James Graham Fair (December 3, 1831 - December 28, 1894) was an Irish immigrant to the United States who became a very successful engineer and mining entrepreneur. His investments in the silver mines in Nevada make him a billionaire, and he is one of the famous "silver kings" who became rich at Comstock Lode. Fair then became a real estate investor and railroad builder in California. In 1881, he was elected as United States Senator from Nevada.
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Born to a poor Irish family in Clogher, County Tyrone, James Fair came with his father to the United States in 1843 and grew up on a farm in Illinois. There he received a wide education in business before moving to California in 1850, where he prospected in the Feather River state to implant gold in quartz rather than pot for placer gold. His attention shifted to Nevada, where he operated a stamp factory on the Carson River and landed various mine supervisor positions around the Comstock Lode area. He became the supervisor of Hale and Norcross Mine in Virginia City, Nevada in 1867.
He established a partnership with three Irish colleagues, John William Mackay, and the owner of San Francisco salley, James C. Flood, and William S. O'Brien. The company is officially Flood and O'Brien , but is known as "Bonanza Company". The four made a fortune in stocks at the silver mine in Comstock Lode, the first large silver district found in the United States. Within twenty years, Comstock Lode earned over a hundred million dollars. The partners control and operate various mines at Comstock, but their greatest success occurred in 1873 when miners at the Consolidated Virginia mine found a large ore body known as the "big gold mine."
Fair is investing his share in railroads and real estate, bringing his personal fortune to $ 50 million. Although Adil is recognized as a reliable mining supervisor and a shrewd businessman, he is disliked, and carries the nickname "Slippery Jim." He invested most of his income from Comstock on the San Francisco railroad and real estate. Fair and Mackay own the Nevada Bank of San Francisco, rival William Chapman Ralston Bank of California; after the fall of Ralston's financial empire, Bank Nevada was the largest bank in America at the peak of a silver explosion.
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South Pacific Coastal Train
In 1876, in partnership with several others, Fair established the narrow South Pacific Railroad. From its beginnings near Newark now, it stretches on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, through San Jose and Los Gatos and southward over the Santa Cruz Mountains on a route carrying a 6,200-foot tunnel, another 5,000-foot tunnel. and six shorter ones. About six hundred Chinese workers are employed in the open, flattening, laying of lines and tunnels. In that last activity, thirty-one workers lost their lives, mainly from underground gas explosions. At the southern end, the track is connected with Santa Cruz & amp; Felton Railroad in Felton. The line above the mountains was completed in May 1880.
The coast of the South Pacific Coast was immediately successful and immediately profitable but in 1886, for unexplained reasons, Fair sold its interest in railroads to the South Pacific, which later turned it into a standard gauge and operated it until 1940, when over-the-Section the mountain from the line was abandoned.
Political career
Fair was elected by the Nevada legislature to the US Senate in 1881. He was not particularly interested in Washington, where he promoted silver issues in the Senate at a time when a movement was taking place to obscure silver. Adil only served a period of time because of his defeat in the 1886 election. After the end of his term, he moved back to San Francisco.
Personal life
In 1861, the Fair married Theresa Rooney, who had kept the boarding house. He divorced him in 1883 on the basis of "adultery habits" and raised his own four children, with a massive solution.
In 1890, his eldest daughter "Tessie" married Hermann Oelrichs from Norddeutsche Lloyd's cruise line in the grandest marriage that San Francisco ever saw. Adil stays in his hotel suite without an invitation. He gave her a million dollars as a fixed wedding gift (Ferguson 1977 p.2).
Fair is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California. His will left $ 40 million in trust for his two daughters, Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs (nÃÆ' Â © e Theresa "Tessie" Alice Fair) and Virginia Graham Fair (who later married William Kissam Vanderbilt II), and his surviving son Charles Lewis Fair 1867-1902), who subsequently died in a car crash in France on August 14, 1902, after being deprived of his right by his father.
After his death, Mrs. Nettie Cravens came forward to claim to be his wife. He presented his evidence to court, but lost in this case. He moved to Iowa and lived in obscurity, spending his last days in a mental institution. Later, another woman, Phoebe Couzins, a women's rights lawyer, also claimed a relationship with Fair.
Legacy
The Fairmont San Francisco Hotel was built as a great monument to the Fair by his daughters Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt who named it to honor their father. Construction began in 1902, but they sold their interest in 1906, a few days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Fair is remembered in Santa Cruz, California in the naming of Fair Avenue, and in San Francisco with Fair Avenue at Bernal Heights.
See also
- List of US Senators born outside the United States
References
Further reading
- Love and Hate Stories in Old San Francisco , Millie Robbins. Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1971.
- J. Walton Ferguson, Rosecliff (The Preservation Society of Newport County) 1977. Rosecliff was built for Fair princess, Mrs. Oelrichs.
External links
- Sign in from Directory of Biographies of the United States Congress
- The Valley Post , 5/10/2005 Fair's South Pacific Coast Railroad
- James Graham Fair in Discover Mausoleum
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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