Miscellany Mondays: In Search of Asa W. Phelps . . .

. . . and I'm still looking

Aug 08, 2022

This History Buzz post will take us away from Andover all the way to Nevada’s Carson Valley, which is near the California border and not too far from Lake Tahoe.

The 1866 Mitchell Map of Utah and Nevada (https://bit.ly/3OUJiyp) is very rich in detail but all the place names are jammed together.

This Nations Online Project map (https://www.nationsonline.org/maps/USA/Nevada_map.jpg) is much clearer but nowhere near as detailed.

Pyramid Lake, which is not shaped like a pyramid, is a major landmark in this story.

Several years ago . . .

. . . I was sitting in the library at the History Center, paging through back issues of the Andover Townsman and looking for mentions of the Andover Sportsmen’s Club. I usually get sidetracked looking through the Townsman back issues. On that particular day, my attention was diverted by a headline:

It stood out from the front page on March 13, 1952. The first line of the article started with “In the abandoned cemetery of a ghost town in Nevada…”

Robert Bates, who had grown up in town himself, found the gravestone of Asa W. Phelps, in Silver City’s cemetery. Bates copied the eulogy found on the stone and sent it to the Andover Townsman. He noted that Asa’s headstone was “the only monument untouched by time.”

Credit: Herbert Rickards, Find A Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5027118/asa-w-phelps

I was so excited by this find that I hollered to my ACHC colleague. (We were the only two people in the building at the time). She easily found an article that took this story in another direction. According to Asa’s gravestone, he was a second lieutenant in a local militia unit called the Silver City Guards and passed away in 1862, at age 28. My colleague's discovery was a succinct article written by Guy Rocha, a former Nevada state archivist. Even the title was to-the-point. “Asa W. Phelps: The War Hero That Wasn’t.”

My disappointment disappeared once I read about the Pyramid Lake War.

The Pyramid Lake War is one of the names given to two battles fought in 1860 between Native American tribes (Paitue and Bannock) and white settlers in the area. The relationship between the indigenous people and the settlers was already tense. In one version of the story, two Paiute girls were kidnapped by settlers, taken to a trading post called William Station, and assaulted. They were rescued from the station by a group of raiders from the two tribes who killed the settlers they found. A slightly different version of the story has the raiders finding two Paiute children tied up in the station’s basement. The raid on Williams Station caused enough panic that a militia of settlers, known as the Washoe regiment, was hastily formed to pursue the “marauders.” The poorly-disciplined and poorly-prepared settlers lost the first battle. They won the second battle, with reinforcements.

A tale of two Asa’s

Rocha’s article told me a few details about Asa W.’s life in Silver City. He was a carpenter and a miner with a claim in nearby Gold Canyon. That dream of striking it rich could be why he left Andover. His carpentry skills may have been in demand as well. Asa W. bought a plot of land in Silver City in 1861. I wonder if he paid for it with his mining efforts.

Asa W. organized the Silver City Home Guards on October 4, 1862. Sadly, he would pass away two weeks later on October 15, 1862.

There was another Asa Phelps - Asa H. Phelps - who was mortally wounded in the Pyramid Lake War's second battle in 1860.

Incredibly, however, Asa W. Phelps continued to be honored as a war hero even after the discrepancy was publicized.

I was confused by the names. Silver City recruited a company of men, known as the Silver City Guards, for the Washoe Regiment . Officially, they were designated as Company M. Asa W. Phelps incorporated the Silver City Guards into the official Nevada Territorial Militia after the war.

That is where my story on Asa W. started to collect dust. I fretted over my next research steps. I worried about the potential word count of the story.

I might have forgotten about Asa W. altogether. But then, when History Buzz started buzzing, I stumbled across a folder on my hard drive named “AsaPhelpsNevada” and decided to give the story another try.

Even in the age of .jpgs, .pdfs, and e-mail, how does one research a ghost town and the people who used to live in it? Carson City, the state capital of Nevada, is only eight miles from Silver City. I’d contact the state archives, library, and historical society. A research trip, impossible on such short notice, crossed my mind. I’d rather spend the summer in the mountains out west than in 95 degree, muggy Andover.

The island for which Pyramid Lake is named. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_pyramid.jpg

A quick, yet effective google search yielded a large online article on Silver City with many pictures. To quote Western Mining History,

“by the 1950s, the town had become a quiet place, a curiosity for passing tourists who saw it as a ghost town.”

I forgot to take newspaper headlines with a grain of salt.

In Asa W.’s time, Silver City boasted 12 stores, four hotels, three blacksmith shops, two butcher shops, and one post office. The population, even then, numbered only one thousand people. An 1864 guide described Silver City as a place where citizens display a refined taste. It served as a milling center for ore from the Comstock lode and teamster’s center. Think of a nineteenth-century truck stop. Horses and mules, used to haul ore and supplies, were corralled nearby. Silver City’s “cultural re-population” started in the sixties. These days, its population hovers around 200 residents.

Silver City, Nevada c.1880, from Western Mining History website, https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/nevada/silver-city/

Silver City is home to a volunteer library that was credited by the Western Mining History article. I’ll contact them but I have to use Facebook. If they don’t have anything on Asa W. maybe they know who does. A librarian at the Lyon County public library pointed me towards newspapers that have been digitized on Ancestry.com. My efficient google search gave me one answer, at least. Asa W. died of a fever. The photo of his gravestone on Find a Grave was taken in 2006. It’s still looking pretty good.

Correcting a local history “oops”

Local Andover historian Charlotte Helen Abbott worked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to chronicle Andover’s families. Her Phelps genealogy erroneously indicates that Asa W. died in California. Considering the westward migrations that were happening, the creation of new states, and Silver City’s proximity to California, I can understand her mistake. Here’s hoping I can add something to her work.

The inscription on Asa W.’s gravestone reads:

EULOGY
Sacred to the memory of Asa W. Phelps a native of West Andover, Mass., 2nd Lt. of the Silver City guards, died October 15, 1862, aged 28 years. He died away from his kindred, yet his amiable disposition, kindliness of heart, unobtrusive candor, dignified and gentlemanly deportment, won for him the love and esteem of all who knew him. Many kind friends will mourn his loss as a brother. Endeared with more than common ties or mutual regard and esteem, his memory will long remain embalmed in the hearts of those who gathered around his bedside and administered to his comfort all that loving hearts or willing hands could bestow. Brother, thou hast been taken from us in the prime vigor and usefulness of manhood; thy loss we deeply deplore. No more wilt thou join our martial number. Thou hast gone to that bourne from whence no traveler returneth. Life, what is it! Soon the silver cord will be snapped in twain. Soon, ah! too soon, the golden bowl will be broken and we will hasten to meet thee."

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Miscellany Mondays: In Search of Asa W. Phelps . . .

. . . and I'm still looking

Several years ago . . .

A tale of two Asa’s

Discussion about this post