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Volume 070-4 - October 2016 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin October 2016
In March of 1856 Thomas
Butterfield and Tompkins had
purchased more than 180 acres
in Bear Valley for $6,000. The
Espenscheid Estate won a judgment against Elijah and Ruth
Tompkins for $2,300, and in
December 1858 the sheriff was ordered to sell the 147'4-acre Oates
Ranch at Bear Valley owned by
them unless the debt was paid by
January 8, 1859.
On March 5, 1861, Tompkins
became the partner of Charles
Kent, one of Nevada City’s most
popular and prominent businessmen. Their butcher shop, the
Empire Market, was destroyed in
the second most disastrous fire
in Nevada City, on November 8,
ven though their business was in a newer brick
building. With all the Nevada City hotels destroyed or
temporarily uninhabitable, a company was formed to
build a hotel on Main Street. It
was named the Union Hotel and from the time it opened
‘its doors it was the National Hotel’s main competitor for
decades. Tompkins was one of the hotel’s early investors,
and later was a partner in the hotel with Ira Eaton in 1872
and 1873.
Tompkins began construction of a three-story hotel
and ballroom in April 1864 at the junction of two new
roads: Nevada City to Bear Valley, and Dutch Flat to
Virginia City. In June he was hired to supervise construction of the Bear Valley Road, and offered to hire
fifty men to work on the road with wages of $40 a month.
The road cost $7,000 and the committee was counting on
donations to raise the funds.
The Nevada Transcript carried an announcement on
June 1, 1865, that there would be a Grand Ball held at the
Bear Valley House, at the junction of the Nevada City
and Dutch Flat roads to Virginia City on June 22. The
hotel could accommodate forty people and contained a
dance hall that was “the largest and best” in the county
and “superior fishing and hunting were available.”
The Tompkins family purchased several parcels of
land in Rough and Ready Township from the late 1870s
through the early eighties. In 1879 Tompkins had been
elected Sheriff, a position he held for almost three years.
At the time Ruth, Elijah and their son Edward were livMrs. Ruth Butterfield Tompkins in front of her Nevada City
home at about the time she spoke to the Shakespeare Club
about her family’s trip to California. (Searls Library photo)
ing on 440 acres of land near the Anthony House and
were engaged in farming and stockraising.
In 1884 Tompkins was again elected Nevada City
Grand Ball at the Bear Valley House,
MR. & MRS. E. O. TOMPKINS,
Would respectfully inform their
friends and the public geverally that
they will give a Grand Hall, at their
NEW HOUSKH, in Bear Valley, on
THURSDAY, JUNE 22d, 1365.
Managers.
Omega—C. Marvin. Dutch Flat—K. H. Gaylord
Hough & Keady—H{l Walling.
sehingtou—C. Steininitz.
Little York—C W. Remminyton.
Red Dug—kK MecGoun.
Nevada—J. A. L.wucaster. {. Williamson,
Grase Valley—C. C. Smith, F. Cleaveland.
The Washington Brass Band haa been secured
Or the oceasiun. Floor Managers selected at
he Ball. ‘Tickets Five vollars, jel