THE SUMPTER MINER.
VOL I.
SUMPTER, OREGON, MAY 16, 1900.
NO. j6-
SUMPTER IS ON A
FIRM FONDATION.
J. HO3S0N GIVES THE TELEGRAN
A SENSIBLE INTERVIEW.
Growth of the Town Is Solid and Substan
tial Every Business House Is Making
Monty Contiguous Mines are Being
Worked Srientlfically and Successfully
Small Producers Can Sell Their Ore to
the Smelter Here.
While In Portland a few dsys since, J.
Hobson, of the Mercantile company here
bearing his name, in an interview with a
Telegram representative, gave such a
sensible, correct statement of the situa
tion in Sumpter, that Till: MlNI-K feels
justified in reproducing a portion of it and
giving it this prominence in these
columns. The Telegram says:
"The prospects for Sumpter," con
tinued Mr. Hobson, "were never brighter
than at the present time. The mushroom
growth characeristic of all boom towns
has, in the case of Sumpter, settled Into
solid, substantial progress. Like other
boom places the collapse which, always
follows would have paralyzed Sumpter':.
industrial life, but for the fact that the re
sources of the surrounding districts justi
fy its growth. The town has shed its
boom covering, and Is now working up
ward from solid hardpan. Every business
house is doing well. There are no empty
buildings. At the present time the town
is large enough for the development of the
trade district tributary to it, but as further
development work is done on prospects,
and more producing mines are added to
the list, there will be a demand for more
business iblocks. And the, determined,
manner in which large investors are in
stalling heavy machinery and sinking on
the ledges is evidence to justify the pre
diction of shrewd mining men that that
is a rich mineral belt.
"In the Golconda, Bourne, Cracker
Creek and Cable Cove districts mines
are being worked scientifically. The
promoters are not merely scratching the
surface and then floating stock, but are
spending fortunes in drilling to great
depths, where they know lie quantities
enough of ore to pay them a hundred fold
on the Investment. All these districts are
tributary to Sumpter. Some of them have
enough ore in sight to last 50 years. It is
only a question of blocking it out by
tunnels, shafts and crosscuts, so that it
can be easily knocked down for the
mills.
"But there are any number'of small In-'
vestors with first-class prospects who
have not the money to spare for such ex
tensive development work. In the dis
trict are men who have been slowly de
veloping their claims for the last is years.
They knew that the gold was there,
and that some day they would receive a
reward for their labor. Some of these men
have enough ore on the dump to pay
them for the development work and fur
nish enough capital for further develop
ment. They sacrificed everything to
their faith in the country, and are now in
a position to reap the reward, for a
smelter has been established at Sumpter
with a capacity of 40 tons per day, and
they can turn their ore Into money as
soon as they desire.
"In connection with this smelter, I may
state that Portland people are not alive to
' their Interests. The same thing lias been
i said often enough, but 4t should be ding-1
donged Into the ears of your people until
they begin to realize the world of wealth '
tliere is in the hills of e.irtern Oregon. 1
Sumpter people held back, thinking that
, a smelter was to be located here. Hut the
, time came when the mining interests de-1
manded something to treat its ores, and in
1 answer to that demand a smelter was built, j
' It Is the-pyritic process, such as was pro
posed to be established In Portland, and
there is enough copper in the ores which It
1 will smelt to pay the cost of smelting.
; "However, there is still plenty of room
' for a smelter in Portland in fact, for sev
eral. The Sumpter smelter will be kept
, busy handling the ore of the Immediate
1 surrounulng districts. It Is hard for min
ing men and business men who know the
value of the mines of Oregon to under
stand the apathy of Portlaiulers in this
direction."
EFFORT TO PARDON MINERS
The Held-up Gamblers Who Had Fleeced
Them.
1 An effort Is being made to secure the re
I lease from the penitentiary of W. P.
I Mulligan, William Murphey and h'd.
I Kelly, sent up from Baker county, in
February, 1808, to serve live-years sen-
t tnic ltttflr fliirftM t( rMatrt Kultti 1
I vmvvj mmvi .itnii- m iwiatji initia I
' armed with dangerous weapons. Sheriff ;
JA. II. Huntington, Senator William:
Smith and Charles P. Hyde, of Maker
I City, have written letters favoring their
' pardon, and petitions have been for
! warded to the executive oflice, signed by
I ten of the jurors and a long list of the
citizens of Baker county. The jurors
signing the petition are: B. R. Angell,
foreman; John Rehner: J. M. Burnside,
A. Case, William Defreese, T. B.
Mascher, Alex. McQuowen, W. A.
Owen, H. I.ocken, D. C. Perkins.
The jurors state that a verdict of guilty
was returned reluctantly and that, under
the evidence submitted in the case, such a
verdict should not have been rendered,
but under the court's Instructions, they
felt constrained to do so and, therefore,
recommend that a full pardon be granted
to the defendants.
The circumstances under which the
crime was committed, as set out by the
petition, show that the defendants were
miners, and at the same time the trouble
occurred were taking a layoff In the town
of Bourne. It was immediately after pay
day, and they fell in with some crap
gamblers, their grievance was talked over
and they decided to return and demand
their money. The gamblers were over
taken between Bourne and Sumpter, when
a'row ensued, which resulted In one, Estes,
being shot. Estes, who was the com
plaining witness, also signs the petition
for their pardon. Press dispatch from
Salem.
Masonic DckgatiM to Baker City.
A large delegation of Masons went to
Baker City yesterday afternoon to attend
some sort of a jollification there last even
ing. The fun must have been rather
furious, for they were expected home this
forenoon, but failed to show up. Thase
who have hearthstone angel alliances here
have a job on their hands to explain why
they couldn't get up to catch the early
train.
Willis Kramer, of Douglass Co., ar
rived Tuesday. He is interested with
Miller & Aiken in mining properties here.
He recently bought into the Juniper, near
the North Pole, and is negotiating for
other Interests.
The Columbia beer, brewed in Sumpter,
is today as good as any made.
CITY WATER SYSTEM.
Best In the State For Both
Owner and the Public.
Pew people realized the value of the
Sumpter Water company's plant until
after Friday night's lire. The buildings
were fairly drowned with water trom
four hydrants.
At the tap of the tire bell the super
intendent of the Water company turned
the small creek, which is about one sixth
of the company's water supply, into the
large million-gallon reservoir, which gives
a vertlcle pressure over the city of 220
feet, or about ninety pounds picsiire to
the square inch.
After the four hydrants had been pour
ing voiunis of water on the lire lor one
hour, the water had risen three leet in the
reservoir. It will be readily seen that If
every hydrant In the city, of which there
are twenty-eight, were turned on at once
and at the same time, they could not con
sume the water.
The Sumpter Water works is not only
one of the best water plants In the North
west, but is also one of the best paying
Investments In tills state, it being a grav
ity system, costs practically nothing to
operate, which leaves almost its entire
revenue as net profits.
W. I.. Vincent, who built, owns and
operates the plant, served this town well
and wisely when he carted to a success
ful issue this semi-public enterprise. His
friends are glad, too, that he owns so
valuable a property. The system has
been thoroughly tested and proven its
value.
LATEST FIRE NOTES.
Adjusters at Work on the Losses New
Locations.
W. W.' Alversson, special agent and
adjuster for the Atlas Insurance company,
and C. R. Thompson, of the German
American, reached Sumpter Monday, to
adjust the losses for all the companies.
They are at work on this job, but have
only finished with the First Bank of
Sumpter and the Robblns & Scriber
buildings. The loss on the former was
fixed at something over 6oo, the principal
damage being to plate glass windows and
the metal cornlce.from heat; the latter Is a
total loss, Insurance 2500.
The Hobson Meicantlle company has
rented the large store room in the Jones
& Gagen brick block, next to the Sumpter
Townsite company's office, and is moving
its remnant stock In today.
Carl Adler has taken temporarily one
of the store rooms in the Transporta
tion company's block, on Center Street;
but has not decided yet where he will re
open business permanently.
J. W. Cox & Co. are also In this build
ing for the time being. They will doubt
less rebuild on their own property; as will
Robblns & Scriber probably also.
The committeemen appointed by the
firemen to solicit contributions for a bell,
collected tztf yesterday. They met with
such llatterlng success that they decided
to secure enough money, if possible, to
buy a ladder truck also. About $700 will
be required for both the bell and truck.
An effort is being made to have the hos
pital funds turned over to the lire depart
ment. Killed the Dog That Bit Him.
Yesterday afternoon a man.whose name
Is not known, led a dog into the "Mon
tana Headquarters" saloon. While there
the dog bit .1. Schmidt on the leg.
Schmidt tollowed the man and dug to the
depot and killed the latter, shooting It
twice. This wa just betore the train ar
rived and the platform was crowded.
Considerable excitement was occasioned
among bystanders by the shooting. A
traveling man, who declared one of the
balls went between his legs, was flight
ened out of his sellassuuiue. I he owner
of the dog left 011 1 lie train and no com
plaint or arrest has been made.
Colonel Damn Will Write of This District.
Colonel P. Ilonnn was in town last
Thursday securing data for .1 revision of
Ills booklet on the " iold Fields ot Fast
em Oregon." lie says the O. K. N.
can trace so mtuh benelit directly to the
advertising It has done dining the past
year or two, that it has divided to do
more, on a much larger scale In the near
future. With this object in view, the
matchless services of Colonel iJonanhave
again been engaged, and he will inform
the whole civilied woild about the un
equalled resources of the territory through
which the road runs; especially of the
ritli goldlields of the Sumpter district.
And he will write the story, too, in such
a way that all the world will read It; be
Interested, startled perhaps at lirst, but
finally convinced.
Sumpter's Registration 938.
On .mother page of Till: MINI-R todav
the qualified statement Is made that the
total registration for Sumpter amounted
to U27. This was written yesterday and
the returns were not complete. At noon
today ail are are in, which increases the
number to 0)8. Of these E. I.. Manning
securred 486, Stntt & Sheltou 210, F. C.
Steffen 148, C. H. Chance 55, C. W.
James 31. 1:. I.. Manning advertised In
these columns that he was doing this kind
of business mid as a consequence took
more than half of the entire number, with
live other hustlers as competitors. The
moral to be drawn from these facts is that
It pays to advertise In Till: MINI-U.
Unexpected Death' of a Child.
Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow, of McFwen,
brought their baby here today for medical
attendance. They had scarcely reached
Dr. Brock's office when the child died
there. The parents evidently did not
know how sick it was, and were grieved
beyond measure wlien death came. Mrs.
J. H. Robbinsaud Mrs. Brock dressed the
little body for burial and it was taken
back to McFwen for interment on the
evening train.
Mrs. Tedrowe in Charge of the Capital.
Several days since some trouble oc
curred with the Capital hotel help, while
Thomas Kllpatrlck, the lesse, was absent
from town. Mrs. Tedrowe, the owner, is
temporarily in charge again. Mr. Kll
patrlck is dally expected back from the
coast, when the whole matter will doubt
less be satisfactorily adjusted.
Go or send to the City Green house.
Baker City, for choice pausey and daisey
plants.
Sumpter souvenir spoons. F. C. Bro
die, watchmaker and jeweler, Opera
house block.
Go to Fenner & Worthliigtou for all
kinds of engineering.
Ask for the Columbia beer, brewed in
Sumpter.
Keep your money In Sumpter and drink
Columbia beer a home product.
The City Green house, at Baker City,
furnishes choice cut (lowers.