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Storey County, Nevada

Obituaries

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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.






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