A Short History of the Ely mine,
page 4
On
Monday, the miners seized the property,
including, according to Child, one-hundred twenty-five kegs of
gunpowder, or
according to Greenleaf and Youngwood, one-hundred fifty kegs
“and other
explosives”, and threatened the elderly Mr. Ely, who (again,
according to
Youngwood) blamed everything on Cazin and supposedly told the miners it
was
fine with him to “unroof” Cazin’s
house. Child relates that Ely did not
speak to the miners (70), but Blaisdell relates that the miners were
stopped at
gunpoint on Ely’s stairs (Ely was sick abed) by
General Stephen
Thomas. Blaisdell also excerpts a manuscript based on the
letters of Dr.
John Henry, a physician for the miners, which states that
“...two or three
women in the house got up the stairs ahead of the crowd and begged the
men to
stop.” (71) Collamer Abbott, on the other hand,
writes that the miners
were initially confronted by the company treasurer, Caleb C. Sargent,
and
General Thomas when they returned to the house moments later.
(72)
In any case, Mr. Cazin’s house was left intact, but some of
the miners, under
the direction of Jack Baker, backed an ore wagon up to his house,
loaded his
possessions and family and two hundred miners escorted them out of
town.
At Ely’s, the miners were appeased by the voices of reason
and the promise of
redress. Smith Ely left West Fairlee for Bradford under cover
of darkness.
The miners waited until the financial agent arrived Wednesday July 4,
but he
was prepared to pay the workers only twenty per cent. of their back
wages. The miners then threatened to blow the mine
up. Sheriff Luke
Parish was powerless; he had called upon the inhabitants of the town
for
support, but none came. At the direction of ex-Governor
Roswell Farnham,
acting as President of the company after Ely’s retreat, he
and S.B. Hebard of
Chelsea went to seek help troops from Governor John L. Barstow, who was
notified
on July 6, while the owners wired frantically for money.
Barstow agreed
to send troops, but required that the $4000.00 available on hand to the
company
be distributed to the miners immediately in proportion to what was due
them.
(73) As it happened, the payments were made a few days later
by mutual
consent. The miners had agreed at a meeting with
representatives of the
company and the towns to wait until money could be sought from the
towns,
but Friday was spent in fruitless negotiations; the towns
refused, despite
reassurances given by several leading citizens. On Friday
evening, four
companies of the of the National Guard reported to Col. William L.
Greenleaf of
the 1st Regiment and left Essex Junction on a special
train, arriving at
Ely station at 1:30 AM Saturday (74) and were issued twenty rounds of
ammunition each (75). After a “weary mountain ride
of several hours” (76)
they arrived in West Fairlee with another company arriving by wagon
from
Bradford, joining them at 5:00 AM. The captain of
the Bradford
company was John Henry Watson, later state’s
attorney (1886), Senator
(1892) (77), and Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. (78)
A total of 184
men and 18 officers were involved in the action.
Captain Watson’s Company G, unable to procure a guide,
marched over an unknown
road during the night and crept up to the powder house, surprised and
captured
the "four armed miners" (79) on guard and seized the mine
without a struggle. At about the same time the main column
under
Greenleaf moved through West Fairlee, where they were greeted with
great
relief, the residents having been in constant fear for several
days. They
hurried on to Ely, about one and one-half miles distant.
There, the
Sheriff and his deputies arrested the twelve they thought most
responsible (or
sixteen, according to Ruth Henry Hubbard) (80) and transported them to
Montpelier, but they were released Monday morning when the authorities
were
unable to locate anyone who would testify against them.
Company G was left to guard
the powder until the next day; the rest of the troops left after
distributing
their rations to the destitute miners. They were in West
Fairlee by noon
on their way home; having traveled 375 miles by rail, eighteen by wagon
and
marched between four and five miles in a little over twenty-four hours,
they
were home by evening. (81). Some reparations to the
miners were
made, but many of the miners moved away before they could
collect.
Governor Barstow suggested that legislation be passed giving the miners
a first
lien on the company's assets. The mine owed more
than $200,000.00
and slid into receivership, and was sold at auction (according to
Child) on
January 12, 1888 to Mr. Cazin for $36,000.00 p. 33), who sold
it, in 1888
(or 1889, according to Stone), to Otto K. Krause, a German dry goods
dealer,
and then worked briefly for him (82). Krause installed a
one-hundred-ton
concentrator at a cost of $53,000.00, resulting in a “heavy
output” of copper
(83). Child states it was sold to the Copperfield Mining and
Smelting
Company, which was working it with thirty-five men in April, 1888
(84).
However, Perkins states that Krause purchased the mine in 1889, for
$36,000.00
(85). Abbott implies Krause is still at the mine in 1891
(86).
According to Jacobs, in 1892, the mine was owned by the
Vermont Copper
Mining Company, and went into receivership. (87) Blaisdell,
though,
states that Cazin owned it until his enterprise collapsed in 1893. [continue...]
