Information Sheet

 

 

R         Federal Lead Company.  Mining Dept. (Flat River, Mo.).

520                  Letterbooks, 1907-1913.

                                    Seventeen volumes.

 

THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-SITE STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR ITS USE BY RESEARCHERS.

 

 

These are letterbooks of outgoing correspondence maintained by Harry Adelbert Guess, gen­eral manager of the Federal Lead Company’s mine and mill at Flat River in St. Francois County, Missouri.  Topics include production, exploration, shipping, labor relations, and envi­ron­mental pol­lu­tion.

 

Harry Adelbert (“H. A.”) Guess was born in Hartigan, Ontario, Canada, on 21 November 1875, the son of Charles Wellington Guess and Augusta (Shorey) Guess.  He received a Master’s degree from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, in 1895.  A mining engineer, he came to the United States in 1901 and became a U.S. citizen in 1923.  During the period of these letterbooks he was married to Eva (Young) Guess, who died in 1935.  They had a son, Shorey Cameron Guess.  A Republican and a Presbyterian, H. A. Guess died on 11 April 1946.

 

H. A. Guess joined the American Smelting & Refining Company, a part of the Guggenheim mining interests, in 1901.  As these letterbooks open, Guess is a “milling superintendent” for the American Smelters Securities Company, a Guggenheim subsidiary.  As such, he visited and over­saw milling operations at several sites in the United States and Mexico.  However, he was devot­ing much of his time to the firm’s Federal Lead Company mining and milling operations at Flat River, Missouri.  By the late summer of 1908 he had assumed direction of the Flat River mines and mill, and related leased properties in Madison County, Mo., although he continued to advise on other milling operations.  In October 1908 he began to use the title of “Manager” on his let­ters from Flat River.

 

Guess reported regularly to his superiors in New York, first to Cortlandt Palmer, then to S. W. Eccles, and, finally, to T. H. Leggett.  His letters summarized activities in all areas of opera­tions at Flat River, including production, profits, exploration, development, and methods.  Of par­ticular interest are his frank assessments of labor relations, which included the recruitment of im­migrants from eastern Europe for the least desirable job category, that of “shoveler.”  Job-related injuries and deaths were reported, as well as Guess’s attempts, usually successful, to make a mini­mal settlement payment to the worker or his survivors.  Another topic of interest was a suit filed by farmers and ranchers along the Big River, who claimed that lead pollution had harmed or de­stroyed their crops and herds.  This suit had not been settled by the close of the letterbooks.  Under normal conditions Guess’s reports indicate that the Flat River enterprise was very profit­able to the Guggenheim interests throughout his tenure.

 

The final three letterbooks, designated “GP” by Guess, contain correspondence he consid­ered to be of a personal nature.  Included there are Guess’s purchase of an automobile and its subse­quent upkeep, summer vacations for him and his family, and business related to a mine and farmland owned by Guess in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, respectively.

 

A shelf list, an alphabetical list of addressees, and an alphabetical list of addressed firms have been prepared for each volume.

 

 

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