Individual Details
John Bisanz
(1839 - )
John and Ophir Bisanz
Philip Biesanz's older brother was John Bisanz, born 1837. John left the family in Dubuque, Iowa for Nevada in the big Comstock Nevada silver rush and became one of the founding pioneers of Silver City, near Virginia City, Nevada.
This was one of the biggest mining discoveries in the US ever - the same rush that Mark Twain wrote about in "Roughing It" when he lived in Virginia City, Nevada.
The richest mine in the Comstock lode was the Ophir mine, valued at $4,000 a linear foot and named after the legendary King Solomon’s mine - so John Bisanz named his daughter Ophir Ore Bisanz, after the mine she was born near. Her nickname was"Ophie." William Randolph Hearst owned stock in the Ophirmine.
In 1880, the census shows that John Bisanz, born in New York in 1837, father born in France, has moved 180 miles south of Silver City and the Ophir mine to Candelaria, Nevada, and is working as a miner. That data fits him... He has a wife, working as a laundress,and his daughter Ophie, and lives next to Sam Sing, a chinaman taking in washing. The area looks like a moonscape.
In 1882 there was a murder in John Bisanz' mine in Candelaria over silver.
In 1900, John is living in Sacramento, CA in a boarding house and says he's a brick maker born in New York in 1837. His brother Philip, his father John (or Johann) and his uncle were all brick makers. Apparently he didn’t make good money off the silver mine. His daughter Ophie married a carpenter and is living 25 miles away, and John's wife is dead. John is not mentioned as surviving in Philip Biesanz' 1921 obituary.
Both John and Ophie register to vote as Republicans in Sacramento; Ophie goes to college in Stockton,California. Did John keep in touch with his family? I think he didn't since Ophir's story is so dramatic they would have remembered it; or wanted in on the inheritance. John is not mentioned in Philip Biesanz list of surviving siblings in his 1921 obituary. Both John and Philip chose professions that required a knowledge of geology. Philip made his money off his quarry of dolomitic limestone; John worked the technically difficult mines of Silver City.
By 1910 Ophie is building apartments in the building boom in Oakland.
By 1920 Ophie must be rich - she and her husband get passports. On the passport application they both say that they plan to leave as soon as possible and spend two years traveling for pleasure. Both list these countries:
Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Chile,Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy,Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greece,Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, (Arabia and Persia are crossed out) Palestine, India,Constantinople, Burma, Ceylon, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Japan, China,Hong Kong.
In 1921 her husband William Schroeder falls off a 4,000 foot precipice in Peru and dies. In June 1922 Ophie arrives in the US from Rotterdam. William’s relatives sue for part of the estate and she defends it against them.
In 1939 she travels back from Europe - perhaps she went for pleasure and got out before World War II broke out?
In 1952 there are four or more newspaper articles about Ophie - some of them on the front page - about the"Silver Mine Heiress," daughter of John Bisanz, one of the founders of Silver City, Nevada. Ophie splits her fortune between Pepperdine College and College of the Pacific, where she graduated.
Her will is contested by her life long friend William Vance, who says that she had an estate worth three or four million dollars, as opposed to the $300,000 in the will, and that she had ranches and diamonds as well. He also said that she earned it herself starting with a $700 inheritance. Supposedly she withdrew $7 in one dollar bills for living expenses each week and lived off apples and oranges in cheap boarding houses; in the end she was declared mentally incompetent and guardians were appointed. However, her financial manager said she had only cash,spread between 51 banks.
So why didn't the Biesanz family in Winona know about their rich relative? She lived up to her name...
guanacaste added this on 13 Jun 2011 Ancestry.com
======================
Philip Biesanz's older brother was John Bisanz, born 1837. John left the family in Dubuque, Iowa for Nevada in the big Comstock Nevada silver rush and became one of the founding pioneers of Silver City, near Virginia City, Nevada.
This was one of the biggest mining discoveries in the US ever - the same rush that Mark Twain wrote about in "Roughing It" when he lived in Virginia City, Nevada.
The richest mine in the Comstock lode was the Ophir mine, valued at $4,000 a linear foot and named after the legendary King Solomon’s mine - so John Bisanz named his daughter Ophir Ore Bisanz, after the mine she was born near. Her nickname was"Ophie." William Randolph Hearst owned stock in the Ophirmine.
In 1880, the census shows that John Bisanz, born in New York in 1837, father born in France, has moved 180 miles south of Silver City and the Ophir mine to Candelaria, Nevada, and is working as a miner. That data fits him... He has a wife, working as a laundress,and his daughter Ophie, and lives next to Sam Sing, a chinaman taking in washing. The area looks like a moonscape.
In 1882 there was a murder in John Bisanz' mine in Candelaria over silver.
In 1900, John is living in Sacramento, CA in a boarding house and says he's a brick maker born in New York in 1837. His brother Philip, his father John (or Johann) and his uncle were all brick makers. Apparently he didn’t make good money off the silver mine. His daughter Ophie married a carpenter and is living 25 miles away, and John's wife is dead. John is not mentioned as surviving in Philip Biesanz' 1921 obituary.
Both John and Ophie register to vote as Republicans in Sacramento; Ophie goes to college in Stockton,California. Did John keep in touch with his family? I think he didn't since Ophir's story is so dramatic they would have remembered it; or wanted in on the inheritance. John is not mentioned in Philip Biesanz list of surviving siblings in his 1921 obituary. Both John and Philip chose professions that required a knowledge of geology. Philip made his money off his quarry of dolomitic limestone; John worked the technically difficult mines of Silver City.
By 1910 Ophie is building apartments in the building boom in Oakland.
By 1920 Ophie must be rich - she and her husband get passports. On the passport application they both say that they plan to leave as soon as possible and spend two years traveling for pleasure. Both list these countries:
Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Chile,Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy,Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greece,Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, (Arabia and Persia are crossed out) Palestine, India,Constantinople, Burma, Ceylon, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Japan, China,Hong Kong.
In 1921 her husband William Schroeder falls off a 4,000 foot precipice in Peru and dies. In June 1922 Ophie arrives in the US from Rotterdam. William’s relatives sue for part of the estate and she defends it against them.
In 1939 she travels back from Europe - perhaps she went for pleasure and got out before World War II broke out?
In 1952 there are four or more newspaper articles about Ophie - some of them on the front page - about the"Silver Mine Heiress," daughter of John Bisanz, one of the founders of Silver City, Nevada. Ophie splits her fortune between Pepperdine College and College of the Pacific, where she graduated.
Her will is contested by her life long friend William Vance, who says that she had an estate worth three or four million dollars, as opposed to the $300,000 in the will, and that she had ranches and diamonds as well. He also said that she earned it herself starting with a $700 inheritance. Supposedly she withdrew $7 in one dollar bills for living expenses each week and lived off apples and oranges in cheap boarding houses; in the end she was declared mentally incompetent and guardians were appointed. However, her financial manager said she had only cash,spread between 51 banks.
So why didn't the Biesanz family in Winona know about their rich relative? She lived up to her name...
guanacaste added this on 13 Jun 2011 Ancestry.com
======================
Events
| Birth | 1839 | Erie, NY |  | ||
| Marriage | L.E. Nicholson |
Families
| Spouse | L.E. Nicholson (1843 - 1900) |
| Child | Ophir Ore "Ophie" Biesanz (1876 - 1952) |
| Father | Johann "John" Bisanz (1802 - 1881) |
| Mother | Magdalena Laprelle (1813 - 1879) |
| Sibling | Philip Biesanz (1842 - 1921) |
| Sibling | Mary Ann Bisanz (1841 - ) |
| Sibling | Carl Charles Bisanz (1843 - 1883) |
| Sibling | Anna Mary "Annie" Bisanz (1847 - ) |
| Sibling | Frank John Bisanz (1849 - ) |
| Sibling | Maria Magdalena "Lena Magdalene" Bisanz (1852 - ) |
| Sibling | Michael Steven Bisanz (1853 - 1943) |