Feb 18, 1864--Great Salt Lake City

The blog is ahead of the story.  Ever since the Articles of Agreement were discovered,  December 17, 2012, I have been blogging about them instead of posting the next Stephen Sherwood letter.  "An Early Christmas Gift," "Name Dropping," and "From Rags to Riches," have been posted about finding the Articles of Agreement and summarizing their contents.  But from the last published letter (April 6, 1863) to when the Articles of Agreement were signed (October 26, 1867) over 4 1/2 years need to be covered.  Stephen was far from claiming any reward from his mining ventures in February of 1864 when this letter was sent to his son, Henry, in Illinois from Salt Lake City.  I should have posted this letter yesterday, to celebrate 149 years since it was written.  I did the best I could to "translate" it, but you will get an idea of what is happening in Stephen's life at that time.

Salt Lake City

This letter was possibly written at the home of Thomas Box on the corner of 1st North and 1st West* 
in Salt Lake City.  Thomas Box had purchased land there in 1860.  Stephen Sherwood
 was boarding at the Box home in February of 1864. (see note below)

Great Salt Lake Citty, Utah Territory

February 18, 1864

Dear Henry i have not received a letter from you since th 17th of last June  i was glad to here you was all a live and still willing to hope  an i rote you  I sent from?? the Dalles by Express to be Delivered to you at Wakegan one hundred Dollars in gold coin and I paid Express charges and i have a receipt for the obey Dated June 8, 1863   i want you to rite me whether you got it or not  as for my self i am well and my hopes and prospets are better than has ever been since i came __ the East??  i have a  ___hundred ___ in 3 Diferent silver bar ___ and _bar? Essay 247 in silver and 16 in gold to the ton which is very good  the other we have sent some rock to San francisco to get Essayed  we ___have re turns the last of this month  it is selling from 10 Dollar___ foot but i want bigger licks than that an ___the fact is if it is worth any thing it is a fortune and a grate many 

sell fortunes for nothing  I am a going to start out in a Day or two a prospecting and shall be gon a month  when i return i will rit you all about it  i have not heard from William Oren and Hiram ___Walker they with Drawen??  from me when there was nothing more for them to get and thank god for it and i intend to keep clene?? and if i am successful a nuff to make a fortune  i intend the Dat ___ ____will st____ a small share? of it as they have done?  Do the best you can and hope and i will make claims for  you all  thare is beter Days a coming, yet the bread that is cast upon the wather shall be gathered through many Days after a night __ a full letter all particulars in full   Direct as a bove???

give my love to Sarah and your little ones  i miss your ___circumstances??   and feel sufficient?  that we will realize a g___competance yet.

from your affectionate Father S. Sherwood

H.S. & S. M.

Notes:

H.S. = Henry Sherwood
S.M.= Sarah Sherwood

Note:

In February of 1864 Stephen Sherwood was boarding at the home of Thomas Box in Salt Lake City, Utah.  At this time he encountered an old mining friend, Jacob N. Vandermark.  Stephen said in the letter:  "I am a going to start out in a Day or two a prospecting."  He must have left about February 20, 1864.  Stephen travelled  with Thomas Box, Thomas Box Jr., Peter Shirts, and Jacob Vandermark.  They arrived in Southern Utah in March.  Source:  Making Space on the Western Frontier, Page 23-24,  by W. Paul Reeve.

According to the blog, "clmroots," The "Salt Lake City Directory" lists Thomas Box living on the corner of 1st North and 1st West in 1869.  He had purchased the property in 1860, and could have been living there in 1864 as well when Stephen Sherwood was boarding with him. 

 In 1860, Thomas Box was in the 13th Ward, but by 1861, he was in the 17th Ward in Salt Lake City.  He probably moved to 1st North and 1st West during that time period.

For more on Thomas Box go to the blog "clmroots"  The information on where he lived was obtained there.  Click here to go there.

"The Great Mining Suit"

Summary of "The Great Mining Suit" of 1873

In 1873, Stephen Sherwood was a witness in "The Great Mining Suit."

By 1870 the town of Pioche was properly surveyed and named.  Three year later the contested story of the founding of Pioche would be told in what The Pioche Daily Record called "The Great Mining Suit."

The court battle centered on two competing mining claims held by the Raymond and Ely Mining Company and the Hermes Mining Company.  The Hermes Company was an investment for George Hearst, father of the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst

George Hearst

The Hermes Company claimed that the "Raymond and Ely title was based upon purchase of the original Panaca shaft from Stephen Sherwood's crew of Mormons and miners, who not only staked their claims improperly but created illegal mining laws and then voided their strikes anyway through years of abandonment." The jury trial ruled in favor of the Hermes Company, but Judge Fuller eventually ruled in favor of Raymond and Ely.

There was comprehensive coverage of the courtroom drama.  Crowds gathered outside the "Million Dollar Courthouse" eager to get seats blocking the sidewalk in front of the building and clogging all the avenues leading to it.  After the sheriff opened the door, every available seat was occupied.  It seemed to some the fate of the town hung in the balance, especially because rumors ran rampant that William Henry Raymond threatened to close the Raymond and Ely mine should his company lose the suit.

"Million Dollar Courthouse" in Pioche, Nevada

The list of witnesses called to testify included most of the district's founders.  Sherwood and Vandermark were there.  Thomas Box Sr. and Jr. both testified, as did Shirts, Pulsipher and George Hearst.  Expert mining witnesses also took the stand, as did a variety of Mormons peripherally involved in the case.  Noticeably missing from the witness list was Moroni, the Paiute principally responsible for instigating the entire contest, and his partner William Hamblin.  According to family legend, Hamblin had been subpoenaed to testify at Pioche in a similar case the previous year and the litigants, who stood to lose the most from his testimony poisoned his coffee before he could take the stand.  Hamblin was immediately struck sick and died a few weeks later at Clover Valley.  His widow, Mary did return to the scene of Hamblin's demise, as a witness in the Raymond and Ely case.

The details of this trial  and the events leading up to it can be found in Chapter 2 of Making Space on the Western Frontier by W. Paul Reeve.  There are some very interesting stories told in this book.

With all the arguments made, the Pioche founding story told and retold and then contested again and again, the lawyers finally left it in the hands of the jury.   At close to four o'clock in the afternoon of 30 April 1873, the twelve-man jury retired for deliberations.  Rumors spread rampant through the night that jurors had been "purchased like sausages," with some townsfolk freely making bets on how many jurors out of twelve Hearst had safely in his pocket, ranging from five to nine.  By half past eight, news spread through town that the jury had reached a verdict.  It was announced, "We the jurors impaneled in this case find for the defendant."  Nine jurors sided with the Hermes Company, while only three voted for Raymond and Ely.  The court ordered that Raymond and Ely "take nothing by reason of said action" and that they pay $4,987.24, the costs of Herme's defense.

The case did not end there however.  By the end of June, Judge Mortimer Fuller ordered that the previous verdict be "set aside and vacated." Like the earlier court case, interest in Fuller's decision ran high.  Judge Fuller ruled in favor of Raymond and Ely.  Rather then endure another protracted trial, however, Raymond and Ely brought an end to the courtroom drama.  They settled out of court, purchasing Hearst's interest in the Hermes mine for an undisclosed "high figure."  Hearst later recalled it this way:  "Got in with some men who had a set of Pioche mines, sunk a shaft, struck a bed of ore, had a big lawsuit over it, got out of that making two hundred and fifty thousand."

 A Trip To Pioche Being a Sketch of Recent Frontier Travel by Charles A Sumner tells of George Hearst getting on the stage coach in Eureka.  He was on his way to the trial in Pioche.  Pages 12 and 13 describe Pioche in detail as it was in 1873.  Charles A Sumner  described the celebrated Raymond and Ely Vs Hermes case as "The largest milling case, the most hotly contested, and actually, by virtue of the title set up and most ably and vigorously urged on the part of the plaintiff, involving greater interest than were ever before staked in any similar encounter on the Coast."