GOLD HILL CATHOLIC CEMETERY
STOREY COUNTY, NEVADA

A Record of Burials, 1860-1997

Compiled and Edited
By
Stephen J. Lawrence

Carson City, Nevada
October 1997

Background

     Gold Hill was named by James "Ole Virginny" Fenimore and others after they 
discovered a ledge of high grade gold ore while prospecting in 1857.   About 
two miles south of Virginia City, the town's fortunes rose and fell with the 
boom and bust cycle of the Comstock Mines.  By 1865, the town had three 
oundries, three fraternal organizations, two newspapers, two banks, four stage 
offices, a large business section, and three lightly attended churches.

     Six mines in the vicinity of Gold Hill were some of the most productive on 
the Comstock Lode, producing several million dollars worth of gold and silver 
by 1880 when the main lode played out.  Many of the men buried in the Gold Hill 
Cemeteries were miners and many of those died from accidents in the mines.  
Most notable was the fire that consumed three mines on April 7, 1869.  The fire 
began at the 800 foot level in the Yellow Jacket Mine.  Just after the morning 
crew arrived in the mine it collapsed and exploded sending fire into the Crown 
Point and Kentucky Mines.  Thirty-seven men lost their lives and it was three 
years before all smoldering traces of the fire were extinguished.

     The Gold Hill cemeteries once flourished with flowers and ornamental 
plants irrigated by water piped from the Sierra Nevada.  In 1997, both 
cemeteries were in poor shape with many headstones missing or broken because of
vandals.  The elements have taken a toll on elaborate wooden rails and posts 
used to designate grave sites and the flowers and plants have been replaced by 
sagebrush and desert grasses.  A past grass fire damaged a number of grave
sites.  Both cemeteries are on public land administered by the Bureau of Land 
Management (BLM).  The BLM is currently cataloging and photographing headstones 
in both cemeteries.

     The sources used to compile this record of the Gold Hill cemeteries 
include headstone inscriptions documented by the author, burial records 
compiled by Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in the mid-1950's, and 
burial records compiled by the Daughters of the American Pioneers in 1960 
(DAP).  The author thanks Eileen Kessler, Reference Librarian, Nevada State 
Library and Archives for supplying copies of the DAR and DAP documents.

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