I first visited the grave of Henry and John Jones on December 20, 2020, one day shy of 149 years after the boy’s death. So the timing was fitting to tell their story, but I couldn’t bring myself to write about it Christmas week.
Often, people talk fondly about the “good old days.” However, it’s worth remembering that the “good old days” weren’t always so.
Henry and John were born in Iowa to Robert and Jane Jones. The family relocated to Gold Hill in the 1860s. The family had two ranches, one in south Truckee Meadows and another outside American Flats, south of Virginia City.
At that time, children were often seen as “little adults” and entrusted with adult responsibilities. Henry and John ran the ranch in Truckee Meadows while the rest of the family tended their place in American Flats.
Before Christmas, their father Robert sent a telegraph to the Truckee Meadows ranch telling the boys to bring cattle and horses and join the family for a holiday. Unfortunately, a storm hit, and the boys spent one night at Brown Station, the site of modern-day Damonte Ranch. Thinking the storm had subsided, they continued their journey on December 21, 1871. Instead of taking Geiger Grade Toll Road, they chose less traveled and populated Ophir Grade.
A search was mounted when the boys failed to arrive in American Flats, but the storm hampered efforts. Three days later, on December 24, a horse was spotted standing near a snowbank four miles from the American Flats ranch. Searchers found the frozen bodies of the boys under the snowbank; the storm had claimed their lives. Their trusted horse had stood watch over their snowy grave for three days and nights. Their heartbroken family interred the brothers in the Masonic section of the Gold Hill Cemetery.
The tragedy was not over for the Jones family. Six and a half years after the boy’s deaths, their brother George and sister Cora died of diphtheria on September 29, 1877. The following year the family lost two-year-old Alice to “St. Vitus’ Dance,” a complication of strep infection. Two months later, sister Diana, 14, committed suicide.
Father Robert survived until 1903 and Mother Jane until 1915. Three of the nine Jones children survived childhood. Robert Jr. died in 1937, Charles in 1940, and Emma in 1944. All except Robert Jr. lie in Mountain View Cemetery in Reno.
Visitors leave toys at the headstone.
The Jones headstone was stolen in the mid-1970s. In 1978, a woman found a headstone by her mailbox in Petaluma, California, 200 miles from Gold Hill. She contacted Reverend Henry Rankin of the Presbyterian Church, who placed the headstone against a tree in the church cemetery. Thirty-three years later, in December 2011, a local historian discovered a picture of the missing headstone on the Comstock Cemetery Societies website. The headstone was returned, cleaned, and dedicated on August 4, 2012, one hundred forty-one years after the boys’ deaths.
Visited: 12-20-2020
References
- Find a Grave: John James Jones
- Find a Grave: Henry T. Jones
- La Times: Tombstone of Nevada Boys who Died in 1871 Finally Returns Home
- Nevada Appeal: Stolen Tombstone Returning to Virginia City
Steve Knight says
Amazing write up. Well researched and presented
Steve Charem says
What a Touching and Sad Story, a true testament to the Hardships of the Pioneers…Those Boys were born of Courage but ended So Tragically!
Tami says
Yes it is. When I saw the headstone, I knew I needed to tell their story.
Rich Weaver says
Thank You so much for sharing the story. I got tears in my eyes…
Jay Powell says
A sad story but since we live Mariposa, CA, I enjoy reading any history of the gold rush, the Wild West and eastern Sierra.
Tami says
I will be honest, I went through a lot of tissues writing it. Even though I’m not working as a social worker anymore, I feel I am advocating for my clients to remember their lives and stories.
Steve Cavallero says
Go to VC frequently but didn’t realize Gold Hill/ Silver City had their own cemeteries. Great, and touching, insight, to these 2 boys lives. Visiting graveyards is a fascinating historical resource. Personally, it’s also a very humbling experiance.
Tami says
I plan on visiting their grave tomorrow. I am not sure how many cemeteries are around the Comstock Lode. I suspect we will never know as graves were often private prior to the development of cemeteries. I hope to identify and document as many as I can find.
Visiting graveyards is a very humbling experience.
Lee,Zimmerman says
There are several unmarked cemeteries South a few hundred yards from the formal Gold hill cemetery with intact headstones and fencing. If you are extremely good spotting things on Google Earth you can pinpoint them. Clue: near the railroad grade!
Tami says
I have been to at least one of those. I seem to remember one was next to the other, but there could be another I haven’t visited yet.
One is the Catholic Cemetery. There is an American Flats site, but the graves are in the mid-1900s.
https://nvtami.com/2022/09/08/jumbo-jumble/
Lee says
There are several unmarked cemeteries South a few hundred yards from the formal Gold hill cemetery with intact headstones and fencing. If you are extremely good spotting things on Google Earth you can pinpoint them. Clue: near the railroad g
Tami says
I have been to one of those, the Catholic cemetery. I think I went to the other one, but I would have to check the pictures.
Marvin says
Thank you for your research . I stopped by the site today (2-5-2022). So many tears can be shed over these graves. I also went over to the Catholic cemetery on the other side of the hill. Three Civil War graves over there. All need some attention. I think this summer will be a good time to do some clean up on both sites. Could you tell me , if there is a fenced plot, is there a map of who is there?
Tami says
Was the horse still on the headstone? I left it the week of the anniversary of their death in December. I almost stopped last week as the snow had receded but I was running out of daylight.
There is a foundation that preserves graves, Comstock Cemetery Foundation I believe. They would be the best resource for clean-up information.
I am reading “Slippery Gulch: A Guide to Gold Hill, Nevada” by Maitland Stanley. Maybe he will have some information.
Please keep me updated if a clean-up is organized, I do many service projects. Findagrave.com is a great site. It has a diagram showing a Catholic cemetery within the Gold Hill Cemetery. Is that the one you are referring to? If you can’t find the information I can check with a few people. I might be back in the area in a few weeks. My email is Tami@NVTami.com
Derrick says
From the Netherlands!
Great story! Thanks for sharing and for your research! Always interesting to read such stories about life in ancient times, You can’t imagine how it was at that time while living in the present time with all kinds of communications systems (like the Internet) to get any information you want. Now you can call for any help you need just by phone. Life was hard, also for the youngsters. But concerning medical issues it was no difference living in a Gohst Town or in a city as there were no treatments for lots of sicknesses. Nowadays you have the medical care you are looking for. It’s amazing that the development of medical knowledge and science has changed that fast. That’s why it is great to read these kinds of stories about the struggle people had to endure, and the pain and sorrow they had to deal with. But also to remember and honor them as they laid the foundation of our time. So, kindly ask you to go on with your research and publishing stories, I will visit your website regularly to read them!
Best wishes and kind regards from the low countries…
Tami says
I’m sorry for the long delay; I was on vacation and unable to respond to posts.
Thank you for your nice comments. You are absolutely correct; parts of the “good old days” weren’t so good. Even today, medicine can’t fix everything. I got really sick when I had my son and we both almost died. I stopped going to cemeteries for many years because the graves of young women and babies upset me too much. Now I am at a point I can honor their lives. It certainly makes you appreciate all we have.
Myron Slabaugh says
Thanks for telling this story. I explored this spot in 2012 and in reviewing my photos I was led to search for the back story. Thanks. Tragic about the other children !
Tami says
That is one of my favorite stories, and one that will always stay with me.