Latest in an on-going series about Kootenaiana on eBay.
A bond from the Metropolitan Gold and Silver Mining Co. of Lardeau sold for $88 US recently.
Issued to a George McNeil and dated December 1, 1904 at Minneapolis, it was signed by president R.H. Batty and secretary W.G. Caldwood.
An earlier president of the company, David Spencer, founded the Spencer department store chain in BC, which was eventually sold to Eaton’s.
The company’s major property was the Triune at the north end of Silver Cup Ridge. They maintained an office at Ferguson and employed J. McCrossan as manager.
The company built a wire-line tramway from the mine in 1901, but an avalanche destroyed it the following year. The mine saw limited production.
The seller was in Oakville, Ontario, the buyer in Nelson.
• A 1905 stock certificate from the Greenwood-Fremont Mines Ltd. sold last month for $64 US. It was for 2,000 shares, issued to an F.H. Knight of Grand Forks and signed by secretary C. Scott Galloway, one of the major landholders in the Greenwood townsite.
The Fremont claim was in Providence camp, and in 1896 an assay gave $46 in gold and 160 ors. of silver to the ton.
Work proceeded sporadically during the first decade of the 20th century. By 1907, the mine employed six men, and power lines had been strung for an electric hoist.
But in 1911, the Greenwood Ledge reported a mechanic’s lien was placed on the mine for wages.
“This is another venture that A.H. Noyes has been trying to operate with hot air and promises,” the newspaper said.
The stock’s seller was in Ferndale, Washington.
• A photo of the “Silverton boys” serving in the 54th Kootenay Battalion CEF during World War I sold for $82 US.
The 7.5 by 5.5 inch photograph was taken at the soldiers’ camp in Vernon in 1915 and depicted 14 men. Their names are not included, but we know from a sign on the Silverton memorial hall that nine men from the village who enlisted did not return: Harold Jenkin, Samuel Waters, James White, John McInnis, Alfred Moul, Harold Bowers, Alfred Broughton, R. Griffith, and F. Langhorn.
The seller was in Vernon, the buyer in Nelson.
• A 1902 card addressed to the West Kootenay Butcher Co. of Nelson and postmarked Slocan Junction sold for $69 US.
It pre-dated the introduction of picture postcards in West Kootenay, so one side has the address and the other an order from a J. or T. Sewell for 50 lbs. of beef to be sent by train.
The Slocan Junction post office was renamed South Slocan in 1915, but no one knows why.
Similar cards previously sold for $15 and $26 in 2006 and $10 in 2008.
This story will appear in the April 5 edition of the West Kootenay Advertiser.