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Waterman, Calico, Bismarck
Rugged Individualists
DURING HIS TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS in
Calico,
young Mellen learned how much hopeful
men, "with no other capital than strong hands and the will to do," could do.
The largest group of these individualists was "chloriders" or "tributers," independent miners
who leased the many claims within five miles of town. They paid for their own supplies, sacking,
hauling, and milling and paid the mine owners a royalty of about one-fifth the value of the ore.
(Perhaps because so many miners lived at the outlying properties, the population of Calico made
up only a small part of the district's population.)
Two of the district's mavericks were women. One was the "lady assayer," Mrs. C.H. Cooke, the
wife of an assayer. As Mrs. Harwood found, Mrs. Cooke had "spent the greater portion of her life in
the mines, and feels most at home among the precious metals. . . ." Even better known was Mrs.
Annie Kline Townsend. Though well-educated and raised in luxury in Mississippi, Mrs. Townsend
supported an eight-year-old daughter by prospecting; she sometimes traveled up to 25 miles a
day. She had to begin work at Calico under an assumed name--perhaps this is why Mellen called
her Belle Murdock?-- for "she has been censured and criticized by numbers of weak, dependent,
effeminate creatures, who could compel every woman to conduct themselves according to their
ideas of propriety. . . ." Mrs. Harwood considered Mrs. Townsend "a superior woman, whose
example is worthy of emulation."
Mrs. Townsend was also considered a good miner, as a reporter for the Print learned while
strolling among the mines, including her Golconda in September, 1883: ". . . . While enjoying the
hospitality of Mrs. Townsend in her neat and comfortable cabin in Deep canyon, we were shown
an ore sack full of beautiful specimens from the Golconda, some of which contain bright particles
of wire silver. Mrs. Townsend carefully assorts all her own ore and has become quite a practical
expert in mining business."
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WATERMAN, CALICO, BISMARCK
Oro Grande and Waterman
Discovery of the Calico Mines
The Camp
The Town
Roads & Rails
Rugged Individualists
The Calico Print
Bismarck Camp
Mines & Mills
Town Life
The Decline
Daggett
Calico: Rally & Collapse
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