Thomas Pollard: A Cornish Miner in the Appalachians By Collamer M. Abbott The nomadic life of a large number of Ap­ sided at the mine in Vershire, then in \'{fest palachian miners is epitomized in the life of Fairlee, a mile and a half to the east, and finally TI1omas Pollard. Like many of his fellow work­ in Post Mills, three miles to the southeast. Pol­ ers, Pollard-superintendent of the Ely copper lard ultimately moved to a fmm he purchased in mine in Vershire, Vermont, dwing the 1850s and Dover, New jersey. There he lived the rest of 1860s--was used to pulling up stakes and mov­ his life w hile actively exploring, prospecting, and ing to other mines, near or far. A Cornish miner developing mines from Pennsylvania to Maine with extensive practical experience, he was al­ for investors still interested in Appalachian de­ ways on the go, prospecting, superintending, or posit<; despite the boom on the western mining developing mineral deposits for those capitalists ti·ontier. willing to invest in speculative ente1p1ises along Pollard stayed put through the 1860s and into the Appalachian Chain during the last half of the 1870s, during his tenure as "captain" and the nineteenth century. As did other veterans superintendent of the mine in Vershire, fanning of Cornish harclrock mining, Pollard inspired his pmpe1ty, selling and trading his produce, and confidence in investors who knew nothing about boarding single miners. Although Pollard says the subject. Thomas Pollard's diaries, now in vety little about his wife in his dia1y, she, with the collections of the Vermont Historical Soci­ the help of hired girls, carried the burden of ety, can help us both see and interpret the pat­ boarding d1e miners. She was d1e silent partner tems in the life of a Cornish miner in the Appa­ in a life typical for the wile of a nomadic rniner. lachians in the latter 1800s. 1 At the Vermont Copper Mining Company's Having worked as a boy in Comwall's mines, mine, Pollard's duties as supe1intendent varied. Pollard came to the United States at the age of He hired and fired workers, set contract<; in the twenty-seven in 1842. He worked .in coal mines rnine, designed a tramway to bring clown ore to in Pennsylvania, then in gold and copper mines d1e washhouse, and bought all manner of sup­ in Virginia. He was prospecting and inspecting plies. He constructed a dumping chute, repaired mineral deposits in New York for capitalists in d1e railroad in the mine, hired ox teams to haul 1854 when investors in Vermont Copper Min­ ore and materials, and paid for a preacher and a ing Company's operation in Vershire asked him brass band's petfotmance. to take charge of their mine. That prope1ty had During his 1863-65 hiatus from d1e Vermont been opened twenty years earlier by local men Copper Company-the result of h..is resignation who lacked the experience and eq1t..1 ipment nec­ due to political maneuve1ing and disagreement essaty to develop the deposit.2 among the directors-Pollard resumed the no­ For the next seventeen years, except for a madic life of prospector and developer. In 1869, hiatus between 1863 and1865, Pollard and his after a conflict over his adjacent property with family had a home in the area. They first re- Smith Ely, president of the Verrnont Copper 26 2004MiningHistoJyjownal Mining Company, Pollard was fired or resigned York. He traveled to obscure places like the again. He thereupon resumed his nomadic life, Wallkill lead mine and the New York Central traveling incessantly to prospect, explore, and mine, and visited iron mines along the New York develop marginal m.ines capable of only minor side of Lake Champlain. He was familiar with production of pyrites, copper, iron, and other many iron mines around Dover~ Newj ersey, most minerals. of which he worked at some time: Mine Hill, Pollard's wanderings began in early 1863, Schooley's Mountain, Hibernia, Denville, Port shortly after the friction began over his purchase, Murray, Mount Hope, and Greenville. w ith partner Joseph I. Bicknell, of an adjacent When Pollard "took charge" of a mine, like properly into which Vennont Copper's vein ex­ Brewster's iron mine or the Croton mine, he su­ tended. Pollard moved to West Fairlee, and, with perintended development, bought supplies and expenses and salruy paid, traveled to Sweetsburg equipment, recruited workers, and "paid off" and Brome, "Canada East" (Quebec), and to with money supplied by investors who visited WatetbUiy, Vermont. There he may have worked their properties inegularly. The payrolls were the copper mine that IsaacTyson,Jr., had devel­ never big. One of the biggest, in December 1863 oped in the 1830s, when Tyson was at South at d1e Croton iron mine, amounted to o nly eight Strafford manufacturing copperas and experi­ hundred dollars. The Croton mine suspended menting with a heated blast and anthracite coal operations in june 1864-dle fate of most mar­ to smelt copper. Pollard was pursuing the old ginal mines-after what results Pollard's diary maxim: "If you want to t1nd a new mine, look in does not indicate. His own compensation be­ an old one." yond expenses for prospecting might come to In June 1863, Pollard prospected in thirty-t\vo dollars for four clays of "se1vice," or, Franconia, New Hampshire, and Waterbury, in another instance, filly dollars for five clays of Vermont. Throughout the summer he contin­ work at the Empire lead mine. As superinten­ ued to work in these places for investors, and he dent of the Ely mine in Vershire, he had received made a prospecting side Dip to Wolcott, Vermont, sixty-six dollars a month. where copper had been discovered but never In.January 1865-following a rump meeting developed. During the fall, amidst traveling in of the Vennont Copper Mining Company which Canada, Vem1ont, and New Hampshire, he took elected retired New York fumiture manufacturer charge of the Croton iron works on the Hudson Smith Ely president and voted in a new board River in November. The Croton mine was fi­ of directors-Pollard was induced to return to nanced by New Yorker Loring L. Lombard, the company, along wid1 Richard W. Ban·ett and among the earliest investors in the Vermont Thomas Pascoe, Pollard's son-in-law. While su­ Copper !Vlining Company operation in Vershire. perintending d1e Vershire mine, Pollard was also And so Pollard set out again, prospecting, actively engaged at the Pike Hill mines in Corind1, exploring, and supelintending old mines for the located ten miles to d1e notth and under the saJne Croton works, among them the Brewster and investors. In April 1865 Pollard again "took Tilly Foster iron mines and the Empire lead mine charge" of d1e Vershire mine, after an agreement in Putnam County, New York, near the Con­ permitted him to continue prospecting and de­ necticut border. He also visited the Croton and veloping od1er mines while devoting one-d1.ircl Crugers iron mines along the Hudson River, of his time to d1e affairs of the Vem1ont Copper made forays into Pennsylvania, to Sutton, Que­ Mining Company. bec, and to Otisville in Orange County, New This time Pollard found himself involved in Tbomtts Pol/a rd 27 a more complex job of getting the mine back in 'll"1is time he moved to Post Ivlills and continued shape, after difficulties with management, fi ­ prospecting and developing for New York capi­ nances, and labor had led to reduced prcx:luction talists, some of whom were still investing in d1e during the Civil War. Although he oversaw the Vershire mine. whole operation, Pollard could depend on Ban-en This time his activities led to an interesting to boss the dressing depattment and Pascoe to intetval at an old pyrites mine northeast of manage the work underground. Anthony's Nose, a prominent feature of the The problems were how to develop the de­ Hudson River landscape at the nord1em eno-ance posit most efficiently as the single main shaft to the Highlands. In this venture he associated deepened, how to U<mspott the ore, and negoti­ again with two early investors in the Vershire ating for the equipment needed to hoist, tram, mine: Joseph I. Bicknell and Loring L. Lombard. and dress ore. The search for local timber to fill In february 1870 Pollard took charge of the the demand for more housing in the booming Iiudson River Copper Company, devoting a iliird settlement inu·oduced even more difficulties, as of his time to superintending d1e mine for $125 did a plan to smelt ore on site. The inu·oduction a month. He was free the rest of the time to of smelting involved Pollard in an experiment prospect and superintend od1er mines. to mine peat from a small bog about a mile east The Hudson company's mine, called the of\Xfest Fairlee, and in contracting with local Philips, is locdtecl in Putnam County, New York.3 fanners to produce large quantities of charcoal It lies about four miles nottheast of Peekskill on for smelter fuel. a ridge that peaks at Anthony's Nose opposite Pollard moved his family back to the mush­ Bear Mountain. Originally considered an iron rooming mining village from West Fairlee, bus­ mine in d1e 1840s, it also contained copper. But tling now as the commercial center. While guid­ Pollard worked it for the pyrites used to produce ing work at the mine, he still traveled for inves­ sulphuric acid in plants at Green Point, Long Is­ tors, prospected in New Jersey mines, and man­ land, Baltimore, and Highland Station on the aged, with hired help, to work his farm in Do­ I Iudson near the mine.