Francis Marion Smith
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Francis Marion Smith (aka "Borax" Smith and the "Borax King") (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) was an American business magnate and civic builder in Oakland, California. Smith Mountain in Death Valley is named after him.
Smith was born in Richmond, Wisconsin in 1846. At the age of 21, he left Wisconsin to prospect for mineral wealth in the American West.
In 1872, while working as a woodcutter, he discovered a rich supply of ulexite at Teel's Marsh in Nevada. He staked a claim, started a company with his brother Julius, and established a borax works at the edge of the marsh to concentrate the borax crystals and separate them from dirt and other impurities. In 1877, Scientific American reported that the Smith Brothers shipped their product in a 30-ton load using two large wagons with a third wagon for food and water drawn by a 24-mule team over a 160-mile stretch of desert between Teel's Marsh and the Central Pacific Railroad at Wadsworth, Nevada, some six years before similar twenty mule teams were introduced into Death Valley, California.
In 1884, Smith bought out his brother. While reduced operations continued at Teels Marsh, Smith now had focused his energies and borax mining on Death Valley at Harmony Borax Works, and in 20 Mule Team Canyon in the mountain range to the east. During the summer months, when it was too hot to crystallize borax in Death Valley, a smaller borax mining operation shifted to Amargosa near the present community of Shoshone. In 1890, he acquired William Tell Coleman's borax holdings in Western Nevada, Death Valley region, and in the Calico Mountains near Yermo, and consolidated them with his own holdings to form the Pacific Coast Borax Company. Smith's company then established and aggressively promoted the 20-Mule-Team Borax trademark, which was named after the twenty mule teams that had been used to transport borax out of Death Valley. The idea came from his Advertising Manager, Stephen Mather, who in 1916 became the first Chief of the new National Park Service.
Activity at Harmony Borax Works ceased with the development of the richer Colemanite borax deposits at Borate in the Calico Mountains, where they continued until 1907. Initial hauling to the Southern Pacific Railroad was done by 20 Mule Teams, but as soon as a Smith could complete the 12 mile long Borate and Daggett RR, they were retired. When these deposits neared depletion, work began near Death Valley Junction to develop nearby claims at what became known as the Lila C Mine. Again, long mule teams were used in the early years while Smith constructed the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad connecting with the Southern Pacific RR at Ludlow, CA. While operating at this location, Smith purchased mineral rights near the town of Boron east of Mojave and today's Edwards AFB. Though never developed by Smith, his successors have obtained all their borax minerals from the site of the Suckow claims for more than 75 years, and estimate remaining deposits will last for nearly as long.
In 1913, Smith, like his former partner, W. T. Coleman, became financially overextended and had to turn over his assets to creditors who refused to extend new loans. After winning a lawsuit to protect his wife's interest in a silver mine in Tonopah, NV, he acquired mineral rights to a large section of Searles Lake in northern San Bernardino County, CA. However, finding a profitable way to convert the extensive lake brines into borax and other important commercial mineral salts products, proved elusive for roughly a decade. In the meantime, he outbid the new owners of his company for the rights to a rich borax discovery in Callville Wash in the Muddy Mountains overlooking Lake Mead. He called his operations there the Anniversary Mine as the claims were acquired on the anniversary of his marriage to his second wife. His first wife had died at age 55 in 1905. The profits from this claim provided the capital to develop the Searles Lake deposits when a young chemist, Henry Helmers, discovered a profitable process for refining the lake brines into marketable products.
Smith married Mary R. Thompson and settled in Oakland, California in 1881 where in 1896 he had an estate constructed across the street from what is today the site of Oakland High School, where he lived until 3 years prior to his death. Suffering a major stroke at age 78 in 1928, the family sold the home and moved into smaller quarters across Lake Merritt in the Adams Point neighborhood. Prior to the move, several pieces of the estate had been sold on which more modest homes were built. With the stock market crass of 1929, no buyer could be found and shortly after his death the mansion was demolished after many marketable fixtures were sold and removed. While still working with W. T. Coleman, Smith constructed in nearby Alameda, America’s first reinforced concrete building for his Pacific Coast Borax Company's refinery. He also created the Key System, a commuter train, ferry and streetcar system serving the East Bay, with a significant sideline in real estate. He also built Idora Park in Oakland to attract riders to the trolleys on weekends. With his fortune, Smith also purchased an estate on Shelter Island in New York. [1]
Supporting his first wife's desire to provide homelike accommodations for orphaned girls, Smith used part of his fortune to finance the construction and operation of 13 residential homes. Each home had a house mother selected by Mrs. Smith, who was directed to provide a close to a normal homelife for the girls under her care as possible. In addition to the homes, the Smith provided a social hall called The Home Club, that was located on the site of the current Oakland High School. Only the stairway from Park Avenue remains today. The homes continued in operation for many decades, and several are still standing. As the State took over providing for orphans, the funds in the Mary R. Smith Trust were redirected to providing nursing education for qualified young women.
Smith was involved in some way in most significant charitable and community events during his lifetime, and frequently made his estate available for fundraising activities, involving his children in running games and booths. He served as a presidential elector in 1912 and made his carriage available for use by President's Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft during their visits to his adopted hometown. That carriage can be viewed in the History wing of the California Museum of Oakland.
Francis Marion Smith died in Oakland in 1931 at the age of 85. He is buried in the city's Mountain View Cemetery along "Millionaires Row".
The Western Railroad Museum's archives wing is named for Francis Marion "Borax" Smith. The museum, located on California Hwy 12 at Rio Vista Junction, includes several operating street cars and transbay trains that operated on the Key System lines in Oakland and adjacent cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay.
A public park, on land donated by his wife and him on Park Boulevard in Oakland for public recreation purposes, is also named for him. It occupies a portion of his former estate.
"Borax" Smith is a character in the historical fiction novel Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold (ISBN 0-7868-8632-3).
[edit] References
- Hildebrand, GH. (1982) Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith. San Diego: Howell-North Books. (ISBN 0-8310-7148-6)
- Smith, Francis Marion. (Unpublished) circa 1925. Autobiographical Notes on His Early Life.
