Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Volume 063-3 - July 2009 (6 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin July 2009
Destroyed Loss
Pendleton’s Butcher Shop not given
F.T. Marker’s Stable not given
John McBean. Dwelling, hall and saloon 5,000
Samuel Kozainsky, new store 500
Daniel Hershey, butcher shop, mean and stable 3,000
Jack Lyons, hotel, stock and furniture 3,500
Edward Brimskill, store & goods, portion
of stock saved 3,000
Van Dusen & Morrison, store & goods, goods
mostly saved in fire proof cellar 3,000
It is noteworthy that Buisman’s competitor, Jack Lyons,
also suffered personal tragedy during the same time period
that Buisman family was going through trials. Lyons was an
early settler and the first man to open a hotel in the town of
Washington. On April 3, 1865, his sixteen-year-old daughter
Bridget (named for her mother) was drowned in the South
Yuba river when she fell from a log used as a bridge. Then
Lyons’ wife was seriously injured when one of the horses of
the team pulling the Washington stage was frightened and
ran-away, causing the stage to overturn on July 13, 1867.
The Lyons Hotel sat on the opposite side of the street from
the Washington Hotel and it was a total loss in the fire that
destroyed the town. It was later determined that Lyons had
suffered a $8,000 loss, much greater than reported in the
above newspaper account.
After his daughter Matilda died in 1869. Buisman lived
with his one remaining daughter, Carminia (or Harminia).
On August 30, 1876, he married again, this time to Mrs.
Henrietta Ohsen, a local widow with four children. The
same year he was appointed postmaster for the town of
Washington.
Eldridge Thaxter Worthley
Elbridge Thaxter Worthley (E. T.), born in 1840, was one
of six children born in Phillips, Franklin County, Maine, to
Melzar Loring Worthley and Hannah Turner. He lived in
Phillips among a large extended family until he was twentytwo years old, entering the service during the Civil War
as a Private in Company D 28th Maine on September 10,
1862. He served a term of one year and was discharged on
August 3, 1863, when his enlistment ended. At the close of
the Civil War he left the East and came to California, arriving in Nevada County in 1865. It is presumed that E. T. and
his brother Alphonse (see NCHS Bulletin April 2009) came
to California together. They were the only members of their
immediate family that left the East to come to California.
In Nevada County the brothers found themselves among a
large number of other New Englanders who had settled here
already.
By 1870, according to Federal Population Census enumerations of California, there were 579 men and women
from Maine living in Nevada County, 135 from the State of
Vermont, 74 from New Hampshire, 95 from Connecticut, 47 o~
from Rhode Island, in addition to 886 from the State of New
York and 513 from Pennsylvania. The Northeast was well
represented in the foothills of the West. The brothers both
took up mining after they arrived, but by 1870 Alphonse was
living alone and mining in both Sierra and Yuba counties
and E. T. was living in Nevada City and mining at Banner
Hill in the Nevada City Mining District.
In the early 1870s E. T. Worthley moved to the town
of Washington and he went into partnership with Thomas
Marker running the Washington Stage. In the mid-1870s
both Worthley brothers married local young women who
were born in California, children of Gold Rush pioneers. On
December 5, 1874, E. T. and Miss Carminia (or Harminia—
also known as “Minnie” to her friends and family) Buisman were married by Justice of the Peace F. Freeman in the
town of Washington. In 1875 Worthley sold his interest in
the Washington Stage line to George Grissel. At this time he
may have been working at the hotel with his father-in-law
as well as continuing his mining interests.
Minnie’s father, Hassel Buisman died on September 14,
1886. In his will Buisman left $800 to his wife Henrietta
e™
E. T. Worthley’s Washington Hotel in 1910.
The driver of this stage coach may have been Ed Fisk,
according to one historian. (Comstock Bonanza photo.)