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Capt. Joseph R. DeLamar

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Joseph Raphael DeLamar

Joseph Raphael DeLamar (September 2, 1843 – December 1, 1918)

(Read the Wikipedia article about Capt. J. R. DeLamar)

Captain J. R. DeLamar was involved in the Mercur mining district from 1894 to 1900 when his DeLamar Mercur Mines company was consolidated with the adjacent Mercur Gold Mining & Milling Co. to form the Consolidated Mercur Mines Co. He was also initially involved when Jackling and Gemmell created the Utah Copper company.

Mining and Scientific Press (November 1918)

Mining and Scientific Press, November 2, 1918, page 585.

George Kislingbury recalled his association with DeLamar.

In the summer of 1881, while en route from Denver to Rosita, Colorado, I took passage on a stage-coach at Canyon City, going to Silver Cliff. My fellow passengers were Henry M. Teller, Capt. J. R. DeLamar, and Edmund Edyvean. Certainly the right combination for a new country. Senator Teller, I was acquainted with, for I had met him in 1868 at the office of Teller & Orahood, Central City. Mr. Edyvean I had met at Dodgeville, Iowa County, Wisconsin, where he was engaged in the smelting business. He had a small Scotch furnace; a number of them were successfully operated in that lead district of Wisconsin. Edyvean introduced me to Captain DeLamar, and I, in turn, introduced them to Senator Teller. General conversation followed and during the all-day ride we became well acquainted.

I learned that DeLamar was taking Edyvean to the Terrible mine for the purpose of building a smelter. I became interested at once, and before we reached Silver Cliff, DeLamar invited me to go with them to the mine. This, I understood, was the first mining venture for DeLamar. His associates were the Wahl Bros. of Chicago. The mine was operated at a good profit and when developed sufficiently to warrant a steady production was sold by DeLamar to the Omaha & Grant Smelting & Refining Co., the Captain taking his share of the profits and going to Silver City, Idaho. There he purchased some prospects and opened up the famous DeLamar mine and operated it at a profit and finally sold it to foreign parties.

In 1893 Capt. DeLamar arrived in Durango, Colorado, accompanied by James Healey, a mining man from Nevada. I met him and we proceeded to the Montezuma mine in the La Plata mountains for the purpose of examining the same. Arriving there, I was instructed, first to examine the surface openings scattered over the property. DeLamar and Healey sampled the main incline and drifts. Some hours after, I was instructed to sample the incline and drifts. The Captain and Healey left for Durango and Denver before I completed my work. When I finished my work I had the samples tested at the Durango smelter, wired the returns to the Captain at Denver and heard nothing from him till after he reached New York; when I was informed the results
obtained from my sampling corroborated his own work.

In 1894 I received a telegram from him to go to Denver and inquire for a letter of instruction at the office of Pierce & Smith. The instructions were to go to the Cripple Creek district and take samples from any good-looking property that was offered for sale and report my findings to him in New York. I was also instructed to take my samples for assay either to E. E. Burlingame of Denver, or to the works managed by Charles MacNeill at Victor. After taking samples from the Gold Coin mine - then 60 feet deep - and several other properties, I went to MacNeill's office with my letter of instruction and the samples, and was introduced by MacNeill to D. C. Jackling, assayer and chemist, who made the tests on all the samples I cut in that district.

Returning to Denver, I found letters with instructions to proceed to Salt Lake City, to find A. N. Butts, owner of the Golden Gate mine at Mercur, Utah, examine that property, and send my report to New York. I made a thorough examination, had the samples tested by R. H. Officer & Co., sending duplicates either to Burlingame or MacNeill; telegraphed, results to Capt. DeLamar, who wired me he was leaving for San Francisco the next day and would meet me at Salt Lake.

We met there, as per arrangement, and went over the maps and assay-sheets, and the next day proceeded to Mercur. Descending the shaft to the incline, his attention was called to the sample-cuts, which were every five feet alternating on the two sides of the incline and drifts therefrom. In the raises the cuts extended from the incline sunk on the foot-wall the full height of the raise, in several cases 20 to 25 feet. In each cut I had a drill-hole put in and a wooden plug inserted with a tag corresponding to my number on the assay-sheet upon which I had the assay-values plainly marked with the width of each sample-cut.

With a copy of this assay in hand the Captain carefully examined the numbers on the plugs and finally said: "This is excellent work, good sampling, but I will cut some samples to verify the values on the assay-sheet." Spreading the canvas, he personally cut the samples, quartered, sacked, and sealed the sacks, and when a sufficient number had been taken, we returned to Salt Lake and he instructed Officer & Co. to make the tests. While this work was going on, he instructed me to find Mr. Butts, the owner of the mine. I did so, and after the assay-certificates were received, a deal was made for the property, Butts receiving a good substantial payment in cash and a splendid real estate property, worth at least $90,000, located at Boise City, Idaho. I was then appointed superintendent of the mine and proceeded to open it for production.

I employed Frank Anderson of Salt Lake City to survey the claims and Lee Gilson as assayer. Needing some extra surveying done and Anderson being unable to do it, he sent Robert Gemmell, who did the engineering work for several years. About eight months after the purchase I received a letter from Capt. DeLamar stating that George H. Robinson of Butte City had been appointed general manager of all his Western mining interests; that Robinson would visit Mercur, which he did. After a careful inspection - making no changes in plan or method of development - he questioned me regarding the qualifications of my assayer and stated it would be necessary to have a competent chemist there; that he had one at Butte City and would send him to me. This gentleman, Harry Bacorn, arrived. His work was unsatisfactory to me, and when Robinson arrived one month later, he asked me how I liked the chemist. Plainly, and without knowing he was a relative of Robinson, I told him I preferred to get another man, and stating my reasons, he said: "I hold you responsible for everything going on at this mine. If Bacorn don't suit you, I will find him a place at Tintic." He then asked me if I knew of a good man. I then told him that D. C. Jackling had done considerable work for me at Victor, Colorado, and I believed he would fill the position perfectly; that DeLamar could arrange with MacNeill to have him transferred to Mercur.

Robinson took the address of MacNeill and Jackling and wired DeLamar and in a short time Jackling arrived and took charge of the assaying and chemical department. During this time Colonel Wall came to Mercur and wanted me to interest Capt. DeLamar in the Brickyard mine. I took the matter up with the DeLamar office, then established in the Dooly Block, Salt Lake City, and was instructed to sample the mine. This resulted in its purchase; and shortly after I went with Colonel Wall and made a preliminary sampling of his copper claims in Bingham canyon, now known as the 'Utah Copper.' I spent three days and took my samples to Mercur for treatment. The copper content was very low and the price of copper at that time was about nine cents; consequently no deal was made, but the first knowledge obtained by the DeLamar office was the result of my sampling of the Wall property and nearly two years previous [note] to the time when the property was offered to our mutual friend, J. W. MacNeill, as stated in your article. When Robinson resigned, H. A. Cohen was appointed manager of the Golden Gate mine. He had previously been serving Capt. DeLamar in some capacity in New York and at the DeLamar mine in Nevada. I, in June, 1897, resigned the superintendency and recommended Duncan MacVichie of Salt Lake to take charge of the property - and I again was placed in the field to obtain another mine - and finally succeeded in bringing about the deal for the Bully Hill copper mine in Shasta county, California, which the Captain purchased, worked, and equipped with smelter, and sold at a profit.

[M&SP Editor's Note: Mr. Kislingbury is in error; he refers to events in 1895 or 1896; Mr. MacNeill did not become interested in the Utah Copper deal until six years later.]

I regard Capt. DeLamar as the best-posted mining capitalist I ever met and he does not belong to that class of mining men who make their money by peddling stock. He believes in getting a property, equipping it with proper machinery, and taking the money from sales of the mining products, proving their merits fully, but he is business-like and always open for an offer on anything he owns. He usually sells to large operating companies and after thorough examination by leading engineers. His experts have covered the entire mining field in quest of desirable properties. I personally examined properties in all the Western States and Territories, Honduras, Mexico, British Columbia, Alaska, and Ontario.

George Kislingbury.
Los Angeles, October 21.

Newspapers (1918)

December 1, 1918
From the Sault Star, Sault St. Marie, Ontario, December 2, 1918.

December 1, 1918
"Capt. J. R. Delamar Is Dead In New York -- New York, Dec. 1 - Captain Joseph Raphael DeLamar, financier and mine owner, died today in Roosevelt Hospital of pneumonia, which developed after an operation. He was 75 years of age and was president of the Dome Mine Company, vice president of the International Nickel Company, and a director in many other corporations." (Moncton New Brunswick Transcript, December 2, 1918)

Mining and Scientific Press (December 1918)

From Mining and Scientific Press, Volume 117, December 4, 1918, page 777.

Captain DeLamar -- The death of Joseph R. DeLamar robs the mining world of one of its most notable personalities. Capt. DeLamar's career was romantic, for he ran away to sea from Amsterdam when a boy and became master of a ship trading between the Bermudas and New York.

In 1878 the lure of the Leadville boom brought him to the West, where eventually he became one of the most active and successful of mining adventurers. He made money out of mines in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, becoming a millionaire. Then he went to New York and continued to be successful in mining operations in Canada, notably the Sudbury nickel district and the Cobalt silver district. Recently he financed a large beet-sugar refinery in Utah.

He died at 75, after having hit most of the high spots accessible to a man of his type. He worked hard and spent his money judiciously. He was discriminating in his choice of mines, avoiding those offering a narrow margin of profit. Where others were eager to secure possession of mining property, he bided his time. He had a commercial instinct alike in buying mines and in purchasing pictures. Although not averse from the chicane of a tricky business, he did not peddle stocks or promote companies as a means of unloading disappointing mines on the public; on the contrary, he dealt with others in ‘the game' well able to protect themselves. Thus it became a contest of wits, in which he took an even chance.

The Nipissing fiasco will be recalled as an example of his outwitting clever people, for in that affair he euchred the Guggenheims and their expert to a laughable degree. He was keen in keeping well-informed. For instance, he would read scores of local papers in order to get news of the latest discoveries in the West, and he was, we are told, a diligent reader of the Mining and Scientific Press. He was always ready to send a ‘scout', one of his staff, to investigate any new find of ore. He was willing to face the risks of mining, and to depart from the beaten track.

He erected a notable metallurgical plant at Mercur, introducing an early use of steel-concrete construction; and at Bully Hill he built an up-to-date copper plant, to which, when he found trouble in marketing his blister copper, he added his own refinery. He was a ‘live' man, no mere nog in the machinery of life, but a driving-wheel. His code was not that of the Sunday-school but of the business arena, yet he lived up to his own code and made himself useful in his day and generation.

Engineering and Mining Journal (1918)

From Engineering and Mining Journal, December 14, 1918, Volume 106, Number 24, page 1038.

Captain Joseph R. DeLamar, capitalist, mine owner and director in a number of important business enterprises, died at the Roosevelt Hospital of pneumonia on Dec. 1. One daughter, his only child, Alice A. DeLamar, survives him.

Captain DeLamar was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1848, but only the first few years of his life were spent in his native land. His bold and vigorous character displayed itself early; for, being desirous of seeing the world, he ran away from home at the age of seven years and shipped aboard an East Indian ship as cabin boy, without wages. On the homeward voyage he was promoted and given a salary of four Dutch guilders (about $1.60) per month. His first voyage completed, he continued to follow the sea, gradually working his way up through the various grades of seamanship. His early education in the elementary branches of learning - reading, writing and arithmetic - was also acquired at sea, the mates of the various ships on which he sailed teaching him, in consideration of his devoting a portion of his watches below to washing their clothes.

By the time he was 21 years old, Captain DeLamar had visited the four quarters of the globe. At the age of 23 [1871] he obtained a captain's diploma, shipped for a voyage as first officer, and returned as captain. Submarine work, or diving, being very profitable at this time, so, soon after our Civil War, he concluded to leave the merchant marine service and engage in this business. For several years subsequently he was employed in this manner, raising sunken vessels in the Delaware River, off the New Jersey coast, and at St. Thomas, West Indies. He finally established headquarters at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, and continued this line of work along the coast. In 1876 he succeeded in raising a cargo of 1660 tons of Italian marble from a vessel sunk off the Bermudas many years before, on which three different wrecking parties had worked without success.

Captain DeLamar was generally successful in this business and accumulated considerable money from it. Looking around for an investment for his savings, he decided to embark in the African trade, and himself assumed charge of a vessel as master and supercargo. In this venture he again met with substantial financial success, but on account of the African coast fevers, which every year cost him the lives of several of his crew, he determined to abandon such a hazardous undertaking, and in 1878 sold his interests.

About this time precious-metal mining in the Rocky Mountains was exciting renewed attention in the East, due to the wonderful bonanzas which were just being uncovered in Leadville. Attracted by the possibilities for the accumulation of great wealth in the mining business, Capt. DeLamar resolved to quit the sea for good and engage in mining. Upon his arrival in Colorado, however, he immediately realized the necessity of a thorough scientific knowledge of geology and mining for the successful prosecution of the business which he purposed to follow, and, thereupon, went to work to make good this deficiency, to the best of his ability, by studying assaying, chemistry, ore dressing, and metallurgy. He spent eight years in mining in Colorado, meeting with very fair success. Among the most important of his undertakings was the development of the Terrible lead mine of Custer County. This property he purchased when it was a mere prospect, for $3500. He opened a large body of low-grade lead carbonate ore, and finally erected dressing works of 250 tons per day capacity for its concentration. This mill, which was at the time the best equipped and by far the largest concentrating works in Colorado, proved very successful. Notwithstanding the low grade of the ore, which averaged in value only about $4.50 per ton, and the high cost of labor and supplies, the Terrible mine was operated at substantial profit, and was sold in 1886 by Captain DeLamar to the Omaha & Grant Smelting and Refining Co. at a good price.

Captain DeLamar spent the next two years in traveling, visiting during this time most of the principal mining camps in the western United States in search of another property to develop. He finally selected a prospect on a mountain, six miles west of Silver City, in Owyhee County, Idaho, where he purchased a group of mining claims for a small amount, and located others around it, so as to cover practically the whole mountain, the property secured representing a tract of mineral land about one mile long and three-fourths of a mile wide. Work was begun by driving a crosscut tunnel into the mountain, to intersect at right angles the veins which cropped at the surface.

The result of the exploration work on this property and its subsequent production proved the wisdom of Captain DeLamar's purchase. A number of parallel veins were cut carrying gold and silver. As these veins were followed on their strike toward the east they were all cut off or pinched out by a dike, at the intersection of which the ore was abnormally rich, carrying into the thousands of ounces of silver per ton.

Captain DeLamar was extremely cautious in his mining operations, venturing extensively, but not without good judgment. The Idaho property was not equipped with a mill until it had been in his hands for over a year. Then he started with two small, secondhand mills, and not until August, 1890, did he erect a modern 20-stamp mill.

During 1890 many carload shipments were made direct to the smelter which returned $1500 to $2000 per ton, while the mill worked on ore averaging over $30 per ton. This property was sold to an English company in the spring of 1891 for $2,000,000 cash. The Captain subsequently took an interest in the property in lieu of part of the cash, and for a time acted as resident director.

Prior to the sale Captain DeLamar had taken $1,500,000 from the mine. The new company paid its first dividend from the 20-stamp mill in July of 1891. From that date the mine grew steadily, until, with a larger mill, 250 to 300 tons per day was treated. Two entirely new systems of veins were found that added materially to the value of the property, but commercial ore did not extend to great depth in any of the veins, and the quality gradually diminished until about four years ago, when expenses began to exceed returns, and the property closed after an honorable career and record in which its founder could take just pride.

Captain DeLamar took a very active part in all public affairs in Idaho. In 1891 he was state Senator and was appointed the state's sole representative at the Chicago World's Fair. Being particularly desirous that the state make a good showing at this time, he offered to duplicate from his private resources any sum that citizens of the state might raise.

The DeLamar mine of Nevada, one of the most noted mines acquired and operated by DeLamar, came into his hands in 1893. The original purchase price was $150,000, but it is said that $600,000 was expended before the property became productive. The gross yield reached a total of over $9,000,000 by the end of 1900. The metallurgical history of this property was interesting. There was first established a chlorination plant, which was not entirely successful. A small cyanide plant was next erected, and this grew by successive additions until a daily capacity of 300 tons was reached. A conspicuous feature of the plant was the use of Griffin mills for dry crushing, and zinc dust for precipitating the auriferous cyanide solutions. In 1902 options on this property were given to J. E. and S. Bamberger, of New York, and soon thereafter the property passed into their hands.

Captain DeLamar also was interested in the DeLamar Mine, of Shasta County, Calif., and established the DeLamar Refinery at Chrome, New Jersey, which was subsequently purchased by the U. S. Smelting Co., in 1905.

In 1900 we note the large holdings of the Captain in DeLamar's Mercur Mines Company, which up to that time had paid about $700,000 in dividends, and during that year was combined with the Mercur Gold Mining and Milling Company to form the Consolidated Mercur Gold Mines Company, a company that has had a long and prosperous career and has been one of the main sources of the DeLamar income.

It was in Mercur that Captain DeLamar came in touch with Colonel Wall, Jackling, and Gemmell, and in 1895 his attention was first drawn to Utah Copper district. His first option on three-fourths of Colonel Wall's property called for the payment of $375,000. For a period of eight years the Captain was more or less interested in this low-grade district, but never became convinced, while the property was undeveloped, that it would be a profitable investment for the very large sum that would be required; so he disposed of his quarter interest in 1903, to those who have made a success of the Utah Copper Company.

Recently Captain DeLamar had been president of the Dome Mines, at Porcupine; vice-president of the Delta Beet Sugar Co.; vice-president of the International Nickel Co.; a director of the American Bank Note Co., Coronet Phosphate Co., Canadian Mining and Exploration Co., and the Manti Sugar Co., as well as having interest in various other organizations.

Since 1890 Captain DeLamar had made his home in the East. He built a town house at 233 Madison Avenue, but took the greatest pride in his country estate near Glen Cove, Long Island. Facing the Sound toward the northwest, passers-by on steamers invariably ask whose wonderful place it is. Here he entertained lavishly, exhibiting to his guests his wonderful collections of plants and flowers, and while looking out with them toward the western sunset recalling vividly the interesting incidents of his early life in his adopted country.

Approximately half of Captain DeLamar's estate, having an estimated value of about $20,000,000, goes to Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins, and to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University "for the study and teaching of the origin of human disease and the prevention thereof, and how to secure health by proper diet. And I especially enjoin on the legatees the dissemination of the results of studies, through popular publications, public lectures and other appropriate methods, etc."

The will left by Captain DeLamar bears testimony of the spirit of the man that accumulated the fortune. The welfare of the people of his native land and of his adopted country was an ever-present thought throughout the later years of his life.

Historical Register (1921)

Historical Register

A Record Of People, Places And Events In American History

Edited By Edwin Charles Hill

New York
1921

Joseph Raphael DeLamar was born in Amsterdam, Holland, September 2nd, 1843. His father, a banker in Amsterdam, died when he was six years of age, and the lad in love of adventure went aboard a Dutch vessel that plied to the West Indies. When the young stowaway was discovered, he was put to work as assistant to the cook without wages. He worked as a seaman until he was twenty, when he became master of a ship, and three years later received a captain's command. He visited almost every port in the world and acquired a wonderful education through his observations in foreign countries. His alert mind was attracted to submarine work, which was profitable, owing to the Civil War, and, with characteristic energy, he abandoned the merchant service and became a submarine contractor, with headquarters at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, operating along the entire coast to the West Indies.

He received several contracts for raising sunken ships, and was very successful. In 1872 he raised the "Charlotte," a transatlantic steamship loaded with Italian marble that had foundered off the Bermudas, and which had baffled the attempts of three previous wrecking companies. His experience, which nearly cost him his life, at Martha's Vineyard, going down in his diving suit to examine personally the damage to the Steamer "William Tibbitts," in which he was imprisoned for thirty-six hours, led Captain DeLamar to relinquish submarine work.

He then studied the opportunities of trade with Africa; trading companies had confined their operations to the Coast, the natives from the interior bringing their goods to the Coast on the shoulders of Negroes at considerable expense. Captain DeLamar decided to do trading in the interior. He equipped a small vessel, capable of navigating the African rivers, stocked with goods and armed with four small cannon, a dozen blunderbusses, rifles and ammunition. He pushed on to the interior, exercising constant vigilance to prevent attacks from hostile tribes. His venture was crowned with complete success. He traded principally on the Gambia and Great Jeba Rivers. After three successful years he gave up this trade on account of the climate — so many of his crew died every year of African fever. He sold his outfit to an English company.

In 1878 he came to New York, and when the gold fever struck Leadville, Colorado, he went West and bought several claims, and the same year took a private course in chemistry and metallurgy under a professor from Chicago University. He returned to the mining fields and purchased the Terrible lead mine in Custer County, Colorado, which he sold to the Omaha & Grant Smelting and Refining Company at a handsome profit. He then obtained control of a mountain six miles west of Silver City, Idaho. Many large veins of gold and silver were discovered on the property and he sold a half interest, after he had taken $1,500,000 from the mine to the DeLamar Mining Company of England for $2,000,000.

He was the sole owner of the Utah Mines and Smelting Company, of Colorado. He was one of the most noted traders in Wall Street for over twenty years, and one of the leading financiers of the country. He was president of the Dome Mine Company, Porcupine, Canada; president of the Delta Beet Sugar Company; vice president of the International Nickel Company; a director of the American Bank Note Company, Coronate Phosphate Company, the Canadian Mining and Exploration Company, American Sumatra Tobacco Company, Manhattan Sugar Company, the National Conduit and Cable Company and the Western Power Company.

In 1891 he served as State Senator in the first Legislature of Idaho, and occupied the Chairmanship on Finance, Railroads and Constitutional Amendments. He was offered the highest honors in the gift of the State, but declined to continue in politics and removed to New York.

He was known in Wall Street as "the man of mystery." He never talked much, his intimate friends say, but was uniformly successful in his transactions. He made millions out of his deal in the Nipissing Gold Mine in 1906.

He married, May 8th, 1893, Nellie Virginia Sands, a direct descendant of John Quincy Adams, and had one daughter, Alice A. DeLamar. Captain DeLamar was a member of the Lotus, and the New York Yacht, Larchmont and Columbia Yacht Clubs. He was the owner of the yacht "May" and "Sagitta," the fastest power boat on the Sound. He was a great believer in aerial navigation and devoted considerable time to the study of the subject. He was also an art connoisseur, a collector of fine paintings, statuary and other art objects. He was also a great lover of music, but his greatest delight was in the gathering of rare plants and flowers, of which he possessed a wonderful collection. He left a large sum to the Harvard University Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University for research into the causes of disease and for the promulgation through lectures, publications, and otherwise of the principles of correct living.

He died December 1st, 1918. His life was full of well directed energy and splendid achievement. A man of large vision, nothing was too vast for him to undertake to perform.

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