never again be arrested. Some time thereafter he assaulted a Mexican, who demanded his arrest. April 10, 1890, Lowther was given the warrant. As he started down the carion, he was warned of Daley's dangerous character, but answered that he must do his duty. Daley warned him away from the house, but Lowther kept approaching, finally to be dropped dead, with a load of buckshot in his breast. Daley fled over the hills and never was apprehended. It was assumed that he had fled into Mexico. A few months thereafter, however, Andy Mehan, a saloonkeeper, appeared in Bisbee with a bill of sale to all of Daley's property which he said had been given to him by Daley in Trinidad, Colorado. About the same time Mehan 's property, including this bill of sale, was attached for debt by the Cohn brothers. Tombstone tobacco merchants, who, later, at sheriff's sale, acquired any rights that Mehan might have had.

 

 

Daley had lived with a Mexican woman. As a legal widow, she claimed possession, selling her claims for $1,800 to Martin Costello, a Tombstone saloonkeeper. A third claimant appeared in person, with an 18-year-old son, coming from Leadville, Colorado, claiming to be Daley's lawful wife or widow, but her claims seemed to have not been pushed very vigorously. The Cohn brothers on their claim against Mehan of only $300 secured a judgment in the Justice's Court. The case was taken up in the District Court in 1888 by Costello and, represented by Judge James Reilly, was decided in favor of Costello, who won also, in May, 1889, when the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, through the Supreme Court of Arizona, the litigation in all lasting ten years. The importance of the case can better be understood when it is appreciated that it was over possession of the Irish Mag group of mines, which later became the central property of the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company, and from which copper since has been taken valued at many millions of dollars. Soon after he secured title, Costello sold to the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company for $550,000. He died a couple of years ago in Los Angeles, worth many millions. Reilly also died rich, largely through Costello 's generosity, after having lived in poverty nearly all his life. Adolph Cohn is dead, and Dave Cohn lately was working as a miner in one of the shafts of the Copper Queen Company.

The Calumet & Arizona Mining Company continued the sinking of the Irish Mag shaft in the face of a general local belief that the property was not within the mineralized zone of the camp. But at that time the fact was not appreciated that the Bisbee ores were to be found deeper and deeper toward the southward and the width of the zone of enrichment had not been demonstrated. The developing company soon ran into a wonderfully rich body of sulfide, when its prosperity became assured. The company has absorbed a number of neighboring properties, and its workings center around the Junction shaft, where many hundreds of feet were sunk before ore was struck. This shaft, one of the deepest in the district, has been lined with concrete and made absolutely fireproof, a precaution considered necessary through the fact that it handles most of the water pumped in the entire district.In 1902 the Calumet and Arizona became a producer. In November of that year its first furnaces started operations at a site two miles west of the new Town of Douglas. This smelter was joined on the east in 1904 by a much larger one. owned by the Copper Queen. Both plants have been entirely rebuilt and now are turning out more than one-third of the copper production of Arizona.

Market Panic and WW I Wartime Copper  Mining
The panic of 1907 hit hard the mining industry of the Southwest. Then copper went down to about 12 cents, which represented even less than cost to all save the largest mines. As a result many thousands of miners were discharged in the fall of the year and reduction works, while not closed altogether, were operated with as small a force as possible. The worst blow was at Cananea, where thousands of men had to be dropped. Wages were reduced. Almost the entire population of some of the smaller camps, such as Ray, Twin Buttes and Humboldt, moved elsewhere. The panic did not particularly affect the larger towns of the territory. Clearing-house certificates were issued in Tucson, Globe, Bisbee, Douglas
and Flagstaff. At Globe the First National Bank was unable to stand the pressure and closed its doors. At Humboldt the smelting works were covered with attachments aggregating $500,000.

The late summer of 1914 was the beginning of another gloomy period for the copper miners of Arizona. The European war had deprived Arizona of more than half her copper market and the price of the metal had descended until it had become little more than nominal. All of the copper mines closed down and in the larger camps production generally was cut in half and the force of workmen correspondingly diminished. There was no fear for the future, however, and construction work on a number of new smelting and reduction plants proceeded steadily' and much development work was done in preparation for better days to come. These better times materialized in the spring of the following year, when copper returned to active demand at a remunerative price. For the year 1915 Arizona's copper production approximated a total of 450,000,000 pounds, the state leading the entire country in the output of this metal. The heaviest production was that of the Copper Queen at Bisbee, around 86,000,000 pounds, though the Calumet and Arizona shipped 75,000,000 pounds and the Ray 62,000,000 pounds. The output would have been much greater had it not been for the strike that cut off three months' product of the companies at Clifton and Morenci. The last of 1915 finds the copper market in much better condition than for years, with active demand at around 24 cents a pound. Wages of miners have been advanced to the highest figure known, labor in this way sharing to a degree in the profits that are coming to the corporations.

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Arizona Gold Rush Mining History

 

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