Searching for Cora Sue - 13 - Silver Mine, the End and Epilogue

It was fine and warm again the next morning, October 9th, as we set off with Eddie for our trip to see the silver mine. I had thought Cora would be with us, but, it turned out that she needed to man the desk.

We drove in Eddie’s car, a 1909 Model T Ford, to Park City, where his mine is located.

“There were about 500 miners here in early 1900 when I arrived. I had already struck rich when Cora joined me.”

“What did you do before?” asked Kate.

“I was a jeweler, so I have always had an appreciation for the finer metals and jewels and what can be done with them.”

“I greatly look forward to seeing some of your work,” said Kate.

“You’d have thought with the Mormons' holier than thou attitude, they wouldn’t have had much to do with silver mining, but one mine owner was Uncle Jesse Knight, an active Mormon with extensive holdings in the Tintic Mining District. His company town, Knightsville, was probably the only saloon-free, brothel-free, mining town in the United States. No man prayed more and met with more success than Knight. He prayed for silver and gold in them thar hills, and there was silver and gold, and sure enough, he struck it.”

“Who did you get to work your mine?” asked Kate.

“There were lots of emigrants coming into the country ten years ago, and they worked at pick and
shovel jobs, mainly on the railroads but lots of them worked in the mines. By 1900, the population of Park City, which a generation earlier had been the home of a few Mormon farmers, included several
dozen national groups, among them Chinese, Greeks, Italians, Slavs, and Serbs.”

By now we were coming into Park City, and it still looked pretty basic -ramshackled shanties,
saloons, gambling dens, dance halls, and brothels.

“The population of Park City is essentially divided into two groups, a small wealthy class and a
large working class. When I arrived with a bit of money in my pocket, I was able to take over a mining development, and managed to continue to do well out of it.”

“How much do the miners get paid?”

“About $3.00 a day but the first Utah State Legislature passed a law limiting work in the mines
to eight hours a day, while before that miners typically worked ten or twelve hours a day, six days a week.”

“Is it safe?”

“Accidents happen. Hoists are dangerous. So are falling rocks and runaway ore cars. Falls down mine shafts are one of the most common fatalities. But although many of us mine owners are millionaires, we have to spend money to protect our investments.

“My friend, David Keith, had to install a 500-ton Cornish pump, with a working capacity of four
million gallons a day, to remove water from his mine, to make sure the workers were safe. That wasn’t cheap, I can tell you.”

“Are there any women involved in silver mining?”

“Yeah, one of Cora’s best friends owns a mine. Cora knows a lot about it too. She could run
this mine as well as I can. But anyway, her friend is called Susanna Bransford Emery Holmes Delitch Engalitcheff, but more often known as the Silver Queen. Maybe Cora will introduce you to her, if you ladies are staying awhile.”

“And what about the place where you work? Is that mostly for people who got rich from silver?”

“Silver paid for all the buildings at the south end of Main Street near Fourth South, all of which were built by non-Mormon mining men, in particular Samuel Newhouse, in an effort to construct a gentile commercial district to counterbalance the concentration of Mormon establishments at the
north end of the city. Silver helped finance the Alta Club, too.”

“And are there a lot of you. who do what you do, make your silver into jewelry?”

“Only a few artisans create silver objects - handcrafted or mass produced - for use and display. Of course, my competition are the Indians, who have always been famous for silver making, mixed especially with turquoise. My stuff is a bit finer than what they turn out.”

We walked through the town, and saw the entrance of Eddie’s mine, which looked pretty much just
like a hole in a hillside. I wasn’t too impressed with the way the town looked.

“You know,” said Eddie, “this town was nearly gutted by a fire in 1898, but the people banded together and rebuilt the town, but lots like the Opera House, the City Hall and the Bank perished and its taken time to get things back into looking normal again.”

It was a 35 mile drive to Park City and on the way back we stopped at the Boston Building again,
where we knew Eddie had his office. I hadn’t realized that his workshop would be there too.

Nobody much was around, but he had a key, and let us into the elevator and took us up to the third
floor where he had his office.

He showed us the selection of silver jewelery - much of it with inlaid stones, that he had created.
It was very impressive.

“Any thing here that you ladies might like to buy?” he said.

I had thought, before, that he had said he was going to make us each a necklace, but maybe he had
changed his mind, or Cora Sue had changed it for him.

I bought a pendant with matching earrings. He told us how he had made them.

“You take a sheet of silver, really thin, and cut out a cone shape and solder the seam. First of
all you have to make a steel mandrel to fit inside the cone to make the shape better, as the silver is pretty soft. So, you make the setting and solder it to a flat circular plate, with the center
removed before soldering on the bottom of the cone.  For the pendant, I used a beaded wire which was soldered around the cone in place of the grains."

And Kate chose a broach.

Eddie explained to her how he had made it. “I used wire rings which are arranged in a circle with
lots of little circles around it. I have them on a flat charcoal block, and solder by placing pallions of solder where the rings touch each other, and bringing the rings to an even soldeirng heat. This
makes the foundation and I then filled in the spaces with a plique-au-jour enamel.”

I paid $20 for my pendant and earrings, and Kate paid $5 for her broach. We didn’t know if Eddie was giving us a discount or not, as there were no prices displayed on any of his items. But, we were both pleased with our souvenirs and didn’t feel we had been actually cheated. Eddie dropped us off at our hotel before going home. I was disappointed because I had hoped to see Cora Sue again on our return trip.

After dinner, I told Kate that I felt that we had done what I set out to do, and had accomplished my goal, so I felt it was time for us to make plans to go home.

“Whenever you wish to go, it is fine with me,” she said. “But don’t you think we should have another outing with Cora before we leave, just to establish whether you're going to have any future contact with her?”

“She doesn’t seem to want to see me very much.”

“She is very influenced by her husband. He probably told her she couldn’t go yesterday.”

“Whatever I feel about how she has reacted to our visit, I've accomplished what I set out to do. I have found her. She is well and happy. She knows that I'm still alive. I can go home and not feel like part
of my life is unfulfilled. I've done my best, and if she's unwilling or unable to be my sister again, well, I shall just have to cope with that.”

“So when do you want to leave?”

“We've booked in here for a week, so let's stay until our week is up. That means we'll go back to Chicago on Tuesday the 11th, and catch the New York train on the 12th, getting home 18 hours later. We should be back in Medford by the evening of the 14th. We'll have been away nearly three weeks.”

“That sounds fine with me.”

“I'll go to the train station tomorrow and book all those trips. I'm really looking forward to being home again and sleeping in my own bed, and seeing Franklin again, of course.”

“He was only worried about you. That's why he made such a big thing about this trip.”

“I know that. I know he loves me in his own way, and wants to protect me. But he couldn’t
appreciate how much I needed to find Cora Sue. Thank you so much for taking my side and coming with me. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

“I've enjoyed every minute of it. And I feel that from now on we will be firm friends, not just people who are both related to Franklin.”

Monday, I made the plans for our return trip and everything went according to plan. But I did want to
at least talk to Cora Sue once more before we left. I rang her at the hotel where she was on duty.

“Plandome Hotel. How may I help you?”

“It’s Mattie, Cora.”

“Oh, yes, how are you? Did you enjoy your trip with Eddie to Park City?”

“Yes we had a good time, and we both bought some very nice pieces of jewelery to remind us of our
stay here.”

“I hope you can see why I married Eddie.”

“He certainly seems to think a lot of you, and is proud of all he can provide for you.” That was
as much as I could make myself say in his favor.

“He liked you too, and really enjoyed hearing all about our times with Mr. Barnum and Mr. Clemens.
It is so sad that all our friends have died. Everyone seems to die. Even Mr. Lester who gave us such a lot of information on our trip to Dakota. Do you ever hear from any of those people we met there,
Mattie?”

“Yes, I hear once in awhile from Linda Slaughter. Do you remember her?”

“Was she the one whose daughter gave us Pa’s things?”

“Yes, that's right. She's gone from strength to strength. She was a charter member of the DAR and in the 1890s was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In 1888, she was the State Vice-President of the National Woman Suffrage Association and, in 1889, a member of its Executive Committee. Through that group, she became friends with Susan B. Anthony and spent time in Washington, DC.”

“Goodness, she really have been busy,” Cora added.

“At Omaha, Nebraska in 1892, she was a delegate for the People's Party, and she was the first
woman to vote for a presidential candidate in a national convention. She was admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C. in 1895. She continues to write, and in 1902, she wrote the words to the North
Dakota state song.”

“I forgot to ask you about Aunt Lillie. Is she okay?”

“She's fine, and so is William. They still live in Bridgeport. Only a couple of their kids are still at home – Lillie and Helen. They've taken in a few boarders in our old rooms.”

“Give her my love when you see her.”

“Cora Sue, I mean Cora, we have booked to go home tomorrow. We should be back in Medford by
Thursday evening.”

“It's been nice seeing you again. I’m glad you didn’t preach at me.”

“No, of course not. Your life and how you lead it is your business. Do you think perhaps we could
meet again before we leave?”

“Well, Eddie is taking me out tonight, and I have to work tomorrow, and I suppose that you'll want
an early night tonight anyway.”

“I suppose we'd better say goodbye now. I wish you well.”

“You too, Mattie. Thanks for caring enough to look me up again.”

“I'm so pleased that you are alive and well and happy. That’s all I want for you. Maybe you and
Eddie could come out and visit us some time. And Aunt Lillie would love to see you again too.”

“Don’t bank on it, Mattie. We're pretty well planted out here in Utah. I can’t see us coming back East again.”

“Good bye, then.”

“Good bye,” and she hung up.

Kate looked at me, but didn’t say anything. She got the gist of the conversation and knew that we
wouldn’t be spending our last evening in Salt Lake City with my sister.

Then it was Tuesday, and we were checked out, and just about ready to board our train, when I heard a shout.

“Mattie!”

I looked around and there was Cora Sue. She gave me a big hug and kiss, and then the train whistle
blew, so I knew I had to get on the train. “Thank you,” I said.

And we were off.

After we had settled into our seats and were adjusted to the countryside rushing by us once more,
Kate turned to me. “Why didn’t you tell her about how sick you are?”

“She doesn’t need to know. What could she do to help? I have to cope with my illness on my own.
In a way, not having her know is a relief to me.”

“Will you write to her?”

“Oh, yes, as soon as we're home I'll write to her, and then at least send Christmas cards if
nothing else, whether she writes back or not.”

“And, you do feel the trip was a success, then?”

“Yes, Kate. In many more ways than I can tell you. I hope that we keep in touch now that we've made this first move. I hope that my son will know who who she is, and his children will too. I can’t expect to see her again, but I will die happier for knowing that I found her.”

“You are a very brave lady.”

“No, I’m not. I’m scared to death.” Then realizing what I said I laughed. “I guess being scared isn’t going to do it on its own, but I am frightened of what the end of this disease is going to mean to me. I have accepted that it's going to happen, and I will now try to live the weeks, months or years left to me in the best way I can, for the sake of my husband, my son, and you - my new best friend.”

 

Epilogue
 

Mattie Kellogg Temple (pictured with her family above)  died of nephritis on June 1, 1917. She was buried in Bridgeport, Connecticut, near to her grandmother, Phineas Barnum and Tom Thumb.

Dr. Franklin Temple died at the age of 96, in New Hampshire. He never married again and lived in a boarding house.

Frankie Temple got married to Elizabeth Imburger in 1918. They had one daughter, Winifred, born in 1920. Winifred said that her father was in contact with Cora Sue. She also said that her mother said that Mattie was the nicest person. 'There was not a person on earth better than Mattie.'

Cora Sue Kellogg married Eddie Allison Ulrey, who had been previously married, in about 1900, and they lived at the Plandome Hotel in Salt Lake City, and he had his mining office in the Boston Building. Eddie died in 1918 and Cora Sue took over the business and ran the silver mine. She was still living at the Plandome until she died in 1938.

In one reference I recently found (Kelloggs in the New and Old World) it said that Cora Sue lived in Kansas City Missouri, after she was in Denver. My chief reference was, I go with Custer,
by Sandy Barnard. The picture of Mattie and her family comes from his book.

Kate Temple – died before 1920, but I don't know exactly when.