The Copper King

Imagine having no money, very little clothing, and not much food to eat. Waking up every morning and hoping to have a dinner that night. Spending most of your childhood working odd jobs to try and earn your family loaf of bread. This would be very hard emotionally and physically; you would miss a lot of the things that most kids got to enjoy about their childhood. On the other hand it would teach you a lesson, a valuable lesson, that Marcus Daly learned from and prospered. Marcus Daly was a man with no money who worked very hard to get what he wanted and while doing so he took a major part in the history of Montana. On December 5, 1841, Marcus Daly was brought into the world in County Cavan, Ireland. He was the youngest of eleven …show more content…
Some historians say that it was luck and some say he new the copper was there but either way he now had a lot of copper. He did not get rich right away though. Most of his investors thought that copper mining was a bad idea. They did not think that there was any way to make money off of a copper mine so far away from the copper industry. This all changed when electricity was invented ("Marcus Daly"). Now they needed a smelter. A location was chosen 28 miles away from Butte and the town of Anaconda was born (Glasscock). Marcus Daly was not the only copper miner though. There were many other people who tried to get rich doing the same thing that he did. His main competitor and rival was William Clark. Although they were both democrats they fought over everything, including politics. Clark was always running for senate because he did not want someone else voting on issues for him, he wanted to vote for himself. Daly thought that if Clark was in the senate he would have more control and therefore win the battle of the copper kings. This sparked a battle which lasted for many years with no clear winner ("Marcus