The historic Goldfield Cemetery, located just north of the Central Nevada mining community, has some good friends.
Unlike some old mining town cemeteries that have been ignored or have fallen into disrepair, Goldfield’s graveyard has been well-maintained and protected by residents and supporters over the years. Representatives of the local historical society have even placed small metal plaques on many of the crosses and markers giving short information about the deceased.
The result is a cemetery that isn’t a mystery, but rather is a place where you can learn about the individuals buried there and, in learning their cause of death, get a glimpse into their lives and the time when they resided in Goldfield.
The town, which now has a population of about 230 people, was once was the largest city in Nevada with some 20,000 residents. Gold was discovered in the region in 1902 and within a short time a vast boomtown had been constructed around the mines.
The community experienced its heyday from about 1903 to 1910, after which the mines became less productive. The largest mining company closed its operations in 1919 and four years later a fire caused by an exploding liquor still destroyed much of the town.
In its early years, the town’s cemetery was located in the downtown, adjacent to the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Depot. Deciding the location was not the best first impression the city wanted to make for any visitors disembarking from the train, in 1908, all of the bodies were exhumed (about 70 at that time) and relocated to the present site.
According to local lore, the group that took on the task of moving the dead became known as the “Official Ghouls.”
While considered one big cemetery, the Goldfield graveyard consists of more than a half-dozen smaller burial grounds that cater to various religious groups and fraternal organizations.
Thus, there is a general area but also designated places for Catholics, Protestants, Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Elks, Knights of Pythias, the Moose Lodge, and even members of the International Workers of the World labor organization. On the southwestern edge is a Potter’s Field.
If you respectfully stroll through the cemetery you’ll be able to find out about such luminaries as:
• Count Constantine de Podhorsky, a Polish nobleman turned mine promoter who was shot and killed while eating in a French restaurant on March 21, 1907 by a man who claimed the count had seduced his wife.
• Thomas and Lucy Heslip, who both died tragically in August 1909. According to records, Lucy Heslip was sitting on her porch with two female friends one evening when a man named Patrick “Pegleg” Casey, who was drunk, came by to attempt to shoot her friend, Mrs. Alice Mann, for rejecting his advances. Casey shot Mann, injuring her, then fatally shot Lucy Helslip. He apparently tried to kill himself but failed. Upon learning his wife had been killed, Thomas Heslip decided he couldn’t live without her and killed himself the following day by ingesting cyanide.
• The unknown man who died from eating paste. While it seems like a hoax, apparently on July 14, 1908 a man died from eating too much library paste. A doctor concluded that the man was starving and in bad physical condition when he wolfed down an entire jar of paste. The only identifying property on the man was a letter from a man named Ross. He is buried in the Potter’s Field.
• Perhaps the strangest death—yes, even weirder than dying from eating paste—occurred on March 17, 1918 when local gravedigger and cemetery sexton John F. Meagher died while digging a grave. Meagher encountered a large boulder while digging and decided to load it with blasting powder to break it up. After lighting the fuse, he accidentally fell into the grave he was digging. As he scrambled to get out, the explosion went off and killed him. He was discovered the next day lying in the grave, which, ironically, became his final resting place.
For more information about Goldfield’s wonderful cemetery, go to: http://www.goldfieldhistoricalsociety.com/goldfield-cemetery-stories/.
