John Louville Emerson, probably the eldest of three brothers from Portland, Maine, moved to Central City, Colorado, around 1867 to pursue a mining career. In 1880 he returned to Maine to organize the Emerson Gold and Silver Mining Company with his brothers, Edwin and Charles, and with Norvin Green, president of the Western Union Telegraph Company. He later returned to Colorado where he managed the Sappho Mining Company. By 1902 his mining interests included the Pawnolos, Sedalia, Caledonia, and Garnet mines. John Louville Emerson died at Salida, Colorado, in 1905.
Edwin Ruthven Emerson, brother of John Louville Emerson, married Ellen ("Nelly") Russell, the ethnologist, in 1862. He served as chief railroad engineer for the Knox and Lincoln Railroad of Bath, Maine, 1867-76 and later underwrote many of his brother John's mining operations, including those in the Sedalia Copper Company, Prinsetti Gold Mining Company, and the Colonial Dames Mining Company. After living in Buena Vista, Colorado for several years, he returned to the Northeast to reside at Pigeon Cove, Massachusetts. His wife died in 1907 and Edwin Ruthven may have died around 1912.
Charles Harris Emerson, the third brother, was both a mining entrepreneur and an inventor. His mining career began in Colorado in 1871 and in 1884 he organized the Mineral Land Improvement Company. During the 1890s he ran the Emerson Boomerang Gun Company in Whitehall, New York. Charles was also associated with the Sedalia, Cripple Creek, and Boulder mines; was an officer in the Kuenzel's Process Smelting Company; and helped underwrite his son's mining ventures. Charles H. Emerson spent his final years in Portland, Maine and probably died at the end of 1921.
Joseph Wilson Emerson, son of Charles H. and Flora Wilson Emerson, resided in Salida, Colorado, with his wife Elizabeth ("Bess"). He began his mining career in 1907 as general manager of the Garnet Hill Copper Company. Later that same year he became manager of the Ores and Metals Extraction Company. In 1916 Joseph joined S. V. V. Zabriskie in a survey, assay, and consulting partnership and invested heavily in the North Fork, Colorado region. With the financial assistance of his father, he operated gypsum, alabaster, and tungsten mines, hoping to provide clay-like bricks and capture a large share of the tungsten market. He also speculated in oil shale and Colorado real estate.
From the guide to the Emerson family papers, 1848-1929, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
