Grit, Gumption & A Darn Good Heart:
If you’ve never heard of Laura Naileigh Ellis Dettenrieder, you’re not alone. I confess I hadn’t, until a historian-friend kindly shared her story. As a young woman, Laura came west with the Gold Rush, then bravely left an abusive marriage – a step few women of her era would have dared. She went on to become one of the earliest settlers near Gold Canyon, rubbing shoulders with the now-famous Grosh brothers, and eventually moved to Virginia City, where she provided a room for destitute Eilley Orrum Bowers.
Here’s the fascinating tale of a pioneer woman with grit, gumption, and a darn good heart.
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Born in Ohio in 1814, Laura tied the knot as a young woman with a farmer from Pennsylvania, “Captain” William Hill Naileigh. Together they had two sons: William (Jr.) and Daniel. When the Gold Rush began, the Naileigh family joined the throngs heading west in the early 1850s. But husband William, it turned out, had a fondness for the bottle and a violent temper to go with it. About 1852, Laura took her two sons and left him.
By mid-1853, Laura was remarried. She and her second husband, James B. Ellis, arrived by covered wagon at the mouth of Gold Canyon on June 9, 1853. They took up a ranch about a mile and a half below present-day Dayton, building a substantial log home. Soon, Laura was expecting again. Son James Brimmel Ellis was born the following spring, on May 1, 1854 – by some accounts, the first white child to be born in western Utah Territory. Though records from this period are few, Laura apparently showed a knack for problem-solving by assisting a local couple in drawing up a written marriage contract – a frontier work-around when no officials were available to perform a traditional wedding.
But months later, tragedy struck. Laura’s husband, James, died from an accidental gun discharge on October 4, 1854. Laura was left with a 5-month-old baby and a grandchild to care for.
Despite losing her husband, Laura continued to reside on her ranch at Gold Hill. She got to know the Grosh brothers, who stopped by after a trip to Volcano and stayed for dinner. They told Laura about their nearby silver claim, and promised to stake an adjacent claim for her as well.
When Laura visited the brothers at their cabin at American Flat in fall, 1857, Hosea had injured his foot with a pick, but brother Allen presented Laura with a piece of ore from the claim they had made for her at the base of Mount Davidson and showed her a mining book to confirm the claim was recorded. Just three days after Laura returned to Johntown, however, Hosea would be dead from blood poisoning, and Allen would succumb from the effects of frostbite not long afterward. Laura never did learn what became of her supposed claim.
In the spring of 1855, a Paiute chief named Numaga arrived at Gold Hill with 300 warriors, tendering a note from Asa Kenyon that directed the Paiutes be supplied with arms for their struggle. Instead, Laura penned her own note, instructing a merchant to give the Paiutes 100 pounds of flour instead. The miners at Dayton joined in to prepare a feast for the warriors, and plans for a war were abandoned.
About 1859 Laura married a third time, this time wedding German-born George Dettenrieder, a saloon-keeper at Johntown. A daughter, Henrietta, was born to them that same year. The couple tried ranching in northern Nevada briefly, but Indian difficulties soon brought them back to Dayton. And less than six years after their wedding, Laura was again a widow; husband George died at sea in 1865.
Laura eventually left Gold Hill and moved to nearby Virginia City, where she was able to make a living by operating a boarding house. But in 1869, her home on South “C” Street would see more tragedy. Her son James B. Ellis (now 54 years old) and grandson Henry Naileigh (not quite 7) died in January 1869; a second grandson, R. Naileigh, passed away the following March.
While at Virginia City, Laura became noted for her charitable works. She once helped escort a “poor demented” woman to the Stockton Asylum, for example, and she later provided then-destitute Eilley Orrum Bowers with a room. When the devastating fire of 1875 swept through Virginia City, Laura “took into her house and fed on the day of the fire all that her place would hold,” according to the Territorial Enterprise. She coped with family troubles, as well; in 1877, after son Daniel was injured in a fall from a horse at Yellowstone, Laura left in mid-June to assist him, not returning until October when she brought him back with her to Virginia City. Perhaps because a belief in the afterlife helped her cope with so many losses, Laura embraced Spiritualism and delivered lectures on the subject.
Laura Naileigh Ellis Dettenrieder passed away on September 27, 1901, at the age of 87. She is said to have kept a journal throughout her long and eventful life — and wouldn’t you love to read her words first-hand! Sadly, both the location of her journal and her final resting place are presently unknown.
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Thanks to prominent historian Bob Ellison, a Nevada treasure, for sharing his meticulous research on Laura Naileigh Ellis Dettenrieder. He was right about her fascinating life! Any mistakes in this story, of course, are solely my own.