BODIE WATER COMPANY
-February 4, 1880 -BODIE WATER COMPANY
It was in early 1880 (February 4, 1880), when the citizens of Bodie banded together to create the BODIE WATER COMPANY.
The “funds raised through shares,” paid for the excavation of the 250,000 gallon Reservoir, located above town on the edge of the Mining District.
Originally, the “excess water” from the nearby Mono Mine, was used for Bodie’s Fire Protection. Later, the great Lent Shaft was used to keep the reservoir full.
Old Fire Wagon- once used by CHAMPION HOSE COMPANY NO 1. or NEPTUNE HOSE COMPANY NO. 2
Eight hydrants were placed along Main Street. Next, two volunteer Fire Companies were established; CHAMPION HOSE COMPANY NO. 1 and NEPTUNE HOSE COMPANY NO. 2.
On February 4, 1880 the BODIE WATER COMPANY demonstrated the new system. The Directors of the BODIE WATER COMPANY, turned the valve, charging the Hydrants.
The CHAMPION HOSE COMPANY NO. 1 and NEPTUNE HOSE COMPANY NO. 2 were both present to to “test the water pressure.”
MICHAEL J. CODEY July 24, 1905
BODIE MINERS’ UNION FLAG- Michael J. Cody- Pioneer member died July 24, 1905.
Over The Great Divide. M. J. Cody Obeys The Call
Today, we write upon the page of Mono’s departed Pioneers, the name of one with a heart fully worthy, of the name of MICHAEL JOSEPH CODY.
On the afternoon of the 13th July, Cody was struck “on the head by a rock thrown from a blast which resulted in a fractured skull.” Two operations were performed, but Meningitis proved the Victor.
Michael Cody, at the age of 55 years and 26 days, surrounded by those he loved and blessed with all the Rites of that Church of which he was a devout member, passed away at 7:30 P.M., July 24, 1905.
Born on the shore of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin on the 28th day of June 1850, Mr. Cody early took the advice of Horace Greeley, and “journeyed westward to the Bonanza Camp Virginia City” Hearing of the wonders of the famous Bodie he soon arrived to make it his lifetime home.
A giant in stature, a Man of strong personality, fearless for right in the years since 1876, when first he arrived in this county, his name has been linked with each and every Forward Movement.
In September 1881, he was married to Miss Kate Shaughnessy of Bodie. Six children were the fruits of this union. Today they gathered at the bedside for the Last Farewell.
In 1877, he was one of the organizers of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION, and retained his membership until about a year ago, when he became a member of the “Bodie Labor Union” of which organization he was President at the time of his death.
Mr. Cody was always one of the leaders of the Democratic party in this Section, and as a reward was appointed, during the Cleveland administration, as Receiver for the Land Office then located in Bodie.
In 1888, he was elected Sheriff of Mono, which Office he held for two terms. He was a Past Master of Bodie Lodge, No. 279, A.O.U.W. and was buried under the auspices of that Order.
Mr. Cody leaves a wife, three daughters – Mrs. David V. Cain, Miss May Cody and little Katie – three sons – Edmund, Mervyn and Ralph and two brothers, one in Cripple Creek and the other in San Jose, and a nephew – Charles H. Miller of Bodie, who was constantly with him during his last hours.
The body was taken to Bodie early Tuesday morning and buried on Bodie’s hill-side the following day.
Personally we had known the deceased for over twenty years and knew him always as a Man.
No greater praise can be said of any one than that. True to the principles of manhood and his God, true as a husband and father, steadfast as a friend.
No Weeping Willow will droop above his grave, the green grass and the purling Stream tempers not the dusty Breeze,
but the redolent Sage will shade the mound, and the flitting Lizard, and chattering Chipmunk will call in Vain for their old Companion.
Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, 7/28/1905
“UNKNOWN LOCATIONS”
1879- Mine Explosion- Mining Accidents and “buried UNKNOWN”
Mining Explosions, Mining Accidents- resulted in “unmarked graves.”- and are no longer locatable.
FEBRUARY 6, 1879
Ford Rogers Ryon, “slipped on ice and fell 450 feet down” the BODIE MINE shaft. (buried -”unmarked grave”-UNKNOWN LOCATION)
June 10, 1879
W.J. O’Brien, died “in the Explosion of a Powder Magazine.” (buried in “unmarked grave”-UNKNOWN LOCATION)
March 1879
J. J. Welch bought the TOWER RESTAURANT, and renamed it NEVADA RESTAURANT and CHOP HOUSE.
SEPTEMBER 6, 1879
DAILY FREE PRESS first edition. Owned by H.Z. Osborn & Company. DAILY FREE PRESS publishes First Edition
SEPTEMBER 8, 1879
Eleanor Dumont “Madame Mustache” died. A respected women, who owned Gambling Houses through the West.
Her body was was found, “about two miles out of town with a Bottle of Poison.” (buried in an “unmarked grave”-UNKNOWN LOCATION)
OCTOBER 9, 1879
J.R. Cassidy, H. Richards, Sam Martin, Manuel Garcia and Joseph Broodier were killed, “when the brakes failed on the Tioga Mine Cage. All five miners’, “plummeted 520 feet to their death.” (all five Miners’ buried in individual “unmarked graves”-UNKNOWN LOCATION)
OCTOBER 16, 1879
Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 chartered—-Built a Meeting-Hall for meetings, and Community Events, and “acquired land for Burials.” (Masonic Section of Bodie Cemetery - Marked graves locations.)
Early timeline of BODIE, California
1860
1861
APRIL 24, 1861
Mono County, California- founded. Bridgeport- as the County Seat.
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1862
OCTOBER 15, 1862
The first “incorrect spelling of Bodey” is noted. Spelling changed by a sign-painter in Aurora- BODIE STABLES.
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1870
1878
JANUARY 15, 1878
Alexander Nixon- elected first President of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION. Died Age 31- June 13, 1878.
Alexander Nixon elected President of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION.
John Pryer elected Vice-President of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION.
FEBRUARY 2, 1878
Beginning of Stage Service. 3 times a day between Bodie & Aurora. Once daily to Bridgeport.
JUNE 1, 1878
BODIE MINING COMPANY makes a rich strike. Stock soars from .50 cents to $50. a share price.
JUNE !0, 1878
The “first load” of Bodie Ore weighs in at over 10,000lbs.
June 13, 1878
Alexander Nixon died- June 13, 1878
born 1847- Native of Tyrone, Ireland. aged 31 years.
“GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN”
First President of the Bodies Miners Union, Killed in a shootout in a Saloon after he and his friend Tom McDonald argued over “Who was the Better Man.”
Interred -(MINERS’ UNION CEMETERY)
Religious Fellowship
The “Religious Fellowship”- connected the miners an “in unspoken trust.”
By 1877, the BODIE MINERS’ UNION had establish the “mining camp” as a “Labor Union Town,” meaning Bodie was not a “a sole- ownership Mining Company Town- which owning every house, store, or road.”
Not one family, or “Single Company” owned everything.
In Bodie, the Mines, Stamp Mills, Hoisting Works were each owned and operated by different and separate “individual companies.” The Teamsters, the Mechanics, the Lodging establishments, the Saloons, Slaughterhouse, were each their own enterprises.
Everything in Bodie centered around the BODIE MINERS UNION. The men, who made up the 190 membership, had each arrived in Bodie alone. By previous association, they had joined a “Fraternal Association.” Some were IOOF members, others were Masons or Masonic Lodge members.
The “religious fellowship,” they brought to the Mining Camp, was also their “trust and comrade” or “Brotherhood” in their fellow mine workers. Their connection was an “unspoken trust.” The Hoisting work was dangerous, and the blasting was even more dangerous and deadly.
The “Labor contracts” made the ”risks and benefits,” an understood —“Agreement of Working Conditions and Safety Measures.”
Without any law-enforcement - the BODIE MINERS’ UNION set the “Social Rules” in Bodie. The “Social Rules” were “religious and unspoken” and the standard of conduct within the Mining Fellowship.
Labor Safety- “unspoken trust”
“unspoken trust in the miners had in the Collective”- Working safety in the Bodie mines.
By 1877, with 190 members the BODIE MINERS’ UNION was organized.
(The BODIE MINERS’ UNION Constitution was written and is very close in similarity to the COMSTOCK MINERS’ UNION .)
To write a “Constitution/By-Laws” for their “Working Safety” was the the “unspoken trust the miners had in the collective.”
Paying Dues and Membership held their “labor safety to a standard for all the workers.”
The miners’ were there to work. Collectively, they also knew the gold coming out of the mines was not paying their wages.
Mine accidents, fires, explosions in Bodie, took the lives of many miners. They were buried in Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery. Their funerals and graves paid for from their dues of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION.
The miners’ wages were being paid by the “ Financier/ or Stock Holders investors” in the different and individual Mining enterprises. (The gold-bearing ore coming out of the Bodie mines was not paying their wages.)
When the Mines were “not producing enough ore,” and the resulting “Bullion” from the Stamp Mills going to the Mint.
The Stock-holders, or the Financial- backers, who were “staking the venture, or was the money source of “working capital” for paying the miners’ wages”— were going to pull-out and sell their Mining Stocks.
When the “stock price went to zero”- and the “labor was not being paid”- the mining in Bodie ceased operation.
The membership of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION, because of its “Collective Unity,” had their “Labor safety and Conditions,” also abandoned Bodie.
Teamsters and Blacksmiths
Boone Store and Warehouse- Bodie, California.
As word of strikes in the Bodie Mining District spread, more men started to arrive in the Mountain “summer-tent camp.”
Various laborers of trades were needed in the beginning, early stages of development of the mining-operations in Bodie.
Teamsters with wagon -drawn-mule-teams, transporting in the supplies, tools and mining equipment, had to deal with un-passable snow depths, dangerous road washouts, and animals deaths.
These men were experienced and experienced, capable Tradesmen, skilled Carpenters, Blacksmiths, Mechanics, who were physically and mentally strong enough to live and work under the rigor, hazardous, deadly conditions.
As the population of miners’ increased, the “ragged canvas tent- Summer -only camp” was replaced with miners’ wood-sided cabins. A Blacksmith shop and a Saw-Mill became more permanent.
Animal Barns were built for the mule-teams, and “Rock Warehouses” were built for food and supply storage.
The boom years from 1877 to the late 1880- Gold bullion from the Bodie’s nine stamp mills was shipped to Carson City, Nevada by way of Aurora, Wellington and Garderville.
After delivered to Carson City, it was delivered to the Mint there, or sent by rail to the Mint in San Francisco.
Creating BODIE MINERS’ UNION
International Order of the Odd Fellows Lodge #279- Meeting Hall- Bodie California.
BODIE MINERS’ UNION formed December 22, 1877
December 22, 1877
The BODIE MINERS’ UNION was created on December 22, 1877, as part of the International Order of the Odd Fellows, Bodie Lodge #279.
The BODIE MINERS’ UNION By-Laws- were nearly identical to the “unions of Virginia City.” A handwritten early history of the then three year old Lodge, claims that its author, Frank P. Willard- whose occupation is listed as Real Estate- was 24 years old, “when he circulated a Petition among the the more than two hundred Odd Fellows present at Bodie, in order to create the Bodie Lodge. He obtained only five names; those five already had withdrawal cards from their original Lodge with them.”
Weekly meetings were held at the Williamson and Roger’s Saloon, and the gathering grew to over sixty potential members.
….few Lodges have ever been established, that assumed at their very beginning such an arduous duties as fell upon the young shoulders of Bodie Lodge #279.
Our camp was overrun. Many men from every walk of life had rushed hither.
Poorly fed and clothed they fell easy prey to sickness of every kind, and it was no infrequent occurrence for us to have from five to twelve sick Brothers upon our hands….. but nobly, most nobly, did the members of Bodie Lodge come to their assistance….we levied a three dollar per member to bury the Dead, and relieve the distressed. Frank P. Willard. Odd Fellows Lodge #279
Bodie Odd Fellows Lodge #279 —-organized the mining district into “a union of spiritual brotherhood.” The Lodge membership’s commitment the to health and welfare of their “fraternal brotherhood,” extended beyond to the “safety rules and woeking conditions in the mining operations.” The men not only took care of one-another “in the mining shafts”- above ground they created the “township- with an Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Silent & Still- Eternal History
The silent and stillness….BODIE CEMETERY - the hillside scars of mining are all that remain.
The history of Bodie, (Mono County,) California is the history of the BODIE MINERS’ UNION membership.
The history of the founding of the BODIES MINERS’ UNION, is the history of Bodie, (Mono County), California.
With the exception of two things, the Graveyard and the old mining machinery, the isolated and remote 8,379 ft elevation landscape, is unchanged from a 170 years ago. Unclaimed by the harsh winds, freezing or below-zero -temperatures, or Winter snow storms,- neither the Graveyard, or the “collapsed mine shafts” have reverted completely to unrecognizable dust.
The permanent man-made “land scars” made purposely after the discovery of gold bearing ore, are still in full evidence.
The Bodie Mining District was organized July 10, 1861. (It extended five miles in each direction of the Bodey Claim.”) The District recorder put down July 19th, for himself and others “eleven claims of 250 feet each on the Tucker quartz vein, that being the length of a claim in 1861.”
The complete SILENCE of the dynamite blasting and loud Stamp Mill machinery- that could be felt and heard 2 miles in distance are only relics.
Relics of rusted metal remains. Only industry reminders of “the dominant forces of energy” it took to achieve mining gold-bearing ore.
The once-town of Bodie, known only to the men, who drilled, blasted, and tunneled—- has completely reverted “to stillness and quit”- without markings or witness to any “industrial-mining industry.”
A 170 years has passed in time- …and today over a century later-Bodie is just an isolated, high mountain location, that once was a very significant industrial-mining “boom-town” in Mono County.
Bodie is a “State Historic Park.” with unmaintained traces of its “place in history”- with the Bodie Graveyard, “unchanged, silent and still”- telling the only “Written Story of Bodie” with its carved inscriptions of those “who lived, and died in the mines in the Mono County Bodie Mining District.”
The BODIE MINERS’ UNION and its “eternal history” is interred in the Bodie Cemetery.
Bodie Masonic Lodge No.252
SOLOMON G. STEBBINS- Died 20 October 1881, Aged 56 years. Buried in Bodie Masonic Cemetery
Masonic Cemetery
The 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.”
The Bodie Masonic Lodge No. 252 built a “meeting hall” for meetings and community events and acquired land for burials.
Bodie, California U. S. Federal Census- 2,712 residence, with 350 Chinese immigrants living in Bodie.
By 1880, according to the Bodie Daily Standard newspaper, “the Bodie Cemetery contained 160 graves: 109 in Wards Cemetery, 43 in Miners’ Union Cemetery, and eight in the Masonic Cemetery section.”
The Bodie Fraternal Burial Association was organized June 13, 1898. It 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 Masonic Lodge No. 252 was active, until consolidation with the Winnedumah Lodge No. 281 of Bishop, California in 1918.
Bodie was a “Union town”
Bodie was a “Union Town”- not a “company owned mining town.”
Bodie was a “Miners’ Union town.” It was not a “Company-owned town.” It was not a “cute or romantic town.”
The pioneers, who filed the “first claims”- were miners. The “Bodie township,” was by the rules and organization of the membership of the Bodie Miners’ Union. The Standard Mine, Bodie Mine, Syndicate Mine, Dudley, Bechtel Mine did not “own the housing, stores or bank” in Bodie. Bodie was an “enterprising place”- with stables, blacksmiths, warehouses and “make-shift buildings and barns.”
The Bodie Miners’ Union Meeting Hall was the “center of the town,” Built by the 190 members in 1879- the Meeting Hall- It served the entire “lawless community.” For the men, it was the “social and spiritual” center for gathering and entertainment.
Prior to arriving in Bodie, or organizing “Miners’ Union”- outside of Bodie, the men individually had “brotherhood” membership and “spiritual bonds of connection” with the Masonic Lodge, or I. O. O. F. (Oddfellow) Fraternal organizations.
Also, many of the miners’ had come from the Virginia City (or the Comstock Mine) - they had paid into the Miners’ Union of Virginia City. The Bodie Miners’ Union Constitution & By-Laws - December 22, 1877 is very similar to the Miners’ Union of Virgina City- Constitution & By-Laws.
The “rules and conduct of Bodie” was by the Bodie Miners’ Union- and that included “cemetery ground.” Thus, the organization of the Bodie Cemetery- just like Virgina City- a Masonic Cemetery, IOOF Cemetery, and a Miners’ Union Cemetery.
~~~Keeping out the Cattle~~
UP-TO-DATE MFG. TERRE HAUTE CO. IND.- Specialty fence surrounding -John S. McCraken’s grave- 1905.
The Metal Fences surrounding the Graves in the Bodie Cemetery-
JOHN S. McCRACKEN- died 19 April 1905 Aged 42 years. Buried in Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery.
Specialty metal fences were ordered from Mail Order Catalogs, and shipped to Bodie in pieces. Once constructed around a individual grave, the purpose of the fence was to mark the graves location on the open hillside.
The short fences, also deterred the wandering cattle from trampling the grave above ground, or getting to the contents in the buried coffin below ground.
Nathan Cook Gregory-aged 3 years, 8 months
~~ NATHAN GREGORY Family Plot- Bodie Cemetery-Wards Cemetery
NATHAN COOK GREGORY- aged 3 years, 8 months
Son of Nathan H. & Catherine C. Gregory- (January 12, 1887 -September 22, 1890)
Suffer little children to come unto me.
Forbid them not, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven
Buried in the fenced “Gregory family plot,”- Nathan Hall Gregory operated a Cattle Ranch between Bodie and Aurora, while maintaining a residence in Bodie.
EARNEST CAMPANA-1855-1923
EARNEST CAMPANA- 1855-1923 (age 68) -Buried in Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery.
The “story written in stone”-Earnest Campana (1855-1923)
1896 Mono County Great Register of Voters: Ernesto Campana,
Laborer, 40 yrs, 5’ 4” tall, Dark complexion, Gray eyes, Gray hair, Mole on right cheek,
b. Switzerland, Residence-Bodie East,
Naturalized-10/16/1880, U.S. Distinct , Nevada, Registered-5/6/1896,
Post Office Address-Bodie, California.
~~Ernesto Campana was “Born in Switzerland in 1855,” and became a “Naturalized United States Citizen -October 16, 1880.
The 1896 MONO COUNTY GREAT REGISTER OF VOTERS: 5’4’’ tall, Dark complexion, Gray hair, and Mole on right cheek.
His Physical Description- 5’ 4” in height — gives life to “laborer Campana- living in Bodie in 1896 at age 40 years of age.
His Facial Description with a “Mole on his right cheek, dark complexion, and at 40 years- grey hair.”
Interred in the Bodie Miners’ Union Cemetery in 1923- the 1920 Federal Census- Bodie, California population was 110 citizens.
I.O.O.F Bodie Lodge #275
~~Wooden building on the right—-I. O. O. F. BODIE LODGE #279- very little can be seen of the “White Letters”- I O O F.
I.O.O.F- BODIE LODGE No. 279- was located above Henry Wards- PIONEER FURNITURE Company.
I. N. MKEAN- born- 24 March 1860, Died- 30 May 1923.- Buried in WARDS CEMETERY (I. O. O. F. Cemetery)
Independent Order of Odd Fellows- three chain links with F. L. T. inside stand for FRIENDSHIP, LOVE and TRUTH.
~~Buried in the WARDS CEMETERY section of the Bodie Cemetery- the only “Story Written in Stone,” is Mr. I. N. MKEAN died on May 30, 1923- at the age of 63 years of age. (Born- March 24, 1860.)
~~Mr. I. N. MKEAN was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. —the “three chain links with F.T.L—-telling he lived a “life of Devotion, Friendship and Truth.” He was interred in an ODD FELLOWS Cemetery- also defines “his Fraternal Brotherhood.”
Cholera- “secret enemy” of the 1850’s Gold Seekers!
~~~Coffins- inside Bodie Morge!
With gold was discovered at Sutter’s mill near Sutter’s mill, California in 1848, a new kind of emigration began. Single men, arriving at the towns of the Missouri river with their possessions packed on mules, followed the “call of the Gold Strikes.” Sometimes the Forty-Niners were married men, who left their families behind in order to travel unencumbered.
~~5,000 emigrants and their families crossed the Trail before 1848. Thirty-three thousand emigrants “crossed the wagon trail in 1849, and 55,000 emigrants in 1850. (September 9, 1850- California was admitted to the Union as the 31st State.)
The “Discovery of Gold” threw the entire Nation- and the World- into a state of “Gold Fever.”
~~The visions of riches that could be had was “pure intoxicating.” Cornish and Australians, Italian and Irishmen came to work the mines. Chinese, Mexicans and Latin Americans joined the “rush for gold and silver.”
~~Winds and heavy rains soaked the route, and shabbily constructed mining camps. Without experience, both at pioneering and at mining, men suffered through the Winter of 1850 in dismal hovels. Lonesome and wet and cold and sick, they lived in canvas tents and blankets for bedrolls.
The “secret enemy” of the Gold-Seekers was Cholera.
16 January 1919- Bodie Mining Camp takes it place among Has-Beens!!
BODIE MINES MAP—— by January 1919- Newspapers reporting on the “Decline of the Famous Mining Camp of Bodie!”
January 16, 1919
~~~FAMOUS BODIE MINE CAMP TAKES PLACE AMONG HAS-BEENS~~~
BODIE (MOMO COUNTY), Jan. 15—— With the Bodie Postoffice closed, the Stage Line from Thorne, Nevada discontinued, and practically every Mine in the District idle, the once, “famous mining camp of Bodie,” has virtually ceased to be.
The few residents (population 110), still clinging to the old town are forced to go to Bridgeport for Mail, and private conveyances from the only means of entering, or leaving the Mining Camp.
Twenty years ago—-(1900 Federal Census - 965 citizens, 80 Chinese immigrants)—- Bodie was one of the leading Gold-Producing-Camps of California, with the Standard Mine, the main support, famous throughout the West.
For more than forty years—-(1880-1920)—- Bodie has been a “noted gold yielder,” but “litigation, impoverishment of the ore bodies at depth and heavy flows of water in the deep levels of the Standard and other mines,” united to still the Wheels of Prosperity.
Press Democrat, Volume LXV, Number 227, 15 January 1919
Lottie Johl- d.7 November 1899
Lottie Johl- painting hanging in Bodie Museum.
Mr. Eli Johl really had to fight to have “his wife” buried in the Bodie “Proper Cemetery.” The “inside the fence,” Bodie Cemetery was for the Bodie Miners’ Union “brotherhood, ”and the Masonic & IOOF “Fraternal members”—- not “outcasts”, or former prostitutes.
Miss Lottie Calhoun met Mr. Eli Johl, a rough German man, who co-owned the City Market, where he worked as a “Meat-cutter or Butcher.” They were married in July 4, 1881 in Nevada.
Esmeralda County NV Marriage Records
Volume Misc. page 30
Eli Johl and Lottie Calhoun were married on 4 July 1881.
Framed Photograph of Lottie Johl- hanging in Bodie Museum.
Lottie Johl died 7 November 1899.
SUDDEN DEATH. A great gloom was cast-over Bodie on Tuesday by the death of Mrs. Eli Johl, a mistake having been made, it is said, in taking a dose of poison instead of salts. Doctors Cox and Robinson did all in their power to save her but without avail. Bridgeport Chronicle-Union, 9 November 1899
~~~Lottie Johl grave is of notice in the Bodie Cemetery, only because of the “surrounding ornate grave-plot fence.” No headstone or marker tells of any existence of Mrs. Eli Johl. (It is unknown when or where Eli Johl died or was interred.)
Bodie Cemetery- fenced grave-plot- Lottie Johl- died November 7, 1899.
Bodie —“Celestial Empire”
~~BODIE CALIFORNIA- Reflecting on daily life living in Bodie~~~
Celestials in Bodie… CHINATOWN~~~~
“Celestials” was a term commonly used in mainstream “Newspapers of the Day,” to denote Chinese immigrants. The “Celestial slang term” was derived from references to China as the “Celestial Empire.”
“John” was a commonly used name, also used in the mainstream and daily published Newspapers press to denote a Chinese immigrant.
~~This slang term, “John,” came from the tendency for European-Americans citizens to refer to Chinese men as “John Chinaman”. The European immigrants or “Anglos,” could not easily remember, or pronounce proper Chinese names. Also the European-Americans or “Anglos,” often perceived Chinese men as “indistinguishable from one another.”
~~~Coming to California in the late 1880’s almost all Chinese Nationals were single men. They came via the “credit ticket system.” Meaning- You bought your ticket in China on Credit, and signed a Contract to pay back the sizable debt in cash. (The Ticket was “good for passage to California, and the necessary paperwork to enter the United States.” Once in America, how you earned the money to pay back the debt was up to you.) There was no time limit on the repaying the money. Only the Debt had to be paid, before you returned to China.
~~In California, you could go to the appropriate agency in San Francisco’s Chinatown to get the Paperwork needed to prove you were free of debt- "your Credit Ticket.” Then you could return home to China. Without the “Certificate,” no returning to China was unacceptable, because it would reflect badly on you and your enter family. The social pressure on the Issue was tremendous. Although, using the “Credit Ticket System” was perfectly acceptable, returning home to China, with the Debt unpaid was not.
~~The Federal Census lists Bodie population at 2,712, with about 350 Chinese listed by name in the “official count.” In Bodie, there was a deep cultural difference between the European- American miner workers, and the Chinese immigrants, which made communication difficult. The Chinese men were not eligible for Membership in the Bodie Miner’s Union. They formed a “Chinatown, all living in close quarters near the Slaughterhouse in Bodie. There they labored in the “Chinese Laundry”- or cutting, chopping and hauling of firewood- need for the mining operations.
~~In August 1880, it was noted in the Weekly Standard-News, that the Chinese were the “first citizens to have a House of Worship.” The “Chinese Men”— “had bought and converted the Sonora Dance House into a Joss Temple.” Joss Temples— got their name from the incense sticks, or “Joss Sticks” that were buried in the temples.
~~When a Chinese immigrant died in Bodie, their interment was considered to be “temporary”. It was very important, to be “laid to rest in the Family Plot” in China. They practiced Ancestral Worship. Therefore Chinese immigrants, felt the urgency of keeping in line with proper Spiritual Ritual.
~~In China, you would be “laid to rest with the rest of your family.” Your Descendants would care for your Grave, and you would become part of the Family Heritage.
~~The “Temporary Interment”- in forgotten, (never recorded location) of the Chinese immigrants that “were laid to rest” in the Bodie Cemetery is part of a larger “Cultural Heritage,” and the Bodie Miners’ Union.
~~Both the membership of the Bodie Miners’ Union and “Bodie Chinatown”—- together established Bodie as a Mining District. Without the Chinese labor “outside the mines”- tolerating living at the isolated, mountain-slope elevation of 8,350 feet would not have been possible. The realities were too harsh- and the “harshness- manifested”— in Death —-and never returning to China.” Also, never being recognized, or remembered for living in America.
…the “wife of” Obituary …
WIFE OF W. J. McKEOUGH-….”The Wife of” status- remembered in the Bodie Cemetery.
~~Obituaries are a rearview mirror, reflecting “the World as it was, not as it is, and not as one might wish it to have been.”
~~There is only so much type space in a printed Newspaper. The “newsworthiness” of the Reported Death was to sum up the deceased life. The justification of the Obituary was in the Story- “the life summery” told.
~~The “intent” was never to honor the Dead, those Tributes were left to the Church Service Eulogists.
~~The most newsworthy deaths were about Elected Officials, Business Owners or Industry Titans. These mens “Deaths Notices” were generally reported in the Newspapers.
~~If an Elected Official, Business Owner or Industry Titan, “Wife superseded her Husband in death,” the “deceased Wife Obituary,” usually reported details about her husbands “financial success, or listed His accomplishments, or his heroic Military Actions.”
The “the wife of Obituary” story —was about the Man she had married- his Family- his Social Standing, —his Civic Importance, —-his War Decorations to give Military Status. The Wife and children if “column room space” allowed, would be mentioned “only if they were grown and noteworthy Adults.”
~~The “wife of” life summery was of no interest, unless she had “died in childbirth. A tragic “combined Death Notice and a Surviving Child Birth Announcement,” was both, Newsworthy and justification for a “Wife” Obituary.”
~~The newly Widowed man- “her Husband was now a Story,” the Newspaper Obituary Editors , could share with the regular Newspaper Reporters.
A “Tragic Story” could be moved from the Obituary Column, and be printed on the second or third page in the Newspaper.