Special Collections & Archives
Manuscript Group 248
Puritan Mining Company
Records, 1905-1940
1 cubic foot
The records of the Puritan Mining Company are part of the records of Day Mines, Inc., donated to the University of Idaho by Henry Day in 1984 and 1985. Initial processing of this manuscript group was done by Judith Nielsen in June and October 1988. Processing was completed by Michael Tarabulski in June 1991. Funds for processing were provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the U.S. Department of Education HEA Title II-C "Strengthening Research Library Resources" program, the Library Associates of the University of Idaho and other donors.
COMPANY HISTORY
The Puritan Mining Company, a silver-lead mining concern, was incorporated September 30, 1905, with an office in Wallace, Idaho. The original shareholders and directors were: James F. Callahan, president; Theodore Anderson, Ole B. Olson, Leonard Bernard, and Charles A. Solberg, secretary-treasurer. The company had a capitalization of 1,000,000 shares, which was increased to 1,500,000 shares in June 1912, with a par value of $1.00. The original Puritan group consisted of the Puritan, Puritan Faction, and Ontario Fractional lode claims, approximately 37.5 acres, in the Placer Center Mining District. The Harmony lode was purchased from James Callahan for 500,000 shares of stock in 1912, and the Jack, Jim, and Dime Fractional claims were added in 1915, bringing the total holdings to 62.5 acres; all patented claims.
The property was extensively developed between 1912 and 1914, with almost 5,000 feet of crosscuts and drifts. A tunnel ran almost the full length of the property, but no commercial ore was found. The plant included complete mining equipment and a camp. Money for development work was raised through the sale of treasury stock and the leasing of surface rights; no assessments were levied.
The list of shareholders for the meeting of 1915 shows Jerome Day, president of the adjoining Tamarack & Custer Mining Company, owning 50,000 shares of Puritan stock. At the October 1918 meeting of the board of directors, the last until 1931, it was decided to lease the property to Tamarack & Custer for 10 years at $1,000 a year.
The next meeting of the Puritan Mining Company was held in May 1931. The list of shareholders reveals Jerome Day as the largest individual shareholder and Tamarack & Custer as the largest overall shareholder. The new directors elected at this meeting were Jerome J. Day, Henry L. Day, C.A. Solberg, W.B. Heitfeld, and P.J. Maggy. At the directors meeting Jerome Day was elected president of the company.
In December of 1938, the mine had been idle for over 20 years, corporate expenses were going up, there were more reports to file, and bank interest rates were going down. For these reasons the directors decided to accept Tamarack & Custer's offer to purchase the Puritan properties for $2,500 cash. In February 1939 the shareholders approved the sale and the directors declared a one cent per share liquidation dividend.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The records of the Puritan Mining Company span the years 1905 to 1940. Included are minutes of meetings, financial statements, correspondence with suppliers and stockholders, annual statements and reports to state agencies, a stock ledger and journal, lists of stockholders, a financial ledger and two journals, invoices, check registers, pay rolls, and tax returns. Company activity was much reduced between 1919 and 1931, and the records for these years, by and large, simply iterate this lack of activity.
Related materials records can be found in the records of the Tamarack & Custer Consolidated Mining Company.
ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION
The records of the Puritan Mining Company are divided into eight series: Records of the Board of Directors and the Stockholders, 1905-1939; General Correspondence and Related Records, 1906-1939; Capital Stock Records, 1905-1939; Ore Production and Shipment Records, 1916-1917; Insurance Records, 1927-1930; Financial Records, 1905-1939; Personnel Records, 1906-1917; and Tax Records, 1909-1940.
The first series, Records of the Board of Directors and the Stockholders, includes: a minute book, 1905-1939; a folder of records relating to meetings for only 1931-1939, chronological; a folder containing a copy of the by-laws, dated May 1, 1905; and a folder of financial statements. These are intermittent and of varying form from 1905 to 1931 and yearly from 1933 to 1939.
General Correspondence and Related Records, the second series, contains: a folder of property patents, 1906-1929; two sets of correspondence, one chronological -- running 1907-1929 and kept by Secretary Charles Solberg -- the other, alphabetical, containing correspondence of Solberg and other officers, running 1913-1934. A final folder contains Annual Statements of Domestic Corporations, 1920-1939, incomplete; and Reports to the Idaho Inspector of Mines, 1930-1938.
The third series is Capital Stock Records. Included are a ledger, 1905-1939, two journals, and two audits. The information in the journal covering 1906-1922 appears to be duplicated in the journal covering 1906-1939. One stock audit was done by H.P.. Miller in February 1929, the other was done by S.F. Heitfield and R.W. Anno in November 1933.
The fourth series, Financial Records, contains a ledger and a journal, both 1905-1939, and both little used; two thick folders of invoices, 1906-1930; a folder of four check registers, another with three bank books, and two with bank statements and paid checks. Collectively, these last four folders cover transactions with three Wallace, Idaho, banks between 1906 and 1939.
The fifth and sixth series each contain only one folder: Ore records amount to only one folder of settlement sheets and related bank deposit slips sheets for a few months in the summers of 1916 and 1917; Insurance records consist of one folder containing three fire insurance policies, 1928, 1929, and 1931, purchased for company buildings.
The seventh series contains a folder of monthly pay rolls for July 1912 to February 1917, and another with about fifty time slips of widely varying format for 1906-1916.
Tax Records, the final series, contains two folders of federal tax records dating 1919-1940, organized chronologically. Included in these folders are a near complete run of corporate tax return forms, a few capital stock tax returns, and correspondence. A third folder contains receipts for taxes paid in Shoshone County, 1909-1930, and state returns for Idaho, 1931-1939.
Removal of cancelled stock certificates, returned mail, and duplicate materials reduced the size of this collection by two cubic feet.
SERIES LIST
Container I. Records of the Board of Directors and the Stockholders, 1905-1939 1 II. General Correspondence and Related Records, 1906-1939 1 III. Capital Stock Records, 1905-1939 1 V. Ore Production and Shipment Records, 1916-1917 1 VI. Insurance Records, 1927-1930 1 IV. Financial Records, 1905-1939 1 VII. Personnel Records, 1906-1917 1 VIII. Tax Records, 1909-1940 1
PURITAN MINING COMPANY
INVENTORY
Box Folder Description
I. Records of the Board of Directors and the Stockholders, 1905-1939
1 1 Minutes, 1905-1939 2 Records relating to meetings, 1931-1939 3 Incorporation records, 1906-1912 4 Financial Statements, 1905-1939
II. General Correspondence and Related Records, 1906-1939
5 Patents, deeds, and leases, 1906-1929 6 Correspondence, 1907-1929 (chronological) 7 Correspondence, 1913-1939 (alphabetical) 8 Annual Reports and Statements, Idaho, 1920-1939
III. Capital Stock Records, 1905-1939
9 Ledger, 1905-1939 10 Journal, 1906-1922 11 Journal, 1906-1935 12 Audit by H.H. Miller, 1929 13 Audit by S.F. Heitfield and R.W. Anno, 1933
IV. Financial Records, 1905-1939
14 Ledger, 1905-1939 15 Journal,1905-1939 16-17 Invoices, 1906-1930 18 Check registers, 1906-1912 19 Bank books, 1906-1929 20-21 Bank statements and paid checks, 1914-1939
V. Ore Production and Shipment Records, 1916-1917
22 Settlement sheets, 1916-1917
VI. Insurance Records, 1928-1931
23 Fire insurance policies, 1928-1931
VII. Personnel Records, 1906-1917
24 Pay rolls, 1912-1917 25 Time slips, 1906-1916
VIII. Tax Records, 1909-1940
26-27 Federal tax records, 1919-1940 28 Idaho tax records, 1909-1939
mg248.htm / February 1995
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