P. T. Farnsworth and the Austin Silver Mine
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This page was last updated on March 7, 2026.
(The focus of this page is brief biographical notes of the men that made the mining industry in Utah so successful. Also to establish a timeline using sources not previously readily available.)
As important as the everyday wage worker was to the history of mining in Utah, it was several men with experience, vision and charisma who made the mining industry in Utah so successful. These men developed the networks of mining engineers and financiers to develop the undeveloped or partially developed mining claims to become giant organizations that made money for their shareholders, and in many cases, kept the mines as a decent place to work.
P. T. Farnsworth (1849-1920)
(Frisco and Tintic)
Philo Taylor Farnsworth Jr. (15 October 1849 – 19 July 1920) (KWVP-2JL)
(Read more about P. T. Farnsworth)
Austin Mining Company
(Austin, Nevada)
September 8, 1891
P. T. Farnsworth was elected as manager of the Austin Silver mine in Austin, Nevada. -- Mining operations were to be resumed upon the old Manhattan Mining and Reduction company's property in Austin, Nevada, which had been sold on September 8th to the Austin Mining Co. of Chicago. The new company's officers were as follows: A. C. Washington, President; A. N. Phelps Stokes, Treasurer; H. L. Harrison, Secretary; and P. T. Farnsworth, General Manager. Mr. Farnsworth was to be in Austin in a few days to direct operations; and had telegraphed C. W. Hinchcliffe requesting him to take charge of the company's property, and have Mr. Hutchinson continue the present operations until his arrival. (Salt Lake Tribune, September 16, 1891, quoting the Austin Reveille)
(The Manhattan Mining and Reduction company had closed in 1887, but had been one of the star performing mines during Austin's boom times of the 1860s to 1880s, and the Austin Mining company was the Stokes family's attempt in 1891 to restart the production of the mine to provide traffic for their Nevada Central Railroad. Farnsworth immediately set about repairing the inactive shafts and underground drifts and crosscuts. The Austin mine was the center of the Reese River mining district, and was the remnant of the Manhattan Silver Mining Company which began buying up smaller claims and mills in 1865. By the 1870s, they owned nearly every major mine in the canyon.)
(In July 1891, Stokes met Mr. P. T. Farnsworth, manager of the Horn Silver Mining Company, and Mr. A. C. Washington, president. They owned mining property in central Nevada and had done a large business with Stokes' Nevada Central Railroad. They had recently surveyed mines in the Austin area and proposed a partnership with Stokes. The company they formed along with Stokes was the Austin Mining Company, organized to restart the old Manhattan mine at Austin. The reorganized mine was initially profitable but became unprofitable owing to the depressed silver prices of the period 1893-1895. In 1898 Stokes was made aware that Farnsworth was possibly not acting in his best interests, and in July 1898, Farnsworth was replaced as manager of the Austin Mining company.)
(In March 1896, with P. T. Farnsworth still as general manager, the Austin Mining company was completing its drain tunnel, which was into the mountain 5,000 feet, with 1,500 feet yet to go to connect with its shaft, which had reached 700 feet below the surface. The tunnel had been started in 1893 and when the tunnel was finished, its portal, which was near the Nevada Central railroad depot in Austin, would be the location of the mining company's power house, compressor and mill. The tunnel will also remove the expense of hoisting ore and waste to the surface using the shaft. The mine was working 80 claims using two shafts, which were connected underground.)
(Anson Phelps Stokes (1838–1913) was the "Phelps" of the very successful Phelps Dodge & Co. mercantile and later, copper company. He had a son and a grandson by the same name. He was patriarch of the family's greatest wealth, and a merchant, banker, and developer. He was a major figure in New York City real estate and built "Shadowbrook," which at the time was the largest private residence in the United States. The Phelps Stokes family was part of the Gilded Age of American business.)
The Austin Mine Case (1897)
This case is often cited in Nevada mining history as the turning point that signaled the decline of the Austin mining district. When in reality, the Austin mines had failed years before, leaving only marginal operations. It serves as a classic example of the "absentee owner" problem, where wealthy Eastern investors were allegedly defrauded by local managers, when in fact it was the investor's total lack of knowledge, experience and understanding of the costs of hard rock mining.
Anson Phelps Stokes had built the Nevada Central Railway, which reached Austin in early 1880. The line was constructed by the Union Pacific for the benefit of the Nevada Central Railway, for which there was an unpaid debt of $650,000. Union Pacific took ownership from 1881 to 1884 when it declared bankruptcy caused by the lack of business for the railroad due severely reduced mining activity. Stokes purchased the bankrupt company and reorganized it in 1888 as the Nevada Central Railroad.
In 1897, Anson Phelps Stokes, built what is today known as the "Stokes Castle," a three-story stone tower. He built it as a summer home to oversee his mining interests in Austin, modeled after a tower he had seen in Italy. He and his family and friends used the building only occasionally until 1898 when he closed his mines in the Austin area. The tower remains as a landmark in Austin.
In late July 1898, Anson Phelps Stokes and his Austin Mining company sued P. T. Farnsworth, as former general manager, for $110,751. The mining company charged Farnsworth with fraud by the use of monies given to him to purchase other mining properties.
The court case of Austin Mining Company vs. P.T. Farnsworth, begun in July 1898 in the U.S. Circuit Court in Salt Lake City, was a high-profile legal battle centered on allegations of fraud and embezzlement that ultimately led to the collapse of essentially all mining in the Austin district in Nevada.
The dispute arose when the owners of the Austin Mining Company, primarily the wealthy Stokes family of New York, discovered significant financial discrepancies. They accused their General Manager, Philo T. Farnsworth, of exploiting his position for personal gain.
The company alleged that Farnsworth had engaged in systematic embezzlement totaling over $110,000 (a massive sum in 1898, equivalent to several million dollars today). They accused Farnsworth of taking personal kickbacks during the purchase of mining supplies, as well as overcharging the company for the purchase of mining claims and properties. They also accused him of using company funds to acquire a saloon and other private interests while representing the mining firm.
The case went through two trials. The court eventually found Farnsworth liable for $77,000. However, the "victory" for the Austin Mining Company was largely hollow. Farnsworth reportedly had few seizable assets, making it nearly impossible for the Stokes family to collect the judgment.
(Parts of the testimony taken during the trials included remarks of Farnsworth's excellent reputation in Beaver, Frisco, Tintic and Salt Lake City as an honest and forthright businessman in all his dealings. Much surprise and dismay was displayed at the accusations of fraud and embezzlement. His personal worth was audited and found to be barely adequate for the upper middle class mine operator that he was known to be. But the audit also found that he was acting as trustee for several persons and companies.)
Although the court case was not well covered in the newspapers, or in published court records (i. e., no docket numbers), the story goes that James Graham Phelps Stokes (Anson Phelps Stokes' son) was enraged by the betrayal and the inability to recover the funds awarded by the judgment against Farnsworth, and ordered the closure of the mines in the Austin area, and removal of the machinery, moving their operations to Berlin, Nevada, 59 miles to the southwest. The closure of the Austin mines and the destruction of machinery dealt a devastating blow to the local economy of Austin, effectively ending a major era of mining activity in the region.
The reality was likely that the mine was a failure regardless of what Farnsworth did or did not do with the finances in question, and Stokes used the court case as an excuse to close it.
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