The Bonanza King

February 1, 2018

Like so many others, Irish immigrant John Mackay rushed to 1840s California in search of gold. It didn't pan out, but in 1859, he walked 100 miles to the Comstock Lode in Nevada, maneuvered his way around other comers, and laid claim to the "Big Bonanza," the richest cache of gold and silver ever found. Then he figured out how to get all that buried treasure out of the ground.

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May 7, 2018
Crouch’s comprehensive narrative combines the history of Nevada’s bustling Comstock Mine with the tale of how penniless miner John Mackay became a famous multimillionaire. The book’s first half establishes background on the life of miners and the technical elements of mining. Mackay takes center stage in the second half, rising from poverty (so abject that the family shared quarters with its pig) to form a partnership that eventually built a very successful mine operations company. Since the former miner was a man of few words (and had a stutter), Crouch lets Mackay’s work speak for him, showing how his firsthand mining knowledge gave him a competitive edge: while other mining companies engaged in speculation over mine stocks, Mackay focused on the tangible ore itself and was shielded from a major economic bust in 1860. The taciturn Irishman also enjoyed an unconventional but happy personal life; Crouch provides an admirably well-rounded description of Mackay’s wife Louise’s difficult early life and the balance that she offered him, despite their living apart most of the time. Helpful footnotes relate historical sites to modern landmarks or locations. This is a thorough tribute to the life and work of an honest man who earned his fortune and kept his good name in an era of fierce competition and astounding corruption.

May 1, 2018
Spirited life of the 19th-century capitalist John Mackay (1831-1902).Mackay was born in Dublin, moved with his family to the notorious Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan to flee famine at home, and saw his share of human misery. He knew how to get out of it, working endlessly, especially after his father died when he was 11. Though, as Crouch (China's Wings: War, Intrigue, Romance, and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom During the Golden Age of Flight, 2012, etc.) writes, his existence years after relocating to the California gold fields "was every bit as hand-to-mouth as it had been when he stepped off the boat in San Francisco." That would change when, in partnership with other hardworking Irish immigrants, he developed the company that would work the Comstock Lode and eventually strike the biggest gold bonanza of the era, in the bargain funding the Union Army during the Civil War and turning San Francisco into a world center of finance and commerce. Money did not change him, once it came into his hands: Mackay was a "man of few indulgences, and fewer words." Indeed, he was notably fair to his workers, notably generous, and notably free of scandal even if he did like a good scrap from time to time. "He missed having an enemy," Crouch writes of the mature, moneyed Mackay. "The one he'd decided to make might have been the most formidable private individual on earth--Jay Gould." Though formulaic, Crouch's life of Mackay adds materially to the economic history of California and Nevada. It's a sturdy work of business history as well, full of useful pointers on how to treat people and build an enduring legacy and fortune. As Crouch notes, when Mackay died, the former tenement dweller was "one of the world's richest men" even though he probably didn't have even a ballpark idea of his financial worth.Admirers of scrupulous entrepreneurship will find much of value in this book.

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