HON. JASPER BABCOCK, Secretary of State of Nevada, is a native of Ashford, Windham County, Connecticut and was born April 6, 1821. His parents moved into the State of New York, and that became the field of his business operations up to 1852. He was a heavy railroad, canal and building contractor, the construction of fifteen miles of the New York Central Railroad being one among the numerous operations of his in this line. 

In 1852 he moved to the Pacific Coast for the purpose of continuing his business in San Francisco; and for a time was very successful, many of the extensive grading contracts in that city in early days being operated by him, until he began to feel as though fortune was being very kind to him. But one day, Henry Meiggs, who had caused the illegal issuance of large amounts of city scrip, suddenly disappeared, and that class of paper fell from eighty cents on the dollar, to ten. Mr. Babcock had on hand and due him in that class of paper, over $120,000 at the time, $75,000 of which was pledged for borrowed money, and in a day he was bankrupt, but he paid every dollar of his debts and then went to work for a salary.

From that time forward his career has been rather of a checkered one, divided between mining in California, Arizona and Nevada, speculating in real estate, and operating water ditches. In 1873 he came to Nevada to take charge of a mining enterprise on the Comstock, and since that time has been a resident of this State.

Before his first settlement in Virginia City he had succeeded in mending his broken fortunes and in accumulating a competence; but it was swept away in a stock zephyr, and he was left, at between fifty and sixty years of age, with only his reputation, his business qualifications, his energy and friends, to start in life again, to build from the bed-rock up.  He is now a widower, with one son and three daughters living.

Mr. Babcock has not made politics a business or a study, but was elected to the Legislature in California in 1859 as a Douglas Democrat, and following the advice of his great leader, became from the first an uncompromising supporter of the Union movement, and naturally floated into the ranks of the Republican party.

In 1876 he was elected to the Legislature from Storey County, and Secretary of State for Nevada in 1878, for a term of four years, having for his deputy, Mr. James G. Chesley, a very competent and genial gentleman.

D. CROSBY -----eldest son of eight children, born to Joseph and Sarah (Johnson) Crosby, natives of Dumfries, Scotland, was born in Syracuse, New York, July 30, 1835. At the age of eight years, he, with his parents, emigrated to the State of Michigan, Township of Nankin, Wayne County, at that time a dense wilderness. His early years were spent on a farm, with no special opportunity for obtaining an education other than those afforded by the district schools, but, through the combined influences of both farm and school, he received a thorough training of self-reliance, perseverance and fortitude, that were developed in after life to a remarkable degree.

As youth ripened into manhood, his vigorous and ambitious nature led him to seek new fields, and, at the early age of eighteen years, he went to Detroit, Michigan, and secured a position in the dry goods establishment of Zach. Chandler, where he remained two years. After leaving that position, he purchased a half interest in a jewelry and Yankee notion store, and for five years remained there, under the firm name of Crosby & Lovell.

In 1860, desiring a richer field for his labors, he set sail for California, where he arrived April 12th of that year. After a short stay in San Francisco, he went to Sacramento and formed a partnership with T. H. Cook, and for the succeeding four years carried on a mercantile and teaming business, and delivered the first brick used in the construction of the State Capitol at Sacramento.

In 1864 he severed his connection with the firm, and came over the mountains to Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada, soon after associating himself with R. J. Breed in the wood and coal business, also general teaming, under the name of Breed & Crosby, owning and using as many as 300 horses and mules at a time, hauling quartz from the mines to the mills.  The firm continued successfully for nearly fifteen years, up to the fifteenth of December 1879, when it was dissolved, and he associated himself with his brother, John J. Crosby, conducting the same line of business under the name of Crosby & Co.

W. E. F. DEAL -----son of Dr. Wm. Grove Deal, was born in Calvert County, Maryland, March 8, 1840.  In 1845 he moved with his parents to Baltimore, where he attended school, and in September, 1855, entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from where he graduated, after pursuing a full college course, in July, 1859, with degree of A. B., and afterward received the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater. Dr. Deal, father of the present subject, was one of the first who left Baltimore for California upon the discovery of gold, reaching the latter place in the spring of '49, and was closely identified with the early history of the State.

Mr. Deal left for California soon after graduating, where he arrived September 12, 1859. His first occupation was as a teacher in a school in Oakland, Alameda County, where he stayed until March, 1860, and moved to Colusa, Colusa County, California, and had charge of a school from March until July, 1860; thence to Nevada City, California, where he opened a private school, over which he presided until May, 1863, at which time he came to Nevada, and has since been a resident of Virginia City.

During that year he entered the law office of D. W. Perley and Chas. E.  DeLong, and studied law while acting as their clerk, and in 1865 was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Nevada. In 1869 he formed a partnership with Curtis J. Hillyer and W. S. Wood, which continued until 1871. In 1870 Mr. Deal was nominated by the Democrats for the office of District Judge, of the Fourth Judicial District, but was defeated by Judge Rising, by only ninety-six majority.

In 1873 the partnership of Lewis & Deal was formed, which still exists, and is extensively engaged in the practice of law in the courts of Nevada and California. In 1878 Mr. Deal was nominated for Congress, but was defeated by R. M. Daggett. In 1880 he was chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, for the campaign of that year, which resulted in the election of Democratic nominees for Presidential electors-of which Mr. Deal was one-Member of Congress, Justice of the Supreme Court, and a Democratic Legislature, insuring the election of a Democratic United States Senator from Nevada. He was married in 1875 and has three children.

PHILIPP DEIDESHEIMER ----Is a native of Germany, born in 1832. At the age of nineteen years he came to California, by way of Cape Horn. He remained in the latter State until 1860, when he came to Nevada, and has since resided on the Comstock. A full description of the wonderful invention of this gentleman accompanies this notice, and a view of the same will be found in this work.

"Dan De Quille," in relation to the invention, says:

It is to Philipp Deidesheimer that the world is indebted for the invention of that plan of timbering mines, known as timbering in square sets.  It is the system now in universal use on the Comstock, and that which must everywhere be used in mines containing bodies of ore of great width. But for this method of timbering, it would have been almost impossible to work the immense ore bodies of the Ophir. Gould, Carry, Belcher, Crown Point, Yellow Jacket, California, Consolidated Virginia, and the other great mines of Virginia City and Gold Hill.  The history of the invention is as follows: About the first of November, 1860, Mr. W. F. Babcock, of San Francisco Agent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and a leading Director of the Ophir Mining Company, sent to Mr. Deidesheimer, who was then engaged in mining operations in El Dorado County, California, requesting him to come to San Francisco. When Mr. Deidesheimer arrived in San Francisco, Mr. Babcock asked him if he had ever seen or worked a quartz lode over sixty feet in width. Mr. Deidesheimer said he had never seen or heard of a vein of ore of such great width. Mr.  Babcock then asked him if he could work such a mine, and Mr. Deidesheimer said he could not toll what he could do until he had seen and studied such a vein. Mr. Babcock then said that up to that time all miners and mining engineers had failed to properly work the mine, that the Ophir was a very valuable mine, but unless some way of supporting the ground could be discovered, it would be of but little value to the owners.

Mr. Deidesheimer finally agreed to try what he could do with the mine, and was requested to leave that very day for Virginia City. He arrived at the mine about the eighth of November, and at once began the investigation of the difficulties with which he found the miners contending.

He studied the situation till about the fourteenth of November, when he set to work upon the problem.  After about three weeks devoted to experiments and study he hit upon the plan of building up square sets of timbers, a system upon which it has since been found impossible to improve.  Mr. Deidesheimer then began opening up what was at that time called the third gallery, a chamber on the vein some 215 feet below the surface. Under his directions the carpenters had properly framed a great number of timbers. The miners were not a little puzzled when these short pieces of timber were taken into the mine. They had no idea of the manner in which they were to be used even after the first row of the sets had been placed in position they did not see what was to come next. However when they had erected upon this first row a few sets, and had built up sots by the side of sots as well, they began to got the idea and were able to see that they could easily and safely go on adding set to set to any height or width; in tact, in any direction required.  By building up and extending his "square sets" as was required, Mr. Deidesheimer successfully sloped out the ore from wall to wall, the vein averaging over sixty-five feet in width, and the ground supported by the wall of timber stood as firmly as did the undisturbed sections of the mountains.  In the following February, 1861, the work had so far progressed that the idea could readily be grasped, and the whole plan at once understood by all who saw it, whether mining men or men of other professions.  All who examined the system at once acknowledged that it was the only true way of sloping out and timbering up ore bodies of great width.  In that part of the vein then being worked the ore was so soft that it was all dug down with picks. No blasting was required.

Persons who have even the slightest knowledge of mining can see that without Mr. Deidesheimer's system of timbering it would have been almost impossible to work such ground.

At Gold Hill, previous to Mr. Deidesheimer's invention, they had experienced great difficulty in keep ing up the ground in which they were at work, and several accidents had occurred. Then they were using round logs. And to get as much ore as possible out of one chamber or gallery, they made these about thirty feet long. We say " made " them, for the reason that owing to the short growth of the timber on the surrounding hills it was necessary to splice two stakes by fastening them together with iron bolts and bands. These posts were set up close together in rows, and caps some eighteen feet in length were then placed across the tops from row to row.

It is easy to see that, owing to the great height of these timbers, and the great distance between the rows, there would be constant danger and trouble from their being crushed in; also, one can see at a glance that after such a set of timbers was in position, there was no way of placing another set, either over or under it, and thus getting at the ore above and below.

The Gold Hill people were not slow to see the advantages of the system of timbering practiced at the Ophir Mine, and at once adopted it.  The timbers are so framed that when a post is set up there is a place on its top for the ends of four caps, and when these are in position a mortise is formed in which fits the end of the next post. So of all four of the posts. And there is always a place for the caps of the sets that are to be put on any side.  These sets form cribs of timber about five by six feet square, and when completed make convenient places in which to stow away waste rock, which filling in of refuse rock renders the whole almost as firm as was the original material. The sets are as compact as the cells in a honeycomb, and like these are by repetition capable of being extended in all directions to any distance that may be required.  There is, indeed, a striking resemblance in these sets of timbers to the cells formed by the honey bee, the only difference being in the shape.  Soon Mr. Deidesheimer's system of timbering was introduced everywhere on the Comstock. It was a necessity. The mines could have been worked by no other plan. With it the miners could safely extract ore to any height, or any width, or any length, or any depth. Without it they could do nothing or next to nothing.

The plan must be used everywhere in the world where an ore body is over twenty feet in width.  When the officers of the Ophir Mining Company saw the great advantages of Mr. Deidesheimer's plan of timbering-which they were not slow to do-they gave him full charge of the mine, with the title of Mining Engineer. This title and honor came to Mr. Deidesheimer in the spring of 18G1. In 1862 they had reached what was called the sixth gallery, some 560 feet perpendicular below the surface.  All of this ground, 200 feet in length, 65 feet in width and 560 feet in depth, had been stepped out and supported by means of Mr. Deidesheimer's square sets, built up as shown in our illustration.  This great space was afterwards filled with waste rock from the surface, which rendered it as strong as a mass of solid rock.

Never has there been loss of life or property anywhere on the Comstock through any defect in this system of timbering. English and German mining engineers who crossed the ocean to examine the plan of timbering, complimented Mr. Deidesheimer very highly upon the ingenuity of his invention, and heartily congratulated him upon the grand success it had proven. They said it was the only perfect system of supporting large areas of ground by means of timbers that had ever been invented, and was no more capable of improvement than were the cells of the honey bee. No matter how hard the rock may be, or how soft, the " square sets " are equally efficacious.

When Mr. Deidesheimer hit upon this invention he had an immense fortune within his grasp. He had but to close his hands upon it to make himself a millionaire. Unfortunately for himself, but most fortunately for the mining world, he neglected to patent his invention, which he could have done with out the slightest trouble or dissenting voice from any part of the world. At that time his only thought was to solve the great problem and earn the approval of his employers. Also great cares and responsibilities claimed every moment of his waking hours.  He had no time in which to look further than to see that his " square sets " were doing all that was required of them. He had not leisure in which to study out the full scope and value of his invention, or to think how indispensable it was to all engaged in mining large bodies of ore. Had he taken to himself a single day, and made use of it in taking the steps necessary to secure a patent, he might from that day to this have folded his hands and given no thought to anything further than the collection of the royalty that would have been paid him by every leading mining company on the Comstock. As it is he still has his fortune to make.

RICHARD V. DEY ----Was born in New York City, on the eleventh day of March, 1835, where he continued to live until he was twenty years of age, receiving his education in the great metropolis. His ancestors wore from Holland, and the date of their arrival in New York was as far back as 1626. Dey Street, in that city, derived its name from once being in the possession of this family. 

In 1855 the subject of this sketch came to California, and for four years was engaged in the jewelry business in the city of San Francisco. In 1859 he became associated with Col. J. C. Fremont, and for one year was engaged in mining with him in Bear Valley, Mariposa County, California. He then came to Virginia City and engaged in mining, and was also interested in a sawmill in Carson City, following the business for three years. During the year 1864 he received the appointment of Deputy United States Marshal, and upon the resignation of his superior officer was appointed United States Marshal, and continued in that position for one year, since which time he has been connected with the Bonanza Firm, in relation to the title to their mines.

In 1880 Mr.  Dey took a trip around the world in company with Col. James G. Fair, occupying nearly eight months in viewing the wonders of the Old World and the New.  Mr. Dey is of fine appearance and a well-bred gentleman, gaining hosts of friends wherever he goes.