Archives West Finding Aid

The first organizational meeting of the Laclede Mining Company was held October 19, 1903; attending were Otto Brown, Emil Tomsch, W.J. Bracking, and L.J. Columbus, the fifth director, A.C. Olsen, was absent. The lode claims consisting of the Montana, Irene, Tacoma, and Tacoma Fraction were located in the Lelande and Placer Center mining districts of Shoshone County. Capitalization was 1,000,000 shares with a par value of $1.00.

The property was extensively developed between 1903 and the fall of 1916 or spring of 1917, but no commercial ore was found and the mine was shut down. The money for the development work was secured by the sale of stock and by levying between 25 and 30 stock assessments.

By 1915 the company had an entirely new board of directors consisting of C. Fred Kratzer, T.N. Barnard, O.W. Lewis, J.W. Weyer, and James A. Wayne. Following the death of T.N. Barnard in early 1916, E.H. Knight was elected to the board in March. In September of 1916, E.H. Gnaedinger replaced J.W. Weyer. In 1917 when the number of directors was increased to seven, J.M. Sheets and C.E. Sogn were added.

In 1916 the capital stock of the corporation was increased from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 shares. The 500,000 shares of stock secured by the increase were sold at approximately two cents per share, as well as over 98,000 shares of treasury stock from the original issue, netting the corporation $11,964.92, which together with the cash in the treasury gave the corporation $12,745.94. However, no systematic work was done on the property and no meetings of the Board of Directors or the stockholders were held between March 10, 1917 and September 12, 1927.

On September 12, 1927, the shareholders met and elected a new Board of Directors: O.W. Lewis, W.H. Hoover, A.T. Jenkins, John E. Ryan, Henry L. Day, W.B. Heitfeld, and P.J. Maggy. The new officers and directors reviewed the mine's history and could see no way of spending the $9,215.49 remaining in the treasury with a reasonable hope of making the property more valuable. The money was converted into certificates of deposit, which would yield the corporation a small amount of interest. No further meetings were held until September 11, 1933.

In December 1938 the corporation had $10,409.89. The members of the board had been convinced for some years that there was no way of spending the money to make the property more valuable and the only way to save anything for the shareholders was to dispose of the mining claims for the best price available. At the solicitation of Laclede's officers, the Hercules Mining Company, the largest individual stockholder, offered $4,700.000 for all the property, thus enabling the corporation to declare a final liquidating dividend of one cent per share on the outstanding stock.