Bookmark this page or copy and paste URL to Email message

Sims Ely Papers 1872-1970 (bulk 1890s-1954)

MSS-361

Biographical Note

Sims Ely was born to Mathew Sims and Susan Jane (Carr) Ely on a farm in Overton County, Tennessee on January 7, 1862. He was the seventh of his parents' eleven children. Although his father had not supported secession, he "went with his state" and served as a Captain with the 25th Confederate Infantry. Mathew Ely was seriously injured at least twice and was convalescing at home when "Tinker Dave" Beatty's gang of guerrillas broke into their house and began looting in late 1864. Sims Ely vividly remembered Susan Ely accusing the men of being cowards who had waited until Mathew Ely was incapacitated before attempting to rob them and Sims himself kicked one of the bandits in the shins when the thief tried to take his most prized possession, a red knitted cap. The bandits kidnapped Mathew Ely but later allowed him to return, which he attributed to Susan Ely's courage.

In the summer of 1874, Matthew Ely and several other men journeyed to Kansas, where they took homesteads about 30 miles southwest of Hutchinson. Their families joined them in the spring of 1875. Sims Ely worked on his father's farm before reading law under Major James McKistry in Hutchinson. He also began writing the firm's newspaper, which was used primarily to advertise their farm loan business. The firm obtained a railroad pass allowing Ely to travel to Leadville, Colorado and "[o]ne day in watching the production of ore which was making millionaires at Leadville was sufficient to decide me on living in Colorado." Ely settled in Pueblo in 1881, where he worked in manual labor before obtaining a job with the newly established Pueblo News. He later became editor of the Gold Park News.

Ely returned to Hutchinson in 1882 to edit the Hutchinson Herald. He also studied stenography and became the town's court reporter in 1884. He read law and worked in the court and at numerous commercial ventures before becoming the Washington, D.C. secretary to Senator John Martin of Kansas in 1894. He resigned his post in the summer of 1895 to take a position with the Hudson Reservoir and Canal Company as manager of the water storage project that became Arizona's Roosevelt Dam. When the Company ran out of money, Ely traveled to New York City to meet with Henry Man of Man & Man (the law firm that had been involved in the Company's founding). He arranged an agreement by which the Company's founder, Wells Hendershott, surrendered all his interests to the firm, which continued to finance the water storage project with Ely as their local manager. He was in charge of obtaining rights of way, negotiating contracts, and supervising detailed surveys of all the operations involved. When the national reclamation act became effective in 1904, Man & Man sold their franchise to the Department of the Interior for $40,000.

In addition to his work for Man & Man, Ely began writing editorials for the Arizona Republican, edited by Frank M. Murphy (1855-1917). Murphy's brother, Nathan Oakes Murphy (1849-1908) became Governor of the Arizona Territory in 1892 and later asked Ely to stand in for his regular secretary, W. N. Tiffany, while Tiffany was temporarily absent. Ely did such a good job that Murphy reassigned Tiffany and Ely became his regular secretary. Ely left the post in the spring of 1898.

Sims Ely married Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Northcutt (1865-1940) in about 1887. The couple had three children, Helen Elizabeth "Sissy" (Ely) Richardson (1888-), Sims (1889-1973), and Northcutt (1904-1997). Northcutt Ely earned his law degree from Stanford University in 1926 and went on to specialize in natural resource and international law. From 1953 to 1964, he served as the Special Assistant Attorney General for California during its conflict with Arizona regarding the division of the Lower Colorado River's flow. He also assisted his father in his hunt for and research on the Lost Dutchman Mine.

Sims Ely met James E. Bark (ca. 1860-1938), with whom he searched for the Lost Dutchman Mine until the 1910s, in 1891. Bark arrived in the Arizona Territory between 1879 and 1885, by which time he and partner Frank L. Criswell (1861-1928) had established themselves as successful cattlemen. Bark opened a mine in the Volcanic Mining District (in the Four Peaks area) in 1894 and his mining enterprises proved extremely lucrative. He ran for office several times, including campaigning for Maricopa County Sheriff in 1896, 1898, and 1902. He lost all three elections and even filed suit over the 1898 race, but the election's results were not overturned. In 1904, Bark was elected Maricopa County's Territorial Councilman in the 23rd Arizona Legislature. He and Criswell sold their ranching operation in 1907 and Bark began diversifying his interests and splitting his time between Arizona and Long Beach, California. Bark and his wife, Leona Frances (Sears) Bark, moved to Pasadena permanently in 1928. Bark returned to Arizona with nephew John Spangler to continue his search for the Lost Dutchman Mine on several occasions before his death on November 8, 1938 in Pasadena, California.

In March of 1903, Sims Ely and Stephen B. Higley purchased the Republican from Frank Murphy for $85,000. Ely and Higley made a down payment of $12,000 and it was agreed that the debt for the remaining $73,000 would mature in 1905. Financial considerations forced Murphy to sell the debt to a group of bankers before 1905 and Higley and Ely were forced to part with the newspaper as the result of what Ely described as "unmitigated treachery" on the part of a Phoenix banker. Ely returned to the Republican in 1909 and served as managing editor until 1911. He went on to hold several offices in Arizona government, to represent Arizona in the interstate conferences leading to the Colorado River Compact (1919-1922), and to serve as Director and Treasurer of the Federal Land Bank and Federal Intermediate Credit Bank in Berkeley, California (1922-1930).

In October of 1931, the Federal Government hired Sims Ely to manage Boulder City, the company town associated with Boulder Dam. Ely's control over the city was near absolute: he could approve or deny home and commercial leases, controlled the police force, set prices, and could have workers fired and expelled from the reservation. He was also in charge of Boulder City's school system until Clark County, Nevada took responsibility in 1933. While Ely was an effective leader and was widely believed to be tough but fair, some asserted that he engaged in shows of force to emphasize his authority and detected elements of racism in some of his decisions, for example ordering that African-American cook McKinley Sayles be fired because he was black. Ely retired on April 16, 1941. The Bureau of Reclamation abolished the city manager position and operated the town through a new city administrative officer who wielded considerably less power than Ely had.

After retirement, Ely joined his son Northcutt in Washington, D. C. and wrote The Lost Dutchman Mine, which described his and Jim Bark's search for the fabled treasure. Sims Ely died in a sanitarium in Rockville, Maryland on November 11, 1954 at the age of 92. At the time of his death, he was working on a book about his life.

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists primarily of correspondence, newspaper clippings, maps, photographs, and other materials documenting Sims Ely's search for and research on Arizona's Lost Dutchman Mine and service as city manager of Boulder City (the company town associated with Boulder Dam). Also included are drafts of Sims Ely's writings, materials showing his involvement with the Federal Farm Loan Board, and correspondence addressed to Helen (Ely) Richardson and Northcutt Ely following Sims Ely's death.

Series I: Lost Dutchman Mine houses correspondence, newspaper clippings, maps, notes, and other materials showing Sims Ely's and Jim Bark's research on the Lost Dutchman Mine and such associated personalities as Jacob Walsz, Doc Thorne, and Adolph Ruth (who was murdered in 1931 while searching for the mine). Also included are drafts of Jim Bark's manuscript about the mine, drafts and galleys for Sims Ely's The Lost Dutchman Mine (1953), correspondence addressed to Sims Ely, Northcutt Ely, and Helen (Ely) Richardson about the book, and photographs of the Superstition Mountains.

Series II: Boulder City, Nevada includes photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, publications, and other materials documenting Sims Ely's tenure as Boulder City's manager and the construction of Boulder Dam. Also included is a thesis titled Boulder City: Its Legal Background, Its City Plan, and Its Administration by Ray L. Wilbur, Jr.

Series III: Personal, Biographical, and Other Papers consists of correspondence, publications, newspaper clippings, certificates, and other materials documenting the personal lives of Sims Ely, Northcutt Ely, and Helen (Ely) Richardson. Of particular interest are Sims Ely's manuscripts about his life, including "My Early Years", "Experiences at Phoenix", and "Through Eight Decades".

Arrangement

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.

Copyright

Arizona State University does not own the copyright to this collection. We recognize that it is incumbent upon the researcher to procure permission to publish information from this collection from the owner of the copyright.

Related Material

Stanford University's Manuscripts Division holds Northcutt Ely's papers. A guide to these materials is available at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft1g5002n7/.

Separated Materials

A published copy of The Lost Dutchman Mine received with these papers was cataloged into the Arizona Collection stacks.

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Sims Ely Papers, MSS-361, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

Archives and Special Collections received these materials in 2013 (Accession #2013-04625).

Container List