The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-06

RENO. New, March IA fat, very |
Wrinl<led, white haired old woman,Wh
totters about Eureka, New, ekirs out
an existence by reading the stars and
telling fortunes for conhding miners
ard charitably disposed people, can
narrate as extraordinary and true
story of the ups and downs OF life in
q fash mining town as has ever been
inverted. She is the widow of Sandy
Bowers. and is also the Washoe seer
ess. Everybody in Nevada knows or
has heard ali about Sandy Bowers and
lis widow. and every one in Californ a.
4 who had ANYTHING to do with the COM
g stock lode IN its boom in the early
6Os knows some Sto.y or anacdote o.
s. The wonderful prodigaity CT Leon san
ford Bowers universally known on the
q Comstcck as Sandy BoWers) and his
wife
Il don't think I'll live much longer.
I'm failing every day" said the poor
s.cld woman the other Gay, in her pitt
fully desolate home when she had fin
ished telling mans fortune for four
bits. land | shall be glad to have al
END of this poverty and the lha recoi-
lection of the half million dollars SAN
dy and | had in the bank. with an In
come of over $4,000 a month. Oh, l.
is horrible to be old and alone in des-
tituticn. thinking how easily / might
have been living in a Mob hill mansion
all these years
The story of the rise of Sandy Pow
ers ard his wife from poverty to gie1t
wealth, their reckless expenditure of
tens Of thousands CT dollars. theic roy
al mansion in Nevada, the death of
the husband and the plunge of the
. widow into paupersm. is all SO unreal
that one would hesitate to believe a
plain, unVarEished history of the cou-
pies career
r.4 LEON SANFORD BOWERS
came across the plains from Syracuse,
n. Y. in 1857, TO dig gold in California,
when he was twenty-five years old. He
was jolly, bluff chap, who had the
rudiments of a common school educa-
ton. and had been a hostler in SYRIA
cuse and boatman on the Erie canal.
He worked in the mines in Nevada
county, California, for six months. and
then went with a party over the SIer-
ras to Western Utah then, and West
II. ern Nevada now. Young Bowers had
become Sandy Bowers by that time. He
took up a mining claim along with his
comrades in Gold canyon. 1t was the
most fortunate thing Sandy could have
done if he had debated the thing for a
lifetime.
He went to work patiently to wash
q few dollars worth of gold from the
canyon with a rocker. Next adjoining
his claim on the south was that of a
Mrs. Eileen o. Cowan, who formerly
ran q boarding house for the miners at
eDownieville. Cal. and had come over
the mountains to try her luck in Utah.
Sandy was secondly most fortunate
when he married Mrs. Cowan, she hav-
ing been a widow a year. The couple
N in q
wife made a little extra money by
washing and cooking for the miners in
the camp. All told. the Bowers couple
were not worth over $3.50 in 1858. A
year later they were worth over $780,
0G0 and in two years they had a
princes home.
1t was found that the two claims of
Mr.. and Mrs Bowers tapped over upon
the Comstock lode. With the discovery
that the black sand which Sandy, in
common with the other gold washers
in camp. had cussed and fused Sc
much about when it ciogged thei1
sluice boxes, was silver Sulphurets-
worth over 81 ,2C0 a ton for silver and
$300 ton for gold-the Bowers fortune
grew like an enormous bubble. w ne
the memorable stampede of Callfornl'
ans and Oregonians over the Slerras Z
Washoe valley began in 1893 SANDY
Bowers became a Millionaire almost II
night. It was estimated in 1861 tina
his mining property was worth about
$1,000 COO, and he had a monthly income
of s3SGO0 from it for years. At one
time this income was as high as $2O,00i
a week The Ophir mine is on theli
claim.
For q few seasons Sandy and his
Elide could rot comp. ehenl the enor-
NOUS wealth that was being thrus
upon them. Then, on a visit to Sar
Francisco they decided to live. trave
: n frcrc of m
\ marsiOn among the pine trees on tn
mountain side was decided UPON.
was to be a monument to the name .
Bowers. An architect was given cart
blanche orders to go ahead and bull,
the finest marsion west of New York
and also tC go to the East before h
began work in order to get the lateS
styles Of elaborate architecture. TIL
digging of foundations for the Bower
mansion was begun in May, 1861, g n I
ceremonies becoming such an occas
picnic was he'd in the pine f0le
near the site of the building, and
feast brought there from over tt
mountains by q san Franci~co caterer
was washed down with champaign
brought pUrpCsey from san Fran isc;
The next day the Bowers started 70
the Atlantic coast. The eat Civil
WAR WAS BREAKING OUT,
and while Sandy and his wife were i
Chicago they gave $4,000 towards tn
equipment of a regiment. But at Sy
racuse. n. Y, the Bowers gave tn
conservative re1ple. unused 10 the eN
travagance of Western mining in thos
days. enough to talk about to this da.
Sandy wanted to show his old bOynoo
friends how ceria inly he had prospege
in his brief res. dtnce IN the West. 70
a week he cut a wide swath in tn
saloons of Syracuse by unusually gen
orous gifts to former chums. He car
ped the climax by giving an elabcrat
banquet at the Empire hotel on Mort
Salina street, on the night of the Bow
ers' stay in Syracuse The banqus
was described in many columns in IN
Central New York newspapers at tn
time Sandy's guests We're his oil
friends from the street car stables an
the canal. There were fifty Of then
besides several reporters and war
politicians. The guests came to tn
gorgeous. banquet table, upon whic
the highest catering art had been pu
some in blouses, three or fJu@ in over
alls, few without collars TO the
shirts. and several CARRIED just as the
were when they had knocked eff O
the canal boat dock and Mastered
the feast. Probably less than a ha
dozen in the assembiage about t.
banquet table had ever before so niue
as seen champagne. Sandy and h
wife sat at the head of the mammot
tables. An orchestra played behind
bank of flowers. and ten courses wei
served with an Laboratories thu
four-ffths of the guests hsd new,
dreamed was possible. Champagl