He had the Hauli(delight)--his private railroad car, which saw travel over T & T rails, along with the 211 ft long Hauoli II racing yacht, which was berthed near his Presdeleau eastern estate, at the outer end of Long Island, in New York.
In 1905, after 30 years of marriage, and in anticipation of a forthcoming Cairo and Nile excursion, Mary suddenly took ill one evening and before the night was over, succumbed to a massive stroke.
In l907, as a widower, Francis Marion married his long-time friend, Evelyn Kate Ellis, and fathered four children.
Smith must have much revered his early Nevada past. He had his 1872 cabin overlooking Teel's Marsh(which he had built with his own hands) dissected, and re-erected to his over-20 acre Arbor Villa Oakland estate.
In 1913, after amassing a fortune, he found himself overextended in other ventures, lost most of what he had earned, and left the borax business.
In 1921, at age 75, he was to ascend on a new fortune with the discovery of his later-acquired Anniversary Mine--by two others on his and Evelyn's wedding anniversary--near St Thomas, Nevada--another borate enterprise. His West End Chemical Company on Searles Lake south of Trona still exists under another name.
Other ventures, good or bad, of which he was always a leader along the years, included the Tonopah Extension Mining & Milling Company, West End Consolidated Mining Co., The Realty Syndicate, and United Properties Co of California.
In the mid-50s, PCB lost its identity when it was merged into United States Borax & Chemical Corporation--today one of the subsidiaries of the giant, foreign Rio Tinto Group.
So, this gentleman was indeed of a rare breed, and I feel we should all rejoice in having Smith Mtn included on our list of Desert Peaks.
Smith's picture is taken from Geo H Hlidehrand's book,
BORAX PIONEER! FRANCIS MARION SMITH (1982).
-Robert O Greenawalt
March 1991
