Senator Fair is best known to the
general public as a member of the bon
anza ring. But among miners and
mining men he is accorded rank as
one of the most accomplished mining
engineers America has ever developed;
and there are experts, traveled and
experienced, who do not hesitate to
say that in the mechanical manage
ment of colossal mining enterprises
Senator Fair has no peer. He was
bom Dec. 3, 1831, in Clougher, Ty
rone county, Ireland, and came to
this country poor and impoverished
in 1843. He was a mere lad, and his
people settled in Geneva, 111. It was
hard scratching for them to give
young Fair an education, but they
finally succeeded in sending him to
Chicago, where he received a good
business training.
In common with other adventu
rous spirits, Senator Fair was infected
with the gold fever in 1841), and in
August of that year he proceeded to
Long’s bar, Feather river, California.
He toiled night and clay amid the
greatest hardships, but the bar turned
out an unprofitable venture and he
soon abandoned it. He was pronouuc
ed in his advocacy for placer mining.
Placer mining was conducted in a
primative style in those days, and did
not afford Senator Fair fitting op
portunities for the exercise of his
peculiar mechanical genius. So that
from the placer bar to tlie quartz mine
was an easy transition for him. He
drifted towards Angelos, Calaveras
county, and at a later period he figur
ed as the superintendent of quartz
mines in several California counties.
Even in those early days he ranked
high as a professional miner.
