Collection: Directories and Documents

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Title: Lost Grass Valley Gold Rush History of the Wilhelm & Binkleman Pioneer Families by Waldo C.F. Potter (2024) Collection Type: Directories and Documents Author: Waldo C.F. Potter Published: 2024 # of Pages: 374 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-12 19:32:15 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:22:43 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:22:43

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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Coleman were the owners of the fabulously rich Idaho Quartz Mine, Grass Valley, and good friends of Theo’s uncle, Jacob Hart Neff, who was the longtime president of the California Miner’s Association, California state senator from 1871-1876, Grand Knight of the California Masons, and later the Lt. Governor of California from 1899-1903. So, Theo. Wilhelm would have known the Colemans through both his powerful uncle, the Masons, and the then-small Grass Valley community. Most people in those times lived to be about 35 — 40 years old. He lived 60 years before he had his heart attack. His last few years appeared to be hard on him. He had a famous litigation with the W.Y.0.D. Mine was in Feb. 1901, and it went on until October 1902. He finally won that lawsuit but had spent much of the Pennsylvania Mine’s resources and sold much of his stock to pay for this litigation. During the time of the lawsuit, both mines were allowed to do exploration work for new veins, but no gold ore could be extracted or milled during this time. The two mines planned to keep their combined 160 miners but could not do anything but exploration. And this was a time of high inflation. Men probably had to be laid off. The W.Y.O.D. Mine was given to the Pennsylvania Mine, but they stopped their water pumps and let both mines flood in August 1902, after they left the W.Y.0.D. We do not know what problems this caused with the Pennsylvania Mine or starting work on W.Y.O.D., but we know that the Pennsylvania Mine had no pumps and could have caused some flooding. All of this must have caused terrible financial issues during this time, and then they were short of cash to proceed to work after the lawsuit was settled. Later, when the Empire Mine bought the Pennsylvania/W.Y.O.D. mines in May 1911, they quickly found fantastic new veins that helped them become the richest mine in Nevada County. In 1908, Rosie Wilhelm died. Finally, in 1909, after almost 36 years of running his Empire Market, he sold it for $2,500.00 in U.S. gold due to health issues. A year later, he died during a trip to San Francisco to see a “good doctor” and to visit friends and his oldest daughter, Ida Louise Wilhelm (my grandmother), who was studying voice. After his death, the Pennsylvania mine struck a very rich vein in 1913. The Pennsylvania/W.Y.O.D. mines and the North Star became the Empire Mine’s strongest producers in the years before the Empire Mine finally closed. Theo, Sophie Binkleman, and the rest of the stockholders may have done much better if it had not been for the litigation the W.Y.0.D. Mine brought against them. In the book GOLD The Saga of The Empire Mine 1850 — 1956, F.W. McQuestion, Jr. discusses when the Empire Mine acquired the Pennsylvania Mine: “Two of Empire’s neighbors, The Pennsylvania Mine Company and the W.Y.O.D. The company (Work Your Own Diggings) got involved in a monumental vein apex dispute, which was settled in court in 1902 after 12 years (wrong — it was a little more than one year of legal battles backed by newspaper articles from that time). W.B. Bourne, Jr., had an option on both properties to acquire the Pennsylvania Mine, which had a capacity of 28,000-30,000 tons per year. This proved to be an excellent investment; for example, in 1913, the Pennsylvania Mine had ore production about equal to that of the Empire, with double the profits. 1915, the Pennsylvania option was paid off, and the property became an integral part of the Empire Mines and Investment Company.” It is interesting to note how many of our ancestors lived long lives in Grass Valley. According to Ralph Mann’s research in his book After the Gold Rush, Society in Grass Valley and Nevada City, California 1849 — 1870, only thirteen out of every 100 (13%) of people in Grass Valley remained in Grass Valley, according to the U.S. Census, from 1860 compared to 1870. Much of this was miners' turnover in the early days of hard rock gold quartz mining, although this same turnover rate in residents continued into the 1870s. Our ancestors lived in Grass Valley all their lives after either having arrived or being born in Grass Valley: David Binklemann (lived in Grass Valley for 41 years), Sophia Binklemann (62 years), Theodore Wilhelm (38 years), Rosa Binkleman (53 years), L.C. Wilhelm (38 years), and David Jr. Binkleman (69 years). Of course, all five of Theodore and Rosa Wilhelm’s daughters lived in Grass Valley until they were married or left home to pursue a profession after high school graduation. According to Ralph Mann’s research, this lifespan in Grass Valley would have been rare. Even merchants, lawyers, and professionals would have moved on to new gold/silver strikes or moved during recessions in the local economy. Also, there is an interesting quote from Ralph Mann’s book. “The American-born citizens of Grass Valley were overrepresented at the top of the well-off in the city, but because of 165