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.