Eilley Bowers - Remarriage and Settlement in Nevada

Remarriage and Settlement in Nevada

In 1853, Eilley married farmer Alexander Cowan. Two years later the couple joined a mission to Mormon Station, near the western edge of Utah Territory. Shortly afterward the mission relocated to Franktown, in what is now Washoe County, Nevada. Eilley and her husband settled near present-day Virginia City, roughly halfway between Reno and Carson City. They bought 320 acres (1.29 km2; 0.50 sq mi) of land, which contained a hot spring, for $100 (approximately $2500 today). Alexander farmed, and Eilley opened a boardinghouse in nearby Gold Canyon.

During the crisis of the Utah War in 1857, Brigham Young recalled Mormon colonists from the western areas of the proposed State of Deseret to the core area of Mormon settlement south of the Great Salt Lake. Alexander heeded the call, but Eilley remained at home. Cowan's 13-year-old nephew Robert Henderson assisted her with the boardinghouse, and she hired casual labor to work the farm. For a short period afterwards Alexander returned periodically to Virginia City, but in 1858 he settled permanently in Salt Lake City for unknown reasons and ceased to come back to Nevada.