Marcus Daly’s Romance

Copper king Marcus Daly was the youngest of eleven siblings and began his career as a penniless Irish immigrant. He arrived in New York in 1856 when he was only fifteen years old. But Daly had a keen sense of business and a Midas touch with an uncanny instinct for the veins of copper that made his huge fortune. He founded Hamilton and Anaconda and was a generous patron to his fellow Irishmen and a benevolent boss to his workingmen. And he never forgot his humble Irish roots. But aside from all that, he was a great family man and father who loved his wife dearly. He and Margaret, or Maggie as he always called her, had a storybook marriage with a romantic beginning. In 1872, Daly was a foreman working for the Walker Brothers banking and mining syndicate of Salt Lake City. He was showing a newly discovered mine near Ophir, Utah, to miner Zenas Evans. Evans’ daughter, Margaret, was visiting the mine with her father. Daly hopped into a trench and held up some samples of the ore. Margaret was interested in looking at the samples and strayed too close to the edge. She lost her balance and tumbled right over the edge, landing right in Daly’s open arms. This chance encounter led to an engagement, and the couple was married in Salt Lake City at Joseph Walker’s home. Marcus doted on his Maggie until the day he died in 1900.

Margaret Daly. Courtesy the Daly Mansion

Curiously, Margaret had four sisters, and one of them, Miriam, was married to J. Ross Clark, a brother of Daly’s arch enemy, William A. Clark. The strange connection must have made for interesting family dynamics and dinner table conversation.

P.S. Remember Daly's prized racehorse?

Marcus Daly’s Horses

Copper king Marcus Daly believed that the Bitterroot valley was the ideal place to breed and train trotters and thoroughbreds. The lush grass that grew there reminded him of his native Ireland. Daly figured that horses raised and trained at higher altitudes had more stamina. His Bitterroot Stock Farm had the best facilities. Daly imported veterinarians, trainers, and young African American jockeys to exercise the horses. Tammany was Daly’s most famous and most loved racehorse. He won both the Lawrence Realization and Withers Stake races at New York's Belmont Park in 1892.

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, H-3890

In 1893, a crowd of 15,000 witnessed Tammany defeat Lamplighter by four lengths in a legendary match race at New Jersey's Guttenberg track. Jockey Snapper Garrison led Tammany to such a breathtaking finish that it became known as a Garrison finish, a term defined in Webster’s dictionary. The win established Tammany as the East’s best thoroughbred racer from 1892 to 1894.

Tammany Castle. Photo by Tom Ferris in Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana

Daly built Tammany Castle for his champion and favorite pet; it presides at the top of a long, graceful drive. Cork floors half a foot thick imported from Spain protected the stallions from slipping, and the heated stalls were lined with velvet.  At his Montana Hotel in Anaconda, a mosaic of Tammany graced the lobby, but no one dared step on the revered horse’s head. After Daly’s death in 1900, his string of nearly two hundred thoroughbreds, including the beloved Tammany, were auctioned at a dispersal sale at Madison Square Garden in New York City and in San Francisco. Although none of Daly’s Montana-born horses were Kentucky Derby winners, his Bitter Root stock bloodlines went on to produce Kentucky Derby winners Regret, Paul Jones, Zev, and Flying Ebony.

P.S. Tammany's Castle has since been converted into a magnificent home, and it seems to be for sale. Would you buy it?
P.P.S. I'm featured on Reflections West this week. Listen.