John Kasser Sierra County, New Mexico

John Kasser, one of the most prominent representatives of mining interests in New Mexico, being manager of the Empire Gold Mining and Milling Company at Hillsboro, was born in Austria in 1865 and came to the United States when thirteen years of age. He began working in mines at Lead, South Dakota, where he was employed for twelve or thirteen years, during which time he became familiar with all the processes of developing the mines. His capability gradually increasing, he was at length given charge of a mine at Lake City, Colorado, where he remained for about a year.

He located the first mine at Cripple Creek, called the Prince Albert, and was superintendent of mines in that locality for about five years. He afterward went to Globe, Colorado, where he organized the Live Oak Copper Mining and Milling Company, continuing in business at that point for about five or six years, after which he came to New Mexico. The year of his arrival in Hillsboro was 1900. He accepted a position as superintendent of the Ready Pay mine, and in 1903 he purchased the Bonanza and Good Hope mines, and with others organized a company for their operation.

He won a first prize at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago for the finest specimens of free gold. He has since 1900 been actively connected with the development of the rich mineral resources of this part of the country and is thoroughly familiar with the most modern processes for taking out the ore and separating it, thus transforming it into a marketable commodity. He erected a concentrating plant of ten stamps in 1904, and is now enlarging this by putting in ten more stamps, making a twenty-stamp mill. Mr. Kasser is manager of the business conducted under the name of the Empire Gold Mining and Milling Company and is one of its largest stockholders.

He is a member of Kingston Lodge No. 16, A. F. & A. M., and expects soon to take the thirty-second degree in Scottish rite Masonry.

Back | Sierra County Biographies

Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.

Please come back Again!!