Nevada Genealogy Trails Eureka County Richard Mackintosh Biography

RICHARD MACKINTOSH (Deceased)
Among the pioneers of mining, both in Utah and Nevada, there is no name better known than that of Richard Mackintosh. He was the son of Captain William Mackintosh, of the 93rd Royal Highlanders, and was born in Dublin Barracks, Ireland, while his father's regiment was quartered there. Richard Mackintosh left Europe when a mere boy of nineteen, and made the long trip around the Horn from New York to California, arriving there in the later days of the great gold excitement. After cleaning up enough gold dust to continue his mining operations, he journeyed to Virginia City, Nevada, and took active part in the early development of the famous Comstock. From Nevada he came to Salt Lake in 1871, and continued his activities in mining in Utah, a field at that time comparatively new, and was the first man in this State to engage in the public commercial sampling of ores. The Pioneer Sampler at Sandy, Salt Lake County, was his first undertaking in that line, and later as the mines near Park City proved of great value he built the Mackintosh Sampler at that camp. The sampler in Park City still belongs to the Mackintosh Estate, and is at present being operated. The Pioneer Sampler, which he had operated at Sandy for many years, was sold to Mr. A. J. Gushing, who later disposed of it to the present Pioneer Ore Sampling Company. Mr. Mackintosh, associated with Mr. R. C. Chambers and others, in the year 1889 acquired by purchase the Diamond and Excelsior mines at Eureka, Nevada, from which a large tonnage of high-grade ores has been profitably mined continuously to the present time, and this output has always been and is yet shipped to the Salt Lake Valley Smelters through the Pioneer Sampler at Sandy.

In the year 1880 Mr. Mackintosh was married to Miss Emma Goss, only daughter of Mr. George Goss, who was associated with the construction of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, the building of the first railroad lines into Bingham and Little Cottonwood Canyons and the gravity tramways to the mines. Mrs. Mackintosh was a popular and well-loved woman, widely known for her generous giving to the cause of charity. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mackintosh devoted much time to philanthropy, and Mr. Mackintosh's genial soul delighted in this use of his wealth. The couple had no children. The estate was inherited by a niece of Mr. Mackintosh, Miss Blanche L. Mackintosh, who, since her marriage to Dr. A. E. Rykert, has resided in Paris, France. Richard Mackintosh was one of the Utah Commissioners to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and filled the position with great credit to himself and the State. He was a charter member of the Alta Club, and its president for four successive years. Although a public-spirited man, he was never induced to accept political office until the election for the Constitutional Convention in 1895, to which he was elected and served through the session with marked ability and intelligence. He thus took an active part in the framing of the fundamental laws of the proposed new State in the Territory of which he had been an active factor for many years. Mr. Mackintosh began to fail in health soon after his wife's death, in 1895. A cancer, long unsuspected, at last compelled his retirement from active business life, and the end came in February, 1900, five years and two months after the death of Mrs. Mackintosh.

Source:
Inter -Mountain States
Together with Biographies of Many Prominent and Progressive Citizens Who Have Helped In The Development And Hisotry-Making Of This Marvelous Region 1847-1909.
Contributed by Christine Walters