LANDER COUNTY HISTORY

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Contributed by David A. Pangburn, April 8, 2015


				Begs The Question
       
      This is about an adventurous man from Oregon driving southward en-route to Arizona. In a small town in the center of the vastness of Nevada,
he happened to photograph a couple of tombstones in an old pioneer cemetery. This would be the start of a five-year adventure that he did not anticipate, 
a different kind of adventure.
      Note that in the interest of brevity for presentation in my Memoir Writing class, this memoir is a shorter excerpt of the original that is to be the 
final essay/memoir.
Questions are a vital trigger for creativity. There is no creative process without them … An inquisitive mind is a superb catalyst of creativity and a sanctuary
for creative thinking… 

Creativity Booster: The Excellent Question Game
Writers Digest – May/June 2015

     I have an inquisitive mind that is always questioning why or how or when or who? My mantra is: That begs the question. Once something piques my curiosity, 
I hate to let it go. I cling to it with bulldog tenacity. Inquisitive minds want to know… One such curious incident happened back in 2010 as I was on one of my 
‘taking the road less traveled’ adventures and driving across Nevada en-route to Phoenix, Arizona. It was early in the morning as I neared the small town of Austin 
and spotted a cemetery on a hillside alongside the highway. From the size and shape of the tombstones and fancy ironwork fences surrounding them, I surmised it to 
be an older cemetery so I wandered in and randomly took some photographs. These old cemeteries have always held a fascination for me. I was curious about a couple 
of the tombstones so I photographed them, but it would be another year before I revisited the photographs and noticed that the deceased had died on the exact same 
date. Little could I have known then that my curiosity would take me on an information-seeking quest—one that would last four more years before my curiosity would 
be satisfied. 
      Questions. Questions. More questions.        This was one of those situations that, as the saying goes, begs the question; the question being, how came it to 
be that two young men, possibly related but chances are not, came a half a world away from different parts of their native Ireland—and perished in this location on 
the same date in 1874?

	The answer to this question may not alter the course of human history or be of any significance at all. It could be that these two men chance happened to come to this 
remote region in Nevada seeking employment in the silver mines—and perished as a result of some mine accident. Mining has always been a dangerous occupation.  

      The American West was a rough and rugged place back in those days. It is quite possible that these men died of some disease, privation, or perished in the flood of 
1874. Worst case, they could have committed a crime and found themselves on the wrong end of the rope of Old West justice. Or did they fall victim to some fatal disease 
such as cholera or diphtheria that plagued the region from time to time? 

The Irish were the largest of the early groups immigrating to the northern Nevada mining sites. In 1859 the “Rush to the Washoe” included two Irishmen, Peter O’Riley and 
Patrick McLaughlin, who were involved in the major ore strike. Thousands of their countrymen followed, making the Irish the largest ethnic group on the Comstock. Though 
they had met prejudice in many eastern cities, Irish-Catholics flourished in Nevada, where their social life centered on church and fraternal societies. They were organized 
as the Fenians, the Irish Benevolent Society, the Knights of the Red Branch, and military companies such as the Emmet Guard in 1866—a foundation of the state’s National Guard.

      Austin is located almost in the geographic center of Nevada on U.S. Highway 50, some 179 miles east of Reno. Named for Austin, Texas, the town was founded in 1862, as part 
of a silver rush reputedly triggered by a Pony Express horse that kicked over a rock. By summer 1863, Austin and the surrounding Reese River Mining District had a population of 
over 10,000. 

      Upon hearing of new strikes or discoveries, the miners and businessmen would create towns such as Austin out of the desert. Overnight, towns would grow to many thousands 
of inhabitants consisting of miners, merchants, editors, gamblers, gunfighters, stage-drivers (and stage-robbers), lawyers, mining magnates, prizefighters, artisans and courtesans, 
hotelkeepers, cooks, waiters, and bottle-washers.   
                                                         
      Like many boomtowns in the Old West, Austin once flourished—until the high-grade ore played out around 1880. Today Austin, population of about 200 people, is a well-preserved 
example of an early Nevada mining town.

      There is a wealth of information on the Internet so I used that tool to start searching for whatever information there was about Austin, Nevada. That search gave me a 
starting point with lots of helpful information resources.  Although it took five years from the time I took the photographs until the mystery was solved, I have to mention that 
the search was not a continuum, but rather the research came in spurts. Each dead end or disappointment put the project on hold. Day to day life such as family, friends, vacations, 
medical emergencies, pursuing a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, and other literary interests interrupted the research from time to time. Each time I hit a dead end or roadblock, I would 
retreat and put everything ‘on the back burner’ as I like to say. There were many disappointments but I wasn’t defeated.

      This research effort began in earnest in March 2011 with an inquiry email message to the Austin Chamber of Commerce and involved scores of email messages, countless hours 
of Internet searches, and a few phone calls that led me on a circuitous route across Nevada, to California, Minnesota, Washington D.C., and even as far away as Ireland.  As a result of 
my initial inquiry, I had received an email response from the Austin Chamber of Commerce suggesting that I try making inquiries to the Central Nevada Historical Society in Tonopah or 
the Nevada State Archives in Carson City. In perusing the website for the Nevada State Archives, I followed some links that directed me to the White Pine County Library in Ely, Nevada 
where archived copies of the Austin Reese River Reveille newspaper from 1863 to 1993 are recorded on microfilm. I assumed that the newspaper would have at least an obituary that would 
indicate something about the men; how they died and mention if they had families in Nevada.

      I phoned the library and spoke with the Library Assistant and explained why I was interested that newspaper’s archived information for January 3, 1874.  She took my name and 
contact information and said that it might take a couple of days but she would contact me when she pulled the archives.  The following day she sent me an email indicating that she 
was unable to locate a copy of the Reese River Reveille for 1874.  I phoned her again and she informed me that while the State Archives do show that the library has the Reese River 
Reveille copies on microfilm from 1863 to 1993, she only found records from 1863 to 1868. That put me back to square one. I forwarded this message to the Austin Chamber of Commerce 
in Austin and asked if they had any information on the Irish American Benevolent Society or records from the old St. Augustine's Catholic Church, which was being restored and to be 
re-opened as a cultural center. St. Augustine's Catholic Church was built in 1866 and was an important part of the lives of the large Irish-Catholic population in Austin in the old days.
       The church was part of the Catholic Diocese of Reno so my search went there. Fortunately, the Sacramental records in the archives referenced the deaths of the two young Irish lads. 
They had died in a mining accident. No other useful information was given. At least my suspicions were confirmed. But I still had questions.

      Faintly visible in the headstones was the inscription indicating that the Irish American Benevolent Society of Austin had erected them. I’d like to think that besides erecting the 
headstones, the Benevolent Society also notified their relatives back in Ireland of their deaths. I’d hate to think of those men’s families wondering but never knowing what ever had 
happened to their sons, brothers far away in a distant land. Of course, I was assuming that these men weren’t part of families living in Nevada or other parts of the U.S. 

      Curious about how and when they arrived in the U.S, I searched for immigration records. Unfortunately, my search drew a blank. Initially, I assumed that all immigrants from Europe 
entered the U.S. via Ellis Island but that entry point didn’t exist until later. Apparently, immigrants came to other Eastern seaboard port cities in the U.S. and Canada. In many cases, 
they would simply walk off the ships and not bother with immigration officials.  I learned that ship traffic between Europe and the U.S. was busy. Checking passenger lists and ship’s 
manifests to try and to determine when and where my subjects entered the U.S. thus far had proven to be a daunting task, to say the least. When and where they arrived in the country may 
well remain a mystery.

      Many of the old headstones were made of limestone, possibly because it is soft and was easily carved or engraved. The harder granite or marble came into use later, quite possibly 
when grinders were commonly used. I’m told that today high-pressure air is used to cut into the harder stone surfaces. Unfortunately, the softer limestone weathers more quickly. In addition 
to wind and rain and freeze-thaw cycles, pollution in the atmosphere also causes the material to deteriorate.   Sadly, not too long into the future the features in the limestone headstones 
will be completely gone. So too will any memories of all those forgotten souls buried there. Hopefully, if my essay ever gets published, the memory of these two unfortunate Irish lads will 
part of recorded history. Fortunately, the archived newspaper article relating to their deaths will live on as well.

      To make a long story short, I went back to my original inquiry resource of 2011 and was directed to the Central Nevada Historical Society in Tonopah. As it turned out, they had all 
of the Reese River Reveille newspaper copies on microfiche. I requested information about the mining accident on January 3, 1874 that resulted in the deaths of the two miners. I subsequently 
ended up with printed copies of the newspaper article printed on January 5 and 6, 1874 detailing the mining accident and the funeral and information about the deceased and their families. My 
search had ended. I have many more questions but at least I can now bring this quest to a conclusion.

      Strangest of all for this quest are the coincidences: For starters, how did it come to be that this man from Oregon just happened to take that route to Arizona and just happen to wander 
into the old cemetery and randomly pick two gravesites and photograph the weathered headstones?  And it just happened to be around the time of St. Patrick’s Day.   A year later, again around 
St. Patrick’s Day, he finally took notice of the photographs and saw that the two deceased individuals had died on the same day. That piqued his curiosity and started him on an information 
journey that would take another four years to reach its destination. 

      After many starts and stops and dead ends, in 2015 he finally gave it one last try—again coincidently around the time of St. Patrick’s Day, and finally found the answers to his questions.
 He learned that the two men had perished in a mine explosion and had families in New York; one man’s family lived in New York City. The other had family in Essex County in upstate New York.
      But the strangest coincidence is this:  The explosion occurred in the part of the mine called—the Oregon shaft…

David A. Pangburn
April 8, 2015