The Black Range

THE ISSUE OF JANUARY 4, 1884

We put faces to the print in this summary of The Black Range Newspaper issue of January 4, 1884.  The individual in the top row, second from the right, is James Dalglish of the Dalglish & Plemmons store which ran the ad to the right on the front page of this issue.

As you have undoubtedly noted in previous posts on The Black Range newspaper, a lot of space was taken up by ads and legal notices.  In the issue of January 4, 1884: Two columns of the front page were dedicated to ads; Four columns of the second page were dedicated to ads and 1/3 of a column was dedicated to legal notices; On page three, two and a third columns were set aside for legal notices and; All of the last page was dedicated to legal notices and ads.  That did not leave much room for other things, but this content was important for the community, it was a critical source of information about such items - as well as fulfilling various legal requirements.

Two items of particular interest to the readers of the newspaper were published on the front page of this  issue.  The first article, running a bit over one column described the results of ore concentration for the Silver Monument, White Signal, Black Knight, Colossal, Dreadnaught, Palomas Chief, Defiance, Little Pittsburg, Monte Christo, Silver Glance, Copper Belt, Alta, Buffom, Blue Dandy, and Readjuster Mines.  The second article of particular interest is the description of a new type of mining stock scam.

PAGE TWO

“General Pope, at Leavenworth, telegraphs General Sheridan, that Charley McComas is with a band of  Chiricahua Indians, whose arrival is daily expected at the San Carlos Agency.”

“General Grant, just after leaving the door of his home in New York on the 27th instant, slipped on the icy pavement and fell sustaining a serious injury of the hip. His physicians are apprehensive that the injury may prove dangerous, possibly inducing paralysis.”

“A Catholic priest in Leadville, has invented a mineral magnet that is creating quite a stir among mining men.  Repeated tests of its merits have been made which have proven uniformly successful. A mine near Leadville has been located with it, and it promises great things.”

A well attended meeting on the rates to be charged by  the new concentrator in Chloride and other issues pertaining to its operations took up most of a column on page two.  It noted that E. F. Holmes was appointed Secretary of the meeting.  Mr. Holmes is the person at the far left of the bottom row in the photograph above.

PAGE THREE

The articles to the right are from page three.

“Socorro is now having an agonizing struggle with the roller skating mania.”

“After a holiday of a week, Miss Barnes opened her school for another term last Monday.”

“J. B. Newman was in town Sunday; says his sheep are flourishing splendidly on the north Palomas.”

“Twenty-six persons in attendance at Sabbath school last Sunday.  How does that look for a moral boom?”

“John Stone left on Saturday morning to work on Sam Foster’s Equator Mine in the Iron Reef district.  The Equator promises big things.”

“We understand a petition is in circulation asking the county commissioners to made an appropriation to help maintain a school here. Let everybody sign it.”

“J. K. Vance returned from his visit to the Black Knight property, last Saturday. He is well pleased and he and Magner will arrange for working the property at once.”

“The Royal Arch is sending out a volume of water which makes a running stream of Little Dry creek half a mile below its junction with the main gulch. The Alaska has made a good strong stream of Turkey creek. At some time in the future when the several mines which  promise to be paying, get to work with machinery it is altogether probable that every gulch in the Range will have a flowing stream of water from heads to mouths. Then all the level valley land will be valuable for ranching purposes and our home products will supply our markets.”

“Now it is coming. Look out! The ladies have the movement in hand. It will go. A sociable! That's it. An old timer. Are'nt you glad you are in town. Lots to eat. Only twenty-five cents. Coffee, cake, pickles, sandwiches only a quarter. The whole Range invited. The proceeds to be devoted to putting desks and seats in the school house. A good object. Straws show which way the wind blows. A regular downright good social time, at Blain's hall next Thursday evening.”

This complete issue may be read at: The Black Range newspaper, issue of January 4, 1884, the file is 2.8 MB in size.

THE BLACK RANGE NEWSPAPER OF JANUARY 11, 1884

The ratio of local news/ads/legal notices/western humor & news remained about the same in this issue of The Black Range Newspaper.  One-third of the front page was dedicated to ads and the remainder was dedicated to western humor.  One-third of the second page was dedicated to news and two-thirds was reserved for ads and legal notices.

Page Two

“George Washington Cleveland, a negro has been arrested him and persuaded to confess to being one of the robbers of the Southern Pacific train near Deming, and at the same time to divulge the names of his companions, Mitch Lee, Frank Faggart, and Kid Joy being three of them, the former being the one who shot Engineer Webster. None of these have yet been captured although a thorough and active search is being made.”

A column and a half was dedicated to the Equator Mine at Iron Reef, its potential and how it was discovered.

Page Three

The articles to the rights are from page three.

“Henry Rickert was having work done upon the Underwood mine on South Fork but concluded that the showing was not sufficient to justify continuing and so stopped it and abandoned the property.”

“Fulton and Traub, owners of the Alta, are now at work upon that property.  They have begun driving a tunnel to intersect the shaft at sixty or seventy feet depth where the ore body appears to be the strongest.  The tunnel will be about fifty feet long and will greatly facilitate the working of the property.  It is the wish of the owners to furnish ore to the concentrator if it shall be shown that the machine can handle its character of ore.”

“Caldwell and Gillem the owners of the Silver Monument mine, intend to immediately construct a whim on this property preparatory to beginning work upon it. They argue conclusively that if there is money for others in working the mine there must be some for them and they will have it. The mine is in much better condition for working for pay now than it was a year ago and there is no reason why they should not make a barrel of money from the working of it.”

“The Ivanhoe mine sold at sheriff's sale last month brought $3,200. The sale was made to J. D. Brooks for J. B. Allee a Boston man who held a deed of trust on the property for $50,000 which was given to raise  funds for working.  There was no contesting bidders and the sum realized was expected to be barely sufficient to pay Brad Williams' judgment and costs. To those who are familiar with and interested in the property it would be interesting to learn what became of the $50,000 working capital. It certainly never did the duty intended for it.”

“Judge Adams having drained the upper shaft of the Alaska of water by means of the lower drift, concluded to do a little more prospecting of the ledge in that locality and on Monday he put two men to work here. A full force still drives the bottom crosscut and the ledge sought is not far distant. If the Judge catches it as rich as he is justified in expecting he will "make Rome howl" in the vicinity of Grafton.  This added to the probable starting of work upon the Ivanhoe will bring an era of prosperity to Grafton not a whit behind her neighbors. Grafton with her huge ledges and abundance of mineral cannot always play Rip van Winkle.”

Much of a column was dedicated to describing “The Sociable” held the night before for school equipment.  Alice Barnes of “Spell of the Black Range” featured significantly in the article.

The remainder of the news on page three was dedicated to the pricing at the concentrator when it starts operations.  Ore from the Silver Monument is used as an example of how costs/profits should be computed.  

Page Four was limited to legal notices and ads.  This entire issue may be read at: The Black Range newspaper, issue of January 11, 1884, the file is 2.8 MB in size.

THE BLACK RANGE NEWSPAPER OF JANUARY 18, 1884

The front page of the Black Range Newspaper of January 18, 1884 consisted of two columns of ads and four columns of general interest and humor.  Page two consisted of four columns of ads and legal notices and two columns of general news.  From page two:

GEORGETOWN COURIER: “The Georgetown Courier has removed to Kingston. If Lowrey's valedictory to the people of Georgetown is read by the members of the grand jury and that body then fails to find a true bill against him for murdering syntax it will have failed of its duty. That article is wonderfully and fearfully constructed.”

TRAIN ROBBERY: “The four robbers of the train near Deming, in November, have been captured - G. W. Cleveland and Mitch Lee by H. H. Whitehill, and Kid Joy and Frank Faggart by Pete Simpson. Cleveland was caught in Socorro first and confessed the crime. Pete Simpson picked up his two men on the train going south from Socorro, and Mitch Lee was caught in the American Valley by Whitehill and his son, a boy of seventeen. All are in jail at Silver City.”

OJO CALIENTE TERRORISTS:  The article to the right notes two things of interest.  The taking of land and property rights from indians was as popular in 1884 as it is today (re: Standing Rock) and bundy-types are always wanting to leach off the Republic.  And as the recent election proves, people in this part of the world see no problem with that as long as it promises to line their pockets.

CONCENTRATOR UPDATE:  The new concentrator in Chloride continued to get a lot of attention in this issue, as you would expect.  The article to the right took up most of a column on page two.

FROM PAGE THREE

ROYAL ARCH MINE:  “The flow of water in the Royal Arch continues unabated...A strike of mineral was made in the 200 foot drift of the Royal Arch mine this week on which two assays gave respectively thirty dollars in silver and a trace of gold and seventy-three dollars in silver and twenty-one dollars in gold.  The ore is from a sulphide disseminated through the quartz.”

OLD BOSS CLAIM: “A. J. Maxfield relocated the Old Boss claim on Bear creek on the 1st of January.”

SNOW: “There is snow enough upon the summit of the range it is confidentially believed to set running the streams when it melts.”

VACANT BUILDINGS: “A short time ago vacant buildings were abundant in Chloride.  Now there are but two or three and plans for new ones are being projected.”

MINE NAME CHANGES: “The re-locator of the White Signal, Hancock and Grand Central mines gave to them the names of St. Cloud, Atlanta, and Mayflower by which they are now known.”

MISS MARTHA GRAVES: “Miss Martha Graves who came out here from Missouri, to nurse Mrs. Hill, since deceased did net return to the land of the puke but will next week take charge of the culinary department of the.Chloride hotel restaurant.”

BOOKS: “Dr. Blinn has a library of nearly three hundred of the works of standard authors on sale at his drug store. The binding is in paper and the edition is cheap and just the thing for the trade of this section.”

CATTLE RANCHING: “A. Rush Bowe is going into the cattle business in partnership with Ted Houghton. Ted has one of the finest ranches on the west side and Bowe will invest two thousand dollars or thereabouts in stock cattle and place them in Ted's hands.”

IVANHOE MINE: “Alex. Barascher made settlement of his claim against the Ivanhoe company on a compromise, getting most of the sum which he consider due.  He is at Fairview looking for a good and safe investment for his money.”

NORDHAUSEN MINE: “Geo. H. Utter, of Santa Fe, came down to the range last week and is fixing up matters looking to resuming work on the Nordhausen mine on Bear creek.  He will probably let a contract for fifty or a hundred feet of shaft to be added to the fifty feet already opened.”

HEADLIGHT: “J. H. Drake is at work on the Headlight location in the neighborhood of the Silver Monument mine.  He has a contract for sinking twenty feet of shaft, making the present six foot shaft twenty-six feet deep.  The property is owned by M. H. Chamberlin and Caldwell and Gillem and shows four feet of a mineralized ledge.”

POLARIS CLAIM: “Geo. Beebe and Henry Westerman made a discovery of galena ore in the Iron Reef district which upon assay proved to have a value of six hundred and forty dollars to the ton. The strike is named the Polaris and is located about half a mile north and east of the Equator, lying on the opposite side of the ridge. The mineral was taken from the surface and not sufficient prospecting has yet been done to give definite knowledge as to the probable extent of the ore body.”

SHIPPING COSTS:  “The express charges on packages from Engle to Denver are as follows: Five to seven pounds, 90 cents; seven to ten pounds, $1.00; ten to fifteen pounds, $1.20; fifteen to twenty pounds, $1.50; twenty to twenty-five pounds, $1.75; twenty-five to thirty pounds, $2.00; thirty to thirty-five pounds,  $2.25; thirty-five to forty pounds, $2.50; forty to forty-five pounds, $2.75; forty-five to fifty pounds, $3.00.”

BIGOTRY/POTATO AND CORN: “A few enterprising Americans having exploded the established fallacy that potatoes cannot be grown on New Mexican soil the natives are intending to embark in this business next year.  It is altogether probable that they will fail as usual, however, because the raising of a good crop of potatoes here as elsewhere requires that they be cultivated and this is something that the native is constitutionally opposed to.  A Mexican seldom surprises a corn field with the use of hoe or cultivator and the only wonder to a foreigner is that he ever raises anything.  If the land was not exceedingly fertile he would not.”  

Page Four of this issue was dedicated to legal notices.  The complete issue may be read at: The Black Range Newspaper, issue of January 18, 1884.  The file is 2.9 MB in size.

THE BLACK RANGE NEWSPAPER OF JANUARY 25, 1884

Page One of the January 25, 1884 issue of The Black Range Newspaper was dedicated to the usual mix of ads, short informative articles (one on the India Rubber Tree in this issue), and “humor”.

From Page Two

LAKE VALLEY:  “The New Era of Lake Valley, a new paper of which four copies have been issued is a four-column folio owned and edited by B. F. Smythe who came into possession with the last issue. The Range hopes it will succeed.”

CHLORIDE TO NORTH STAR ROAD:  “There are petitions in the office of the clerk of the county commissioners signed by citizens of both sides of the range asking that a highway be located from Chloride west to the North Star road by the most practicable route and the necessary funds for its construction be appropriated from the county funds. This highway it is intended and expected shall greatly accommodate the Gila ranchmen in reaching their trading point and at the same time will render accessible many mines in proximity to which it will pass. The road will cost possibly $1,000 to build.  The petition should have come before the board at its last meeting but if it did nothing is known of it here.  The Black Range has already expended more dollars in building roads than any other portion of Socorro county and it has never had a Cent cf assistance. It pays taxes on all that it owns and much that it don't own for which it receives no return or benefit. This is the first request that it has ever made to the county for assistance on its roads and it feels that under the circumstances the petition should be granted. The range is now building necessary roads in all directions without outside assistance and is adding to the taxable property of the county rapidly. It is but just that a portion of its funds paid into the county treasury should be employed in its assistance.”

From Page Three

IRON REEF MINE: “Martin Weghman and Dr. Blinn were down experting the Iron Beef this week.”

IRON REEF DISTRICT:  “News received from the Iron Reef District yesterday states that all the live stock belonging at the camp is strayed or stolen, and that all parties there are afoot Joe Thorne and Don Cameron went down this morning as relief party.”

BLACKSMITH:  “A. T. McGeary, blacksmith, is established as a fixture at Fitpatrick's old shop and those who have tried him say that he does excellent work...Austin Crawford has purchased the Fitzpatrick blacksmith shop, corral and stable for his brother-in-law now resident In Pennsylvania, whom he expects to arrive here early in the spring. This relative was here on a visit last summer and was then so well pleased with the country that he resolved to return.”

DICTATOR MINE:  “The Dictator owners, formerly Walking John, have forty sacks of ore ready sacked, part of which they bring down to-day...The Walking John was relocated January 1st as the Dictator. The Walking John is owned by the Tenneriff Mining company, "a wheel within a wheel" of the Ivanhoe company, The Dictator is claimed by II. N. Castle, Chas. Bishop and Ed. Steinberg, This week the Dictator has been sacking ore of which there is some twenty tons on the dump, and W. E. Taylor in charge of the Walking John has ordered that it be not removed. The boys of Grafton while they have no love for theTenneriff company are so violently opposed to the jumping of mining property that their sentiment in this case is in favor of the Walking John claim.  At Chloride the distaste for the company is too strong to be overcome by the indisposition to jumping and public opinion upholds the Dictator. It is very undesirable to have the habit of jumping everything of value to which a shadow of flaw attaches, prevail, but the case of the Walking John and the Eureka which belong ostensibly to the same company are exceptions and will not go as precedents. The companies owning the Walking John and Eureka have done the Black range more harm than they can ever undo and they have no rights which cannot be sustained by the strict letter of the law. If the Grafton gentlemen held more than a superintending interest in the properties public opinion at Chloride in this case would be radically changed.”

COLOSSAL MINE: “D. D. McMillan, one of the Colossal owners is expected to arrive tomorrow in company with V. II. Moore, These gentlemen will doubtless have something new to offer...In obedience to a telegram received from headquarters at La Crosse, Wisconsin, a couple of men were put to work on the Colossal, stoping and taking out ore this week. There is half enough ore out for a car load and a shipment will soon be made.”

CALEDONIA MINE: “Eugen Knapp has gone up to the lead of Chloride creek to work on the Caledonia, second north extension of the Silver Monument. The work being done on the contact In hope of catching the mineral at reasonable depth.”

KINGSTON:  “Information from Kingston states that business there is greatly overdone and times comparatively dull, work at a standstill on most of the good properties for various reasons and others that are working are producing nothing.”

ROYAL ARCH MINE:  “A ten inch streak of ore in the bottom of the Royal Arch mine furnished rock for two assays this week which ran respectively seventy-six ounces silver and 230 ounces silver and one and a half ounces gold.”

MILK:  “It appears as if there is an Independent fortune in store for anyone who shall bring  American cows which give milk the year round, into this country for dairy pursues. Milk is the rarest article known to the market of Chloride.”

NORDHAUSEN MINE:  “Geo. II. Utter, after building a road up Bear creek to the Nordhausen mine and getting work started there, departed for Santa Fe yesterday morning.  He has the backing of Ohio capitalists and will do extensive work on his mine.”

PALOMAS CHIEF MINE:  “A car load of Palomas Chief ore bound for Socorro and the Billing smelter was taken to Engle by the Saucier Brothers this week. Richard Mansfield White's departure for the east will prevent further shipment for the present.”

ST. CLOUD ROAD/WAGE RATES FOR MEXICANS:  “The Mexicans at work on the St.Cloud road are paid $1.25 per day, which is munificent for them. There are eight now at work and many others from Cuchillo Negro and Canada de Alamosa seeking work were turned away. When road building becomes general adjacent to Chloride as it soon will be, there will be opportunity for all to get employment...It is remarked that the Mexican population come very convenient now that road-building is in order. Dirt digging on a road is distasteful to most of the occupants of a mining camp and besides the limited means of those having roads to build would not permit them to pay $4.40 per day to road makers. With a good boss the Mexicans do pretty good road work and no objection is raised to their cheap labor.”

CHLORIDE TOWNSITE: “Initial steps have been taken for securing patent to the town site of Chloride which comprises one hundred acres of ground. Lots claimed or improved upon after this time will be subject to appraisement and sale by the probate judge for the benefit of the town.”

JAY BARNES/SPELL OF THE BLACK RANGE:  “Jay Barnes is visiting his family and Charles Vanalstine is with him here in Chloride. These gentlemen have been working for the past few months on a promising prospect on the North Percha and are now here making a deal on the property. They will be here a week or ten days. Both are old residents of this end of the range.”

ASTRONOMY (COMET):  “The comet is now visible to the naked eye. In the early part or the evening it is seen best. It's location is then about two hours high in the south west sky not in the northwest as has been repeatedly stated. Without the eye assisted the tail is quite indistinct but with a field glass it looms up brilliantly.  This comet though yet dim has the advantage over that of two years ago in not requiring that one get up at three o'clock in the morning to see it.”

From Page Four

Page Four was dedicated, as usual, to ads and legal notices.  Including the ad to the right, which shows that some things never change.

The complete issue may be viewed or downloaded at: The Black Range Newspaper, issue of January 25, 1884.  The file is 2.9 MB in size.