The Irish who worked in mining and on the railroads, followed one general route, with few exceptions. Beginning either in Canada or New York state, they went to Pennsylvania, crossed the Great Lakes to Michigan and Upper Michigan, some into Wisconsin and Minnesota (predominantly inhabited by people of Swedish and Norwegian extraction); thence Wet to Colorado and up to Montana, and farther West and South, to Nevada. This movement took some years, whether they worked in either occupation – but they all followed this general route as worked opened up for them.
Goldfield is the County Seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada. It is situation at approximately 6,000 ft altitude and is entirely composed of desert and mountains. In the very early days of Nevada a few ranches (cattle) were located in the southernmost area of this county. At the present time, Esmeralda County has fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, and is one of the largest counties in area, in all of Nevada. At one time Goldfield and surrounding small towns had close to 75,000 inhabitants.
Much of the mining in this area was surface mining. The earthquake of 1906 in san Francisco, plus the panic in the East at the same time, withdrew the majority of the financing behind the mines. They puddled along for about 20 years before finally folding up.
58 blocks of downtown Goldfield were burned in one fire in the 1930s, and have never been rebuilt. In addition to being the County Seat, Goldfield sits astride the only main highway that traverses this section of Nevada. It is a hot humid area in the summer and colder than blazes in the Winter. It is subject to violent thunder storms and heavy rains, producing serious flash flooding and land slides. At the present time, some of the mining and milling is beginning to re-open, due to the wondrously rich Cinnebar found at Goldfield in the past year.
Redman’s cemetery refers to a fraternal order has nothing to do with the American Indian.
The majority of those sent to Oakland, California for cremation were contagious diseases such as meningitis, diphtheria, etc.
The Catholic Registers are located at the Catholic Chancery, 555 Court Street, Reno, Nevada.
The Episcopal Registers for 158 towns of Nevada and California are located at the office of the Episcopal Bishop, in Reno, Nevada.
Goldfield did not become active until approximately 1904.
The following listed deaths of Irish National are extracted from various newspapers as well as various County records of Nevada and California. The source is indicated in each case.
- Twp = Township
- Sacto = Sacramento
- Calif = California
- Nev = Nevada
- @ = at
- VA City = Virginia City, Nevada
- GH = Gold Hill, Nevada
- Comstock = Located in Storey County, Nevada, and comprises area made up for the most part by Virginia City and Gold Hill Adjacent mines
- N/O = Native of
- K of C = Knights of Columbus
- Emmett Guard = A military group – local in area
- F & AM = Masonic Order
- VMU } Various workmen’s unions
- GHMU } Various workmen’s unions
- AOUW } Various workmen’s unions
* in Sacramento ‘Daily Union’ records indicates the person was buried in the Sacramento City Cemetery at Sacramento. This is not a charity cemetery. It is still in operation. It is a non-denominational cemetery owned by the City of Sacramento. Inquiries regarding people in these records, or others buried in that Cemetery, should be addressed to: The Sexton, City Cemetery, Sacramento, California.
At the end of each week, the Sexton of the City Cemetery published in the ‘Union’ a list of those people interred the previous week, whether or not they died in Sacramento.
In reference to the explosion of the steamer ‘SS Washoe’ in the Sacramento River. This occurred on 6 September 1864 and close to 100 people were killed, or died later from injuries. There are a variety of death dates listed for people killed in this explosion.
In some instances, a death record was printed in the ‘Union’ and other papers, more than once, with some difference either in name spelling, or in age, or place of birth. These have been listed as were taken from the paper.
Sutro mentioned in Nevada records, was named for Adolph Sutro, who conceived the idea for the remarkable Sutro Tunnel, and who also built it, to drain the boiling water from many of the Comstock Mines. This town, the cemetery and even the tunnel, are extinct. The tunnel still exists but has been flooded by cloud bursts repeatedly and in such a dangerous condition, nobody is allowed inside. The town site and cemetery are almost indiscernible. Many Irish worked on this tunnel and were buried in the town of Sutro. The story is told that Mr Sutro became furious over the fact that each time an Irishman died or was killed at the tunnel, all his friends had to take time off for the Wake and to attend the funeral. Since burials were then some miles away, it generally took a day for the Wake, the funeral and the recovery of those still living, as they were fond of their Irish Dew at these wakes. So Mr Sutro set aside a tract of land for the cemetery and thus floundered the ambitions of the miners – but he was admantant [sic] and the burials took place at Sutro and saved him considerable time, but made no friends for Mr Sutro.
From: Sacramento ‘Daily Union’ published Sacramento, California. On file at Nevada Historical Society, at Reno, Nevada
A great many Irish settled in the early years of Nevada (from 1862 on) around Sweetwater, and Aurora and about 6 dozen other tiny mining areas, now all entirely disappeared. There was some ranching around Sweetwater, but all of Esmerelda County is a mining area. These records would overlap with California records, as Bodie, one of the greatest mining towns, was only a few miles from Aurora, and was located in California. For some years, Aurora had two sets of City officers because both California and Nevada claimed her. In 1863 a US Government Survey showed Aurora to be approximately three miles inside Nevada Territory. Even then, some people continued to pay taxes to California. As a result of this mix-up, many of the very early records are scattered to the high winds, and have not yet been located.
The majority of existing records known at this time, are located in the office of the Esmeralda County Recorder which is at Goldfield, Nevada. These records consist of newspapers which begin in 1878, and other vital statistics kept by the County. No doubt there are hundreds or even thousands of Irish buried in the area, but they left no record behind.
The mortuary records for this area begin about 1906, as that is when Goldfield, itself, became a boom town. When these records are searched, the information on the Irish Nationals will be forwarded to this office. At present the only records at hand are as follows:
From: ‘The Esmeralda Herald’ published at that time in Aurora, Nevada (the town no longer exists).
Lyon County had a variety of industry including some mining. The best mining in the Lyon County area was at Pine grove, which actually was and is located in Esmeralda County, but the roadways to Pine Grove approach it through Lyon County.
This County is predominantly ranching and has always been so. It had, at one time, a good deal of railroad business, but those railroads serving it are out of business and even their tracks have been removed. The were the old narrow-gauge. It seemed that each railroad would deliberately build its tracks a different gauge from the competitor to prevent them from using the other tracks. This caused a new type of business to spring up on Lyon County – warehousing. There were several transfer points in Lyon County simply because one railroad could not use the tracks of the other, and therefore, there was no direct shipment. At some times – in fact, quite often – the goods piled so high that delivery of even mail, would take nearly a year. However, when the railroads ‘folded up’ mostly because of their own stupidity in such actions, the warehousing also closed.
Today, the County has a huge copper mine belonging to Anaconda Copper Company, and it is located at Weed Heights, which is directly adjacent to the County Seat at Yerington. The balance of the County’s business is about 90% ranching.
The following records are taken from the Lyon County Recorder’s office, which is located in Yerington, Nevada. In the early years of Lyon County the County Seat was at Dayton, but that Court House burned, and since the town had already begun to fade, a new county seat was selected at Yerington. However, the early records from Dayton are on file at Yerington and are intact.
Cemetery records from this County will be forwarded at a later date.