James G. Fair
| James Graham Fair | |
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United States Senator from Nevada |
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In office March 4, 1881 – March 3, 1887 |
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| Preceded by | William Sharon |
| Succeeded by | William M. Stewart |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 3, 1831 Clogher, Ireland |
| Died | December 28, 1894 (aged 63) San Francisco, California |
| Resting place | Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Theresa Rooney (divorced) |
| Children |
Theresa Fair Oelrichs James Fair Jr. Charles Lewis Fair Virginia Fair Vanderbilt |
| Residence | Geneva, Illinois, Virginia City, Nevada, San Francisco, California |
| Occupation | Prospector, mine supervisor, real estate developer, railroad builder, Senator |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Known for | Being one of the "Bonanza Kings" |
| Net worth | USD $45 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/280 of US GNP) |
| Cause of death | Diabetes mellitus, Bright's disease |
James Graham Fair (December 3, 1831 – December 28, 1894) was an Irish immigrant to the United States who became a highly successful mining engineer and businessman. His investments in silver mines in Nevada made him a millionaire, and he was one of the famous "silver kings" who became wealthy on the . Fair later became a real estate investor and railroad builder in California. In 1881, he was elected a United States Senator from Nevada.
Born to a poor Irish family in Clogher, County Tyrone, James Fair came with his father to the United States in 1843 and grew up on a farm in Illinois. There he received an extensive education in business before moving to California in 1850, where he prospected the Feather River country for gold embedded in quartz rather than pan for placer gold. His attention shifted to Nevada, where he operated a stamp mill on the Carson River and landed various mine superintendent positions around the Comstock Lode region. He became superintendent of the Hale and Norcross Mine in Virginia City, Nevada in 1867.
He formed a partnership with three fellow Irishmen, John William Mackay, and the San Francisco saloon owners James C. Flood, and William S. O'Brien. The company was formally Flood and O'Brien, but popularly known as the "Bonanza Firm". The four made large fortunes in shares in silver mines on the Comstock Lode, the first major silver district discovered in the United States. In twenty years time the Comstock Lode produced over one hundred million dollars. The partners controlled and operated various mines on the Comstock, but their greatest success came in 1873 when miners in their Consolidated Virginia mine found the large ore body that became known as "the big bonanza."
Fair invested his portion in railroads and real estate, bringing his private fortune up to $50 million. Although Fair was acknowledged to be a capable mine superintendent and a shrewd businessman, he was not well liked, and carried the nickname "Slippery Jim." He invested much of his income from the Comstock in railroads and San Francisco real estate. Fair and Mackay owned the Nevada Bank of San Francisco, a rival to William Chapman Ralston's Bank of California; after the collapse of Ralston's financial empire, the Nevada Bank was for a time the largest bank in America at the height of the silver boom.
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Wikipedia