C. A. Earle Rinker Collection, MS 2006-09. Special Collections, UNLV Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Acquired in May 2006.
Dana Miller, January 2007.
This collection is open for research.
For permission to reproduce or publish from this collection, please contact the Director of Special Collections.
Cleveland A. Earle Rinker was born in 1883 to S. Cleveland Rinker and Isadora (Fenwick) Rinker. Ostensibly he was raised with a large family on a farm in the town of Daleville, near Muncie, Indiana. Not long after his twentieth birthday Earle went to neighboring Parker, Indiana, to work as a stenographer, eventually working for Thomas Condon, a coal and oil dealer. Condon was also an enthusiastic investor in Nevada gold mines and beginning in the summer of 1906 he encouraged Rinker to seek his fortune there. In late October of 1906 Rinker boarded a train to make the uncomfortable journey to Nevada. About five days he later arrived a freckle-faced twenty-three year old in bustling, booming Goldfield, where- it seemed to Earle- “everything was on the jump.”
Rinker settled into Goldfield fairly quickly, securing a job doing stenography and typing in the brokerage office of MacMaster and MacMaster within 24 hours of his arrival in town. Earle also had an uncle in town by the name of John W. H. Fenwick, a carpenter, who helped him adjust to his new surroundings. A little over a month after Earle’s arrival, two friends and former roommates from Parker, Dalta Hurry and Ray Jefferson, came to seek their fortunes in Goldfield as well, having been disappointed by limited opportunities in Indiana. The three young men lived together for most of the duration of Rinker’s time in Goldfield, first in a makeshift tent house and later in an adobe cabin. John Fenwick, his late-life bride Myrta, “Hurry” and “Jeff” figure prominently in Earle’s letters home and were key people in his social network in Goldfield.
Daily life in Goldfield was in some ways quite different from that in Indiana, from the high price of subsistence items like water and eggs to the twenty-four hour gambling and drinking halls and periodic street shootings which were unheard of back home. Despite its remote location, Goldfield offered its residents many of the more mainstream diversions that were common in large cities of the time. Earle and his friends attended social dances, plays and musical offerings, enjoyed several high profile boxing and wrestling matches, went ice skating, and belonged to social clubs similar to those back home where Earle was a Mason. Special occasions included holiday parades, horse races, football games, the Great 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race, and other touring attractions that passed through Goldfield. Earle in particular also investigated the local terrain, climbing hills and mountains and occasionally exploring the area on horseback. He also indulged in a moderate amount of gambling, although Earle’s wagering activities were much heavier and riskier in the mining stock market than on the roulette wheel. From a distance of a little over two thousand miles, he wrote home to his family nearly every other day.
Parts of the West at times were risky places to live. During Rinker’s first winter there, Goldfield experienced an epidemic later called the Black Pneumonia, in which hundreds of people died. Earle was a victim of this illness but was able to recover over time. Another unfortunate occurrence during Earle’s time in Goldfield was a leisurely prospecting trip he took with four young men, including friend Mordant “Tex” Taylor, in March 1907. The trip resulted in a tragic accident in which one young man was shot and died several days later. Although not the shooter, Earle took responsibility in the group to inform the young man’s mother of his condition and eventual death, and paid for a portion of the repatriation expenses. In addition, the many conflicts between the miners and mining companies resulted in several labor union strikes, the worst of which prompted President Teddy Roosevelt to send in federal troops in 1907 to help in a prolonged lockout against striking miners
It seemed to Earle upon his arrival that Goldfield was a promising place for a young man to make money, and daily wages there- where nearly everyone worked seven days a week- were two to four times higher than could be had in Indiana, but his goal of getting ahead turned out to be quite a challenge given the circumstances. Earle and many others in the boomtown frequently experienced the repercussions of the mining industry’s instability; being out of work for a length of time was very common, and at the worst times residents joked that they would soon be eating snowballs for dinner. Earle worked in MacMaster and MacMaster’s office for several months, but the loyalty and support of his employers could not compete with the town’s flagging economy. At the end of March and all through April 1907 MacMaster and MacMaster sent Earle and a handful of others on a grubstake expedition during which they traveled parts of Nevada as far north as Oregon. There Earle secured a few minor claims for the company and at least one for himself. By the time of his return in May, there was no work for Earle to do in the office. He took another position at Mohawk Ledge Mining Company doing similar work for R. J. Shoemaker and Lincoln Davis, but lost that position as well when their office closed soon thereafter. Rinker began working for Goldfield Transfer and Trading Company in September 1907; that same month a railroad strike halted almost all business activity in the town including mail delivery for over three months, and in short order Earle found himself out of a job yet again. By Christmas he was hired by Lincoln Davis at the Baby Florence Mining Company. That spring and summer the lack of office work forced Earle to take a position as “top man” at the Florence mining site, dumping ore trucks among his other duties. Earle also worked as a “mucker” inside the mine for a short time.
Frustrated by the shortage of work in his field and the depths to which the local stock markets had plunged, Earle Rinker left Goldfield in early October 1908. On his way home he traveled through parts of California, Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Upon rejoining his family in Daleville, Indiana, Earle secured a position selling shoes in a department store, a job that was neither remunerative nor enjoyable for him, but as his friend Hurry pointed out from suffering Goldfield in early 1909, it was still a job. Rinker continued his efforts to secure more stable employment in various kinds of business, first working in the offices of a stockyard and a fertilizer plant in Chicago and later in other parts of Indiana. He married Vieune Prigg in February 1910 and the couple had at least four children: Eloise, Alice, Mary, and Thurman. The young Rinker family moved around the state following Earle’s work. After leaving Chicago they farmed in Pendleton from October 1910 to September 1911; they then moved to Muncie where Earle traveled and worked nights away from his growing family. By November 1912 the Rinkers had moved to Anderson, Indiana, where they settled for many years to farm again and where Earle eventually operated a successful hardware business.
Earle Rinker’s two years in Goldfield, although relatively brief, were a significant part of his life. He continued to be interested in mines and mining and visited the town at least once later on in 1939. Through an historical society contact in the late 1950s, Earle began a correspondence with Frank Crampton, also a former Goldfield resident during the boom years. The two men eagerly reminisced over the town and their life experiences then and since. According to Rinker, the opportunity to share his memories with another Goldfield “old timer” was one of the greatest thrills he had had for a long time. A few years after this correspondence began, Earle Rinker passed away in Indiana in 1965 at the age of eighty-one.
For more information refer to the following sources:
The C. A. Earle Rinker Collection contains a wealth of materials that document the history of early twentieth century Goldfield, a mining boom town in central Nevada, as well as the life of its collector. The materials are comprised of detailed personal correspondence, business documents from several mining companies, personal and professionally taken photographs and postcards, and several types of personal ephemera. Series 1. Correspondence is comprised of letters that Earle Rinker wrote and received at various stages in his life. Of special interest are the three subseries related to Goldfield, which include numerous letters Rinker wrote home to his mother in Indiana and some letters he received while in Goldfield from 1906-1908, and a few reminiscences he shared with a fellow Goldfielder in the late 1950s. Series 2. Mining Materials includes annual reports and prospectuses from several mining companies from 1906-1920, which Rinker probably referenced when he purchased mining stock; also in this series are five stenographer’s notebooks that appear to originate from Rinker’s employment with various mining related offices in Goldfield between 1906 and 1909. Series 3. Photographs is concentrated most heavily on images of the frontier boomtown from 1903-1909. They include indoor and outdoor portraits and snapshots of Rinker and his friends and family, rural scenes and cityscapes, special events, and postcard views. Series 4. Ephemera contains Goldfield souvenirs such as annotated maps and newspapers, and personal affects such as fraternal membership cards, ticket stubs and check registers. These originate mostly from Earle’s time in Goldfield between 1906 and 1909 but expand to his later travels elsewhere and include some of his father’s personal ephemera.
This collection is organized into five [5] series, within which are fourteen [14] subseries.
Approximately 200 loose photographs along with 3 small photo albums were removed from the collection to UNLV Photo Collection 0350. Some photocopies are provided with the collection but original images must be obtained from the Photo Archivist.
Six maps were also removed from the collection and catalogued for broader use. They are accessible by call number.
A separate series was created for fragile and endangered materials, mostly consisting of paper documents in the correspondence series; these items are restricted from use due to their condition but a photocopy was made of each letter to provide complete access to the information.
For related topics and further information see the following collections:
Goldfield, Nevada Collection, MS 10
Mines and Mining Collection, MS 11
Barcus, Clyde S. & Edith Giles Collection, T-138
(See also other manuscript collections under the Mining subject heading or refer to the Manuscripts Librarian for help.)
The largest of the collection, Series 1: Correspondence contains a vast wealth of information both about Earle Rinker’s own daily life and life in general in the locations he was in during the correspondence. The series is divided into five subseries, the first three having to do with Earle’s experiences in Goldfield and the latter two comprised of correspondence engaged in just before and almost a decade after Earle returned to the Midwest. Outgoing correspondence is listed and described before incoming because it is by far the richer of the two in this collection.
Of all the correspondence, the most detailed and telling letters can be found in subseries 1.1, in the form of outgoing letters Earle wrote home to his mother, Isadora. He wrote almost daily and with very few exceptions the letters are all addressed to Mother Rinker back home in Indiana from Goldfield, Nevada; she saved the letters he wrote her. They begin on the very first day of Rinker’s arrival in late October 1906 and end with his departure and subsequent northwestern travels on his way back home just under two years later .
The incoming Goldfield correspondence in subseries 1.2 comes from diverse friendly and occasionally familial sources. It offers a much less vivid story than the outgoing letters, but nevertheless helps to flesh out the relationships Rinker had with his friends and family, as well as broader goings-on in different parts of the country depending on the sender. The material leads up to Earle’s arrival in Goldfield, continues while he was there and follows for about a year his friendships with the people he associated with in Nevada.
Subseries 1.3 also concentrates on Goldfield. It contains correspondence that took place between Rinker and three other men in the later 1950s as they reminisce about old times in the frontier mining town. The look back offers a valuable and unique perspective on the town and reveals their feelings about the experiences they had there and the town’s place in their lives.
Subseries 1.4 contains outgoing letters that Earle wrote, mostly to his mother and the rest of his family, prior to his move to Goldfield and after his return to Indiana. After 1910 his wife, Vieunne, took up much of the family correspondence, and topics range from Earle’s various work environments and conditions to family issues, health, finances and the growing young Rinker family.
Subseries 1.5 is comprised of incoming letters written to Earle Rinker by various friends, fraternal and business associates, and occasionally family. Topics range from personal, family and business concerns to life in general in different regions of the United States. Note that the Incoming below was received by Rinker when he lived elsewhere than Goldfield; although some of the correspondents are people Rinker knew and associated with in Goldfield such as Jeff, Hurry, and Thomas Condon, they were not received during Earle’s time in Goldfield.
The second series contains mining business materials from Goldfield. These include the materials in subseries 2.1, which are annual business reports from several mining companies that were active during the peak years of Goldfield’s production, as well as one formal prospectus. Subseries 2.2 contains five stenographer's notebooks, probably belonging to Earle Rinker. Finally, subseries 2.3 consists of materials that were used to promote investment in mining stock and to influence the stock market, and include broadsides, posters, market letters from company executives, mailers and other advertisements.
All materials in this series are listed at item level to bring to light the names of individual mining companies.
These annual reports and prospectuses for several different mining companies could have been used by current and prospective stockholders. The report formats are not standardized and each company’s fiscal year spans individual dates, beginning ostensibly from when the company began producing ore.
The five stenographer’s notebooks in this subseries appear to be Earle Rinker’s notebooks from his days working as a stenographer around the town. The notebooks are written entirely in stenography except for the occasional date, which puts them in use around the time that Rinker was in Goldfield.
These approximately 30 promotional items, many dating from around the year 1907, reflect the speculation, business and economic activity going on in Goldfield during its boom time, as well as a good deal of frontier town hustling. Formats include broadsides, posters, market letters, and mailers. Some of the ads and letters resemble prospectuses but they lack the formality and legality to truly be labeled that way and instead function merely as advertisements.
Many of the promotional items in subseries 3 are housed in folders inside a flat oversized box (9) with similar materials.
- - Subseries 2.3 continues as oversize folders (approx. 12 items) in oversize box 9. - -
The images in this collection are an incredibly rich source of information on Earle Rinker, his family and friends, and the general look and layout of the town of Goldfield during its peak years. Accordingly almost all of the images in subseries 3.1 were photographs taken in Goldfield between 1906 and 1908; exceptions are picture postcards of Goldfield or Tonopah from a few years prior, or the occasional photograph from one of Earle’s expeditions to various outlying areas. A panorama of Goldfield and also one of the Mohawk Mine were retained with the collection's other oversized materials.
Subseries 3.2 is also photographic materials and consists of a group of negatives that appear to depict members of the Rinker family at an Indiana homestead, and some photographs of Earle Rinker’s vacation travels. They probably date from the 1920s and 1930s.
These revealing and sometimes intimate portraits, snapshots, and landscapes charmingly depict Earle and his friends and other people in various locations around town, as well as street scenes, events, various buildings and businesses in Goldfield, outdoor landscapes in other nearby parts of Nevada, and many mining and industrial operations in action. Many were taken by Earle himself after he bought his own Kodak camera; others are professionally made, souvenir style photo prints. Finally, other images in this subseries come from a number of black and white and colored photo postcards that depict the camps of Goldfield and Tonopah between about 1903-1909. The Goldfield images are comprised of 200 loose photographs, approximately 70 negatives (many of which contain useful written identifying information), and three photograph albums, with about one fourth of the images being duplicates. (All original photographs in subseries 3.1 have been removed to UNLV Special Collections Photograph Collection 0350. They are available from the Photo Archivist.)
These negatives appear to depict members of the Rinker family at an Indiana homestead, and some are photographs of Earle Rinker’s vacation travels.
The materials contained in Series 4 can be classified as souvenirs and ephemera, they serve as mementos of Earle Rinker’s life and experiences in Goldfield as well as some other trips he took to various other locations. Included are detailed maps of the Goldfield mining district and the town layout, with annotations as to Earle’s living and working quarters, as well as railroad and general maps Nevada. (As mentioned below, these maps are no longer with the rest of the collection but are available separately by call number.)
Note that maps #1-6 as listed below were removed from the collection to be cataloged for broader use. They are described here to preserve their intellectual context and can be requested by the call numbers listed below. A pamphlet on the history of Goldfield that was bound with map #6, as well as a smaller map, #7, were retained with the Rinker collection in the oversized materials
CALL NUMBER G 4352 G57 H1 1907 C48 c.2
CALL NUMBER G 4352 G57 H1 1905 C48
CALL NUMBERS: Railroad Map G 4350 1907 R35, City Map 4354 G63 1907 P37, shipper’s guide included in pocket of county railroad map.
CALL NUMBER G 4352 G 57 H1 1907 C482
This small assortment of newspapers were sent by Earle from Goldfield to his family back home in Indiana. Their margins often have commentary written in Earle’s hand.
Subseries 4.3 contains ephemeral material that Earle Rinker acquired exclusively while he was in Goldfield. Material is primarily from the years 1906-1908 and ranges in nature from financial and expense documents to entertainment and political souvenirs. See Subseries 4.4 for expense and day books that also record Earle’s time in Goldfield.
Subseries 4.4 is made up of a variety of items that Earle Rinker and some of his family members acquired at different times and places. A few of the materials overlap in time and origination with Goldfield; these can be determined by the date span 1906-1908. They offer a broad range of detailed information as is identified in the folder titles.
The materials in this final series, consisting entirely of correspondence, were received in extremely fragile condition and are therefore restricted from use to better preserve them over time. However the complete content of these materials is available to researchers through surrogate photocopies that are distributed into folders in sequence with the rest of the correspondence series.