Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Read (William M.) Papers
BANC MSS P-G 251
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: William Miles Read Papers,
creator:
Read, William Miles, 1849-1929
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS P-G 251
Physical Description:
3.75 linear feet
(3 cartons)
Date (inclusive): 1867-1929
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], William Miles Read papers, BANC MSS P-G 251, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
- Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library
- Two large maps from the collection have also been removed and catalogued separately.
Picture Nos. (BANC PIC 1905.11950-.11962--PIC)
- 11950 Hamilton, Nevada: Hotel [?]
- 11951 Entrance to Eberhardt Tunnel
- 11952 Ely, Nevada, view
- 11953 Ely, Nevada, railway station
- 11954 Ely, Nevada [?]
- 11955 Entrance to Eberhardt Tunnel, ca. 1875-1885
- 11956 Eberhardt Mill with Frank Drake's house
- 11957 Eberhardt Mill
- 11958 The miners of the Monitor Mine
- 11959 The Monitor Mill
- 11960 The town of South Taylor
- 11961 People associated with the Monitor Mine
- 11962 Main Street, Eureka, Nevada
- 3197 William Miles Read
- 3198 William Miles Read
- 3199 Mrs. William Miles Read
- 3200 Frank Drake
- 3201 Jim Ragsdale
- Map of the Monitor
- Gore Mine Map of the Treasure Hill Mining Area
The collection consists chiefly and most importantly of material relating to the development, growth and subsequent decline
of the mining properties of White Pine County, Nevada, herein designated as the "Eberhardt and Aurora mines." The earliest
papers detail the transactions of the White Pine Water Works of California, whereby water was made available to the newly-opened
mining properties. The sale of this company to the White Pine Waterworks Company, Ltd., of London, a subsidiary of the Eberhardt
and Aurora Mining Company, Ltd., marks the initial growth of these mines. The several Reports, both to the Directors of the
parent company in London and to the officials of the plant in Nevada, along with the complete file of deeds and agreements
pertaining to the reformation of one company into another, may be consulted for clarification of these business activities.
The Eberhardt Mill and Mining Company had been established in the late '60s, and was sold to the Eberhardt and Aurora Mining
Company, Ltd. in 1870. The two major companies acquired by the latter firm in the early '70s were the aforementioned White
Pine Water Works of California and the Aurora Consolidated Silver Mining Company, in 1873. Deeds to mines in the Treasure
Hill area purchased by Thomas Phillpotts for the Everhardt and Aurora Mining Company, Ltd. at this time are also included
in one folder. Properties of the Everhardt and Aurora Mining Company, Ltd. were transferred to the Everhardt Company, Ltd.
(date not known), and in turn transferred to the Everhardt and Monitor Company, Ltd. in 1885. Reports of the mines during
this period are included in the folder titled "Reports." In 1888 the property was transferred to the New Eberhardt Company,
Ltd., for which there are many more documents, including a ledger, journal accounts, pay roll sheets, and reports. The New
Eberhardt Company, Ltd. was transferred to the Thistle Reef Gold Mining Company in 1894, and two years later to the Thistle
Consolidated Mines, Ltd., which in turn was sold to William Miles Read. The latter continued to operate the property until
1904, when title passed to a company registered in the Transvaal.
William Miles Read was born in England in 1849 and came to the United States in 1865. By the early 1870s he was in White Pine
County, Nevada, working for the Eberhardt and Aurora Mining Company, Ltd., one of whose officials was Francis (Frank) Drake.
Read's association with Drake outlasted their association with the Eberhardt mines; Read married Drake's niece, Rose, was
a partner with him in many other Nevada mining ventures, and also served as administrator of Drake's estate after the latter's
death in 1909.
Read removed to California, living chiefly at Capitola, and engaged in steamship operations between San Francisco and Alaska.
He was also interested in California real estate, in Alameda and Kern counties, and his correspondence indicates a continuing
involvement in Nevada porperties in the vicinity of the "Eberhardt and Aurora mines."
Read died on December 14, 1929, at the home of his daughter, Charlotte Read Jeffreys (Mrs. E. C. Jeffreys) in Oakland, and
was buried from Santa Cruz. His widow, Rose Drake Read, and two grand-daughters also survived. One of the grand-daughters,
Mrs. Dora Jeffreys Hoover has provided biographical and other materials, a manuscript map of the Treasure Hill area, and especially
informative notes regarding the "Monitor and Gore" mine. Mrs. Hoover sold the collection to the Bancroft Library in 1953.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Read, William Miles, 1849-1929