Lemuel Sanford Bowers (February 24, 1833 – April 21, 1868) was an Irish American

Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

 teamster

Teamster

A teamster, in modern American English, is a truck driver. The trade union named after them is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters , one of the largest unions in the United States....

, miner and owner of the Crown Point Mine near Gold Hill, Nevada

Gold Hill, Nevada

Gold Hill is a community in Storey County, Nevada, located just south and downhill of Virginia City. Incorporated December 17, 1862, in order to prevent its annexation by its larger neighbor, the town at one point was home to at least 8,000 residents. Prosperity was sustained for a period of 20...

. Bowers and his wife were the Nevada Territory's

Nevada Territory

The Territory of Nevada was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Nevada....

 first millionaires. Their home, the Bowers Mansion

Bowers Mansion

The Bowers Mansion, located between Reno and Carson City, Nevada, was built in 1863 by Lemuel "Sandy" Bowers and his wife, Eilley, and is a prime example of the homes built in Nevada by the new millionaires of the Comstock Lode mining boom....

, was the first of the stately homes built in Nevada with the wealth from the Comstock Lode

Comstock Lode

The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...

.

Biography

Bowers was born in Madison County, Missouri

Madison County, Missouri

Madison County is a county located in the Lead Belt region in Southeast Missouri in the United States. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the county's population was 11,800. A 2008 estimate, however, showed the population to be 12,276. Its county seat and largest city is Fredericktown...

 in 1833. He was described by Samuel Clemens

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...

 as "miraculously ignorant".

Bowers and James Rogers registered their holdings for a 20-foot mining claim in Gold Canyon on January 28, 1859. In 1859, Eilley purchased Rogers' half of the claim for $1,000 (approximately $ today). Though she was married at the time to someone else, Eilley

Eilley Bowers

Alison "Eilley" Oram Bowers was a Scottish American woman who was, in her time, one of the richest women in the United States, and owner of the Bowers Mansion, one of the largest houses in the western United States. A Scottish farmer's daughter, Eilley converted to Mormonism as a teenager, before...

 married Bowers on August 9, 1859, and ten months later, she divorced Alexander Cowan on grounds of desertion.

Their first two children, a son, John Jasper Bowers (June 28, 1860-August 27, 1860), and a daughter, Theresa Fortunatas Bowers (June 16, 1861-September 17, 1861) died as infants. Shortly thereafter, the Bowers decided to build a home and they travelled to Europe between 1861 and 1863 to purchase furnishings for their mansion and had a desire to meet Queen Victoria. The couple returned to Nevada in April 1863, accompanied by an adopted baby girl, Margaret Persia Bowers. With furnishings, they spent $407,000 (approximately $ today). Though Bower could only read and write a little, every book in the Bower mansion library had his name on it. The Bowers Mansion in Carson City, Nevada

Carson City, Nevada

The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...

, completed in 1864, is an example of fine homes built in Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 by those who became rich as a result of the Comstock Lode mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 boom.

By 1865, the Nevada mines were reaching the end of their heydey. Rich and miserable, Bowers preferred living in a shack while his wife preferred spending their millions of dollars. He moved back to Gold Hill, attempting to save their mine, with poor results. In early 1868, he tried to sell a portion of the mine but died on April 21 at the age of 35 from silicosis

Silicosis

Silicosis, also known as Potter's rot, is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, and is marked by inflammation and scarring in forms of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs...

, a common lung disease amongst miners. Bowers is buried in back of the mansion at the top of a rise. His estate was appraised to be worth $638,000 at the time of his death.

The "Sandy Bowers Claim" still exists, though it became a part of the "Consolidated Imperial" before control was taken over by Sutro Tunnel

Sutro Tunnel

The Sutro Tunnel is a drainage tunnel connected to the Comstock Lode in Northern Nevada. It begins at Virginia City, Nevada and empties approximately 6 miles southeast the town of Dayton, Nevada....

Coalition, Inc.

External links

• Transfer Folder 080401/searching_for_sandy_bowers.htm Searching for Sandy Bowers Nevada Observer
• Sandy Bowers and his Mansion Nevada Observer