THE GRIM REAPER visits BODIE!
CHRISTINE PARKER—-aged 2 years and 5 months- (d. August 14, 1905)
Death Visits Parker Home.
~~The “Grim Reaper” visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Parker on Monday morning at 2 o’clock, and took away their little girl, Christene, aged 2 yrs and 5 months.
~~Her death was caused by Cholera Infantum, from which Christine had suffered for about a week. Previous to that she had always been in good health.
~~The Funeral was held from the Parker family residence Tuesday P.M. Services were held in the M.E. Church, Rev. Darling officiating.
~~The Parkers have the sympathy of the entire community in the loss of their first born. Christine “had reached the age when children become interesting, and a sunshine in the home, and her loss at this time is a sad blow.”
Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, August 9, 1905 (Saturday)
Family Plot in the Bodie Cemetery
George W. - Son of J.A. and M.A. Conway —May 20, 1901—-Age 1 Year. 2 Months. 28 Days.
~~~GEORGE CONWAY-(d. 20May 1901)—- Age 1 Year, 2 Months. 28 days—-died in a Scarlet Fever Epidemic.
~~~Although Telegraph and Stagecoach, had made the route more secure, a “common ailment or insect bite” on the journey could produce disaster.
~~~Dysentery, which affected almost everyone at some time on or other on the Overland the Journey, could cause of death. This was particularity true, especially among infants. The prospect of having to leave a “ new-born-baby” in an unmarked grave along the roadside, was intolerable. Leaving a “infants tiny body” among the sands of the Wilderness, surrounded by Indians and wolves, was the most painful burden the Emigrants had to bear.
Ones natural instinct was to mark a gravesite, so as to find the “final resting place of a loved one” again. But no, possible or adequate grave could be dug on the Overland Trail.
~~~The sun had baked and hardened ground. Digging was like breaking through solid-rock. Next, the rains would come, and wash away the shallow graves.
~~~No matter what grave-marker one might devise- —a pile of rocks, a piece of wood, a shred of cloth- no emblem—- would survive the harsh Winter snows and blizzards, or simple daily passage of time.
~~~There was also the urgent need to “obliterate a grave.” The Indians made a common practice of “digging up the dead” for clothing. This practice also, spread Cholera among themselves —even as they gathered up the treasures.
~~~Even if a grave escaped the notice, it was not likely to escape the prowling wolves and coyotes. Graves were obliterated by the small animal, leaving no trace to be found of a grave even if it had been Properly Marked. The emigrants came to believe, that the greatest service they could do for the deceased, was to “hide the gravesite.” Some Wagon-trail Companies dug beneath the road itself, so “the ox teams would trample over the evidence of a grave.”
The infant and children’s graves in the Bodie Cemetery express the grief and sorrow their parents. The expense to bury a infant, and to mark the grave properly with marble headstone required a “Family Plot” in the Bodie Cemetery. The “family plot” had a different meaning to the Miners themselves, their wives and children, and especially to all the other women, who lived in Bodie.
The Angel of Bodie!
Evelyn K. Meyers “ ANGEL OF BODIE” Born May 1, 1894- Died May 1, 1894.
EVELYN K. MEYERS- “Angel of Bodie” - died 1 May 1894.
A beautifully sculptured, “Angel gravestone” serves as a soothing and comforting Memorial.
“Angels are regarded as agents of God.” Families usually opt for an angel headstone (irrespective of their religious beliefs), in hope that the angels will take care of their deceased child.
This “Angel of Bodie” stone captures the sense of sorrow and lose to the Meyers family.
Evelyn Beloved daughter of Fannie O. and Albert K. Meyers. Evelyn died from an accidential struck to the head with a pick ax by a workman, who was building a drainage ditch around the Meyer’s home. (Bridgeport Chronicle- Union April 5, 1897)
ECLECTIC MONUMENT
JAMES B. PERRY- A NATIVE OF IRELAND- Died June 9, 1896- Aged 63 Years- Late Supervisor of Mono County.
ECLECTIC MONUMENT- James B. Perry (d. 9 June 1896) Bodie Cemetery
~~~Eclectic Monuments tend to be LARGE, and to “incorporate two or three styles in one headstone .”Usually a large, rugged stone, with a “Scroll for the Inscription.”
~~~All have symbolism in the Christian tradition. The “ROCK” is the most common metaphor for “reliability.” It is often equated with the “living force of God.”
~~~ The Rock represents Jesus, the “Rock of Ages” as the Source, or Eternal Life. The Scroll is an “Emblem of Ancient Wisdom, Prophecy” or Cannon Law (Religious Law). The symbolic reference is to “Divine Law”.
~~~I.O.O.F. Symbol- Internal Order of Odd Fellows emblem of the the ODD FELLOWS LODGE— represent FRIENDSHIP, LOVE and TRUTH.
Mourning the Dead in Bodie, Importance of Grave-site Service!
When death occurred in the late 1800s, no one contacted a “funeral home,” no calls were made to “Morticians to handle the burial arrangements.” No one had to go through the “process of contacting the right people” to carry out the task for burying the deceased. Mainly because there were no “funeral homes or funeral directors.” Up until the early 19th century, “the task of preparing the dead for burial,” was seen as a very simple, dignified Family Affair.
During pre-Civil War times, the funeral process followed a typical pattern . One in which people generally, died at home surrounded by their friends and family.
Upon their deaths, the body was laid out by close relations, who washed and dressed the body in a shroud or “winding sheet” made of muslin or wool. Afterwards, the deceased , was placed in a simple pine coffin, often constructed by a family member or neighbor.
It was during this time that the body would remain at home, in the parlor for one to three days. Relatives, neighbors or close friends would “voluntarily watch over the body,” keeping a Round-the-Clock Vigil. Depending on the weather, a large block of ice may have been placed beneath the coffin, with smaller chunks distributed about the unembalmed body.
On the day of the Burial, Hymns were sung, Psalms Read, a Discourse and Eulogy was delivered. As family and friends paid their final respects to their loved one, during “a in-home-service” held often at the home of the deceased.
When the “final goodbyes were said,” so began the journey of the deceased to their “final resting place.” Depending on the distance, the Coffin would be carried by Pallbearers on foot, or conveyed in a Horse-Drawn Wagon through a sombre procession to a grave, pre-dug and awaited by a Sexton.
Upon lowering the Coffin into the ground, “final grave-site words” were spoken by anyone who wished to speak. Shortly after, Mourners would toss a branch, some straw, or a handful of earth onto the coffin lid as a ritual farewell gesture before the grave was filled. As the onlookers stood by and watched or, as more often then not, the mourner’s performed the “task of filling in the grave themselves.”
This was the Mourning Vigil. Every stage of the Process, from the “laying out of the corpse,” to the sewing of the shroud; the watching of the body and the construction of the coffin; the carrying of the coffin and the digging of the grave, each step was conducted, for the most part, by family and friends of the deceased.
The “Mourning Virgil” was an intimate affair, full of catharsis and closure, as Mourners partook in the Ritual of Honoring the Dead.
How President Garfield Monument became in the Bodie Cemetery!
~~~President Garfield’s - Bodie Masonic Cemetery -“Dedicated Monument” instead of William Bodey “cast-iron marker”!!
The “1881 proposed William Bodey grave-marker,” got changed from a simple “cast iron marker” to a “9-foot Granate Stone Monolith.”
~~~~Time passed, and the Bodie-town-folk forgot all about the idea of “the grave marker for Bodey.”
~~(Bodey’s remains were in an unknown, unmarked, unkept location in one of the three areas of the cemetery. Forgotten by all, “who had raised funds” for the grave and Monolith marker.)
~~~With President Garfields long lingering, suffering from an assassins bullet, and then his death on September 1881. The citizens of Bodie got swept up in the “national- mourning of the Garfields death.” The citizens sentiment changed and it was decided to “Dedicate the Monument" to the 20th President instead of the Mining districts founder William Bodey.
~~William Bodey’s grave is still unknown and “unmarked,” and its “location is lost to history.”
Martha Letcher (d. 20April 1882)
Martha Letcher (1876- 20 April 1882)~~~Bodie Cemetery (Mono County) California!
MARTHA LETCHER
Bodie Standard, 4/27/1882DIED~~~~
LETCHER - IN Bodie, Cal., April 20, 1882, Mrs. J. Letcher, a native of Cornwall, England, aged 35 years.
Epitaph reads: "Amiable she won all, Intelligent she charmed all, Fervent she loved all, And dead she saddened all."
MARTHA LETCHER’S headstone marker does not list her birthdate, but gives her age as 35 years at the time of death. This would make “her year of birth” either 1846 or 1847.)
John W. DeChambeau (1875-1918)
JOHN DeCHAMBEAU (1875-1918)- ~~Bodie Odd Fellows Cemetery~~~
John DeChambeau
Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, 8/24/1918 (Saturday):
John W. Dechambeau.
Many Mono friends of John W. DeChambeau and of his family, heard with deep regret that there was no hope of his recovery from an affliction which had come upon him. As a result it was no surprise when he passed away last Sunday evening, at his home in Bridgeport.
John W. Dechambeau was born in Canada, October 6, 1876. When 15 years old he left Canada, and came to Mono County. He spent several years “packing and mining at Lundy.” After Lundy, he ranched a year or so at Mono Lake.
John DeChambeau was married at Mono Lake, December 9, 1898, to Sadie E. King, who survives him. (Of this union six children were born.) After his marriage Mr. DeChambeau moved to Bodie, where he leased and mined for several years. He then moved back to Mono Lake ,where he ranched for two or three years. Later he conducted a lodging house in Hawthorne, Nevada and afterwards ran a Farm near Bishop for a year or two.
About six years ago the DeChambeau family moved to Green Creek. In Green Creek, he was employed as the “operator at the power plant,“ until he became ill about five months ago. Prior to leaving Green Creek, last December, he was appointed Supervisor of the Bridgeport District, which office he filled with credit.
About the middle of last May, Mr. Dechambeau went to San Francisco for “medical attention,” and returned home after a few weeks expecting that his health would be reached in a short time. But his condition grew worse, and he returned to San Francisco early in July accompanied by his devoted wife.
After an operation it was ascertained that his “condition was hopeless.” As soon as he was able to make the trip John was brought to his home in Bridgeport. There he entered into a quiet deep sleep and passed away, peacefully Sunday evening, August 18, 1918, surrounded by his loved ones.
John DeChambeau was a devoted husband, and a kind and indulgent father; to his brothers a true brother, to his friends the Soul of Fellowship. But the greatest of all he was a man of God. And as a man, it is that those who knew him best ,most love to contemplate him. He believed in the “fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Mankind.” He believed “that the man who scatters flowers in the pathway of his fellow man, who lets into the dark places of life the sunshine of human sympathy and human kindness, is following in the footsteps of his Master.”
John W. Dechambeau possessed a happy disposition. He was an Optimist. (He had no patience with the pessimist.) He was happy, and contented because he sought to cheer and brighten the lives of those with whom he came in contact. He leaves the heritage of a pure and upright life. He possessed Character, and believed nothing is more important or essential.
In his death, this section (Mono County) has lost a valuable Citizen. Well could he approach a mysterious change calmly, bravely, cheerfully, and with a conscience of duty faithfully performed, for John had lived an “upright and honest life.”
Besides a devoted wife, Mr. Dechambeau leaves a daughter, Verna; three sons, Lawson, Morris and Cecil; and two brothers, Louis W. and James N.
To the loved ones, Our Hearts Go Out in Deepest Sympathy. But, oh, the weakness of words. The memory of loved ones gone should be a Tower of Strength. What they achieved, and aspired to should nerve us to meet worthily the present. What an anodyne of Grief are rightfully cherished memories.
The Funeral from the Bodie Miners’ Union Hall in Bodie Tuesday afternoon, August 20, 1918, was one of the most largely attended occurring there in years.
Several hundred friends gathered there, while Attorney Mark H. Edwards conducted the Morning Services. More than thirty autos formed the Funeral Cortege to the Bodie Odd Fellows Cemetery. Many beautiful floral pieces and tributes were banked about the Casket.
Bodie’s PIONEER FURNITURE
The old Bodie buildings DeChamber, PIONEER FURNITURE, or IOOF HALL, Bodie Miners’ Union and Morge!
The 3.7 acre Bodie Cemetery is fenced. Within the fenced area are three different sections- the Wards Cemetery, the Masonic Cemetery and the Bodie Miners’ Cemetery.
Mr. Henry Ward, an immigrant from England and a cabinet-maker by trade, arrived in Bodie in 1878. Using his knowlege of carpentry established the Pioneer Furniture Store.
The Pioneer Furniture Company sold “household small and large items.- like tables, chairs, storage bins.” The plus, was he also delivered household furniture to the newly built houses in Bodie.
Furniture and “undertaking” was a very common combination of Enterprise. Henry Ward expanded on his enterprise in Bodie, by acquiring land for a “Cemetery”. “Undertaking services”, purchasing glass hearse and building a “Hearse House” to store the carriage shows the extent the “burial services” were needed in the remote, mining community. (Being the “undertaker” Henry Ward handled all the “undertaking services” for the Bodie Miners’ Union.)
Henry Ward also had the financial means to contract a building on Main Street, Bodie. H.H. Ward, PIONEER FURNITURE was on the bottom floor, and the I.O.O.F rented the second floor. The importance is —-the I.O.O.F rented the second floor of his PIONEER FURNITURE building. IOOF membership used the “rented Hall” before they built the Bodie Miners’ Union Hall next to it.
Today, 150 years later, the I.O.O.F. building has survived the 1932 fire, and still is referred to as the I.O.O.F. Hall. Long forgotten is the “furniture store and undertaking services” that first established , and was the reason for Henry Ward’s business establishment. The only “remembrance to time” is WARDS CEMETERY, which is the where all the I.O.O.F membership is buried.
Bodie Cemetery- L. H. Arrild
….He Shall Sleep but not forever….L. H. Arrild (d. 29 April 1903) Aged 19 years, 8 months.
Louis H. Arrild
Louis Hansen Arrild, the only son of Andrew P. and Lena C. Arrild, died Wednesday at 5 a.m. of diabetes.
He was born on the 27th day of August 1884, and was a member of the Bodie Lodge No. 143, A.O.U.W. and Bodie Labor Union by which Orders, he was laid to rest Thursday at 2 p.m. (Bodie Miners Union Cemetery)
Louie, as he was known by all, had lived in Bodie since infancy, had attended the public school, whose flag floated at half-mast, and later had been an employee of his father, on the “tailings pond.”
He joined the A.O.U.W. in October 1902, and was insured in favor of his parents in the sum of $2,000. During his “Membership in that Order “missed but one meeting.
Louis was a quiet, well meaning young man. Respected by all, the only son of devoted parents, whose loss can never be replaced. Besides his parents, he leaves a sister, Mrs. Jas. Currie, to mourn his loss.
(Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, 5/2/1903, Saturday)
Bodie Cemetery “Mother’s grave”
MOTHER- MARY A. MILLER ( 1893-1963)- In Gods Care- BODIE CEMETERY!
The “overland migration” at mid- century (1865) was a major transplanting of young families. If any passion drove the married- at-a-young-age Wives forward, it was the “determination to keep their families together.” After the familiar strategy of sending the men “first” or ahead,” the determined “Overland Women,” set themselves to maintain the family’s coherence.
The decision to go West, was not the wives to make. The wives were reluctant to embark on the journey that meant a complete break with their old stable,“ “conventional city lifestyle.” But if women understood, and responded to any principle, it was “the need to keep the members of thefamily together.”
Thus, the married women and mothers, only choice was to picked up their infants and young children, and traveled that agonizing, treacherous and unknown-road , so the family——the entire family——might be transplanted into the new frontier. (Emigrants sought to travel in company of extended family, friends, neighbors and co-religionists. This single “keep the family together” purpose, above all, made the west-ward-Wagon-train travel hardships bearable
Within the “cycles of childbearing and childrearing,” the young mothers, managed a kind of equity in which they placed their lives. Their “Mother Of” became their “Emigrant Identity.” The overland-women were neither brave adventurers nor “sun-bonneted ladies.”
They were vigorous, and given to Realism, and Stoicism. The long hours- (8-10 hours ) of daily walking presented to them all challenges. The West meant to them- “the challenge of a family and maintaining domestic order against the disordered life of an unknown frontier.”
Once embarked on the overland Western journey, there was “no turning back.” The young wives were determined to complete the Journey, no matter the physical hardships of walking, and wagon-train isolation, traveling to get to the destination their husbands had chosen! Energetic in their daily efforts to survive their “western movement,” and have their entire family living “settled” in the West was the faith that moved them in their hearts.
At the end of the Civil War (1865), 25,000 emigrants had made the “overland crossing to California.” They were among the last Americans to make the journey by mules team-wagon. Migration dwindled after 1868. The Railroad began to replace the over-land by mule team and wagon-travel. Settlers, also began to look to lands of the Middle Mountain Regions, rather than the Pacific Ocean Coast. The hardship and travel time was also lessened by the Railroad expansion to the Pacific Ocean.
It was a time of consolidation and for a different kind of building. No longer “log cabins” this time, but the fabric of social life- ——-Schools and Churches ——-and the reweaving of families separated by the Civil War and broken up by the migration.
It was a time for the “Frontier Women” to redefine their friendship’s, their “family, and their new hearth and home!”
Bodie Fraternal Burial Association
Bodie Fraternal Burial Association- Fenced Grave- Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery!
~~Today, the only reason we know the names of individual Bodie citizens ,and their “Date of Death” is because “upon death” the Miners “membership dues were current.” The distressed family received the “Beneficiary money” to pay for the 1)expensive granite headstone, 2)the “undertaking” which included the casket, viewing the body, 3) a Church Funeral Service, 4) a proper Gravesite Ceremony, and 5) an ornate fence to surround the grave plot.
~~~Specifically, the Bodie Miners’ Union legacy is the graves with stone monuments in the Bodie Cemetery. Over “the testimony of time ,” these headstone have stood silent in the graveyard. The Union Miners’ Memberships Dues and “Death Benefit Clause” mase it possible, and paid for these stone Headstone.
~~~To handle all the burial details of the Bodie Miners’ Union, the Bodie Fraternal Burial Association was also organized. The digging of the graves- dynamite blasting the frozen ground was a unique technique “only in Bodie. ”The Union had explosion experts, they used this skill in blasting rock. Frozen ground did not keep, the miners from properly interring a fellow worker, or workers family member.
Each individual grave, whether man, women or infant child, and their different Headstone, tell its own unique Bodie story. A story of living in Bodie, laboring in the Mines, and dying in Bodie. The graves, grave-plots give a “window of a time-capsule.” Originally, the fence surrounding the individual grave, purpose was to deter grazing cattle from trampling the grave. Besides keeping cattle out, the smaller fences helped deter smaller animals from digging and getting to the Caskets and the contents below ground. The single plot fences also marked the grave location, otherwise forgotten to time by the overgrowth of sage-brush.
The “ornate metal fences,” which came from Mail-Order Catalogs have in some cases lasted and the headstone are missing. Either way, 150 years later, the layout of the “family layout” Cemetery Plots are marked. The “original intention” of Bodie Miners’ Union having a final resting place for it “wage-earning membership” is locatable, respected and the graves maintained.
Bodie- Winter Months!
Infant Son- John McMillan, Infant Son- George McMillan- Brothers buried in Bodie Cemetery.
~~~Miners, Women and Infant Children are interred in each of the three separate Cemetery Distinct sections of the Bodie Cemetery. Family plots hold siblings. Single, granite grave monuments have had family members names “added” over two decades time. Parents “wooden markers” have been replaced by their children. (This is only known because it is engraved on the stone- ERECTED BY WIFE and CHILDREN.)
~~~By puzzle piecing the graves in the Cemetery with the “unrepairable, boarded-shut dilapidated buildings” in Bodie, the history of the Bodie Mining District has a richer context. Eight months out of the year, daily life at the remote, mountain 8,400 elevation was miserable, an uncomfortable —-freezing bitter cold, windswept place.
~~ A location with no Sanitation- Outhouses, No cold or hot running water, No indoor plumbing, only “wood burning heating,” and cooking on a wood burning stove.
~~Everything that came in-and-out of the Mining Town, (including the gold-bullion leaving,) whiskey, food, firewood and people, came packed in-out by Freight-Wagon pulled by a “twenty-mule team”. Due to heavy snowfall or a blizzard, the roads to and from Bodie were usually impassable. The blizzards made it impossible to leave the town. The town “closed-down” even in the dark-daylight-hours weeks of Winter and early Spring months. After snow-storms, slush and mud prevailed in prominence all over the town. Difficulty in maintaining “Firewood storage” also complicated the “months of Winter”- freezing conditions, wind chill- also required keeping “Wood Storage” inside, covered-shed and near the house.
~~The Bodie Cemetery has only “full- body burials”- (No cremations ). During the frozen winter months, the corpses were kept “in storage” until the sage-covered ground thawed. Blasting the frozen-ground was part of digging a grave. The “death date” might have been during a Winter month. The actual day the Casket was lowered into the ground, covered over, and a “proper gravesite ceremony” could have varied, up to six months later. The Snow melting determined everything in Bodie!!
BODIE- GHOST TOWN
Sage covered- BODIE CEMETERY- graves- BODIE MINERS’ UNION CEMETERY!
~~~Today, located at 8,400 foot elevation, Bodie (Mono County), California is an abandoned Ghost Town. It is a “remote Eastern Sierra location” on a state of California State Map. Buried in Bodie are a 200 sage-brush-covered- graves, located in the three acre Bodie Township Cemetery. A Cemetery that has three distinct sections- the Wards Cemetery, the Masonic Cemetery and the Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery.
~~~It is the “death date” that was carved into the Headstone, which gives the individual grave ,and “the engraved name on the marker” significance. The “birth and death dates” defined the deceased persons lifespan. “That date” is when the persons death became a part of mining history and Bodie Township history. Bodie’s Township History is also connected to California mining history, because every grave has a “timing connection” to the Bodie Mining District.
~~~These names and dates, unique only to Bodie, tell the History of this gold mining district, on the map collectively called “the Bodie Mining District,” located on the Eastern Sierra in California. Intertwined in the towns history are the individual graves of the men who physically labored, 1,200 feet below ground, in the shafts of the mines, and who banded together in 1877 to establish the Bodie Miners’ Union labor organization. The BODIE MINERS’ UNION established Bodie as a “mining-town.” Organized, the Miners’ took the “mining-camp” to a California location of significance both innovation and enterprise.
~~~What remains today is only the scares of tunnel mining, abandoned machinery and forgotten graves. The Cemetery reclaimed by sage-brush, fenced to keep out the wandering cattle and covered in snow-depth. Only the Headstones and Marble Monuments make it a “place of notation” on the mountainside, above the old-town of decaying buildings.
Bodie Mine Shafts- Dynamite Danger Below!!
~~~Sinking a Mine Shaft through rock required the following sequence: (1) Drilling a round of holes. (2) Loading the holes with explosives.(3) Blasting, removing the broken rock. (4) Trimming the shaft to form. (5) Installing the timber supports. (6) Then drilling the next round of holes.
~~~The “holes” were loaded with Dynamite and fired with electric detonators, known as “blasting caps”. Dynamite was called “powder,” a carryover from the days when “black gun powder” was used in underground mining Sticks of Dynamite that did not not exploded were called “misses” or “missed holes.” They were extremely dangerous, and had to be discovered before work continued. Many a Miner was maimed or killed by accidentally drilling a “missed hole,” or setting off the charge.
~~~After blasting, the “broken rock” was removed from the bottom of the Shaft by shoveling it into the ore bucket, and hoisting it out of the the mine for dumping. This business of shoveling was known as “mucking.”
~~~With one man at the hoisting, and the other man at the bottom of the shaft, it was necessary to devise some sort of communication. by pulling a cord a man below could “ring a bell” inside the Hoisting House. Bells were used for communication. The different “bell signals” were for UP, DOWN and STOP. “Stop” meaning- STOP RIGHT NOW! That was usually- ONE BELL!
~~~When the sSgnal was given, the loaded ore bucket was hoisted up the shaft. At the surface it was dumped into a waiting mine car. A 60-Gallon Bucket held enough rock to fill one 1,100 pound capacity Mine Car. These mine cars were prevalent in small mining operations, because they fit inside a tunnel and could be handled by one man. They also pivoted, so that dumping could be directed to either side of the tracks. (Larger cars were pulled by mules.)
~~~The “timber cribbing” that supported the rock, and earthen walls of the shaft was framed to fit, then lowered into the Mine in the ore bucket. Each framed section was known as a “set”. Since the “Shaft Sets” are placed from the surface downward, each “new set” had to be “suspended from the set” above, until it was wedged in place. Iron Rods known as “hanging rods” provided the temporary support. The Shaft had to be kept “straight and plumb”- to allow the raising and lowering of the of the “free swing ore bucket.”
The miners “rode the bucket” only while lining the shaft with planks. This was extremely risky, dangerous, and done with extreme caution. (There were no guides in the Shaft.) The Shaft was all boxed in, so the Bucket would not catch any exposed timbers, if it started to swinging. It was pretty hard not to keep a hundred-foot cable from swinging.
With no Guides in the Shaft, the danger the Bucket might catch on something, and tip you out was a “falling to your death.”
Bodie Mining District Township
Bobby Bell- March 9, 1914- January 9, 2003- Bodie, (Mono County) California- Bodie Cemtery
~~~Bodie, California was a gold mining town, a boomtown of enterprise where glamorous Mining Companies hoisted gold and silver out of the holes in the ground. Today, the Bodie Mining District is silent, still and in weathered with 140 years of weathering. Very little remains of the Mining operations, or township that made Bodie Mining District of any notation of importance.
~~Lester Edward Bell was born in Lapinee, Ontario, Canada, in 1860. At the age of 15, in 1875, he left Canada with his good friend James Stuart Cain. The two, young and ambitious, young men set out to strike it rich in America. Arriving in Carson City Nevada, they found employment in the lumberyards supplying Virgina City. Not long after the men began courting two sisters, Delilah and Charity Wells, while residing in Genoa. Lester Edward Bell and Charity (“Cherry”) were married and moved to Bodie in 1879. Lester L. Bell was born January 24, 1888.
~~~When the Standard Consolidated Mining Company suspended operations in 1913, the new owner used the 20-stamp Standard Mill to crush ore for the few lessors still living in town. Lessees (more commonly called leasers) were allowed to take ore from the old workings, and pay a specified percentage of their yield to the Mine Owner. The big companies, once sensations on stock exchanges from San Francisco to New York- had already removed the large ore bodies. The “leassors” found enough value in narrow “stringers” and disregard ledges to provide meager livings for their families.
~~~By the late 1920’s the Stamp Mill was being run by Lester L. Bell and his son, Bobby Bell. Where once a steady stream of mine cars and mules brought ore to the mMll, now the individual leasers used their own trucks to haul ore in small batches at irregular intervals to the Stamp Mill. The “milling machinery crushed the rock”, extracted the gold and silver, and turned the metals into bars of Bullion. If the leaser’s ore was “poor quality—which was often the case- there was not much profit after the cost of the milling was subtracted. “The work was dangerous, grubby, and difficult to make a living working “tired old mines claims.”
~~~By 1930, the Bodie Mining District had declined, and Bodie had become a deserted town. Bob Bell and a few other stalwart individuals hung on to their “hopes.” Even though they resided elsewhere in Mono County, the four or five miners would returned from time to time during the summer months to the hills around Bodie to prospect and stake claims to prospect.
Bob Bell would stay in his old family’s house. It had survived the June 24, 1932 fire which had destroyed ninety percent of the residential township.
Bobby Bell ran the Stamp Mill for the last time in 1935. The Bell Lode was a “pocket of sulfide rock and no gold bearing ledge” and some quartz stringers. It was the closing chapter in the Bodie’s long quest for Gold.
Bodie Miners’ Union Death Benefits
~~~Constitution and ByLaws of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION- March 14, 1899. Bodie (Mono County) California.
BODIE MINERS’ UNION ~~~DEATH BENEFIT ALLOTMENT~~~~
By June 30, 1878, the 190 member Bodie Miners’ Union had constructed a “Union Meeting Hall” on Main street.
The individual miners’ Union Dues helped pay for the “care of a sick, or injured miner, “or if Death occurred- paid for “his cost of Burial.” The Burial Benefits were paid out to the deceased Miners’ family to help with the cost of the funeral and internment of the Miner in the Bodie Miners’ Cemetery section of the Bodie township Cemetery.
The Death Benefit Allotment was $75 for funeral expenses, (which could cost from $80 to $100), depending on the level of “undertaking services.”
Lottie Johl- fenced grave!
Lottie Johl’s (d.7November 1899) fenced grave- Bodie (Mono County) California.
LOTTIE JOHL
Nobody knew anything about Lottie, not even her last name. She worked in the Red Light District of Bodie, California, as a prostitute, where she met Eli Johl. A rough German man, who co-owned the City Market where he worked as a butcher.
They fell in love and married. Lottie cleaned up her life and attempted to join the respectable society of town, but because of her past lifestyle, the people of Bodie shunned her. She once attended a costume ball, decked out in the best of finery. Her outfit was picked for the "Most Beautiful Costume" award, but at Midnight when the masks came off and everyone found out it was her, she was asked, “to leave,” and the award was given to someone else.
One day in early November 1899,Lottie fell ill in, and consulted the Doctor who gave her a Prescription. Later that evening, she started having violent convulsions. The doctor was called again, but could not determine what had caused such a drastic turn for the worse. She was dead by morning. (She died November 7, 1899.)
Eli requested that an autopsy be performed, where it was discovered that the druggist had mistakenly given her poison instead of the proper medication. The townsfolk demanded Lottie be buried "outside the fence" in Boot Hill, instead of the Cemetery proper where decent people were interred. Eli argued, and eventually was allowed to bury her “inside the cemetery perimeter,” on the west side, (Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery), farthest from the Bodie cemetery entrance-gate and the town.
Bodie Cemetery Fenced Plots
Lottie Johl’s Fenced Grave Plot marks her burial and grave location.
Lottie Johls’ grave would be in an “unmarked grave without the Iron Fence, surrounding the Johl’s Plot.
THE FENCES SURROUNDING THE GRAVE PLOTS
Fences were built around newly dug graves to keep out wandering, grazing cattle and to deter smaller animals from digging up the contents below the ground. Graves were dug pretty shallow and the small fence was never originally intended to “mark a grave.”
With the deterioration of the wood-board-markers, the remaining metal fences purpose changed from protecting the Grave, to being a “distinctive plot marker,” and being the only remaining Grave-Site or burial-plot “Identity Marker.”
The Fences lasting duration has marked the Grave-Site plot, and its location. These fences made forgotten “unmarked graves” an variable location, and today “recognizable as a grave-site” without a Headstone to give positive identification of the burial.
Bodie Cemetery~~Hearse House~~
Henry Ward- Horse-draw Hease- Bodie, California!
HENRY WARD
Around 1878, undertaker Henry Ward built the “Hearse House” for storage of his horse-drawn glass hearse. A native of England, Henry Ward came to Bodie in Spring 1878 and opened up Pioneer Furniture Store. Ward also, began construction on a two story building on Main Street for his business, H. WARD and COMPANY.
Mr. Ward’s new Bodie business, included a furniture store and an “undertaking establishment.” It was common for “Cabinet makers” to also make Caskets. They had the tools and the skill. although, if it was not their chosen profession, “the coffin business” did get them established as an “Important” businessmen in their community.
The ground floor of the WARD BUILDING was for his furniture business and “undertaking services.” The second floor was rented to the Odd Fellows Lodge No. 279.
On January 28, 1881, Henry Ward sold his 3.7 acre cemetery and Hearse House to Boone and Wright for $400 in gold.
Masonic Cemetery
Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 was chartered October 16, 1879. The Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, a worldwide fraternal order, originated in the Middle Ages when stone mason and cathedral builders formed “Brotherhoods.” Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 built a hall for meetings and community events and acquired land for burials.
The Bodie Fraternal Burial Association was organized June 13, 1898, and chose pioneer resident M. J. Cody, as its first President. The B.F.B.A. provided burial services for the the fraternal organizations and handled indigent burials paid for by Mono County. A contract was signed for undertaking services with Mr. Arrild.
In 1898, the Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 joined the BODIE FRATERNAL BURIAL ASSOCIATION, which took over the care of the Masonic-section of the Bodie Cemetery.
The Bodie Miners’ Union organized December 22, 1877, was dissolved sometime after 1909 as mining activities declined.
Bodie’s Masonic Lodge was active until consolidation with the Winnedumah Lodge No. 281 of Bishop, California in 1918.