John Mackay: Silver King in the Gilded Age (review)

2010Book Reviews415 Texas. These pioneers helped found communities and served proudly during the Texas Revolution and Civil War. However, by the late 1 860s the two families were clearly organized in opposition to one another. Parsons remains uncertain as to what exact incident spawned the feud. It could have been the killing of Daniel Chisholm by the Taylors or the deadi ofa Taylor relative at the hands ofa posse led by Bill Sutton. Moving on from those incidents, Parsons proceeds chronologically and presents an image of bloody and lawless Reconstruction Texas. The Taylors, often categorized as cattle thieves, come off as oppressed citizens within Parsons's work. Creed Taylor, the generally recognized leader of the Taylor family, is described by Parsons as a "Texas hero" (81). The Suttons do not appear quite as favorably as it is clear throughout the text that Parsons believes they were generally corrupt officials bent on personal retribution. Instead of curbing the violence, Parsons argues that Sutton affiliates Captain Charles S. Bell and John Jackson Marshall "Jack" Helm initiated a "reign of terror" (62) across Texas characterized by large numbers of fugitives—often Taylor men—being killed during supposed escape attempts. In the end, it is difficult to entirely agree with Parsons's attempts to rehabilitate the Taylors due, in part, to his reliance uponJohn Wesley Hardin's self-serving and Taylor-praising autobiography. Hardin, drawn into an alliance with the Taylor family out of allegiance to his cousins, played his part in the violence that consumed DeWitt, Gonzales, Karnes, and Bastrop counties, until he decided to relocate to Florida, most likely to avoid capture and prosecution for murder. When authorities finally apprehended Hardin in 1877, the feud was winding down with Parsons stating that it officially ended with an 1899 pardon of one feudist. Parsons's account of the feud highlights the individual personalities of the feudists while also providing a plausible description of how life in Reconstruction Texas resembled "in many respects a continuation of the declared war" (257). The usefulness of Parsons's text lies in its accounts of deadly gunplay that serve not only to titillate but to reinforce the interpretation ofa Reconstruction Texas ruled by brute force and not force of law. Rice UniversityRobin Sager John Mackay: Silver King in the Gilded Age. By Michael J. Makley. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2009. Pp. 284. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9780874177701, $34.95 cloth.) John Mackay was a man almost bigger than life. This biography offers us insights into the man and his times as the exploitation of the Comstock Lode was turned into a symbol of wealth and excess. He presided over an environmental disaster twenty-five miles east of the high ridge of the Sierra Nevada during a time of intense human exploitation and corrupt business dealings. However, in this interesting book diat contains a wealth of local detail, Mackay emerges as an almost heroic figure. Born in 1831, he emigrated from Ireland in 1840 with his parents and lived as a boy in New York City. In 1851 he arrived in the gold fields along the American 416 Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary River and then moved on to Sierra County. In 1 859 word of the Comstock discoveries lured him to that site. Mackay married the widow Louise Bryant when he was in his mid thirties. It was a lifelong but largely long distance relationship since she chose Paris and London as her principal domiciles. During the course of the marriage he was sued at least once by a woman after a failed relationship. The author shows Mackay's struggles with local cartels and banking interests that exploited small-scale mine operators while depicting the growth of his own business. As an inquiring reader I would like to know more about Mackay's financing and where it came from, if it did not come from the same sources as the others . At the highest levels Mackay interfaced with New York financiers including J. P. Morgan, but no analysis of that relationship is offered. In die later phases of his career he expanded into the transoceanic cable and land communications industries. This would have meant competition, cooperation, or both...