Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-09-01
THE GRAVE OF SANDY BOWERS.
A Reminder Of the Pioneer Days in
Washoe.


A ride through the Washoe Valley
brings to the mind Of the Nevada pioneer
many an early day incident of the good OLD
times in Washoe. As you pass through
the dilapidated town, and notice the tunl-
ble.down condition of the buildings, the
sagging awnings which once furnished
friendly shelter to the weary prospector OF
cooled the head of Tom Fitch, after hard
nights tussle with the tiger, the toor be-
meath which has many times taken the
Mace of the undersaker's I" cooling board
after a shooting or cutting scrape, are all
reminders of the flush times of early days.
As Won drive along through the valley and
rass the old Bowers mansion, once the
home Of NeNda's Coal Oil Johnny, these
reflections become more vivid even than IN
driving through the noiseless street Of the
once great metropolis OF early days. On
the hillside, Immediately back OF the
"Mansion, lie the remains OF poor old
Sandy. The grave was dug due east and
west, and Elk feet in depth. Coarse
sand and crumblings from the mountain
side, hide from view the mortal remains
of Bowers. at one time picket fence
protected the place from cattle and hogs,
but one by one the palings have dropped
from the rail, until now about all there IS
left to mark the place is little mound Of
dirt, Bowers was one Of the few who
"struck 1t rich " in the early times
Wealth rolled into his pockets in a stream,
but he neither had the education nor COM
nonsense to enjoy his good fortune. lie
travelled in foreign lands; bet on horse
races and the speed of steamships carry
ing across the trackless ocean; furnished
money to build his Mansion, and ap-
pointed j. Nicely johnson his business
manager. When the structure was com
pleted, the doors swung on silver hinges.
France furnished the plate-glass windows !;
Paris upholsterers made the elegant easy
chairs and other things Sandy imagined he
wanted and ]. Nicely johnson selected all
the standard books which comprised the
Bowers library, until his house was as
complete as his dividends from the
Gould & Curry and Bowers mines
could make it. Bowers, like others.
struck porphyry horse and went through
the hole when the bottom dropped out in
"a About that time, too, the high wines
and pound cake began to tell on his physi-
cal makeup, and he, too, let go the cable
and fell into the unseen beyond. The
Masons buried him one cold, windy day in
1866 He died at Gold Hill, and they con-
veyed his remains to his Mansion" and
deposited them in the grave described
above. A few months time, and his estate
was bankrupt. His widow, after holding
communion with Sandy's ghost and other
friendly spooks for month or two, moved
into little cabin hard by, where she made
her living by telling fortunes. a year or two
after that she went to Virginia, and held
private and public spiritualistic seances.
She is now in San Francisco, following the
same vocation, by which she manages to
gain precarious living. The little mound
and the building known as the Bowers
Mansion, row owned by M, G. Lake, is all
that is left to indicate that Sandy Bowers
over lived