George E. Money

TONOPAH PIONEER GEORGE E. MONEY was born in Maryland in October 1871. Lured by the romance of mining and the hope of easy riches, he came to Nevada in the early 1890s to engage in mining.

The earliest reference found to his residency in Nevada is his marriage to Margaret “Maggie” Douglass, sister of Billy Douglass, who was the founder of Camp Douglass, at Sodaville in 1895. In the May 11, 1898 edition of Hawthorne’s Walker Lake Bulletin, it was noted he performed a vocal solo “The Drummer Boy of Waterloo” at an entertainment sponsored by the school children at Camp Douglass. By September it was announced that he was a member of the state’s Silver Party and would serve as a delegate to the county convention, representing Luning, Sodaville, and Rhodes. There are several references in the local newspaper to his participation as a performer in various musical entertainments.

In November 1899, the Carson & Colorado Railroad Company deeded property to George and he, in turn, deeded property to Thomas Kendall the following week (unknown if it was the same property).

In 1900 he was still living at Sodaville with his wife and now two children and operating a hotel with his partner, Tom Kendall (soon to be owner/operator of the Tonopah Club). George’s future partner, Chris Guler, is operating a barber shop at the same hotel. George, Tom, and Chris found their way to Tonopah in the very early days of the boom and were among the first settlers in this area. A short note in the Tonopah Bonanza on September 28, 1901 reports that George arrived from Sodaville that week “and will assist his partner, Chris Guler, in conducting the Chloride Saloon.” By December of that year, George incurred heavy expense by building additions to the saloon, one of which was used as a “tonsorial parlor” (barber shop) run by Guler and others as the Chloride Restaurant. George sold these businesses in 1904.

After the sale of his businesses, George brought the first cows to Tonopah and started a dairy—the first in Tonopah. Sometime later, he accepted a position at the Montana-Tonopah Mine while continuing to operate his dairy business. It was while employed at the Montana-Tonopah that George was stricken with the dreaded pneumonia. His wife and children had gone to Carson City to spend the summer and when she was notified of his illness, Maggie returned immediately to Tonopah. Despite round-the-clock care, even considering his youth and vigor, nothing could save him.

Billy Douglass, George’s brother-in-law, also relocated to Tonopah from Sodaville and it was at Billy’s home that George died of pneumonia on May 21, 1906. It was also from Billy’s home that George’s funeral was held. He is buried next to his mother-in-law, Margaret Ann Douglass, in the family plot. He was survived by his wife and three small children. It is worth noting that descendants of the Douglass family still live in Tonopah today.

George Money came to Tonopah full of energy and expectation, helped build its earliest businesses, and even found a way to bring milk to a desert mining camp. Yet in the end, it was not a cave-in or an explosion that claimed him, but pneumonia—a reminder that in Tonopah’s earliest years, even the strongest and most enterprising were only ever a few days away from the grave.