Eilley Bowers took mining claims for unpaid board, became one of the first Comstock millionaires, and lost her mansion at auction

Alison Oram was born in Forfar, Scotland, on 6 September 1826. She married at about 15, divorced in Utah, married again and divorced again, keeping land in Washoe Valley. She ran boarding houses at Johntown and Gold Hill. She took mining claims from boarders who could not pay, and local lore says she got ten feet of the Comstock Lode that way. In August 1859 she married Sandy Bowers, whose claim adjoined hers. Their combined holdings were one of the Comstock's first big silver strikes. They began a mansion in Washoe Valley in 1864, toured Europe for about ten months and adopted a daughter, Persia. By their return the ore was running out. Sandy died of silicosis in 1868, aged 35, having put much of the money into failed ventures. Eilley sold the mine in 1870. She ran the mansion as a resort, tried to raffle it, and added a third floor that deepened her debt. Persia died in July 1874, aged 12. In 1876 the mansion was sold at auction. Eilley told fortunes as the "Washoe Seeress" in Virginia City and Reno. In 1901 the Reno county poor house cared for her. She died on 27 October 1903 at the King's Daughters Home in Oakland, California, aged 77, blind and deaf. The mansion's owner, Henry Riter, helped bring her ashes home. She lies on the hillside above the mansion with Sandy and Persia. Washoe County bought the house in 1946.