Eilley Bowers

Alison "Eilley" Oram Bowers (September 6, 1826–October 27, 1903) was a Nevada pioneer who became a millionaire during the Comstock Lode mining boom. In one writer's words, she "is one of the most researched, written and talked about women in Nevada history."cite web | title=Alison (Eilley) Oram Bowers | url=http://www.unr.edu/wrc/nwhp/biograph/bowers.htm | work=Women's Biographies | publisher=University of Nevada, Reno Women's Resource Center | first=Tamera | last=Buzick | accessdate=2007-03-20]

Biography

Eilley Oram (also spelled Orrum) was born in the royal burgh of Forfar, Scotland. She married Stephen Hunter at the age of fifteen. After six years of marriage, Hunter converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The couple moved to the new Mormon town of Salt Lake City, Utah in 1849. The following year, they divorced.

Eilley then married Alexander Cowan, another Scottish Mormon, in 1853. In 1855, Eilley accompanied her husband on a mission at the western edge of Utah Territory. The mission relocated to Franktown in Washoe Valley, between the current cities of Reno and Carson City, Nevada, where the Cowans purchased a 320-acre (129.5 ha) ranch. Alexander was recalled to Salt Lake City during the Utah War, leaving behind Eilley and his nephew Robert Henderson. Although Alexander returned to his wife after the hostilities had ended, he went back to Salt Lake City for reasons unknown. Eilley and Alexander were subsequently divorced.

The Mormons abandoned the Franktown settlement and Eilley and Robert then moved to the mining camp of Johntown, south of Silver City. When gold was discovered on a nearby hill in 1859, Eilley and Robert moved to the newly established town of Gold Hill where she built a boarding house. She cooked and laundered for her boarders, and was known to engage in fortune-telling with a crystal ball. [cite web | url=http://www.unr.edu/sb204/theatre/eill3.html | title=Bowers: Washoe Valley | work=Portraits of Nevada | publisher=University of Nevada, Reno | accessdate=2007-03-20]

She also staked some mining claims in town, including a claim adjoining that of Sandy Bowers. By August, they were married. Their combined claims also were the source of much gold, making Sandy the first Comstock millionaire.cite web | url=http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives/myth/myth105.htm | title=Searching for "Sandy" Bowers | publisher=Nevada State Archives | first=Guy | last=Rocha | date=October 2003 | accessdate=2007-03-20] Over the next two years, Eilley gave birth to two children, but both died in infancy.

Eilley had received half of the land in Washoe Valley from Cowan in their divorce settlement. The Bowers began construction of a mansion on this land. While Bowers Mansion was being built, Eilley and Sandy went on a tour of Europe, during which time they purchased all sorts of goods for their home and also adopted a daughter named Margaret Persia.

By 1868, the gold in their Comstock mines was running out. Sandy returned to Gold Hill and attempted to sell part of the mine, but died before anything could be done. To generate income, Eilley rented rooms in the mansion to boarders and rented the grounds out for parties and picnics, but this did not solve her financial troubles. In 1870, she was forced to sell her stake in the mine.

A silver mining boom in 1873 brought more boarders and more picnics, but this additional income was still not enough to overcome her debt. Persia died of a ruptured appendix while at a boarding school in Reno. Her mother was not at her side at the time because she was hosting a picnic.

In 1876, the bank foreclosed the mortgage and her house was sold in an auction. It was around this time that Eilley began to use her crystal ball in a professional capacity, eking out a living as a seer in Virginia City and Reno. In 1882 she moved to San Francisco, performing her fortune-telling there.

By the end of the century, Eilley was desperate for money. She wrote to the federal government in an attempt to get back a portion of the $14,000 Sandy had contributed during the 1860 Paiute War, but was unsuccessful. In 1901, she returned to Reno and was placed in the county poorhouse, but she was troublesome and the officials there did not want her, so they sent her back to San Francisco. She ended up in the King's Daughters Home in Oakland, where she died alone in 1903. Her ashes were brought back to Nevada and interred alongside her husband and daughter.

References

Persondata
NAME=Bowers, Alison Oram
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Bowers, Eilley; Bowers, Alison Orrum
SHORT DESCRIPTION=19th century Nevada pioneer and mining millionaire
DATE OF BIRTH=September 6, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH=Forfar, Scotland
DATE OF DEATH=October 27, 1903
PLACE OF DEATH=Oakland, California