Show HE DIED IX HIS TEXT The Pathetic Ending of One of Utahs Pioneer Miners There is hardly an old time mining man in Utah who did not know Judge W T Barbee the pioneer miner of Utah whose feet have worn trails in nearly every mining camp in our new state and who was identified with the I discovery and formation of some of the greatest mineral districts in this country I coun-try I But those who have known him he it said to our sorrow will know him i no more as the old miner and pros 1 pector has crossed the divide and the Great Father who ever dwelt in his thoughts had called him home and now instead of enduring the hardships Incident to a prospectors life he is I enjoying peace and rest at last I Judge Barbee died in his tent in Blue Bell Mining district on Tuesday March I 24 Evidently death came unexpected Ito I-to him for in his valise was found a I letter dated on the 23d addressed toE i to-E G Rognon from the tenor of which it is evident that he had bright hopes I for the future and was sanguine that j ere long he would be able to mend his fortunes and take his place in the world where he belonged as he was a gentleman of education and endowed with taste and refinement OPERATED IN OPHIR DISTRICT I In 1870 Judge Barbee was engaged in mining in Tintic and from there he went to Clifton district in the Deep I Creek country with George Boyd and made a few locations Shortly after late in June of the same year he went I tc Ophir mining district where he discovered and located the Silveropolis I and Silver Chief claims in which were found the first horn silver and high grade ores to be uncovered in the I district The judge afterwards sold the Silver opolis mine jto Walker Bros for 27000 and later on he sold the Silver Chief to the same parties for a good round I sum The Silver Chief was subsequently quently incorporated with the Zella group of mines which has since produced pro-duced its millions Judge Barb e was one of the incorporators incor-porators of Ophir mining district and was one of the committee that framed Its constitution and bylaws He was afterwards elected justice of the peace of Ophir precinct and it was from this office that he derived his title as judge DISCOVERED SILVER REEF REEl From what we can learn Judge Barbee went south into Washington county about the year 1875 and there discovered and established the once famous fa-mous camp of Silver Reef where silver sil-ver was found in its native state in sandstone a phenomenon that has been equalled in one instance only that we know of viz in Salina canyon in Se vier county At Silver Reef Judge Barbee located 1 the Buckeye Walker Barbee and the Bonanza mines which have since become be-come renowned as great producer c1f the white metal and today the old Barbee mill as it is called stands a a monument to his enterprise and untiring un-tiring energy A few years later the judge sold his Silver Reef properties for about 75000 and removed to this city where he married mar-ried and began housekeeping HAD HIS UPS AND DOWNS HA Since then he ha had his ups and downs He has made fortunes for other men for he was a true prospector pros-pector and a competent one in every sense of the word and there is hardly a camp in the west that he ha not I carefully and critically examined and he was a welcome visitor in every miners min-ers cabin in this western country Of late years he ha been broken In health and in pocket and domestic infelicities in-felicities harrassed him but notwithstanding notwith-standing all these difficulties and troubles he has always been the same I courteous gentleman genial and pleas ant to all whom he met and to the end he was never heard to murmur against his lot As we have said already Judge Bar bee at the time of his death was out In Tooele county prospecting for E G Rognon of this city who yesterday received re-ceived the following letter DIED AT HIS TENT Vernon Tooele County Utah March 25 1896 E G Rognon Esq Dear SirLast night at 126 oclock Judge Barbee died in his tent in the Blue Belt mining district Today we drove up and brought him down here I and buried him here 1 find inhis papers pa-pers the enclosed letter to you I hold his papers and valise which you can have His tent and what was let in it I ItLt not knowing what belonged to him he having a partner by name H C Snyder Yours respectfully OWEN BENNION Justice of the Peace Vernon Precinct For two months past the judge has been missed in his old Salt Lake haunts and but very few of his friends knew that he was out in the hills looking for the precious metals and fewer still knew that he believed that he had discovered dis-covered a new mineral district in I which he was sanguine that he would retrieve his lost fortunes but that this I is the case is proven from the letter I found in his tent in which he speaks highly of the outlook of the new district I dis-trict which he had assisted in organizing organ-izing This is probably the last letter I ever written by the judge and in reading read-ing it no one can help repressing a I sigh for the fate of a noble man who has forever departed this Le The letter let-ter reads as follows JUDGE BARBEES LAST LETTER Blue Bell Mining District Tooele County Utah March 23 1S96 E G Rognon Esq Salt Lake City Utah Dear SirBlue Bell is the name of the mining district We organized here February 12 I covers eight by twelve I miles of the southeast corner of Tooele county is about twentyfive miles I I southwesterly of Camp Floyd district Mercur ten miles south of Vernon a small settlement and about seven miles west ofDoremus a station on the Tin tic railroad that is from our camp So you can form a correct idea of just where we are at The country rock so far as I have examined seems to be divided into I three belts lime shale and quartzite I do not think the quartzite carries any I I paying mineral values My investigations investiga-tions have been confined to the lime I and shale and especially to the shale The lime is interspersed with upheavals I of iron quartz which carries small I values in gold little or no silver and I no lead There are also quartzite and porphyry dykes cutting the lime The values of this belt increase may as I depth is attained especially in the contacts con-tacts I have made very careful and critical I examinations of the shale belt and I I find that there is a variety cl shales Some seem to be a conglomeration o slate porphyry quartz crystallized quartzite and wash gravel The variety vari-ety is made up by the preponderance of the slate quartz or porphyry as the case may be hence we have parphyrit parhyritI ic silicious and slate shales We also have lime shales which in my opinion are what carry the gold values in the district There have ben I numerous tests made on the shale nearly all of which showed gold from I I a trace up to frcm 1 to 5 In one I piece of the lime shale I discovered a i few spots of rinnahar red oxide I I have only recently discovered 1 rather found out by acid tests the existence of the lime shale and have had no tests made on them for gold I I am going to make rigid and thorough tests and examinations of the lime shale belt in order to be able to form amore a-more intelligent idea of it About one or one and onehalf miles west of the lime shale there are some boys prospecting and mining They are as near a I can find out near the lime shale contact a they bring down black lime and shale and uave tests I made on them Nearly every test shows up more or less gold Brown and Murphy who have a I promising mine that they are working work-ing about a mile north of our camp I have an assay outfit but they have no button scales hence can only make i qualitative tests They have made over one hundred tests on rock from I different parts of the district and in a diferent large majority of them they found a precipitation of gold when they cut I their silver button with acid Although I I they are not practical assayers I think j their tests as qualitative tests can be I them work one relied on I watched I day and I found they produced a clean laO and that they coupled their lead i button properly and when the silver I which was put in to catch the gold was cut with acid there was a black wa metallc precipitation which was gold These precipitations varied in quantity quan-tity according to the amount of gold tiy In the rock I suppose II Near where these boys are mining in there is an unheaval of quartzite which there are deposits of leadsilver I ore carrying from 25 to 50 per cent lead and from twenty to fifty ounces 1 silver and some little gold The shale belt is an anomaly to me It is full of upheavals of porphyry I juartzite quanz various kinds of II slate and occasionally a small belt of lime will be observed I These upheavals are irregular in course running at almost I curse and I of the compass every point compws every All in many cases are mere chimneys AI these upheavals are more or less impregnated im-pregnated with iron as is the shale also I have endeavored to give you such a description of the country as will friends to form enable you and your ftiends I some idea of it as to its possibilities I and probalilities of being a mineral I belt of paying values There is an abundance of water in Vernon creek and Little valley creek and numerous springs in different parts of the district There is ample wood in the adjacent hills to build and it long up a lively camp run as as I want to spend time roughing it in a mining camp A feasible route for a railroad can be obtained from our camp to Doremus My impression of the district so far is very favorable I am of the opinion that when the snow goes off so that I can examine the western limits of the shale belt I will find a good field for prospecting I find that mos if not all of the shales carry more or less gold values To indulge in a few ifs and thens if the values increase a depth is attained so as to become remunerative re-munerative as they do at Mercur and I see no reason why they should not then we will have a camp tfcat is a camp I may not rival Mercur but it will make its mark in history as a great gold producer I am getting a large stock of mines for the spring and summer trade and will want to employ a number of good salesmen to help me work off my sions stock I will low liberal commis A few days ago while rambling over the hills after wallowing through a few fourfoot snow drifts in going from one ridge to another I sat down to rest taking a birds eye view of the surrounding shale beds I wondered if It was possible for them to carryIn the depths paying values of gold and just them I remembered reading in some book I believe it was the Bible That nothing was impossible with God and the wish was father to the thought that perhaps God had impregnated Im-pregnated these shale beds with the precious metal to gladden the hearts of the children jf men in the degenerate degener-ate days of monometallism single < A standard gold standard and sound money fads fad Respectfully etc W T BARBEE Vernon Postoffice Tooele County Utah UtahI was learned yesterday that the deceased has two brothers and a sister living in Colorado The brothers have been located at Leadville and with them Mr Rognon has communicated relative to the disposal of the body which will rest in its grave in Tooele county until they are heard from I Tintic Mince Xotcs The BullionBeck company has purchased I pur-chased the Progress and Good Luck mill sites in Homansville canyon from John Beck and W HrMoeller These I springs are said to have a good flow lor water and will be a valuable addition l addi-tion to the Becks supply of that commodity com-modity J W Caine and A Lechester who represent an eastern syndicate were in camp Monday and Tuesday to close up the deal involving the Tesora and Independent claims southeast of Sil I ver Mr Caine stated to the Miner I that work will be commenced as soon as the deal is closed and a shaft will I be sunk to a depth of 500 feet to thoroughly thor-oughly develop the property Captain H H Sowles was over from the Spy country Saturday He reports I the Takeview as unable to ship owing to inability to get the ore out through j the Sioux tunnel I is promised that i this will be remedied this week however j I how-ever when one carload already broken I will be shipped to the smelter There I are also several carloads of second j I grade ore which will be treated at the I Farrell mill I Shipments from the district for the past week are reported as follows From the BullionBeck mine 20 cr I loads ore from the BullionBeck mill I 10 carloads concentrates from the Cen i tennialEureka 5 carloads ore from the Utah 1 carload ore from the Godiva 1 carload ore from the Eureka Hill mill 12 carloads concentratec from the North Star 5 carloads ore from the Four Aces 1 carload ore from the Dragon Iron mine 23 carloads ore I I is reported that Manager Robinson of the Sioux Consolidated has a tunnel project in view from the Sioux workings work-ings through the mountain to Mammoth I Mam-moth Hollow a distance of 3000 feet The object of the tunnel l is said to be the saving in the cost of transportation transporta-tion of the Sioux ore frcm the mine to I the mill and we understand the outlet out-let is through the Ajax mine I is a I big project but we have no doubt of the ability of the Sioux company to I put it through I E N Jenkins came out Tuesday to I look over the bperations on the Whit taker He states to the Miner man that he expects the return of his Denver Den-ver in a few days when the operations will be more vigorously pushed than ever The project of a tunnel from the Mammoth to tap the Whittakerand adjacent ground is now being considered and Mr Jenkins says it is sure to go through The work will probably be done by the Mammoth company under contract and will tap a vast extent of unexplored territory We hope the scheme will materialize Joseph Dedrich came in from Mer I cur Wednesday and started in Thurs day morning with a gang of 20 men building the new 20stamp addition to the Mammoth miiiThe Ajax mine shut down Tuesday and Wednesday on account of the breaking down of the hoist The injury wa repaired and they started up yesterday morning We are reliably informed that the Her kimer will start ap in a few days and that the bond will be taken up April 1 The same parties who have the op tion on the CentennialEureka are said to be behind the Herkimer deal From our Mammoth correspondent When the waters of Cherry Creek in West Tintic was purchased of O P Rockwell a year or two since the Mammoth Mining company and the BullionBeck and Champion Mining company joined hands and bought i tgether and later the Mammoth company com-pany when under the management of George H Robinson piped a portion of the water over the divide of West Tintic and brought it to Mammoth Hollow when heir new mill was erected Within a few days the Mam moth company has bought the other half K interest 1i i the Beck company so that they now control all the water of Cherry Creek and hey and Mammoth Hollow are now insuring all the water they may need and that may be re quired in any future contingency This Jfptfnnne of the most im rtant trans This actions that has actons been carried through in manv a day and come what mav Mammoth water for and milling vicinity mining will have and house all the hold purposes required Mcrcnr Mining Xotes A telephone message was received Tuesday from Sunshine stating that arsenical had Jncoun ore been encountered in the Pacific group operated by GEl e Mullett and others Assays had not yet been made but the operators were satisfied that the operaors was 3 valuable val-uable eabl2 one Manager Dern of the Mercur who is also the president of the new Salt Lake California railroad Sal Ca rairoad informs us hat he will start for Europe May 1 accompanied by his wife and daugh ter The trip will consume the entire summer during which time they will visit England Germany and Switzer Swizer land and will undoubtedly have avery a-very pleasant and profitable journey D C Rookledge W V Rice James Farrell and J C Weeter of Park City have purchased the Mary Jean Nos 1 and 2 the Gold Button and other ground north and east of the East Golden Gol-den Gate have formed a company to develop the property and are having a survey thereon this week and intend to push the work Mr Rookledge informs in-forms us that Park City is greatly interested terested in Mercur and that a great dHll of Park Cily money will be spent here this year I you want to see a fine showing of ore something that you would not expect ex-pect to see in a prospect of sp little development go over to th Badger owned by the Mercur Gold Mning Syndicate and Development company I I The vein is a strong one and has every I indication of values Good assays have j I ben obtained from it and when the I I foot wall is reached the operators expect I ex-pect to have the richest ere body in camp The dip is about the same a I the upper or Mercur vein and the development de-velopment thus far made leads tji the I conclusion that the vein is equally astron of to ttronjr A force men were put work Wednesday sinking to the foot wall and when that is reached it is expected that the property will be a milling proposition Tne discoveries in the Badger have greatly stimulated development velopment in that country and some goods discoveries will very probably result Ore and Bullion The ore and bullion receiptsi yesterday I yester-day were as follows Commercial National BankOres 9200 T R Jones Co Bullion 2900 ores 4900 McCornick Co Hanauer bullion 53550 Hanauer matte 7650 V Wells Fargo Co Bullion 4340 Silver and Lead Bar silver was quoted yesterday at 68 cents lead 3 casting copper 10 > scents I s-cents I Bank Clearings The clearings of the associated banks yesterday were 140348 For the same day last year they were 155046 Mining Notes and Personals D W Heaston of Bingham a well known mining man is registered at the Walker Captain T C Bailey leaves this evening even-ing for Idaho on important land and mining business Twenty l ads 9 Dalton Lark J J ores are now at the Taylor Brunton sampling works Dr H N Wan returned home yesterday terday from his eastern trip which he says was a most enjoyable one Ike Jennings came in from Marys vale last night where he ha been making mak-ing an examination of the Clyde mine Ben Cherrington of Shepard Cher rington Harkness one of the lea ing law firms of Mercur is in the city visiting friends J M Davis returned yesterday from Butterfield canyon West Mountain district where he mae an examination of mining properties Charles Connor the wellknow Bingham miner will leave in the morning morn-ing for Mercur where he will have charge of the Mercur hoist J E Bamberger and David Keith have returned from their Cripple Ores visit and express themselves as well pleased with this Colorado wonder Major W R Busenbark vice president presi-dent of the East Golden Gate Mining company is expected to rrive this afternoon His many friends here wile give him a cordial welcome to say the least leastI was reported on the streets yesterday yes-terday that efforts were being made by certain gentlemen to secure control of the great coal fields at Kanarra Iron county presumably for some railroad rail-road company R L Kilpatrick of the firm of Kll Patrick Connors railroad contractors contract-ors and J B Weston banker of Beatrice Neb will leave for Mercu this morning where they recently acquired ac-quired interests in valuable mining property Hon Thomas G Merrill of Montana who has taken a flyer in Mercur mining min-ing properties informs The HeraCd that I Camp Floyd is a most wonderful district dis-trict and that it is destined to become be-come one of the greatest gold producers pro-ducers in this western country Ore has been discovered in the reservation reser-vation in Skull valley that has assayed as high a 600 to the ton Should this kind of thing continue Skull valley will be a lively camp soon as valuable ore is i being discovered from one end of it to the otherTooele Transcript Articles of incorporation of the Jpnrnette Eccles mine which was located lo-cated n daj or two ago six miles I northeast of Ogden by J H Eccles I will be filed probably today The property perty consists of three claims with excellent gold indications J Moffatt will be president of the company J H Eccles vicepresident Joseph Sharp treasurer J Q Leavitt secretary who with P W McOaffery form the directorate A young man who answers to the euphoneous name of Brown who is in the employ of Electrician R W Nicol has been making tests with electricity of late on Morgan Hardscrabble ores with such gratifying success that he has been able to make an exhibition of several metal buttons The results are obtained from an application of electric elec-tric heat which proves highly efficacious effica-cious in the separation of the metals from the ore There is quite an excitement prevalent preva-lent in the Dry Creek country near Hickman Assays have been obtained that have shown very encouraging results re-sults The soldiers frm the fort that passed through here last week are located lo-cated at this camp and we are informed in-formed that Colonel Penrose intends sinking on some o his claims and should his expectations be realized he will at once have a mill put up and work his properties on a large scale Tooele Transcript C G De Graw and Charles E Vail accompanied by Superintendent F P Davis will leave tomorrow for the purpose pur-pose of examining the Henrietta group just east of the East Golden Gate The Henrietta shaft at a depth of twenty feet cut into four and a half feet of lowgrade ore and the indications so far are most encouraging The new working shaft Is 4x7 feet in the clear and it is proposed to sink until a body of pay ore is uncovered The owners of the copper mine which can be seen on the hill just east of the court house incorporated last Saturday Satur-day under the name c < f Rhymney Gold and Copper Mining company Hyrum Haynes discovered the mine twelve years ago last January and has expended ex-pended nearly 5000 in cash for development develop-ment work They have a fourfoot vein which assays 13 per cent copper and 10 in gold The ore will have to be treated by a smelting process Davis County Clipper Jacob Ponce and wife D J Garrison Garri-son and wife E L Bullinger and wife and James Garrison of Wichita Kan are among the latest to take up their residence in Salt Lake and they are to be followed by several more Kansas people in the near future Mr Garrison Garri-son brought seven head of thoroughbred cattle with him and proposes to engage en-gage in the stock business in this his adopted home Immigration to Utah has now fairly set in and from every director men of means and influence ire looking towards Utah as the only place for future homes J E Jackson of tlhe Consolidated Kansas City Smelting and Refining company who has returned from his cripple Creek visit informs The Herald Her-ald that this is a great camp but th tat t-at the present time properties are held at unreasonable figures but that as in the future there will be more companies com-panies working and fewer leasers it is more than likely that a number of new mines will be added to its list of producers pro-ducers Mr Jackson also says that the Cripple Creek of today is representative repre-sentative of what Mercur will be inside senatve in-side few years He had an enjoyable enjoy-able trip but is glad to get back to Salt Lake again |