Alpheus G. Garrard

ALPHEUS G. GARRARD WAS BORN ON SEPTEMBER 25, 1832, in Madison County, Ohio. Trained as a civil and mining engineer, he appears in the 1860 United States census as a surveyor residing in Albany, Missouri. In 1862, he moved farther west and settled in Nevada, becoming a pioneer in his profession within the state. For many years thereafter, he served on the staff of the English company headed by Col. W. J. Sutherland, which controlled and operated the Candelaria mining properties in Esmeralda County.

The 1870 census for Pine Grove Township in Esmeralda County lists Garrard’s occupation as hotel keeper. He was elected to the Nevada State Senate in 1872 and served a four-year term. He later served in the Nevada State Assembly, first elected in 1888 for one term and again in 1896. By 1875, Garrard had returned to work as a civil engineer, and by 1880 he was living in Aurora, also in Esmeralda County. After a brief residence in California, he appears in the 1910 census living in Hawthorne, Nevada, where he was employed as a mining engineer.

In October 1878, the Eureka Sentinel sharply criticized Garrard for losing the Democratic primary for the Nevada State Senate and subsequently changing his party affiliation to Independent. The paper alleged that he was attempting to run on his record regarding the bullion tax from the previous legislative session. In 1878, however, Nevada’s so-called “bullion tax” was not a single, clearly defined state levy, but rather part of a broader national debate over silver coinage. Garrard collaborated successfully with Gov. Bradley to defeat the passage of the bullion tax law, strongly believing it meant double taxation.

Another notable episode in Garrard’s career occurred in 1875, when, as Deputy County Surveyor of Esmeralda County, he met with the surveyor of Nye County in an effort to complete a joint survey of the boundary line between the two counties. During these discussions, Garrard successfully argued that Montezuma, Alida, Silver Peak, and other taxable points then in dispute lay clearly within the boundaries of Esmeralda County.

By 1910, at the age of eighty, Garrard was living in Tonopah with, or near, his adopted daughter, Mrs. P. M. Bowler, wife of a respected attorney specializing in mining law. On the morning of August 23, 1910, while walking along a street near her home, he fell into an open ditch that had been dug by the local water company. He was immediately taken to the Miners’ Hospital, where, after a brief examination, it was determined that his injuries were of such a nature that recovery was impossible. Garrard died that day and was buried in the Old Tonopah Cemetery the following day at 4:00 p.m.