David's Research Site

Below are items brought over from Mom’s before she passed. Some of the items we packed in boxes and some Marilyn packed in boxes, so some items were a surprise to us.

Firstly, mom and dad collected various cash and cash equivalent coinage. Most of it is not in very good condition, so the actual market value isn’t all that great. The most valuable items are the oversized national park quarters (5 oz silver). They are listed at roughly $300 each on ebay, but their actual value seems less than that.

I say we divide this in half as best we can:

Below is a list of jewelry we have (and a Kodak movie camera at bottom). Two items I’d like are the southwest pin and the Kodak camera (and the light meter, though something is rattling inside, so it is likely broken).

As for the rest, there’s nothing in particular I want, so you are welcome to it. My guess is that there is around $10k of value here.

 

This bear housed a set of pearl(?) earring and a necklace. I don’t necessarily want it, but what we would like is the set of pearl earrings Mom let Ann wear at our wedding, which you may have?  If you’d be willing to trade them for this bear+earings+necklace that would be great.

Below are other items. I have circle the ones I would be interested in retaining. Explanations below:

This pic shows some of Dad’s jewelry. The arrow tie clip interests me.

In the pic below, Grandpa Schmidt’s fishing gear interests me (Ann likes to fish):

In the pic below, only Grandma’s pic interests me. I believe the pic of Dad was taken at your former house, so I thought you’d like to have that (along with your kid pics).

I’d like the miner’s candle holder. I’ll take the German cups, but if you want them more, then take them.

In the pic below, the portfolio case has “Karl Fritz Eilers” inscribed in it. So, I’d be interested in that. I’d like the tomahawk, but only because I’d be interested in seeing if there is any cultural value in it for a museum.

I am sure you are familiar with the two pics below. I’d like the one circled. A museum might be interested in the moccasins, but I haven ‘t check into that.

In the pic below, I’d like to keep the lantern, metal jug, and keys.

The pic below is Dad’s collection of United Way pins. They don’t interest me, but I do know someone who works at United Way who might be interested in them:

In the pic below, I am interested in the three irons (Ann can use them for quilting), two of the Prince Albert cans, the camel can, the candle holder, the cowbell, the toy gun, and the small totem pole.

In the pic below is a harness and two bells on straps:

In the pic below, I’d be interested in the milk jug. I’d take the eggs in the basket, as well, but not a priority for me.

The pic below shows the Charlie Mccarthy toy. I will keep it unless you want it.

The pic below includes a Wurlitzer Centennial hot pad (?) cork on the down side and an inscription on the back that marks it as a centennial piece. I wouldn’t mind having the Wurlitzer piece, but not a priority.

In the pic below is a very tiny cap(?) gun with charges contained in the two pill-like containers. I’d like to keep this.

In the pic below is more of Dad’s stuff, including what I think are some of his ribbons. I’d be interested in the rubber stamp (great grandfather Karl Emrich Eilers), the WWII compass, the KEE stamp (great grandfather Karl Emrich Eilers, though it rusted, so it needs to be de-rusted to be any good), and the light meter (un-circled).

These are dad’s patches from Home Depot. I’ll keep them unless you really want them.

The pic below shows two of Dad’s belt buckles, his Boeing ID, and his golf score recorder:

This flag pin box contained some small nuggets. It’s unclear to me what they are, but I have no interest in them.

The pic below shows Dad’s pins. Some are related to Boeing. The one that interests me is the texaco pin (prob from Myrl’s estate?).

The pic below shows more dad’s stuff. I’d be interested in the 1922 Italian coin embedded in slag (I believe this was a piece of memorabilia from Grandpa Eilers 1924 trip around Europe), the Wurlitzer knife (it is missing some parts .. unsure how the loose items attached to the knife), and the vintage air pressure gauge (could have been great grandpas, as he had a habit of checking air pressure and recording those numbers).

In the pic below are Dad’s knives. I’d be interested in the one from “Rockford”, which is actually a box cutter, and the Ted Schmidt inscribed knife, which is is a standard pocket knife.

These show some Boeing specific memorabilia:

This pic shows Dad’s collection of Home Depot pins:

These are random tokens Dad collected.

In the below pic, I’m most interested in the book ends and the statuette:

In the pic below, I’m most interested in the Columbia Ad, since we are near the Columbia River. The top frame pic is Grandma Eilers promotion from the cradle roll to Sunday school.

There are five items below that most interest me:

Of this glassware, nothing really interests me:

(See the ten charges presented at the April 6 shareholder meeting, two weeks prior to the below list)

SIXTEEN CHARGES SENT TO SHAREHOLDERS BY KARL EILERS APRIL 18, 1921:

A few weeks after the 1921 American Smelting shareholder meeting, Karl Eilers published these sixteen charges as part of a shareholder letter. The italic comments were added by Karl.

1. The charge that the affairs of the Company are dominated by the Guggenheims, who are but slightly interested in the Company and have large conflicting interests.

This is of the utmost importance and its effects extend throughout the large and small affairs of the company. Its disastrous results are not only in what it causes actually to be done, but in preventing Smelters from having a management of its own with power, vision and initiative. The facts of such dominance and of such adverse interests by the Guggenheims are almost matters of common knowledge. In the litigation known as Ross v. Burrage, Mr. Daniel Guggenheim swore that the Guggenheim firm dominated the A. S. & R. Co., and also swore substantially to the effect that sometimes when they would enter upon negotiations for a mine, it would be some considerable time before they (the Guggenheims) would decide whether to buy it themselves or to have Smelters buy it.

2. The purchase, while the Company was under the control of the Guggenheims, of various mining properties from the Guggenheims and their associates for approximately $22,000,000 and of other mining properties including unsuccessful ones and ones in localities as distant as Chile.

In the statement sent to the stockholders on January 20th, 1921, it was stated that the company should not buy mines, and it was also given as a reason for not purchasing interests which had been acquired by the Guggenheims personally that they were distant and hazardous. Regardless of the merits of the question as to whether or not the company should buy mines, the stockholders should know what the company has bought, what the Guggenheims sold to it, and whether the statement officially sent to the stockholders was true, or as we claim, not only misleading but contrary to the fact.

3. The charge that the Guggenheims, although and at the time when in receipt of large salaries from the American Smelting & Refining Company and although they sold to the Company mining properties in which they, themselves, were interested and caused it to invest in other distant and hazardous properties, nevertheless took for themselves the good opportunities which were presented to the A. S. & R. Co.

The point is not so much concerning the policy of the company as to whether it should or should not buy mines. It is rather that under the Guggenheims they caused it to buy mines on its own account and they bought mines on their own account and they sold mines to the company. The best propositions offered became the property of the Guggenheims. Less desirable ones became the property of the company.

4. The charge that at one time there were as many as five members of the Guggenheim family receiving very large salaries and perquisites fixed by themselves and kept secret even from the Board of Directors.

It is not only the amount paid concerning which information is sought although it may be remarked that even yet no light on that subject has been given. Were the Guggenheims in effect fixing the payments to themselves and keeping their amounts secret? What were their especial qualifications? What did they all actually do for the company?

5. The transfer to the firm of Guggenheim Bros. without consideration, while the A. S. & R. Co. was dominated by them, of contracts between the A. S. & R. Co. and various mining companies for the sale of copper on commission, which contracts are claimed to have profited the A. S. & R. Co. more than one million dollars per year. …

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This is a summary of Thomas A. Rickard’s experience at the Engineering & Mining Journal in the early 1900s.

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After Rothwell’s death in 1901, a publisher named John McGraw bought the Journal in September 1901 for $183,000. He resold it three months later to William Johnston for $283,000, which yielded McGraw a $100,000 profit.

William Johnston was a budding entrepreneur who hired T. A. Rickard, a successful mining engineer and a friend and colleague of both Eilers and Raymond. Rickard soon learned that Johnston had run out of money and needed to raise cash to save the Journal. Rickard helped Johnston organize a group of seventy-two investors that included Anton and Rossiter. Johnston was more interested in purchasing additional technical journals than managing and promoting the Journal, but without any capital, he struggled to piece together his empire.

By late 1903, Johnston was in deep financial trouble again and began to court New York publishers. John McGraw approached Rickard to talk about throwing Johnston out and taking over the Journal. Though he was intrigued, Rickard declined. Another publisher was John A. Hill, who, like McGraw, owned several technical journals.

Rickard met with Hill, but found him too brusque to deal with on a daily basis. Eventually, a third publisher, Mr. H. M. Swetland, approached Rickard. Rickard found him sagacious, which he liked.

In January of 1904, Swetland purchased the Journal, but, just nine months later, Swetland sold it to John Hill without informing Rickard. Hill and Rickard’s relationship quickly soured and Rickard resigned. Meanwhile, Rickard purchased the San Francisco-based Mining and Scientific Press.

John Hill and John McGraw would continue to compete before merging their publishing companies in 1909, forming the McGraw-Hill Company. Some years later McGraw-Hill approached Rickard about purchasing the Mining and Scientific Press, an offer Rickard declined.

Also, see T. A. Rickard, “A Chapter in Journalism,” Mining & Scientific Press, May 22, 1920, p. 749-756.

Franz Fohr had been a long time family friend to the Eilers family, since at least 1876. He died at Karl Eilers’ home in Sea Cliff. His biographical notice was written by Walter R. Ingalls for the Engineering & Mining Journal.

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On July 27, 1919, there passed away a simple, unassuming gentleman, who, throughout his life, allowed his intense modesty to keep himself in the background and during his later years effaced himself so thoroughly that but few of his acquaintances knew aught of him. Yet he was one of our accomplished metallurgists, who did good work in the practice of his profession and lived an upright life. Now that he is no longer with us Franz Fohr cannot plead to be overlooked, and those who fondly remember him will be gratified by his receiving his due.

Franz Fohr was born, Sept. 7, 1838, in Mannheim, Germany. Of his ancestry, education, and early career we know scarcely anything. We do not even know just when he came to America, or what led him hither. The first record of his professional work in this country, found among his papers, shows that from July, 1870, to Jan. 1, 1872, he was superintendent of the Newark Smelting & Refining Works, then owned by Edward Balbach & Son. At that time the Balbach works at Newark, established in 1850, and the Selby works at San Francisco, established about 1866, were the only important silver-lead refineries in the United States. Mr. Fohr may have been associated with the Balbachs for some time before he became superintendent of their plant or he may have come from Germany but a short time previously. At all events, it is certain that he was at that time an experienced and accomplished metallurgist. After leaving Newark and going to San Francisco, he soon formed a connection with Thomas H. Selby & Co. Early in 1874, this firm sent him to New York to procure information respecting the manufacture of white lead. His engagement in New York terminated on Jan. 31, 1875. …

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Karl Eilers drafted this unfinished autobiography three months prior to his death in August of 1941.

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My earliest recollection of where my parents [Ed Note: Anton & Elizabeth Eilers] lived about New York were in Harlem, not far from where the Third Avenue Street Car came to an end, at the Harlem Bridge. We lived in a two-story, two-family house, with Grandmother Eilers [Elizabeth Dielmann] and her daughter Emma [Ed Note: Anton’s sister, not his daughter the painter] on the top floor and father’s small family on the first floor.
To the south and east were unoccupied lands, which at times in the summer served for circuses.

In Virginia my earliest recollection were of a trip with Else and some grown lady a short distance from the house towards Wytheville. All along, the ground was covered with tall willow trees and other vegetation in which I became lost from the other two and of course, was terrified.

Another recollection was on the trip from New York to Virginia. Stopping at the hotel in going through Washington, where leaning out of the window, running in and out of the trees, I saw a monster which frightened me terribly, evidently a switch engine. In Virginia another recollection is of the time when it became necessary to slaughter a few hogs for food and the squealing of those hogs still is strong in my memory. My sister Lu was born here and father always spoke of her as belonging to the F. F. V. [Ed Note: Possibly the First Families of Virginia]. Else was born in Grandfather Emrich’s house, 156th Street, South Melrose. I, as related above, was born near Marietta, Ohio. Annie again in New York. Now Lu in Virginia and Emma in 1870 in New York. Meta in 1875 also in New York.

On returning from some of these trips to the mines we lived first in Morrisania then in Tremont and finally in a more pretentious place in [Ed Note: just a big blank line, apparently didn’t know or remember the answer].

Else and I went to school with Minnie Emrich [Karl’s mother’s youngest half sister], south from Grandfather Emrich’s house a little way on Third Avenue and my memory is strong of a large woods, “Bathgate’s Woods”, the famlly name being retained even today in “Bathgate Avenue”. …

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This is the house on Wilgus (2804 S. Wilgus Rd, Prosser, WA, 99350). Bought April 2021. After a couple years of searching, we discovered this house. The key features, 1) no stairs, 2) big shop (think jeeps), 3) house only 20 years old, 4) no old barns/buildings, 5) Property with good bones, but needing work, 6) located off a busy road, 6) plenty of parking (think jeep event), 7) quiet, 8) not too far from services, 9) price was right. Extra benefits 1) growing town, 2) new hospital being built, 3) growing tourist town, 4) 30+ wineries (home of the Washington Wine industry; first research on growing grapes done here).

The property is located west of Prosser. To the south are the Horse Heaven Hills, so we have great views of the nearby hills.

Here’s the property layout:

The first thing that caught our eye when we approached the property for the first time was the entrance. To us, it felt like home right away.

The house and the shop are the most prominent features. But, there’s also a small guest house and a series of out buildings. It almost feels like a small community rather than a series of buildings.

This older photo from the original ad gives a sense of the parking lot. When first seeing this photo on the ad I wondered why the house was so close to the street, lol. It wasn’t until I did a Google Earth search of the property that I saw how big the parking area was.

Here’s a different angle:

Here is a couple views looking east from the porch at different times of the year. First,  summer. When the sprinklers are running, it feels like we are living in some kind of park. Any desire to go camping has vanished…

This amazing rainbow appeared this past autumn:

This January 2022 photo during the cold snap shows the early morning walk to open the gate, something the dogs now expect each morning.

Some days, the sunrises are just stunning, like this photo from a few days ago:

The interior layout is a little odd. There are some odd angles and tall ceilings. The Kitchen is especially unusual. I don’t love the layout, but I do like the way I can see both the backyard and front yard from the kitchen.

We felt the place was a little cold in terms of colors; we wanted to warm it up, so here’s an example of how we changed it.

This photo of the living room was from the ad:

To show you some of the changes, here is what we have done in this room (though we still don’t have the right furniture and it is decorated for xmas and a little messy). Our goal (2-3 years) is to do a real remodel in the central portion of the house, but a color change and curtains will do to start.

Below are some pics of the kitchen, kitchen nook, front door, and main hallway in November when I was close to being done painting.

Here is the front door. Note the angles and edges, the lack of balance in terms of design … OCD folks watch out!

Here we have backed up into the kitchen. The front door can be seen off to the right. That is the kitchen nook with a set of doors to the porch. We are thinking of encasing the porch. We barely used it last year, but think we’d get more use as a sunroom/sitting room.

Here is the southern portion of the hallway to the bedrooms, with the kitchen to the right. Again, angles all over:

Now we are facing the kitchen, with the living room on the other side of the kitchen:

Here is a closeup of the kitchen:

This view shows the northern part of the main hallway. Behind the door is the family room, currently our bedroom, that includes a door to the garage (which is now our gym).

Here’s a view of the garage we remodeled into a gym. All the weights and bars are from dad’s years of exercise:

Our current project is the master bedroom. It had wall paper on two walls. We pulled off the wall paper, then textured it. Meanwhile, we skimmed the textured wall where the headboard of our bed will be so we can use some wall paper on it. We have the carpet ready to install. In the next few days I’ll be installing the new trim.

Returning to the living room, here’s one photo of mom during her visit. It shows the area right after we hung the curtains and finished painting. The bay window and oversized sliding glass door face the back of the property and look west. One of the biggest surprises we’ve had is how great the sunsets are and the geeky fun we have tracking where the sun sets as the seasons change.

This photo shows the view directly west. Sometimes, Mt. Adams can be seen in the background. The first line of trees is the eastern end of the pasture. The second lines of trees is the western end of the pasture.

This photo from the original ad in Feb of 2021 shows just how much light comes in through the dining room sliding glass door and bay window. The shop can be seen in the background.

Moving outside, here’s a photo that show the back of the house. The former chicken coop is on the left (that will be going away). The shop is next to that. The house is a cross a little driveway. Two peach and one apricot trees are in the foreground. One tree must be taken down due to bugs. We aren’t sure if the other two will survive or not.

This part of the backyard is where we see the most changes coming. We want expand the house a little farther in this area and make it a little more friendly for entertaining. I also need a better area for my grill and smoker. The porch needs to be larger as well.

This photo shows a little different angle:

Now, let’s move to the shop. It is 65×35, but has been divided into four parts 1) the main shop, 2) a small second shop at the back with a garage door that leads to the garden shed lean-to, 3) a small apartment (currently storage) with complete bathroom (though needs some tlc), and 4) a storage area atop the small apartment/small shop areas.

Here’s an early look at the shop before we moved in, though I do have my racing jeep parked there.

This next photo shows the shop after some changes (and with lots more stuff), including the addition of tool boxes, shelving against the wall, the creation of a large work bench, and more. When spring time approaches, we should be able to sell some of this stuff and get things better arranged. Unfortunately, caring for our moms and doing the remodels has put the shop way behind schedule.

The closet appearing structure on the left houses the well pump and distribution system. The former owner built it and it needs a full rebuild to be a better lookng and better built structure.

In back of the shop is the shed. Here are two before pics:

The cabinet to the far right had birds living in it (you can see the bird poop on the ground).

After some work… I’ve added quite a bit more stuff in there, so it needs a second re-org, but it’s much more functional (and no birds are using it as a home). I also use this back area as a wood working area. All my saws are on wheels, so I scoot them out of the small shop into the open area to do cuts.

This whole area needs to be redone, but we want to do it in conjunction with tearing down the chicken coop and moving the propane tank (which sits between the shed and the coop. Once that is moved, we can do much more with this back area.

Moving onto the little house, which we redid as a guest house. This was built for the previous owner’s mother-in-law. There was a person that lived there when we bought the house (the county didn’t actually allow the person to be there, which made the previous owner mad; the ordinance only allows someone needing care or a care provider to live in the house due to the fact we are less than 20 acres). We agreed to let the person live there a few more months until he could get a new place.

Boy, did that place stink by the time he left (he was a bachelor with an 18yo son and a dog)!! We tore out the carpets, put in new flooring, redid the kitchen to make more room, fixed the unfinished sink cabinet, painted everything, and put in new trim. This spring we will complete the uncompleted exterior trim and paint it red with white trim (given it looks a bit like a barn).

Here’s the exterior. You can see the lean-to structure sits behind the little house. We plan to redo the deck and entrance as well. One goal is to make it feel less like a mobile home.

This is the view from the deck (panorama photo):

Two interior pics from before. Cabinets were too low, the stove top was illegal (due to county ordinances), the refrigerator was not needed in there anymore, and the curtains weren’t our style.

This pic shows the living room before when the previous owner’s m-i-l lived there:

After pics. The shower still needs some fixing up, but is functional as is.

In this nearly done photo, you can see we removed some of the upper cabinets and removed the stove cabinet. The big fridge is gone, replaced by a small fridge someone gave us. It’s got a simple heating and air system, that keeps the whole place cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Window dressings still need completion.

Finally, we’ve arrived at the ugliest portion, the lean-tos.

What started out as a old garage with a room that was moved to the site by the first owner of the property, was then expanded with a series of lean-tos (no permit required), resulting in a mish-mashed, sort of functional, but ugly complex. We don’t know what we’ll do with the one room-garage, but we plan on removing the lean-tos and install a much more functional barn in its place. The foot print will be slightly larger. The needs of the new building will be 1) room for a wood shop, 2) room for barn needs for our cattle, 3) room for parking the tractor, tractor implements, car trailer, and mowers, and 4) some general storage room for metal, wood, plastic.

What will we do with the 1-room/garage building? We don’t know. We use it for storage of some stuff. We could turn it into a bunkhouse, but not sure we really need it.

Here’s a better look at the little room-garage structure. You can see how there’s a lean-to going off the roof, then a bigger lean-to going off the first lean-to.

In back is an additional lean-to that goes off the back of the other lean-tos. The door that’s open is the garage portion of the one-room-garage (there’s a small interior room inside the building).

As you can see, two large willows lean against the lean-to. Those are coming down.

This phone shows the third willow that is also coming down. We think this area will be replaced by 1) gravel, 2) a raised garden for some vegetables, and 3) the new barn. The rest of the area will be grass.

This is the area in the most need of work. Cleaning up this will really improve the lo0k of the place and the value.

That is the end of the tour. As you can see, we have plenty of work to keep us busy, but what else would we be doing during a pandemic?