THE SILVER KING'S ESTATE,

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 15

THE SILVER KING'S ESTATE,

♦ LONDON, August 15.

The late Mr John W. Mackay's (tho Silver King) will has been proved. The estate is valued at £10,000,000.

Mr John W. Mac-fray wa= born in Dublin in 1831, and, as a mere boy, with a bundle on his shoulder, he cA'Osted the Atlantic. He made one of a party of about 25 to po to the (iolden "West. While his friends — .Limes (i. Flood and William O'Brien — remained in San Francisco, he obtained a thorough knowledge of the technical part of mining, and gradually gatii' rrd together a small fortune, ouly to lose it all. He was then only 29 year* of age, and he left California for Nevada to repair hi? fortune about l£6o. Steadily his earnings increased, until 1872, when the discovery of the Bonanza mines changed lh& whole face of his life. These mines sire on a ledge of rock in the Sierra Ne\;ida«, muter what is no^v Virginia City. Their c'epo-its of gold and rilver have proved to vase that the discovery is conriderpd the most remarkable incident in the history of mining. Mr Maekay had already taken into partnership with him his friends Flood and O'Brien in IF6J, and in 1863 JaniOj G Fair joined the firm

The fir~t important succp-s which they made was duiiug their control of the celebrated Hall and Noicro-s mine, nhic.h v. as a-, caily as 1f66 67. With this jiici c a=« i cf capital thfy worked en t!io Comctock lodi', and at L-ut opened up the Consolidated VirRiiiia and Ca'ifornia mines. Of the Bonanza. mines Mr Muckay owned two-fifths, being double that of any of his partners.

The preat silver vein, a " bonanza," indeed, was opened in 1373, and from one mine alone Mr Maekay and Mr Fair, who were the practical mimng members of the firm, took 'lso,ooo, OOOdoi in silver and gold. Mi- Maekay beliy\rd in the principle of doing things for himself, and so it came al.out that one of the richest mine-owners in America tucked up hie sleeves and worked in th»* lov\er !e\els as an ordinary miner. 11ms he kept a supei\i<-ory eye o^ er the work.

The AniPiira'i millionaire, with hi-3 partrcn- — Mr flood and Mr Fair, — founded, in 1873, the Bank of Nevada, v. ith its headqi'iiitcrs in San Francisco, and six years Ijter, in narfnci-hip with Mr Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New York Herald, he laid two cables across the Atlantic Ocean, from the Umtc-d States to England and Fiance. These rabies came under a system known a=; the Commercial Cablo Company, eh hough the private property of Mr Maekay and Mr Bennett.

He never entered public life, declining an offer of the nomination as United States Senator from Ne\ada. The Roman Catholic Church, of which he was a member, benefited largely by his wealth, as he frequently made large donations to it. His liberality did not end with his church. He founded, an orphan asylum in Nevada City, and gave W^e donations to other charities,

Mr Maekay has two son? — one about 29 years and the other 26. Both were cducat'etl i-i France. His daughter is married to Don Fernando de Colonr.a, Prince of Galatro.