Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
The tombstone of "Old Virginny," the colorful Nevada miner for whom Virginia City was named, was destroyed sometime during New Year's weekend.
Dayton Cemetery's volunteer caretaker, Armand Arnett, 85, said he had visited the cemetery after Christmas, and all seemed well. Then at church this past Sunday, a friend said to him, "Armand, this is going to kill you."
He'd been to the cemetery that morning, and the gravestone of James "Old Virginny" Finney was toppled and broken.
Arnett drove up the hill to the cemetery he's been watching over for the past 22 years and discovered his friend was correct.
"I was devastated," he said. "I still am."
Old Virginny
James "Old Virginny" Finney was a complicated character. From where he came from to how he died, nothing about Virginia City's namesake is entirely clear.
"Unfortunately, there is more legend about the man than fact," said State Archivist Guy Rocha. "Myth, misspellings of his name and misinformation in abundance surround Finney's obscure life."
Rocha documented the history and tall tales in his "Myth 41 " Virginia City's Namesake: A Grave Issue."
Rocha quoted a memoir written around 1900 by William Hickman Dolman, who described "Old Virginny" as a "frontier hunter, and miner, a man of more than ordinary ability in his class, a buffoon and practical joker; a hard drinker when he could get the liquor, and an indifferent worker at anything."
He is credited with discovering the Six Mile Canyon portion of the Comstock Lode.
Why, exactly, the town was named in is honor is not known, but Rocha cited the account of Charles Howard Shinn in "The Story of The Mine": "(O)ne midnight Old Virginia, going home with the boys and a bottle of whiskey, after an unusually protracted revel, fell down when he reached his cabin, broke the bottle, and rising to his knees, with the bottle-neck is his hand, hiccoughed, 'I baptize this ground Virginia Town!'"
Although stories differ whether he was riding his own horse, another's horse or a "bucking mustang" through Dayton, they all concur he was drunk when he fell and fractured his skull. He died the next day and was buried in town. His body was later moved to the cemetery on the hill.
The original tombstone, which in now on display at Dayton Museum, listed his year of death as 1865, but it was actually 1861.
The Gravestone
Laura Tennant, vice president and historian for the Historical Society of Dayton Valley, said the community raised about $750 in 2001 to erect the gravestone.
In addition to the date being wrong on the original stone, Tennant said, it was also derogatory.
"Very few people knew much about Old Virginny and that he was well respected," she said. "He wasn't just a drunk and a ne'er-do-well. We wanted to paint the true picture of Old Virginny."
The new monument, she said, gives a more accurate account of his life.
Arnett keeps a stack of brochures at the gate for visitors.
"People come from all over the world practically," he said. "When they visit Virginia City, they want to find out about the man who started it all."
Moving Forward
When Arnett arrived at the gravesite Sunday, he took photographs of the damage.
He photographed footprints around the site and gave them to the Lyon County Sheriff's Department.
"I walked the whole cemetery looking for more damage and there was none," he said. "They were shooting strictly for Old Virginny's grave."
Lyon County cemeteries, which were once overseen by boards with an annual budget of about $14,000 for upkeep, are now in the hands of volunteers.
Arnett calls his work a labor of love, but beyond that has no words to explain why he does what he does.
"When I die, there will be no one," he said.
Arnett is worried about the future of Old Virginny's tombstone.
"Who will repair it?" he asked. "Even if I live five or six more years, I don't know that there will be an outcome."
Tennant is more optimistic. She said she will ask the board at its next meeting to fund a replacement.
"I think we'll get a new one," she said.
Arnett hopes for a speedy resolution.
"We're not talking about just anything," he said. "It means too much to so many people."
- Contact reporter Teri Vance at tvance@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1272.