The Bowers Mansion, located between Reno and Carson City, Nevada, was
built in 1863 by Lemuel "Sandy" Bowers and his wife, Eilley Orrum
Bowers, and is a prime example of the homes built in Nevada by the new
millionaires of the Comstock Lode mining boom.The land originally was
purchased in 1856 by Eilley and her second husband Alex Cowan, who
returned to Utah a year later with other Mormon settlers. Eilley
secured a divorce and moved to Gold Hill where she ran a boarding
house and took in washing. Some miners, unable to pay for lodging and
laundry with cash, gave Eilley Orrum pieces of their mining claims in
payment. Thus she acquired the mining claim which, together with that
belonging to her third husband Sandy, became the source of their
fortune.The mansion was the fulfillment of Eilley's dreams of prestige
and respectability. The mansion, designed by J. Neely Johnson, a
builder and ex-governor of California, combined Georgian Revival and
Italianate architectural styles. It was modeled after a design
conceived by Eilley based on her recollection of elegant buildings in
her native Scotland. Indeed, the Bowers employed stonecutters from
Scotland for the construction of their new home, which eventually cost
$300,000 to build, an exorbitant sum in the 1860s. Eilley and Sandy
toured Europe from 1861 to 1863, purchasing furniture, statuary,
paintings and other adornments for their home. Unfortunately, during
one of these trips abroad, Eilley Bowers's only child, a daughter
named Pearl, died.Following the death of Sandy Bowers in 1868, Eilley
fell on hard financial times. She generated income by renting out
rooms in the mansion and hosting parties and picnics on the grounds.
The mansion hosted a ball for the women's suffrage movement and was
the location of the annual Miner's Ball. The period of 1873â€"75 was
the height of the mansion's popularity. Bowers Mansion Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter