1881 LEADVILLE PRESENTATION SILVER INGOT

Leadville Presentation Silver Ingot, Cook to Slocum, 1881

"From Geo. W. Cook to Col. J. J. Slocum Leadville Col June 1881 965 fine". About 23 troy ounces, 3.5" long, 1 1/8" high and 1 3/8" wide, trapezoidal in the classic manner. No maker or assayer shown, as typical of a presentation ingot. This ingot was previously unknown to the writer, coming from a Boston family collection.

Exceptional engraved Leadville silver ingot – one of the three known different western precious metal ingots with an engraved mountain scene on it. This ingot is further important because it ties two great Americans- George W. Cook, a one-time Leadville Mayor, turned Colorado railroad magnate and Russel Sage, one of the wealthiest American railroad financiers.

George W. Cook (1851-1916) enlisted in the Indiana Voluntary Infantry at the age of 15 after running away from home. He was a regimental clerk and a drummer boy, a passion he kept his entire life. He went back to school after the war, moved to Chicago, where he took his first quality job with the Louisville & New Albany & Chicago Railroad. Somehow, that job led him to Leadville later that year where he joined Denver & Rio Grande Railroad as Division Superintendent. A popular man about town, Cook was elected Mayor of Leadville, serving from 1885-1887.

Cook quickly learned the value of becoming and serving as "agent" for a number of major companies doing business in and out of Leadville. In 1888 he became a sales agent for the booming giant coal company of Colorado Coal & Iron. He was also appointed agent for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad in their Colorado-Utah district. That year, an Immigration Bureau was formed and he was elected vice president.

Active in veterans causes, he became Commander of the GAR for Colorado and Wyoming in 1891-2. Cook did volunteer work for the GAR for the remainder of his life. He was instrumental in forming the Geo. W. Cook's Drum Corps of Denver which later changed its name to the VFW Band of Colorado, still active today. Still popular, Cook was elected as a republican Congressman for Colorado in 1906, serving 1907-1909.

In 1895, Cook was appointed as Assistant Manager of the Colorado Midland Railroad, which was moving an office to Leadville. Still active with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, Cook led a crew of 800 men to clear the railroad of deep snow during a coal miners strike in February, 1899.

Cook was reportedly active in mining, particularly in the 1890s. His vast experience in the background of the precious metals mining scene led him to understand the demand for another metal, manganese. In 1899 Cook signed a contract with the Illinois Steel Works for 60,000 tons of manganese to be shipped from the Garden City Mine in California Gulch at Leadville.

Of equal importance is the fact that his wife was very active in the Women's Rights movement, making speeches throughout Colorado pushing for equality in the work place, among other things.

In life, we get coincidences, and we've got one here. There are two different George W, Cooks in Colorado political history. The first was Territorial Treasurer and a resident of Denver in 1859, as shown in the Denver City and Aurora Directory of 1859. Interestingly, that Cook is not mentioned in many of the references of Colorado pioneers, nor in the classic biographical works of Colorado. He does appear later in newspapers as General Geo. W. Cook.

Col. J. J. Slocum was the brother of the wife of Russel Sage (Olivia Slocum Sage), one of America's wealthiest railroad and telegraph financiers. Slocum's sister was Sage's second wife, and like Mrs. Cook, was exceptionally active in Women's rights. Armed with the money to do something about it, she founded the Russell Sage University, built many schools, helped even more with powerful cash donations, and spearheaded education of Native Americans.

References: Newspapers.com contained dozens of articles used here briefly. The Leadville newspapers are not yet scanned. Interestingly, Cook is not listed in Stone, Hafen or any of the other classic Colorado biographical or historical works I consulted (more than 30).

To read the complete lot description, see:
Leadville Cook Presentation Silver Ingot [131547] (https://holabirdamericana.liveauctiongroup.com/Leadville-Cook-Presentation-Silver-Ingot-131547_i39822709)

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