The Wilbur Mining Company Limited was founded on November 24th, 1906 in Wallace, Shoshone County, Idaho and was in operation from 1906 until 1930 when it was taken over by the Western Union Mining Company. The incorporators were Allen J. Olson, Peter O. Swanson, John J. Hougs, John Mickels, Olaf M. Peterson and Fred Johnson. These six men, along with Otto A. Olsson, and D.E. Wherry, represented, at different times, the five board of directors from 1906 to 1912. During this time the Wilbur mine was listed and functioned as a non-producing mine.
The primary function of the Wilbur Mining Company was to develop and operate mines and mining property. This included mining, milling, smeltering, manufacturing and selling ore retrieved from the mine. Ores were to include: copper, iron, gold, silver, zinc and lead.
From its beginning in 1906 until 1912 the only recorded actions by the Wilbur Company included the selling of capital stock at a value of one dollar per share and four assessments levied on that capital stock. Between the years of 1912 and 1923, the Wilbur Mining Company made no recorded actions. In 1923 a new set of directors took over: Carlton Fox, E.F. McKechnie, H.O. Solum, Ommie Solum and Otto A. Olsson. Throughout the next seven years the board of directors also included, at one time or another, Harry W. Marsh, H.J. Steuart, H.H. Miller and A.T. Jenkins.
The new board of directors lowered the value of the capital stock to twenty-five cents a share. They also purchased six claims from Herbert C. Solum for one dollar in January of 1924, and leased tunnel No.3 from the Western Union Mining Company for 300,000 shares of treasury stock. Besides these large business actions, yearly assessments were made on the capital stock.
In 1930, the Western Union Mining Company, which owned two thirds of the Wilbur stock, approached Wilbur Mining Company and requested the transfer of all property to their company. On October 2, 1930, the Wilbur Mining Company transferred all property to the Western Union Mining Company and was on that day dissolved as a mining company.
The records of the Wilbur Mining Company span the years 1906 to 1930, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1923 to 1930. Included are minutes of meetings, correspondence with stockholders, annual statements and reports to state agencies, a stock ledger, cancelled stock certificates, a cash book, tax returns, and a workmen's time book.
Related materials can be found in the records of the Western Union Mining Company.
Since there are so few records of the Wilbur Mining Company no series designations were made. The physical arrangement of the material, however, follows that of the larger companies in the Day Mines Group.
Records of the Board of Directors and Stockholders includes minutes and other records related to the meetings. General Correspondence and Related Records consists of general correspondence, mining deed and proof of labor on claims, quartz location notices, and annual reports and statements. The Capital Stock records are a stock ledger and cancelled stock certificates. Other items in this record group are a cash book and a workmen's time book.
Removal of cancelled stock certificates, returned assessment notices, vouchers, paid checks, bank statements, and duplicate materials reduced the size of this collection by one cubic foot.
The records of the Wilbur Mining Company are part of the records of Day Mines, Inc., donated to the University of Idaho by Henry Day in 1984 and 1985.
Initial processing of this manuscript group was done by Lena Johnson in October 1987. Processing was completed under the direction of Michael Tarabulski in March 1992.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.