Orson Sanford Avery

Tonopah merchant Orson Sanford Avery was born May 29, 1840, in Evans Center, Erie County, New York. It appears that he registered for the Civil War draft in Butte County, California, in October or November 1865, listing his occupation as “merchant,” though no evidence of actual military service has been found. By the end of the war, Orson was living in Bloomfield, Wisconsin, where he worked as a wholesale and retail dealer in flour, feed, and grain. There, on June 13, 1867, he married Mary Helen Fellows.

In the 1880s, Orson and his family moved to Illinois and later to Arapahoe, Colorado. The marriage eventually failed, and in 1902 Mary and Orson were divorced. Following the separation, Orson headed west once more, this time to the silver mines of Montana.

The earliest record of Orson Avery in Tonopah dates to 1906, when a Winnemucca newspaper reported that his secondhand store on lower Main Street had been burglarized. Money and jewelry valued at approximately $1,000 were taken from the store’s safe, and the thief was never identified.

The final four years of Orson’s life proved tumultuous. In June 1907, he was sued by S. P. Santos over trunks Orson claimed had been lost, and the court ruled in Santos’s favor that September. In April 1908, he faced another lawsuit, this time from W. P. Ackerman, who sought to recover $69.05 for goods advanced to a third party on Orson’s guarantee. Once again, the court ruled against him.

April 1908 was a particularly disastrous month. Orson was arrested and bound over to the grand jury on charges of receiving stolen property. He was accused of encouraging local boys to break into buildings and steal items that he could resell in his secondhand store. Unable to post a $2,000 bond, he was confined to the county jail. By September, he had been indicted on charges of receiving stolen property and mayhem. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $1,000 bail.

At trial, evidence showed that Orson had purchased a brass bedstead and a set of dishes from two boys who admitted taking them from a building known as “Marjorie’s Place” in the tenderloin district. The jury found him guilty of misdemeanor theft. His request for bail was denied, and he was returned to jail. In December, Judge O’Brien sentenced him to six months in the county jail, delivering a stern lecture and noting that only Orson’s advanced age had spared him the maximum penalty.

In a case of supreme irony, the convicted thief soon became a victim himself. After completing his sentence and reopening his secondhand store, Orson was targeted once again. In March 1909, thieves lured him away from the premises, then entered the store, unlocked the safe, and stole approximately a dozen gold watches with chains, fifteen silver watches, and $100 in coin. As before, no arrests were ever made.

For a time, it appeared Orson’s troubles had finally subsided. Then, in the early morning hours of September 30, 1910, disaster struck. Orson was asleep in a partitioned section of his store that served as his living quarters when he was awakened by the crackling of flames. The structure—lightly built, with a tent roof and packed with combustible materials—was quickly engulfed.

In an attempt to save his property, Orson tried to secure a can of gasoline stored at the rear of the building. It exploded, splashing burning fuel over his body. He staggered from the inferno and was saved only when bystanders smothered the flames with a quilt. Orson later stated that he believed the fire was not accidental, claiming that an earlier attempt to burn down his business had occurred two weeks prior, when a small tent shack beside the store had been set ablaze. He carried no insurance, and both the building and its contents were a total loss.

After enduring ten agonizing days of severe burns, Orson Sanford Avery died alone at the Miners Hospital on October 12, 1910, at the age of seventy. He was buried four days later. The Tonopah Daily Bonanza reported on October 13, 1910, that his former wife telegraphed from Denver to say that she was enroute to Tonopah to attend the funeral services.