Eilley Bowers
| Alison "Eilley" Oram Bowers | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Alison Oram September 6, 1826 Forfar, Scotland |
| Died | October 27, 1903 (aged 77) Oakland, California, USA |
| Residence | Washoe County, Nevada |
| Nationality | Scottish-American |
| Known for | miner, socialite, fortune-teller |
| Spouse(s) | Stephen Hunter (1842–1850) Alexander Cowan (1853–1860) Lemuel Sanford "Sandy" Bowers (1859–1868) |
Alison "Eilley" Oram Bowers (September 6, 1826 – October 27, 1903) was a Scottish American woman who was, in her time, one of the richest women in the United States, and owner of the Bowers Mansion, one of the largest houses in the western United States. A farmer's daughter, Bowers married as a teenager, and her husband converted to Mormonism before the couple immigrated to the United States. After briefly living in Nauvoo, Illinois, she became an early Nevada pioneer, farmer and miner, and was made a millionaire by the mining boom. Married and divorced two times, she married a third time and became a mother of three children but outlived them all.
Following the deaths of her first 2 children in infancy then her husband, with the third child dying a few short years after, and with the collapse of the Nevada mining economy, Eilley Bowers became bankrupt and destitute. Eilley reinvented herself as "The Famous Washoe Seeress", a professional scryer and fortune-teller in Nevada and California. Worth over $4 million at the height of the Nevada mining boom, she died penniless in a care home in Oakland, California.
Alison Oram (sometimes spelled "Orrum"), commonly called Eilley, was born on September 6, 1826, in Forfar, Scotland. Her only brother John was born in 1821, and it appears that her father’s work forced them to move frequently. John was born in Dunfermline and at some point during their childhood, they moved eighty miles southwest of Forfar to Clackmannan. It was here that she married Stephen Hunter in the Church of Scotland at the age of fifteen. Stephen soon met some Mormon missionaries and became a believer. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and agreed to immigrate to America. Eilley never converted but traveled with her husband. They sailed for America on January 29, 1849. By the time the Hunters reached Salt Lake City, the strain on their marriage was evident. After eight years of marriage, Bowers and Stephen separated in early 1850.
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