Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog number |
1997.2.2485 |
Object Name |
Clipping, Newspaper |
Date |
1954 |
Description |
Two short newspaper articles seemingly printed in the Oakland Tribune. The first had to do with Arthur and Mary Hallock Foote and William Chard who produced quicksilver in 1846 under the byline The KNAVE. The second was a first hand account by a woman who lived and attended school in "Almaden" until 1915, Irene Winn. TITLE: Quicksilver History and The Almaden Story: AUTHOR: The Knave PUBLISHER: Oakland Tribune There are two images in this record. Quicksilver History "The Knave: While reading The Knave I came upon two names familiar to me because of my interest in the history of the quicksilver mines of New Almaden, California. Arthur de Wint Foote, who built the Foote Road, so well described by Peggy Trego (I have a splendid photograph of a part of the road showing the `dry masonry' she mentions) was a surveyor at the New Almaden mines in the middle 1870s. While residing at those mines, his wife, Mary Hallock Foote, wrote an interesting and informative article about them. "A California Mining Camp," which was published in the February 1878 issue of Scribner's Monthly, The second name, William G. Chard. Appears in the article "Powers of Alcalde." The first quicksilver produced in New Almaden, after Capt. Andres Castillero's discovery, was by William G. Chard, of Columbia County, New York, in 1846. Chard first used old cannons, filling them with ore, building a fire under them with muzzles placed in a trough of water. Next Chard brought whale oil try-pots which he inverted over piles of ore, building a fire over and around them. For some time four of these pots produced from 150 to 200 pounds of quicksilver daily. To William G. Chard belongs the credit of being the first man to produce quicksilver, on a commercial basis, in California." Laurence E. Bulmore, president New Almaden Historical Society. -The KNAVE The Almaden Story "Just thought I'd put in my two-bits worth on this Almaden question. I'm a descendant of the old original miners of Almaden. Both my father and mother were born there. My father (Miquel Santibanes) attended school in Almaden until the ninth grade. Ore was brought down an incline to smelters in what is now known as Almaden. We knew it as `Hacienda,' and I attended school there-1915 to the sixth grade-finished in San Jose. There's the old dance hall and church and hotel across the creek still standing. My father had a barbershop on the site of the present bar. Charlie Barris ran the general store which originally included the post office. There was a bandstand in the park where the present post office is located. The old place really doesn't look as it did, even in my time. Most of the mines and houses have disappeared. I wonder if you could find something about the `Old Mule Trail' between the Napa and Sonoma missions? We own a place out of Napa, on Dry Creek Road, and the old trail is supposed to have run through our place. It is soon to be re-opened as `Bridal Trail' and there are a lot of different stories about the original. "-Irene Winn. |
People |
Chard, William G. Foote, Arthur DeWint Foote, Mary Hallock Santibanes, Miquel Winn, Irene |
Cataloged by |
Boudreault, Art |
Collection |
Perham 2 |