The Jerome Historical Society held its first Jerome History Night community event on Wednesday, Nov. 1, with a presentation on the Douglas family and the UVX mine operation.
MaryBeth Barr, president of JHS, began her presentation with Dr. James Douglas, the grandfather of “Rawhide Jimmy” Douglas. Dr. James Douglas was born in Scotland and was a surgeon who had a reputation for being a fast worker. Barr noted that this might seem like an odd quality nowadays, but in an era without anesthesia, Douglas was recognized for his skill in performing amputations in less than a minute.
Douglas later began teaching surgery and was hired by Auburn University. Since he could never get enough corpses of prisoners and vagrants for his students to dissect, Douglas began to dabble in grave robbing. When he was caught digging up the body of a slave, he was only given a warning, but when he was found to have dug up the body of a prominent community member, mistaking him for a beggar, he was forced to flee to Canada with his wife, where he took a post at Quebec Hospital.
While in Quebec, Douglas was asked to start an asylum program to take over patients from the prison system, through which he taught his patients to farm, weave and do carpentry. The hospital still exists today, with the farm and carpentry shop still in use. It was renamed Douglas Hospital in 1965.
Dr. James Douglas’ son was Dr. James Walter Douglas. James Walter followed his father into medicine, but when his father invested in the Harvey Hill Copper Co. in Pennsylvania, he soon became more interested in mining than medicine. He took over the management of the mine, but it turned out to be a dud. He also developed and patented a method of smelting low-grade copper ore.
James Walter Douglas’ interest in smelting later led him to Jerome to collect ore samples after an investor friend asked him about the Eureka Claim. Douglas found that the ore quality was good but pointed out that Jerome was difficult to access and advised his friend not to invest in the mine, which he thought would not pay. The Eureka Claim later became the United Verde Copper Company, one of the largest mining operations in the United States. Douglas was eventually hired by the Phelps-Dodge company and became its president. James Walter Douglas had two sons, James Stuart and Walter. James Stuart Douglas worked in Bisbee for his father before managing mines in Mexico, where he received the nickname “Rawhide Jimmy.” He was said to have wrapped rawhide around the wheels of the mine carts to prevent them from being damaged.
Rawhide Jimmy later bought an option on the UVX mine in Jerome, which was unprofitable at first, and eventually planned to shut down the mine and lay off all his men right before Christmas in 1914. On Dec. 20 of that year, an exploration drift cut revealed a 45% ore body and the UVX mine’s future was secured.
The first thing Douglas did was to build a house right in the middle of the town, which is now the Jerome State Historic Park. Barr said that Douglas was known to be generous and was concerned for his workers’ welfare. He opened up a company hospital as well as a hotel for workers, the Little Daisy Hotel. The Montana Hotel had burned three years prior to the Little Daisy’s construction and rooms were hard to come by. Learning from the Montana’s mistakes, the Little Daisy was made out of inflammable materials with minimal amounts of wood.
When the hotel opened on New Year’s Eve 1918, Douglas was absent in Europe, having volunteered to participate in World War I. The hotel had over 60 rooms with a homey, comfortable feel to them. Barr said that the main streets were still rowdy and that the Little Daisy was considered the safest place to live at the time.
Jimmy’s son, Lewis Williams Douglas, trained as a mining engineer and worked for his father in Jerome. Lewis later served a term in the state legislature and three terms in Congress. He was budget director under Franklin D. Roosevelt and was sought out by Harry Truman to be ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Lewis Douglas lost his eye in a fishing accident and wore an eye patch for the remainder of his life. He settled in Tucson after resigning from his diplomatic post.
Barr observed that without Dr. James Douglas’ initial disastrous investment in the Pennsylvania mine, he would not have gone on to create a mining family dynasty.
