The Townsend Family

William Henry and Nellie Townsend, two of the Owyhee’s oldest and respected pioneers are laid to rest here along with their daughter Jenny.

William was born in Vermont in 1832. In 1853, he caught the gold fever and crossed the plains for California where he mined at all the prominent mining localities until 1857. In 1862 he joined a party bound for the Powder River District, and landed in what is now called Owyhee County, camping on the site of what was subsequently known as Ruby City. He engaged in mining for several years and then entered the furniture and undertaking business. Mr. Townsend participated in several Indian skirmishes of the county, was a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity, and served two terms as county commissioner. He died at age 74, and at the time, was one of the longest continuous residents of the county, having assisted in staking out the town of Silver City when the residents of Ruby City first began to remove to this site. He married Nellie Scales in 1878. They had five children who all grew up in the community. Upon his death, the local newspaper editor wrote, “Truly the old ranks are rapidly thinning out! They confronted the hardships of a wilderness, and are leaving it filled with prosperous and contented homes.”   

Nellie Scales Townsend died in 1916 at age 71. The newspaper said after suffering but a few days from a partial paralytic stroke, the soul of Mrs. Nellie Townsend was called to its reward from the home of her son, Bert, in this city. The deceased was one of the pioneer women in this county, having come in the early 60s with her husband and has lived in this county and state almost continuously since. She was born in Ireland in 1845. 

William and Nellie’s daughter Rachel Jennie Townsend was born on October 20, 1878. The Owyhee Nugget reported that Miss Jennie, as she was known, had been a lifelong invalid and died at the age of 32 at her home in DeLamar. The sorrowing family has the sympathy of the entire community in their hour of pain. She died on March 31, 1911.