San Francisco County
Biographies
GEORGE WINGFIELD
WINGFIELD, GEORGE, Mining, Reno, Nevada, was born in Fort
Smith, Arkansas, August 16, 1876, the son of Thomas Y. Wingfield and Martha M.
Wingfield. He married Maud Murdock at San
Francisco, California. In his childhood, Mr. Wingfield went to the
west, and his life has been passed there, in a manner typical of the country
and filled to the brim with the excitement that has characterized the growth of
that part of the land.
Every mining boom
has its central figure. Just like Cripple
Creek had its Stratton, so has Goldfield and Tonopah
their Wingfield. He is the embodiment of
the romance of this latest of gold excitements.
His career differs
from that of the other big figures of former booms. Most of the other men were discoverers, and
luck played the chief part in their rise to wealth. Mr. Wingfield could not exactly be called the
discoverer of either Goldfield or Tonopah.
His fortune came more through personal endeavor. He is the man who put mining in the Nevada
camps on a business basis. He took
prospects and converted them into great mines.
He organized mining companies that mined. He is a born leader of men, an organizer, and
to this perhaps is due the most of his success.
Before going to Nevada,
in 1897, Mr. Wingfield had been a cowboy in Southeastern Oregon, where his
father was engaged in the cattle business, and even prior to this he had led a
varied and colorful life, fairly typical of his occupation in that country.
His first mining
venture in Nevada was in the copper mines about Golconda. This stripped him of practically all he
possessed, but he had caught the “gold fever” and was not discouraged. On May 7, 1901, he settled temporarily in
Tonopah, buying mining stocks and claims which
subsequently netted him a handsome profit.
From there he moved to Goldfield, where he was the first man to put
money into the mines, and bought the Sandstorm, Kendall, Columbia
and other promising properties. Together
with his associates he took a lease on the Florence, from which they made about
$750,000, in the meantime, from 1904 to 1906, purchasing all the inside
territory, including the Mohawk, Laguna and various others. During the earlier years of his stay in
Nevada he had banks in Tonopah, Reno and Carson, but sold them in 1902-’06 and
started others in Goldfield, Tonopah and Reno.
In 1906 he added
the Red Top and the Jumbo to his holdings, and in the
same year organized the Goldfield Consolidated Mining Company, comprising the
Mohawk, Red Top, Jumbo and Laguna. He
then purchased the Goldfield Mining Company’s properties, which he merged with
the Consolidated. Later he bought out
the Combination Mines Company, and added this, too, thus converting six
organized mining companies into one huge corporation. Of this, which has produced more that
$42,000,000 in the past six years, Mr. Wingfield is the President and chief
owner.
Until April,
1909, he was associated with U. S.
Senator Nixon in most of his enterprises, but in that year the partnership was dissolved,
the Senator taking all the banking and real estate interests except the John S.
Cook Banking Company, of Goldfield, of which property Mr. Wingfield is now the
sole owner.
In addition to
these holdings he has large interests in California and Nevada,
including live stock and oil fields. He
was one of the organizers of the Nevada Petroleum Company, whose properties are
chiefly in Coalinga, and is still heavily interested therein.
One of the
greatest services Mr. Wingfield has rendered Nevada,
and the mining industry as well, was the fight he waged successfully against
the Industrial Workers of the World and the Western Federation of Miners, which
in that country were practically identical.
They were composed largely of dishwashers, roustabouts and malcontents
who stove to control the labor situation in the mines. Strikes, often on a pretest, were frequent,
and much high-grade ore was stolen from the Consolidated
properties.
Mr. Wingfield was
determined to submit to no dictation from these Orders, and to do the
controlling himself. Though he knew that
his life was in constant danger at the hands of those who had threatened it, he
moved among them as if quite oblivious of the conditions surrounding him. By this demeanor he not only won the respect
of his friends, but also contributed much to the first decisive defeat the
Federation of the I.W.W. had suffered in Nevada. He finally succeeded in driving the trouble
makers out of the country and replaced them with men loyal to his own interests. Since then the mines have been well
conducted, to the great benefit of all concerned.
Mr. Winfield
gives the observer an impression of quiet determination and of a refusal to be
flustered by his extraordinary success.
For a man of his years and training he has remarkable poise, and among
his friends he is known for his substantial remembrances of his former comrades
in adversity, especially of those who assisted him when he needed
assistance. Mr. Winfield is said to be
of those rare mortals who never forget a favor.
He is a member of
the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, the Press Club of San Francisco, the Sierra
Madre Club of Los Angeles, Reno
Commercial Club, Rocky Mountain Club of New York, and is one of the most
prominent members of the B. P. O. E. in the West. He it was who donated several thousand
dollars in a lump sum in order to complete the building of the Elks’ Home in
Goldfield.
Transcribed
by Pat Seabolt.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page
547, International News
Service, New
York,
Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2007 Pat Seabolt.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library