User:Eoinshearer

Mackay by: a 4th grader Eoin Shearer

1831 One day in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland a miner was born. His name was John William Mackay. I had to spell cheak his name 100 times. Anyways, John William Mackay and his family went to New York which was in the U.S.A. His father died when he was eleven. He left school when his father died to sell newspapers to make money for his family. Did you know women could not have good jobs at the time? Don’t tell me “You’re wrong, because my mom has Good a job.” In 1847 when Mackay was 16, he became an apprentice shipbuilder. Now this is not the awesome part of his life, that is coming up. __________________________________________________________________________ 1851      The next scene happens on a ship dock when Mackay is boarding a ship to California as a crew member in 1851. He sails to California during the Gold Rush, maybe on a ship he built. Nobody knows for sure if he sailed around South America or if he took a train across Panama. After he arrives in California he mines near Downieville on the Yuba River. He mined it for 7 years and made some money. Then he and a friend walked 100 miles to Washoe county.

________________________________________________________________________

1858 That first year in Washoe he lived in a house dug into a hill with other people. Believe me, it wasn’t fun. It was very hot and water was $1.00 a gallon. They didn’t have good food. Mackay earned $6.00 a day, which was a lot more than most miners, because he set timber in the mine. He earned enough money to buy and sell stakes in 27 different mines. Unlike a lot of people that bought mining stakes he also worked for wages. Now the important part of his life is coming up. __________________________________________________________________________ 1865 The next scene happens in a dirty old mine called the Kentuck mine, which Mackay bought in 1865. The Kentuck mine was a 94-foot-wide rat hole mine Mackay bought with a man named Walker. Nobody thought the Kentuck mine would make money. The reason he bought it was that he heard the Yellow Jacket Mine found ore on the very edge of the Kentuck mine, and the Crown Point mine found ore on the other side of the Kentuck mine. Mackay thought there could be ore in the middle where the Kentuck mine was. That’s when Mackay made his first fortune. Mackay and Walker bought the Kentuck mine for $60,000 and made $3,000,000 from its silver.

________________________________________________________________________

1867 While he was mining the Kentuck Mackay got married. The next scene happens in a church in 1867 when Mackay married a widow named Marie Louise Bryant. They lived in Virginia City in a big house called the Mackay Mansion. They had two children named John Jr. and Clarence. Because Marie wanted a good education for her sons they moved out of the Virginia City to San Francisco, then to New York, then to London and finally to Paris. Marie was very popular, so she entrained a lot of wealthy and important people. _________________________________________________________________________ 1871 The Bank of California controlled banking and mine stocks in Virginia City, and was run by a man named Sharon. In 1871 Mackay opened Consolidated Virginia Mines with three other Irishmen named Fair, O’Brien, and Flood. Consolidated Virginia Mines was a company that owned a lot of mines in Virginia City. O’Brien and Flood owned a saloon in San Francisco, and never went to Virginia City. Fair was a miner who lived in Virginia City. Fair was nicknames “Slippery Jim.” People who worked with him thought he was craft, but people who did not thought he was unfair. Flood and O’Brien bought the Virginia City mines from San Francisco while Mackay and Fair ran the mines in Virginia City. The four Irishmen bought mines before Sharon could, which made Sharon very upset at them.

________________________________________________________________________

1873 The next scene happens in Sharon’s office in 1873. Mackay thought there was ore deep in his mine but did not have a shaft deep enough to get to it. Mackay asked Sharan to use the shaft from the Gould and Curry mine. Sharon thought Mackay was crazy and would not find any silver or gold, so Sharon let Mackay use his mine shaft for a fee. Sharon thought they would not find anything and Mackay would spend all-of his money using the mining shaft. At 1200 feet in Mackay’s mine they found the Big Bonanza. For three years Mackay’s mine produced $3,000,000 a month and by 1877 produced $150,000,000 in gold and silver and $78,000,000 in mining stock. That was a lot of money back then and made Mackay one of the richest men in the world. _________________________________________________________________________

1880 Mackay left Virginia City in 1880. He was bored and looking for something new to do. Mackay met a newspaper owner named Bennett in 1883 and the two of them decided to form the Commercial Cable Company to break the transatlantic telegraph monopoly held by Gould’s Western Union. In 1884 the Commercial Cable Company started to send telegraphs, and got into a price war with Gould. Mackay won because he could afford to lose money. Gould said he lost to Mackay because “If he needs another million, he will go into his silver mines and dig it out.”

________________________________________________________________________

1886 In 1886 Mackay set up the Postal Telegraph Commercial Company to send telegraph messages across the US. Even though he beat Western Union in the transatlantic telegraph business, Mackay still needed to use Western Union to send the messages to people in the US. Mackay formed his own company so that it was cheaper to send the messages. His son John Jr. was supposed to take over Mackay’s businesses. John Jr. died in a horse racing accident at age 25 in 1895. Mackay was very sad. Right after that when he was 21 Clarence Mackay was brought from London to learn how to run the businesses. _________________________________________________________________________ 1902 In 1902 Mackay died while on a business trip in London of a heart attack. Mackay was buried in Greenwood cemetery in New York State. In 1908 his son and wife gave the University of Nevada money to start the Mackay School of Mines. Before Mackay died he formed the Commercial Pacific Cable Company. His son later completed the first transpacific cable across between the years 1904 – 1906. These two things, and the many donations made throughout his life and after, show that even though Mackay died his life was still affecting people.