In honor of Mark Twain’s birthday (November 4th), we decided to research one of the more mysterious items in UA Special Collections. The item is a mining certificate from the Goodman Gold and Silver Mining Company issued to Mark Twain, apparently in 1872 (MS 091). It is often the job of archivists to research the historical authenticity of items in their collection.

The item is suspicious. The certificate has Mark Twain’s name on it, but is not signed by him. The certificate appears to be signed by Eilley Orrum and Sandy Bowers. Orrum and Bowers were married to each other and each came across shares (or “feet”) to a mining claim on Gold Hill in Virginia City, Nevada. They were both given these shares in exchange for work they had already done. Unlike most with a claim in this strike Orrum and Bowers refused to sell their shares and as a result they became two of the richest people to emerge from what would become known as the Comstock Lode.

They were the first millionaires of the Comstock Lode. Their fortunes, however, were quickly squandered on things like the Bowers’ mansion and their travels in Europe where they spent extravagant amounts of money on things like furniture for their new mansion south of Reno. The claim would run dry, but their spending habit would remain the same and they were soon broke. Sandy would die poor and young at the age of 35 in 1868. Eilley would outlive him, but had to give up her mansion and would later become a mystic fortune teller, giving advice to others who made fortunes in Nevada’s gold and silver booms.

Not much is known about the provenance of the certificate, other than it came to Special Collections in 1965 as a gift. It appears to be believable because Mark Twain did live in Virginia City, Nevada and was a miner on the Comstock Lode. But our investigation points to a number of clues doubting its authenticity. Clearly printed on the certificate is that the company didn’t incorporate until 1873, yet this particular piece is dated June 11, 1872, a year before the company incorporated. Whether it was issued in 1872 or 1873 it couldn’t have been signed by Sandy Bowers because he was dead in 1868! Both signatures, as well as Twain’s name appear to be written by the same hand.

Although Nevada was where he began writing under the name Mark Twain, it also seems more likely that if this stock was actually his he would have used his real name, Samuel Clemens. By 1872, the year he published Roughing It about his experience in Nevada, Twain had already returned east and was living in Connecticut. Another clue is that this appears to be printed on wood-pulp paper using a chemical process. Until the 1880s most paper in America was made using a rag-pulp process. Paper was literally made out of old rags which made for stronger, durable paper. There were some wood-pulp processes in their infancy at the time, but it seems more likely that something of this importance would be printed on the higher quality, historically reliable rag based papers.

All of these clues point to conclusion that this stock certificate is very likely a fake.  Interestingly, another copy of a stock certificate from the Goodman Gold and Silver Mining Co., also made out to Mark Twain, showed up on Season 5, Episode 16 of the History Channel show “Pawn Stars.” They came to the same conclusion, that it was a fake, and was most likely made in the 1920s. Who knows how many of these certificates were sold to unsuspecting customers? For us, this discovery means that the certificate will remain in Special Collections as a sample of clever historical forgery instead of a piece of actual Mark Twain history. 

-Jarrod Mingus