Marcus Daly

 - An American Copper Magnate -

( 1841 - 1900 )
 


* List of the stories he appears in :
- D 92083 : "The King of the Copper Hill" (Lo$#4), from 1993, by Don Rosa.

 

* His biography :
    Marcus Daly was born on December 5, 1841 in the townland of Derrylea, Ireland.
   He went to New York City at 15 with very little money, education and skills, and later moved to California, after 5 years doing odd jobs, where he worked as a miner. He was employed by the “silver kings,” J. G. Fair and J. W. Mackay, at the Comstock Lode. In 1872, he married Margaret Evans in Salt Lake City. In 1874 he became a US citizen. In 1876 he was sent by a large company to investigate the silver mines at Butte, Montana.
   Discovering that there was rich copper beneath the silver, he purchased the Anaconda silver mine and tested the copper. Then, with the backing of George Hearst and others, he quietly bought up neighboring mines and formed a mining company. He built a smelter at Anaconda and connected it by rail with Butte.  Daly purchased coal mines to fuel his furnaces, bought forests to supply his timber, and built power plants to supply the mines. He also established banks. His great rival was William A. Clark, and their bitter struggle for control kept the copper industry in turmoil; the contest for power included other men, notably F. Augustus Heinze. Though Daly himself did not seek public office, his effective political machine thwarted Clark's ambitions for many years. The feud dominated Montana politics and economy. Daly also established a newspaper, the influential Anaconda Standard.
   When Marcus Daly died in 1900 he was one of the major figures in American industry and was known as the copper king. Not bad for a boy who left Crosserlough aged 15 with little money and education.
 

* His place in the Barks/Rosa stories universe :
    In "The King of the Copper Hill", which takes place in 1884, Scrooge meets Marcus Daly in a restaurant in Butte City and they have meal together. Scrooge is complaining because he wanted to be a gold digger and there isn't any gold, neither silver, anymore, and Marcus Daly answers that it's even worse for him, becasue he owns a silver mine (Anaconda), and that there is only copper left in this mine... Then, they discover that the restaurant has weird lamps : they are electric? something they had never seen before, and then they learn that electricity works with copper wires, so they are happy again. Scrooge becomes a copper digger, but isn't very talentuous, while Marcus becomes rich with Anaconda Hill. One day, Howard Rockerduck, a rich american , fed up with his vile wife and his unbearable spoiled son, comes into Butte City and teaches Scrooge how to dig, and they find a copper vein together. Howard realizes that it's the same vein than the one in Anaconda Hill, except that it is only at a five feet depth, and tells Scrooge that this makes him the owner of Anaconda Hill mines (according to an obscure 1849 statute called the "Law of Apex" that said that whoever owns any part of a vein of ore nearest the surface therefore owns the entire vein, no matter where or how far or deep it runs).
  They go and see Marcus and tell him Scrooge is the new owner of their mine, and Scrooge understands that Rockerduck made this to make a hole in his son's heritage...
   But Scrooge then receives a telegram message from his family in Scotland telling him that they need money, and Scrooge accepts a 10 000 $ check from Marcus, renounce to the mine and goes back to Scotland...

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