Conrad Wiegand, Assayerand his
Mysterious Death
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Conrad WiegandIntroduction
Conrad Wiegand was a boisterous man who was born in Philadelphia, worked for the US Mint, and came to the California Gold Rush in the early 1850’s. He went to work for the US Branch Mint in San Francisco at or near its inception in 1854. Wiegand was small in stature, but big in ideas, and even stronger still in his opinions. He was a devoutly religious person who saw such injustice in the world that he undertook the publishing of his own newspaper—two of them, in fact. His other passion was the metals question, particularly his political stance generally held by most miners that money should be in the form of circulating hard specie - gold and silver coinage and ingots. Wiegand’s outspoken nature repeatedly got him into trouble, especially during his life on the Comstock. He was severely physically assaulted and beaten twice, which endeared him to the likes of Sam Clemens. As he advanced in age, his mental troubles worsened. Ultimately, his life ended in a hangman’s noose at the age of fifty in Virginia City. Wiegand Appointed Assayer, Branch Mint, San Francisco, 1854 In 1854 he was appointed by President Pierce to the Branch Mint at San Francisco as Assayer. By his own admission, he returned to the east coast shortly after to run the New York New Boys Club, then left that job to study for the ministry. Unsuccessful with the Boys Club, he worked for a stint at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. President Abraham Lincoln subsequently appointed him as assayer to the Branch Mint in San Francisco once again. Working again in San Francisco, he soon published an opinionated pamphlet promoting the use of gold and silver as circulating specie. As one of the original presidential appointees of President Pierce for the US Branch Mint at San Francisco when it opened in 1854, Wiegand held special status. Information on this early period is scant. By 1855 he held the position with the Branch Mint as Assayer, though this may be near the time that he returned to New York for a short while. Vigilance Committee, 1856 Wiegand was right in the middle of the 1856 Vigilance Committee fracas after James King of William was assassinated by James Casey. (In 1856 6,000+ San Francisco Vigilante's rose to hang King Willaim's killer, clean the streets of muderers and robbers, and sweep out a corrupt political system.) These events shaped his life forever. Perhaps the main way in which the James King of William Vigilance problem affected Wiegand was the power of and the use of a free press. In the same manner as James King of William assailed corruption, fraud among politicians and businessmen in San Francisco, Wiegand did the same later in Gold Hill against the powerful Bank of California. Indeed, in a strong paper published after the death of James King of William, it was noted that “he has died a martyr to Freedom of Speech.” This period of Wiegand’s life set the stage for his future work: as an assayer and as a humanitarian speaker and religious leader. Back at the Mint, 1856 Wiegand traded jobs within the Mint system several times, perhaps typical of many jobs today, where one changes positions within a specific company for the express purpose of learning all aspects of the business. In this regard, when Wiegand became Coiner in about 1860, he was given the opportunity to learn even more about the assay, gold and coining business. Wiegand Starts Politicking President Lincoln, 1862 Wiegand tried to fire Jackson Snyder, but Branch Mint Superintendent Stevens instead terminated James Mars, who was Wiegand’s apparent right hand man in the Assay department. A known letter shows a clear, serious disagreement between Branch Mint Superintendent Stevens and Wiegand, but Wiegand felt the matter of such importance and “to the integrity of our National Coinage” that he wrote Lincoln, bypassing the established chain of command. President Lincoln must have taken heed, because Superintendent Stevens was subsequently compelled to write a lengthy letter to Lincoln days later justifying his actions and further stating that Wiegand’s letter was part of a “persistent system of attack which this singular person has kept up against me for months.” Wiegand was the one removed, but eventually came back. He resigned his position at the San Francisco Branch Mint in December, and Lincoln was notified December 14, 1863. Wiegand Starts New Era in Nevada, 1863-1864 Conrad Wiegand immediately went to work at the newly constructed huge mill of the Gould & Curry Gold & Silver Mining Company located at the intersection of Six and Seven Mile canyons about a mile below Virginia City. The Gould & Curry had struck a bonanza ore deposit in 1862-3 which vaulted the Company into becoming the leading producer of gold and silver in America. A new mill was built to handle the ore, and the Company was so big at the time that it employed about a third of the local work force on the Comstock. Wiegand’s job with the Gould & Curry lasted only a few months. The Gold Hill Assay Office, 1865 With business booming on the Comstock, Wiegand opened the Gold Hill Assay Office on May 14, 1865. Wiegand was financed by the Bank of California through his friend William Chapman Ralston, whom he had befriended in San Francisco. Ralston’s agent on the Comstock was William Sharon, who had full charge of all the affairs of the Bank in the Virginia City region. Sharon had tight control over Comstock mines and businesses. But Wiegand’s business failed. The insolvency was not due to normal debt. William Sharon showed up at Wiegand’s Assay Office one day without notice with a Sheriff in tow, and demanded immediate repayment of the loan which was about $19,000. Wiegand was unable to comply, especially on no notice. Sharon had the Sheriff seize most or all of Wiegand’s assay equipment. Within a couple of weeks, Wiegand was able to secure private financing, but suffered from financial harm while closed. The reason behind the seizure may have been competition with some of Sharon’s friends, not atypical of Sharon’s behavior as Bank manager. Regardless, the episode shaped Wiegand’s future business affairs and steered him toward helping the plight of small miners and businessmen. It was the foundation and the inspiration behind the People’s Tribune, which he published a few years later. By the beginning of 1866, the Gold Hill Assay Office was once again in operation. The Circulating Specie Push During the early phases of his western career as assayer, Wiegand began a long period of openly politicking for specie payments. The Federal Government was making a strong move to sell the American People on the use of greenbacks, and the possibility arose that the Fed might demonetize silver and perhaps gold, which set the western miners and businessmen on their heels. Paper currency, known as “greenbacks” because of their colorful green backsides, were so despised in the West that newspapers regularly published advertisements by merchants offering to buy them at discounts up to fifty percent. The feeling among the Western miners and merchants was that miners produced all the gold and silver, and they wanted to be paid in it, not some paper replacement. In their minds, the paper currency was worthless, as proven by the many broken and failed banks in the East during the three decades preceding the establishment of the San Francisco Branch Mint which left depositors with piles and wallets full of worthless paper that had never been backed by gold or silver. Paper currency issued and distributed by San Francisco banks during the gold rush also proved to be worthless. This experience drove home the uselessness of paper currency to western miners, and they wanted nothing to do with it whatsoever. Wiegand was a continuous pusher of precious metals as a medium of exchange. He gave many speeches, first in San Francisco while under the employ of the US Branch Mint, then in Gold Hill and Virginia City where he operated his own assay offices. He used the power of free speech and freedom of the press to further his agenda of specie circulation. His second concern was for the plight of the small miner and businessman, many of whom were overrun by big business interests. The press, controlled in large part by the Bank of California, suggested Wiegand was crazy and some of the public bought into the idea, though those that knew him said otherwise. (Below is a Conrad Wiegand) |
Yellow Jacket MineThis assay is for the Yellow Jacket Mine of Gold Hill. This 957 foot claim was staked in 1859 and first worked in the early 1860’s. Rich ore was finally struck in 1863 and a second vein in 1865.
William Sharon gained control of the mine c1865. Under his leadership of bad management the mine was doing poorly. The mine did pay dividends to its investors, but the assessments wiped out most of the money they were making. J. B. Winters was the Superintendent and William Sharon and the Bank of California Crowd owned the mine and could fire Winters as they pleased. Connected! Interesting!!! For more informationon the corruption at the Yellow Jacket Mine, click here. Eureka MillThe Eureka Mill was one of the largest mills on the Carson river. It was controlled by William Sharon and the Bank of California Crowd. In 1865 the Gold Hill News (a Sharon paper) reported that it was water-powered with 20 stamps, 10 pans, a 20 ton a day capacity, and had 11 employees milling ore from the Yellow jacket Mine.
This certainly seems like the type of corruption that Conrad Wiegand would object to. The privileged few controlling all of the wealth; making all of the money. Meanwhile the investors and miners received a pittance! Bank of CaliforniaThe Bank of California was a William Ralston lead conglomerate of the richest and most powerful men in San Francisco, thanks to their stranglehold on Comstock mines and mills.
John B. WintersIn 1862 John B. Winters was elected to represent Lyon County as an Assemblyman in the first territorial session.
In 1864 he was nominated by the Territorial Legislature to represent Nevada in the United State Congress. He won the general election with 154 votes. However, the Constitution was defeated and he did not get a chance to represent Nevada. In 1865 he was again running for the United State Congress. He was barely leading in votes during the Republican convention, when a compromise candidate was elected. The candidate, Delos Ashley would go to Washington D. C. Winters tried his hand at running for the United States Senate in 1867. Once again he was not selected by the Nevada Senate and Assembly. With the money he made from his lucrative Superintendent’s position in a lucrative mine back powerful men, he was able to purchase his own mill and mine of the Comstock. And this brings us full circle and back to Conrad Wiegand. Conrad WiegandWiegand Becomes a Publisher, 1870
In early 1870, Wiegand began publication of the Peoples Tribune, a newspaper he started to further moral issues with the public, including the exposure of fraud and scandalous activity on the Comstock. Here, Wiegand used his power of free speech and freedom of the press in exactly the same manner as James King of William with very nearly the same result. Bank of California interests told the people through their voice in the newspapers that he was using the Tribune as a “religious forum,” but he was clearly using it for his political forum for his views of maintaining specie payments and the standardization of gold and silver in the US monetary system. Just after the People’s paper began publication, Wiegand was seriously physically attacked by Griff Williams as reported in the Territorial Enterprise January 14, 1870. Williams cold cocked Wiegand, who was preoccupied, carrying an armload of papers and headed for his Gold Hill office. Williams repeatedly struck Wiegand with his fist from behind and violently kicked his head with his boots without provocation. Wiegand at first had no idea who hit him. Witnesses came to his aid and Williams was later arrested, fined $7.50 and told the judge “that [Wiegand] had been talking about him, and he could not stand it any longer.” None other than Samuel Clemens later claimed any talk of Williams by Wiegand was imaginary. “Mr. Wiegand is a weak man, and notoriously non-combative” wrote the editor of the Territorial Enterprise Joseph Goodman. A few days later, Wiegand was physically assaulted again in what was probably an assassination attempt, this time by John B. Winters, the superintendent of the Yellow Jacket Mining Company. Winters had asked (Wiegand later stated that Winters demanded and ordered his appearance) for a meeting with Wiegand after somewhat insulting charges and insinuations were made in the Peoples Tribune. Wiegand refused, so Winters went to Wiegand’s office and waited out of sight in the dark and sent Gold Hill News editor Phillip Lynch to find Wiegand. Wiegand, soon encountered Winters, thinking Lynch was an impartial witness. Winters denied what he claimed were the charges in the Tribune and demanded a retraction. Wiegand refused, and Winters struck him with a “cowhide” several times, apparently knocking him silly. The Territorial Enterprise interviewed Lynch, who thought the action of Winters was disgusting. Ultimately it may have cost Winters his job, as William Sharon, a Board member of the Company, and financier through the Bank of California, may have decided the behavior was unacceptable, though some have suggested Sharon was behind the attack. In July, Wiegand experienced another setback when his assay office burned in a terrible fire that destroyed most of the local Gold Hill business district. It caused Wiegand to temporarily open an office in the Morrill building in Virginia City, which subsequently remained open for a number of years. Enter Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) Sam Clemens was a friend of Territorial Enterprise editor Joe Goodman’s, as well as most of the Comstock editors. At the time of the attacks, he was deep in the throws of writing “Roughing It." He heard of the affairs, and was so incensed at their nature, that he published the whole mess in the back of the first edition of “Roughing It.” A short recitation of a few of Clemens’ comments on Wiegand well illustrate his sentiments: If ever there was a harmless man, it is Conrad Wiegand of Gold Hill, Nevada. If ever there was a gentle spirit that thought itself unfired gunpowder and latent ruin, it is Conrad Wiegand… When I met Conrad Wiegand he was superintendent of the Gold Hill Assay Office—and he was not only its superintendent, but its entire force. And he was a street preacher too, with a mongrel religion of his own invention, whereby he expected to regenerate the universe. Aftermath of the attacks Wiegand in the Territorial Enterprise article noted how John Winters’ threats were carried out. His assay business suffered severely, as other mining companies took their business elsewhere, again implicating coercion by Sharon and the Bank of California. The Territorial Enterprise editor described Winters’ direct conversation to him about how they were going to kill him, and indeed, he was told he would have been killed (“not permitted to reach home alive”) then and there if he were not quite full in the head. Wiegand insisted that Winters was assisted by Gold Hill News Editor Lynch, who was in on the scheme from the start. This again implicated Sharon and hte Bank Crowd of California Crowd. Lynch later admitted he was involved, though denied any knowledge of an assassination attempt. Wiegand Finds Ways to Reestablish His Assay Business After the Winters attack, Wiegand lost a lot of business. But after the Territorial Enterprise article, business slowly dribbled back in as public sentiment eventually went against Winters. An Assayer Dies in the Hangman’s Noose, 1880 Wiegand hastened his meeting with his maker on May 31, 1880 by questionably committing suicide in his office by way of hanging. Though there were injuries to the body and blood was found in unusual places in his office, his death was ruled a suicide by the Storey County Coroner. He was suffering serious debt, though his wife felt it was under control. He also suffered fits of what he himself considered insanity, and he feared that mental condition as an ultimate fate at old age. Many people thought Wiegand was murdered, and the usual suspect was believed to be John B. Winters. Even Territorial Enterprise Editor Goodman thought there was a bit of possible tom-foolery in the death. 1. Weigand biography by Fred Holabird 2. “Mines and Mills of the Comstock Region” by Ansari |