Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1878 — The Romance of William S. O’Brien. [ARTICLE]

The Romance of William S. O’Brien.

Bom in New York in 1836, poor as a church mouse ; living here for thirteen years as the poorest of the poor do live ; stealing as a stowaway or shipping as a cabin boy on board the ship Faralinto, and arriving in Ban Francisco on the 6th of July, 1849, a lad in his fourteenth year, destitute alike of education, of money and of friends ; beginning life as a barkeeper in an eating house in the basement of one of the San Francisco stock exchanges; and dying the other day, leaving no wife or child behind him, but a fortune of certainly not less than $15,000,000, and perhaps of $40,000,000 —this is the outline of the romance of William S. O’Brien, one of the great Bonanza kings; and a stranger story has seldom been told. Was it luck, or was it natural sagacity and prudent daring that won for him and his three millionaire associates their immense fortunes ? It is hard to say. The capricious dame Fortune had, no doubt, much to do with it; but her favors would not have yielded this bountiful increase had they been bestowed on men devoid of some excellent business qualities. It appears that O’Brien must have been thrifty and saving in hi 3 youth ; for at the time of the first mining excitement he was keeping a saloon of his own and acting as his own barkeeper. He was seized with the fever, went to the mines and made some money, with which he went into business with the late CoL W. C. Hoff. This connection was dissolved in two years, and O Brien then formed a copartnership with W. J. Rosner, in the ship chandlery business. Meanwhile, however, he was speculating in mining stocks, and hero fortune smiled upon him. Sis investments were cautious and in small lots, but they almost always turned out profitable, and he began to grow moderately well off. He now formed a partnership with Mr. Flood, another successful stock operator, and Messrs. Mackey and Fair subsequently joined the firm. And now a dazzling and unexampled piece of good fortune awaited them. The Consolidated Virginia and California mines were opened, and their shares were in the market. By shrewd questioning of miners and others, or by other means, O’Brien and his partners satisfied themselves that the lodes were valuable —although there is no reason to suppose even they dreamed how valuable they were—and as quickly as possible they bought up the shares until they possessed nearly the whole of them. The Big Bonanza was discovered; the unexampled richness of the lodes was disclosed ; million after million of the finest silver and gold ore ever found came to the surface ; the shares went up to fabulous figures, and O’Brien and his partners found themselves almost incredibly rich. They established the great Bank of Nevada, and from that time on they have been the money kings of the Pacific coast. —New York Graphic.