Sorry. but I do not know anything about Nixon, But I am fascinated with such history and thank you for sharing
On Thu, Jul 11, 2024 at 8:43 PM JD Lee via CoTyroneList < [email protected]> wrote: > Greetings from San Francisco! > > Thank you for allowing me to join this list. I'm not actually writing for > myself and family. But I have an interest in the diaspora of Tyrone to the > United States due to an incident that took place in the far western regions > of the country almost 150 years ago. > > I used to work at a California State Park named Bodie, located in the > eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Bodie in the 1870s and 80s > was a gold and silver mining camp situated along the California-Nevada > border, arguably in the middle of nowhere. It is a desolate land of desert > basin and mountain range. I gave tours of the Stamp Mill (processing plant > for mineral extraction) and the town, which is a well-preserved and a true > "ghost-town". One of my interests was the Bodie Miners Union (BMU), which > in many respects served as the social and political center of the town. > Bodie had a very strong Irish presence as well as plenty of Cornishmen and > a few Welsh. And the BMU was dominated by Irish mostly, but every miner in > town were proud members of the Union. > > The very first president of the BMU was Alexander Nixon,a young hardrock > miner who traversed to Bodie from the early Comstock silver mines in > Virginia City, Gold Hill and Silver City about 100 miles east in Nevada. > Alex came from County Tyrone, born in 1847 and he died in Bodie at age 31 > in 1878. His death was a tragic one but befitting the harsh realities of > the place and the time. It took place in a saloon gunfight with a friend > Tom McDonald, both of whom had too much to drink and a stupid > misunderstanding in the early morning hours of 18 June. This is all I or > anyone seems to know about Alex. His grave resides today in the Miners > Union Cemetery on Boot Hill overlooking the town. It is obvious just how > much Alex was beloved by his fellow miners in that the granite tombstone > was beautifully crafted and prominent in the cemetery. > > If anyone has any information about Alex Nixon, I would appreciate any > information. I've done some Ancestry.com and other research and found some > leads but the name Alexander Nixon is actually a common one of immigrants > to America at that time. And it looks like there were more than a few from > county Tyrone. > > Attached is a newspaper article about the incident. > > I appreciate any help. > > Thank you. > > > James Dexter-Lee > [email protected] > ================================= > Send a Message to the List - [email protected] > List Archive - > https://list.cotyroneireland.com/empathy/list/cotyronelist.list.cotyroneireland.com > Join the list by sending an email to - > [email protected] > To receive the Digest version, send an email to - [email protected] > Unsubscribe by sending an email to - > [email protected] > ================================= -- *Will Rodgers [Vilius]*
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