Carson Mission Member, Eilley Bowers.

Allison “Eilley” Oram Bowers (Information Taken from Wikipedia )                                                             

 Eilley Oram Bowers has become a local icon, but her roots were in Forfar, Scotland. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at age 15, as a means to move to the United States.

When she arrived in Nauvoo, a year later in 1842 she married a Scottish widower, Stephen Hunter. He was 30 years older than Eilley. When the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred, the couple moved with the body of saints and eventually settled in Salt Lake City. Hunter came to believe his wife couldn’t conceive children, so he took a second wife; polygamy at the time was legal and practiced openly. In 1850, Eilley divorced her husband feeling the practice of polygamy was unacceptable for her. She supported herself by working at a local general store.

In 1853 she married her second husband, a farmer by the name of Alexander Cowan. They left Salt Lake in 1855 when called to the Carson Mission to settle. Alexander bought 320 acres of land, including a hot spring located at the foot of the mountains in Washoe Valley. Alexander cultivated the land while Eilley opened a boardinghouse in Gold Canyon.

When Brigham Young in 1857 recalled the members of the Carson Mission to Salt Lake because of the impending Utah war, Alexander left, and Eilley stayed. She hired assistance with the farm and continued to operate the boardinghouse. For a short time Alexander would occasionally visit Eilley, but in 1858 he returned permanently to Salt Lake for unknown reasons.

While Eilley worked at the boarding house at Gold Hill, two of the boarders were “Sandy” Bowers and James Rogers. They owned a 20-foot mining claim in Gold Canyon. In 1859, Eilley purchased Rogers’s half of the claim, and the following year she married Sandy; however, she didn’t divorce Alexander Cowan for another nine months. In the divorce settlement she claimed Alexander deserted her and was granted half of the 320-acre farm in Washoe Valley.

Eilley struck pay dirt, literally. Between Eilley and Sandy, they became multi-millionaires making $2.4 million a month. Eilley Bowers became the first female millionaire in Nevada; her husband became the first Comstock millionaire.

Mrs. Bowers wasn’t particularly popular with the local population. The two were known for their conspicuous displays of wealth during the recession caused by the fall of the price of silver after the American Civil War ended.

Bowers Mansion

A tragic series of events occurred which left Eilley penniless. Her husband suddenly died at age 35. Shortly afterward, she discovered he had seriously mismanaged their finances. She tried desperately to preserve the mansion by offering it as a resort with beneficial hot springs, a social hall, and a hotel. Nothing was sufficient to keep the bank from foreclosing on her loans. The mansion cost $400,000 to build and was sold at a mere $10,000 at auction.

By the late 19^th century, Eilley was destitute. She was placed in the Washoe County poorhouse. Eventually Washoe County had no desire to pay for her expenses and transferred her to California where she had once resided shortly after the mansion had foreclosed. She died penniless in 1903 at the King’s Daughters Home in Oakland California.

Eventually, the abandoned home was purchased by Henry Ritter. It was renovated and reopened as a resort in 1903 and continued as such until 1946. Currently, Washoe County Parks Department administers its operation. (See Cleere, “More than Petticoats, Remarkable Nevada Women,” 3–13.)

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