nymets11@pacbell.net wrote: > Part of the Women of Ireland Series, thanks to the Irish Heritage > Newsletter... > What a beautiful piece of writing and a beautiful story we Irish women > can enjoy Miriam Currans Sutermeister > > Nellie Cashman > > In 1994, the United States Post Office issued a set of stamps that > honored "The Legends of the West." There were sixteen people selected > to this elite group, including Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp > and Kit Carson. Also named was Nellie Cashman, who came to this > country as a refugee from Ireland's potato famine. She was born in > Middleton, County Cork in 1845 and immigrated to the United States > with her widowed mother and younger sister Fanny when she was five > years old. > > The family lived in Boston until, like so many others who were seeking > a new life, this courageous mother and her daughters headed west in > the late 1860's, settling in the growing and vibrant community of San > Francisco. In 1872, Nellie and her mother traveled to Pioche, Nevada > where they opened a boarding house in the silver mining district. > During her two years in Pioche, Nellie became keenly interested in > mining and set out on her own as a miner. It was her mining activities > which led Nellie Cashman to be immortalized 122 years later by the > Postal Service as a Legend of the West. Attracted to the Alaskan > -Territory by a-gold strike, Nellie brought-her mother back to San > Francisco to stay with Fanny, now married and starting a family. > Nellie then traveled alone to British Columbia and joined a group of > miners in an expedition to the remote Cassiar District, not far from > what became Juneau, Alaska. The intrepid Nellie, the first woman of > European background to reach Cassiar, following her mother's advice > that a miner has to have something steady to fall back on, opened a > boarding house to supplement her gold mining activities. > > Barely five feet tall and weighing less than a hundred pounds, Nellie > proved to the rough and tumble society of miners that being petite and > being a woman were no handicaps when one possesses courage and spirit. > Fred Dodge, a Wells Fargo undercover agent who knew Nellie, said about > her: "She was very outspoken, and sometimes made enemies by her > uncensored expressions of opinion." Nellie once said she "preferred > being pals with men to being a cook for one man." The men returned her > affection by acting as her "big brother" when a large man's presence > was to her advantage. > > Nellie earned her reputation as an "angel of mercy" during the winter > of 1874-75. While she was on a trip to Victoria to purchase supplies, > a severe winter blizzard slammed into Cassiar, cutting off the > stranded miners. Nellie purchased the supplies and sleds she needed to > launch a rescue mission. She sailed to Fort Wrangell, Alaska with six > men she had hired and headed inland through heavy snows. It took > seventy-seven days for the rescuers to reach Cassiar and save the > lives of two hundred miners. Her success in reaching the miners with > the needed medicine and food became the talk of the West. The miners > considered her their savior; she had earned the title "The Angel of > Cassiar." > > With all of her chasing of silver and gold, Nellie never struck it > rich, although she hoped, like all of the miners, to hit the big vein > that would yield the immense wealth of legends. Her goal in life was > to make lots of money and help those who needed help the most. She > achieved half of her goal, the part where she would help the needy. > > In 1879, Nellie headed south to the warm climate of the Arizona > Territory and opened a restaurant in Tucson. Within a year, she moved > on to a new silver mining camp at Tombstone where she worked many gold > and silver claims. Of course, she also opened six different businesses > as backup to the vagaries of mining. Tombstone was the frontier town > that has gone down in American popular culture as the epitome of the > Wild West. it was the town where the legendary Gunfight at the OK > Corral took place in 1881, featuring those almost mythic figures, > Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and the Clanton brothers. It was the town > that was raided occasionally by Geronomo. While history was being made > in Tombstone, Nellie Cashman was doing what she did best, operating a > restaurant and helping people. She served many free meals to unlucky > miners; she raised money for the Wolfe Tone Branch of the Land League > to help the Irish; she helped to establish the first hospital in > Tombstone; and she raised money to erect Sacred Heart Church, the > first Catholic church in the town. > > When in 1881, her brother-in-law Tom Cunningham died, Nellie took in > her sister Fanny and her five children. She became the sole spiritual > and financial support of her five nieces and nephews when Fanny died > three years later. Recognizing the children's need for a good > education and Tombstone's inability to provide it, Nellie sent the > children to Catholic schools in California and remained always a part > of their lives. Nellie was like a mother to her sister's children, but > when asked why she had never married, she replied, "I haven't had time > for marriage. Men are a nuisance anyway, now aren't they? They're just > boys grownup. I've nursed them, embalmed them, fed and scolded them, > acted as mother confessor and fought my own with them and you have to > treat them just like boys." > > During the 1890's, Nellie tried her luck at mining camps in Sonora, > Mexico, and Prescott and Yuma, Arizona, and several points in Montana. > In 1897 while she was operating the Hotel Cashman in Yuma, Nellie > heard about the gold strike in the Klondike. She hired a manager for > the hotel, arranged for some financial backing, and headed north, > making the difficult trek over the Chilkoot Pass to Dawson. With the > assistance of her nephew Tom Cunningham, she worked her claims and, of > course, operated a restaurant. Nellie and Tom made and spent a > considerable amount of money in the Yukon. When a strike paid off, she > would invest in further claims and, as usual, contribute to the local > church and hospital. By this time, Nellie was a major donor to the > Sisters of St. Ann, giving money to build their first hospital in > Victoria, British Columbia. By 1904, mining in Dawson had peaked, and > Nellie moved on to a site which is now a part of Fairbanks, opening a > store and mining supply center. Once again Nellie raised money for the > local hospital. > > The next year, prospectors were bringing in great specimens of gold > from the distant north. Nellie, then sixty years old, could not resist > the lure of another strike, so she traveled by dog sled 750 miles over > snow and ice to the Koyukuk River basin north of the Arctic Circle. > One of the first to file claims there, she would eventually file > twenty claims during the next two decades. Truly at home in Koyukuk > country, she spent her remaining years in this remote and harsh area > of the world. As she approached her eightieth birthday. Nellie came > down with a serious case of pneumonia while still in the Yukon. She > endured a short stay at St. Joseph's hospital in Victoria, British > Columbia, before she died on January 4, 1925. She was buried at Ross > Bay cemetery in Victoria. > > Tombstone, Arizona celebrates Nellie Cashman Day on August 23rd to > remember its "Angel of Mercy," another Daughter of Ireland is honored > in another land. > > (written by Tom Lee) > > © Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area > http://www.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/legend_of_the_west.htm > >