BLAKELEY, ROBERT J.
Reno Weekly Gazette and Stockman May 9, 1889
Shot In the Head.
Robert J Blakeley, a young married man of Virginia, committed suicide
on the 30th ult. by shooting himself in the head because his wife
refused to dance with him, she having a previous engagement. He leaves
a young wife and a babe. He was only 21 years of age.
CAMPBELL - CURRAN - GRIFFIN
Sacramento Daily Union - October 13, 1879
Accident at Gold Hill. A despatch dated Gold Hill, July l1th,says:
Three miners, named John W. Campbell, Bernard F. Curran and James
Griffin, were instantly killed in the south shaft of the Yellow Jacket
Mine, about 9 o'clock this morning. A timber became detached from a
load descending, and lodged in the shaft. The cage with the rest of
the load went on down and waa unloaded without the absence of the
missing timber being noticed. The three men got on the cage and were
drawn up at the usual speed. The cage struck the lodged timber, the
rope broke and the cage and men fell to the bottom of the shaft, a
distance of 400 feet.
California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic
Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside, .
FINLEN, MILES March 17, 1911
Source: The History of Montana by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Volume 3,
1913 - Submitted by Friends for Free Genealogy
MR. MILES FINLEN The statement that "Death loves a shining mark, a
signal blow," is truer than it is old, and seldom in this part of the
country has it had a more suggestive and impressive illustration than
when the shaft of the "insatiable archer" reached the heart of the
late Miles Finlen of Butte, a pioneer mining man of prominence, owner
of the Finlen Hotel, public official and citizen of Butte beloved by
every rank and class of the people at the time of his death, which
occurred in 1911, on the day devoted to reverence to the patron saint
of his native land.
Mr. Finlen was born in County Wexford, Ireland, on February 14, 1847,
and died in Butte, Montana, on March 17, 1911. The city of his birth
is pleasantly located on the River Slaney, and has considerable river
and some foreign commerce, especially in dairy products. The influence
on the subsequent career of Mr. Finlen exercised by his native place
and its commercial activity is difficult to estimate, as he was
brought from it to Canada by his parents when he was but four years
old. In his new home he lived to the age of seventeen years, when he
left and went to Buffalo, New York, and a short time afterward to
Erie, Pennsylvania. Then, after a time, he sought a new home in a far
distant region, crossing the continent to California and locating at
Grass Valley in that state.
It was at Grass Valley that Mr. Finlen got a good insight into the
mining business, and in 1867, when he was twenty years old, he went
from that city to Virginia City, Nevada, then at the height of its
glory as a mining camp and rich producer of the precious metals. It is
probable, therefore, that the bustling and intensive activity of
American life, as he saw it, was the inspiration of his enterprise in
business. But his genial and companionable disposition, his responsive
heart and open hand, to every claim of humanity and his easy
assimilation of every mood of the plain people of this country, which
is always the expression of the great throbbing soul of mankind, were
inheritances from his race, and among the best expressions of them
this part of the country has seen.
The last home of Mr. Finlen's parents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Lacy)
Finlen, was at Bay City, Michigan, where the mother died in March,
1899, at the age of eighty-four years, and the father on August 10,
1909, at the age of ninety-six. They were natives, also, of Wexford,
Ireland, but residents of this country from 1868. In all the different
places in which they made their home among the American people they
were highly esteemed as sterling and sturdy citizens. Mr. Finlen's
grandmother on the father's side was Mary (Dunn) Finlen, a notable
woman who lived to an advanced age and made her mark in enduring
phrase on, the people around her.
While living in Virginia City, Nevada, Mr. Finley formed an intimate
acquaintance with the late Marcus Daly, which soon ripened into an
enduring friendship that lasted and grew in intensity until the
masterly mining king, one of Montana's great gifts to American
citizenship and American industrial development and progress, paid
nature's last debt. In that city he also became known to William
Skyrme and other men since prominent in the larger and upper circles
of the mining industry of the world. He engaged in mining with them,
and also became a very popular citizen of the community, serving two
terms as street commissioner and rising to great prominence and
influence in the public affairs of the place.
In 1888, just before the territory of Montana was allowed by the
federal government to throw off the youthful dress of immaturity and
assume the full habiliments and dignity of statehood, Mr. Finlen took
up his residence in Butte, and for fourteen years was one of the large
mine owners in the district. He operated the Buffalo mine until 1892,
then the Ramsdel Parrot for four years and later the Minnie Healy.
These properties were all held by him under lease and bond and became
famous under his development, usually while in his control, having a
working force of five or six hundred men. In 1900 he disposed of his
mining interest in Butte, having in 1893 purchased the McDermitt Hotel
which has since been known as the Finlen and which he conducted for
one year before his death. It is now conducted by his son. For several
years Mr. Finlen owned a fine stud of race horses, to the purchase and
development of which he gave much time and attention. They all came
from the famous Marcus Daly stock farm. For several years he made his
home in New York and had a stable at Gravesend. After locating at
Butte Mr. Finlen soon became an influential force in the affairs of
this city, and in the first session of the state legislature was made
sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives. He took a prominent
part in the fight for the location of the state capital, favoring
Anaconda because of his warm friendship for Marcus Daly, the champion
of that city in the contest, and showed himself a warrior worthy of
any opponent's steel. When the final test came he was a member of the
legislature from the county which gave the deciding vote in the long,
agitating and state-wide struggle.
Mr. Finlen was largely successful in his mining projects, prospered in
all his other lines of business, managed all his affairs with judgment
and accumulated a considerable estate. He invested in Butte real
property on a rising market, and at the time of his death owned the
Finlen Hotel and other houses and lots of value in the city. He was
recognized as one of the men of large substance in a worldly way in
the city, and was universally esteemed as one of Butte's most
progressive, public spirited, enterprising and useful citizens.
When the hour of his demise approached the people of the city of all
classes showed the high appreciation in which they held him. His final
illness lasted many months, and he knew throughout its continuance
that its end meant his death. But the courage and sturdy qualities of
elevated manhood that had been prominent in his whole career sustained
him and became conspicuous. To his devoted wife, who watched
constantly at his bedside day and night, he was ever tender and
considerate, easing her sorrow with cheering words, and to the friends
who called to see him in great numbers he talked with the utmost
strength and encouragement. His brother, Patrick Finlen, died several
days before he did, and as his death was expected every hour, the body
of the brother was withheld from burial in order that both might be
laid to rest together. After the death of Miles the bodies were laid
in state, side by side, in the Finlen Hotel, and hundreds of sorrowing
friends of both men came to view them and pay their last respects to
the departed.
The funeral services took place at St. Patrick's Catholic church,
where solemn high mass was solemnized over the remains of the
brothers. The pall bearers, honorary and active, were selected from
the intimate friends of the brothers who had known them for many
years, and the lodge of Knights of Columbus and the Butte Lodge of
Elks, to both of which Miles Finlen had belonged, attended with almost
their full membership. The brothers were buried in St. James Cemetery,
Bay City, Michigan.
Mr. Finlen was married in Virginia City, Nevada, on June 30, 1872, to
Miss Ellen Turner, the daughter of John and Margaret (O'Sullivan)
Turner, natives of County Cork, Ireland. Mrs. Finlen's grandparents
were John and Ellen (Roche) Turner, and her great-grandmother was Mary
Luddy, a matron who has an honorable place in local Irish history. Mr.
and Mrs. Finlen had two children, but one of whom is living, their
son, James Finlen, who was born in Virginia City, Nevada, on April 14,
1873. He married Miss Mary Ivers, of Salt Lake City, Utah, the
daughter of James Ivers. of that city. One child has been born of the
union, James Ivers Finlen, who is now attending school in Butte.
The other child in the Finlen household was a daughter named
Elizabeth, who was born in Virginia City, Nevada, on June 23, 1875,
and died there on September 19, 1878. Miles Finlen was reared as a
Catholic and was always devotedly attached to his church and zealous
and effective in its service. The congregation to which he belonged
never had, during his connection with it, an undertaking in which he
did not take an earnest, practical and serviceable interest, equal if
not superior to that of any other member of the parish. In fact, he
never did anything by less than his whole force, and he has passed
into history in Butte as one of the city's best, most enterprising and
most useful citizens.
GEARY - OWENS - PETERS
Sacramento Daily Union - October 13, 1879
By an unexpected lowering of the slide in the Julia mine today, on
which a air-pipe was being taken into the mine, Abe Geary had his
thigh badly crushed and John Peters and Owen Owens were thrown into
the hot water and scalded about their legs. They will probably all
recover.
California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic
Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside, .
GIANODINI, G.
Reno Weekly Gazette and Stockman January 3, 1889
Death From Blood Poisoning.
On the 20th inst., G. Gianodini, landlord of the Summit House, Plumas
county, Cal., hurt his hand while moving a safe and blood poisoning
set in, causing his death on Tuesday evening. Dr. Dawson was called
from Reno, but the man died before his arrival. Deceased was lately
from Virginia City.
HUDNALL, W. M.
Inland Empire (Hamilton, NV) - September 21, 1869
Died: In Virginia, September 16, W. M. Hudnall, aged 35(?) years.
LAMSON, N. K.
The Gold Hill Daily News, Gold Hill, Nevada, December 6, 1879
In Virginia, December 3, N. K. Lamson, native of Boston Mass., aged
about 50 years.
MCMARTIN, JAMES
Sacramento Daily Union - October 13, 1879
Drowned While Bathing.
Virginia (Nov.), October 11th.--This afternoon Jams McMartin, aged 15
years, son of Alexander McMartin, of Gold Hill, was drowned in front
of the small dam below the Rhode Island mill, while bathing.
California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic
Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside, .
SHARON, HON. WILLIAM
The Daily Morning Astorian (Astoria, OR) – November 15, 1885 -
transcribed by Jim Dezotell
Ex-Senator Sharon, of Nevada, died at the Palace hotel, San Francisco,
aged 65, leaving $10,000,000.
SHERMAN, Lawreence
The East Oregonian (Pendleton, OR) – Saturday, Deccember 28, 1878 -
submitted by Jim Dezotell
Mining Accident
Bodie, Dec. 15 – Lawreence Sherman was killed in the Mono mine this
afternoon. He was timbering at the bottom of the shaft, when the cage
came down and killed him almost instantly. He belonged to Virginia
City.
STEWART, HON. WILLIAM A.
Coos Bay Times (Marshfield, OR) - April 23, 1909 - transcribed by Jim
Dezotell
Wm. A. Stewart Died Today
Former United States Senator From Nevada, Dies In Washington After
Operation. (By Associated Press)
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 28. – Former United State Senator Wm. A.
Stewart of Nevada, died at the Georgetown hospital here today
following an operation. The body will be taken to Nevada Sunday.
TISDALE, JAY F.
Reno Weekly Gazette and Stockman December 27, 1888 page 2
TISDALE—In Virginnia City, Nevada, December 20, 1888, Jay F. Tisdale,
a native of Oregon, aged 23 years.
Submitted by Genealogy Trails Transcription Team.
MR. NELSON WRIGHT
Inland Empire (Hamilton, NV) - September 21, 1869
Died: In Gold Hill, September 17, Nelson Wright, a native of New York,
aged 45 years.

