The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-06-03
SILVER MINING
In NEVADA.
Sandy Bowers Big Stake.

The sudden and great accumulation
Of wealth during the first fifteen years
after the practical Inauguration of sill
yer mining i'm Nevada has no parallel
in the history Of modern times The
fortunes made during the flush period
i'm California were, to use mild term,
unimportant as compared with those
acquired i'm Nevada in a day or night,
simply by the fortunate stroke Of
pick.
The majority of those who did real
ize ha ndsome completeness as a re-
ward for enterprise in locating In
Washoe, when such venture entailed
all manner of hardships and depriva-
ton soon squandered them in extrava-
CANT living such as is now consigned to
a royal and never-to-be-forgOtten past;
and also in unfortunate speeulations in
stocks which would never advance in
market value.
Those days were the days when the
dealers i'm all classes Of luxury reaped
bountiful harvest; and, in fact, the
rich discoveries on the COmstock lode
were the keynote to an increased gen.
eral prosperity all over the Pacific
slope.
New developments in the mines
and of character that would set the
stock market wild nowhere daily
made, and fresh millionaires naturally
followed in their wake. During those
years Virginia City was mining camp
such as may never spring up again on
the globe. The extravagant and riotous
life encountered there was unpreeeden-
ted. Nearly all possessed more money
than they had practical use for, and It
was squandered as if the sources
whence it was derived were inexhaust-
ible. But alas, the end came several
years ago, and it appears just now as Il
there were to be no resurrection Of the
neglected golden past.
1t was not business capacity nor
shrewdness in any form that brought
riches to the fortunate ones during that
epoch of Nevada's greatest prosperity.
1t was sheer luck, as in the greater
number of instances those most ignor-
ant of all the business principles were
more lavishly favored by fortune than
their intellectual superiors.
The case of Lemuel L. Bowers, popu-
larly known As sandy" Bowers, a
superlatively illiterate but very gener-
Gus man, is fair substantiation OF the
above.
In 1850 he was earning precarious
livelihood by placer mining in Gold
Canyon now Gold Hill, and in the
latter part of that year, when the dis
e)very of silver in the COmstOck was
announced, he found that ten feet of
his claim covered portion of the lode;
and the former, after being systemati-
caIly prospected gave promise of great
value. The ten feet adjoining his be-
longed to a widow-Mrs. COwan-his
social and intellectual equal. Sandy
and the widow had known each other
a long time, and now, as new and
prosperous era seemed to dawn for
them, they concluded to pool their
prospective wealth by getting married.
| The mining ground owned by the
couple is located in what is known as
Crown Point Ravine, Upper Gold Hill,
and was called the Bowers mine.
About the middle of 1850, while
Sandy was taking out 5000 day, he
was offered 500, 600 for his claim, and
refused to sell.
Neither he nor his wife had ever
before been accustomed to any of the
greater luxuries which are at the COM
mand Of boundless wealth, and having
a penchant for display of semi-eivilized
grandeur, the reader can form an idea
of tthe regal doings of the Bowers
household. They were in imitation of
the "Rasher" family, only that the
Bowers added little more tinsel and
red fire.
They believed themselves in poss-
ession of Aladdin's wonderful, lamp,
and regulated their expenses accord
ingly. Their hospitality knew no
bounds, and they entertained everyone,
but in such style as to cause consider
able merriment for those who made
their society debut before arriving on
the Comstock.
The Bowerses were then the wealth.
lest couple in Virginia City, and while
innocently rendering themselves the
subject of much ridicule when not pre-
sent, their ready cash eomman ded for
them mush obsequiousness at other
times. In 1862 Sandy conceived the
idea of erecting granite palace on a
little ranch belonging to his wife in
Washoe Valley. This so-called ranch
was then almost bowling wilderness.
Mark Twain once spoke of this, and tC
convey an idea of its perfect isolation
observed that the first architect sent tC
the ranch to select the most eligible
site for the structure, was killed by the
savage Indians aboundiDg in thai
locality. Specifications and plan:
were soon drawn on the extravagan
scale, but in full keeping with Sandy:
crude conception of doing the ''granC
thing"
Scarcely had he made final arrange
{ ments for the erection of his new hom'
1 then he prepared to visit Europe
t despite the fact that he had never seer
e more than two cities in America
: Sandy wanted to see the great men o
! the world, as he expressed himself, an'
: having seen the late Senator Nye an'
r Horace Greeley in Nevada, he jumped
: TO the conclusion that he had exhaust
e ed his native land in this respect.
2 A month later the Bowerses wer
e found snugly situated in an uppe
o deck stateroom on u Panama boun'
: steamer, surrounded by many of thei
k type, all of them making as ostenta
], tious display of their suddenly gotte
!. wealth as the circumscribed oppor
d tunities of an ocean steamer would a
/ low. On that trip TO Panama the firs
z cabin passengers, for want Of som,
:. thing better TO do, would daily max
d bets on the speed of the steamer. Fac
:, man would write his name on a slip G
n, | ,,a,sar fos~afbar ,x-itb the pntabor .