Finding new evidence of hard times at Cotopaxi

A few years back, I found the miner's lien that proves the Colonists worked in the mines unpaid.

But someone alleged that they were paid in script and could use that at the Cotopaxi store.

I wonder.

In the past few weeks, I've unearthed some rather interesting documents that tell this story (note, much more research to do in order to validate this).


1.  Saltiel incorporated all of his property into a business called the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company

2.  The Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company then sold part of this to E. S. Hart (a cousin of Saltiel)  for $5600.00 in Oct, 1881, and included in that property was a 10 roomed building known as the Cotopaxi Hotel.  I am not sure if the Cotopaxi store was included in this property description or not -  part of future research.)

I'm pretty sure that in 1881, $5600 was quite a lot of money!

3.  In November, 1882, the Cotopaxi Placer Mining Company filed a lawsuit against Hart and demanded that he vacate the property.

I will search the local court records for more on this suit.  But Hart must have won.  And to what expense?

4.  A few months after this, in May, 1883, Hart borrowed money from D. G. Peabody and placed a lien against the store, it's contents and the hotel.

5.  In Sept, 1884, Hart sold the hotel to L. J. Hylton.  He must have split the store off because it is not listed in this sale.

The miner's lien was for unpaid work performed between 2/1/1883 and 4/14/1883.  After the lawsuit against Hart.

We first read of Hart's financial problems in May 1883.....just after the miner's had worked for free and when Hart supposedly provided them with product for their script.  But nothing showing that Saltiel ever paid Hart.  That would be more than enough to bankrupt Hart!

This study has taught me that dates are extremely important.  Until now, we did not know that Saltiel had sued Hart (his own cousin!) via the Company that he (Saltiel) had incorporated  himself into.

We did not know that Hart had paid him $5600 for the property.

My personal opinion is that the Colonists who were part of the lien against the mine for unpaid wages would not have used script in the store....but that other miners surely did.  And this is what lead to Hart's financial difficulties.  The timing is perfect.

Can you imagine going as much as 62 days without pay?  One of the miner's did!!  Here's a list of the claims from that document.

Again  - there is absolutely no evidence that Saltiel ever reimbursed Hart, in fact, we now know that Hart had to borrow money in May 1883, he sold the store for only $150.00 in Sept, 1884.

These documents probably bring up more questions than they answer!  Proving oral histories may turn out to be a bigger puzzle than just finding names to put in a family tree!  Right now, I'm pretty much loving the "hardship" stories of the colony.  The known colonists on the list are Warsitzer, Lauterstein, Neuman, Schaums, Minkovsky, Dublitzky, and Charvsky.  But I do see a few more names that might well be Jewish!  At what point do I end the research and just start writing the story?

Good question!!!

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