Central City’s immigrant miners made their mark
By Rosemary Fetter
From the moment John Gregory hit paydirt in 1859, Gilpin County was all about mining. Although the first Central City gold-seekers were American born, the ethnic personalities of the Irish, the Cornish and the Chinese miners are also woven into the fabric of the town’s past. Their stories provide a wealth of folklore and a colorful account of daily life in early mining communities.
The first to arrive were the Irish, Roman Catholics from southern Ireland. To escape religious persecution, political upheavals and starvation, tens of thousands flocked to America following the Potato Famine of 1845. Soon eastern cities like Boston were teeming with immigrants, who were regarded unsympathetically by decedents of the American colonists. Smug and self-satisfied, these sons and daughters of the Revolution had apparently forgotten their own ancestors, who fled England two centuries earlier for many of the same reasons.
Faced with unemployment or low-paying jobs, some Irishmen headed west to seek their fortunes. Many settled in Colorado and worked in the mines. Since Central City was somewhat suspicious of the rowdy, gregarious and somewhat clannish newcomers, most of them chose to live in nearby Nevadaville. At one point, there was even a half-hearted attempt to keep the Irish out of Central City after dark, presumably to keep some semblance of order in the raucous boomtown.
Not that the Irish were trouble-free in Nevadaville. Disputes were frequent with another major ethnic group, the Cornish. Industrious and strong-willed, the Cornish began to arrive in Colorado around 1862. Through centuries of tin mining in Cornwall, they had become mining experts. The story goes that the Cornish in Gilpin County were nicknamed “Cousin Jacks” because whenever a job was available, they always had a cousin Jack back in Cornwall who would be happy to accept the position.
The Cornish were also accomplished stonemasons. The beautiful rock walls of Central City, with stones intricately fitted without mortar, are a Cornish contribution. The entire town soon adopted two sports brought by the Cornish from England: Cornish wrestling, and rock drilling, for which competitions were held regularly.
Another gift from the Cornish is the legend of the “tommyknocker,” a gnome-like creature who supposedly inhabited the bowels of the earth. A friend of the miners, the tommyknockers would sound the alarm when a cave-in or some other disaster was imminent by making loud knocking noises.
Although the Irish and the Cornish each settled in their own section of the Nevadaville community, quarrels erupted frequently due to religious differences and economic competition. Weekend fistfights and an occasional shooting were usually confined to Nevadaville, but Central City also hosted a scuffle or two. The two groups formed a truce in the l880s when Italian and Austrian miners arrived in the district.
Another group, the Chinese, originally came to America to lay tracks for the western leg of the transcontinental railroad. Afterwards, some Chinese workers moved into Colorado and were hired to finish the narrow gauge track from Black Hawk to Central City. Several stayed on to work in the mines. The hard-working Chinese were a nineteenth century employer’s dream. Not only were they willing to work long hours for low wages, but they never joined unions or went on strike. Some of them found time to operate laundries on the side.
Sadly, the Chinese were practically run of Central City due to the great fire of l874. Discrimination was always worse against Orientals than other groups, but the fire gave some people an excuse to vent racial prejudices.
The blaze flared up in a Chinese laundry on Spring Street, sparked by live coals used in a religious ceremony. Soon flames from the shack spread across to Eureka Street. When the fire was finally extinguished, Central City had lost 150 buildings and half a million dollars.
Although the town rebuilt quickly, angry citizens blamed the catastrophe on the “heathen practices” of the Chinese, many of whom were beaten and barely escaped with their lives. Although proposed legislation to exclude Orientals from Central City was never enacted, it was hardly necessary since most Chinese left town after the fire to seek refuge in a more hospitable environment.
Although other nationalities eventually blended into the social fabric of the frontier, the Chinese were never accepted in other Colorado locations, either. They were banned from living in Leadville, and after the Chinese riots of 1880, most were forced to leave Denver.
