Talk:Eilley Bowers

Eilley Bowers has been listed as one of the History good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
September 13, 2010	Good article nominee	Listed

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on March 25, 2007.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ...that Eilley Bowers (pictured) is one of the most researched, written and talked about women in Nevada history?

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Comments

I did a little copyediting and MOS cleanup, although not a particularly thorough job of either. I caught only two definite BEisms: advertised and remodelled (both fixed). "Care home", too, is not common in American English (although I suppose it might be period accurate); we would say 'nursing home' or 'rest home' today. One other random issue: the article says twice that she was born in September, but the infobox says November.

I spent some time digging up info for a stub on the King's Daughters Home—turns out it, too, is on the NRHP! Will put something up tomorrow when I'm done chasing leads and up to wrangling with an unfamiliar infobox. Maralia (talk) 03:14, 23 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I did think about "care home", but I'm not sure what the correct term would be – "nursing home" to me implies a standard of care which wouldn't have been the case back then, but I can't think of a better alternative (maybe "rest home" is the way to go). Good catch on the d.o.b., which was also messing up the age-at-death in the infobox. – iridescent 14:35, 23 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I enjoyed the article - I had never heard of Eilley Bowers before but it appears she lived an interesting life. It struck me, though, that while I now know more about what she did, I don't feel like I am familiar with what she was like as a person (beyond incredibly daring for her day). Are there any quotes attributed to her, or other information that might flesh out her personality or reactions a bit more?

The first sentence of the lead looks a little long. Perhaps it could be broken up?
- Will try – I was planning to wait until the article itself stabilizes before returning to the lead. – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The lead mentions twice that she outlived her children.
- I know, but I can't see an obvious way round it – if you (or anyone) can, do feel free! – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
to gain the means to move to the United States. - I'm not familiar with the early history of Mormonism. Were they paying converts to move to the US?
- I believe they subsidized the passage for converts wanting to move to (first) Nauvoo and (later) Utah but unable to afford to do so. I'm not all that familiar with the period, but I believe this was fairly common practice for midwestern towns (Mormon or not) looking to boost their labor base in this period. – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"approximately $2,305 today" - instead of today, it's better to include a year
- This is an artifact of the {{inflation}} template; the "current" prices automatically update with the inflation figures to remain in line with "today". – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Need some consistence on whether there is a comma after In 18XX - I fixed a few of these but don't know if I got all
do we know what year the Franktown settlement was abandoned?
I see that you have at least one parenthetical note (Fethrling's claim that she was the only woman). You might want to consider putting this in the Note section instead of in the text, but that is up to you.
Per wP:MOSQUOTE, short quotations (under 4 lines) shouldn't usually be offset.
She really divorced husband 2 after marrying husband 3? Was there any fallout from this or is this a typo?
- Really; remember, these were 19th century Mormons before the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was passed. – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What happened to the farm when she moved to Gold Canyon? It says she got half of it, but was anyone looking out for it?
Doublecheck that all the "acres" measurements have conversions to hectares
Do we know how the children died?
- There's a lengthy footnote regarding the assorted theories about the deaths of Margaret Persia Bowers; the two infant children just seem to be listed as "died in infancy". Nevada's medical records pre-1877 no longer exist, and I haven't seen any source more specific as to cause. – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Is there any information about her personal reaction to suddenly becoming rich? (and then suddenly becoming poor)?
- There's very little I can find about their personal opinions of anything, which is why the current article is so dry (as you mention) when it comes to personalities. Aside from Cleere, who has a tendency to speculate somewhat floridly about motivations, most coverage of her is of the "two page bio in a broader history of the area" type and has very little personal detail. As no diaries etc appear to survive, other than the occasional financial ledger, the source material doesn't seem to exist, unless someone's in a position to check the archives of the Territorial Enterprise. – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Why did they decide to return to the Washoe Valley to build their mansion rather than stay where they were?
- I don't know so haven't speculated. I assume because of the "dream home" element – sources seem to agree that she insisted on settling in that particular spot, and with hot springs, mountain views etc, plus being on the road between Carson City and Reno it would have been reasonably near to Virginia City and a fairly desirable spot – but it may have been for completely different reasons (high crime rates in mining towns, wanting to be nearer to schools…) – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Who were the busts that they commissioned to be of? Themselves? Other famous people?
- I believe replicas of classic Italian pieces but am not sure. – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
There is some overlinking here. Paris, Florence, silverware, jewelry, etc are common words and don't need to be linked.
Were they affected at all by the Civil War?
- I believe only second-hand in that the end of the Civil Way sent the mining industry into recession, starting the chain of events that led to her bankruptcy. Nevada, and Virginia City in particular, was fairly evenly split politically (see Nevada in the American Civil War) and I'm not aware of any strong sentiments either way. (The typical Mormon attitude towards the war was "let them fight each other if it helps them leave us alone".) – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The article needs a good copyedit. I did one small section, but don't have time to do much.

Karanacs (talk) 20:25, 27 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all of that! – iride scent 16:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Eilley Bowers/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: hamiltonstone (talk) 00:37, 13 September 2010 (UTC) This is a good article, well-researched, referenced, stable and neutral. Images appear to be in order. Specific queries:[reply]

Not sure of the better wording, but can something be done about the repetition of "returned" here: "For a short period afterwards Alexander returned periodically, but in 1858 he returned permanently to Salt Lake City for unknown reasons".
Why the plural/possessive Bowerses/Bowerses'? Should it not simply be Bowers / Bowers'?
Near the end of the article the following appears: "...in return for the $14,000 she and Sandy Bowers had donated to support the Union cause in the Civil War and to finance the 1860 Paiute War..." There is no previous mention of her/their involvement or funding of these significant events. If such support is mentioned in the sources at all (other than in the context of the later search for compensation), it should be in the article at an earlier stage.
I'm happy the article's scope and depth meets the GA standard, but found it difficult to reconcile the quote saying she "is one of the most researched, written and talked about women in Nevada history" with the fact that none of the bibliographic items are about her. As I say, not an issue for GA, but it made me curious. hamiltonstone (talk) 00:37, 13 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Reworded. It's a bit clumsy, but it's a bit of a hard thing to describe—he moved away, but used to keep coming back to visit and then suddenly stopped coming back for reasons unknown.
The plural of a name ending in -s is name-ses, so the plural of "Bowers" is "Bowerses". Think of Keeping up with the Joneses.

For some reason I had in my mind that such endings were a vulgarism. Odd. You are, of course, correct. hamiltonstone (talk) 23:35, 13 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not aware of any source for the original donation (although a primary source presumably exists in the form of a receipt in military records somewhere)—it only seems to be mentioned in the context of her later efforts to get it back.
I find that quote dubious as well; having done quite a bit of digging, I can't find any biography of her longer than the single chapter in More Than Petticoats, and for "one of the most researched, written and talked about women in history" there seems a quite significant lack of research, writing and talk about her. However, that quote's from the Women's History department at the University of Nevada (original source here), not just a local enthusiast expressing their opinion; I think it's significant enough to warrant inclusion, as it demonstrates that at least some academics consider her significant. It may be a case of biggest-fish-in-a-small-pond; Nevada history is dominated by mining, Mormons, military and the Mob, all traditionally male preserves, so it may be that other women are even less researched. – iridescent 14:06, 13 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's all good. hamiltonstone (talk) 23:35, 13 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]