Archives West Finding Aid

In 1905, H.F. Samuels and associates bought the Granite Company, a formerly successful lead-silver producer that had been abandoned after encountering excessive zinc in the ore. The new firm, incorporated under the laws of the state of Idaho on April 5, 1905 as the Success Mining Co., was to be operated primarily for zinc. Samuels owned 2/3 or more of the stock. The Success paid frequent dividends between 1911 and 1917. In the latter year the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Resources of the United States ranked the Success mine second among smelter producers in the state of Idaho.

Early in 1915 rapidly advancing zinc prices spurred a brief boom in Success stock. The company had owed $77,825.14 at the beginning of the year; by April it was out of debt and able to declare a two-cent dividend on the $1.5 million par value of stock; a similar dividend followed in May and again in June, yet a surplus continued to accumulate. Then, near the end of the latter month, H.F. Samuels resigned the presidency and his cousin C.C. Samuels quit the secretaryship. P.J. Gearon, and C.M. Carroll, both of whom had been directors, became president and secretary-treasurer, respectively.

After that, the flow of dividends dried up. Two years later, a stockholder and attorney, Franklin Pfirman, circulated a report charging Gearon, Howarth, and other directors with having disposed of most of their own stock and conspiring to rob the company of the money accumulated in the treasury. Securing the proxies of the scattered small stockholders now in the majority, Pfirman took over the Success at its next annual meeting and installed new officers, with himself as president. Nevertheless, by 1918, the mine was closed. Between 1918 and 1925, there were seven assessments levied against Success stock.

The Success continued to ship small amounts of ore while successive managers, first Allen G. Kennedy and then Herman Rossi, tried to encourage stockholders with reports of development work and hints of a forthcoming rich strike and an end to the continual assessments. In 1925 when Kennedy and his entire staff were fired, Success stock rose briefly, but even exploration work soon ceased. With the Success supposedly played out and the stock down, the Day family took over control. Henry Day became manager, although Rossi remained as a director. John Fahey, in The Days of the Hercules, suggests the Days bought the Success hoping for a hidden vein. Later a variety of lessees tried their luck without finding anything of value. The mine was soon allowed to fill, much of the equipment sold, and one liquidating dividend paid. The last known sale of Success stock was for 1/4 cent per share in 1932.

Although inoperative and the stock completely worthless, the Success Mining Company continued to exist for many decades. The Henry L. Day Papers, Subject Files, contain information on the Success Mining Co. into the 1980s.