The Hornsilver Mining and Milling Company, with offices in Wallace, Idaho, was incorporated May 31, 1901. Its capital consisted of 1,000,000 shares of stock with a par value of 10 cents per share. On June 11, 1946 the Articles of Incorporation were amended to increase the capital stock and extend corporate existence to perpetuity. The original claim included the Oregon, Jumbo, Idaho, Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, Bolivar, and Nevada properties. By later locations, the Utah and Arizona were replaced by the Castle 9 and 10, and the California claim was dropped. The Montana and Peerless #15 were located to cover the area between the Peerless and Hornsilver groups. In 1954 the Tawny Girl was purchased from Julius Nuss in a compromise settlement of a law suit. In 1960 the Hornsilver consisted of ten unpatented lode claims in the Placer Center District northwest of Placer creek, 3 miles south of Wallace. The main ore was lead-silver. From 1920 to 1926 the tunnel was extended from 1,000 to 1,500 feet. After that time the only work done was annual labor and repair. Money was raised through stock assessments. In 1950 the office, which from 1929-1946 had followed manager Russell F. Collins on his moves to Coeur d'Alene, Seattle, and Leevining, California, was moved to the Day Building. On April 25, 1960, shareholders approved the sale of the real property to Day Mines, Inc. The company was liquidated on September 6, 1960.
Officers of the company included: J.F. Mitz, President, 1901-1920; James R. Taylor, president, 1921; John F. Blitz, President, 1922-1923, O.R. Young, Secretary, 1921-1923; Ben F. Collins, president; Russell F. Collins, secretary-manager, 1924-1945; Walter H. Hansom, president, 1946-1958; L.J. Randall, secretary, 1946-1949; and S.F. Heitfeld, secretary, 1950-1958. In 1954 Henry L. Day became manager, and in 1959 he was president and manager of the company with R.W. Anno as secretary.
The records of the Hornsilver Mining and Milling Company span the years 1901 to 1960, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1945 to 1960. Included are minutes of meetings, financial statements, correspondence with stockholders, annual statements and reports to state agencies, stock ledgers and journals, assessment records, lists of stockholders, financial ledgers and journals, vouchers, check registers, and tax returns.
The records of the Hornsilver Mining and Milling Company are divided into four series.
The first series, Records of the Board of Directors and the Stockholders, includes a handwritten minute book which also contains the articles of incorporation, agreements, notices of assessments and lists of delinquent stock; there are also typed minutes for the meetings held from 1948 to 1960. Two folders of records relating to the meetings include correspondence, notices of and agendas for the meetings, proxy statements, reports of elections, notices of assessments, balance sheets and a geologic appraisal of the company. Also included is a folder of yearly financial statements for the years 1946 to 1960.
General Correspondence and Related Records, the second series, contains office memoranda, correspondence with stockholders, organizational documents such as articles of incorporation and bylaws, the decree of dissolution of the company, records of several legal cases, reports to the state of Idaho, a property file, stock audits and tax returns.
The third series is Capital Stock Records. Included are stock ledgers and a stock journal, an assessment journal, assessment receipt books and other records relating to assessments. The roll book for the May 1946 assessment may be found in the voucher register (folder 45).
The fourth series, Financial Records, contains financial ledgers, a cash journal, a voucher register which also contains the assessment roll for the May 1946 assessment, and checkbook stubs.
Removal of cancelled stock certificates, returned assessment notices, vouchers, paid checks, bank statements, and duplicate materials reduced the size of this collection by two cubic feet.
The records of the Hornsilver 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 Judith Nielsen in April 1987.
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.