Darius Towsley
"DARIUS TOUSLEY, CO E, 4th CAL INF". This is the weathered tombstone of the man I believe is the Towsley of Towsley Canyon. His gravesite is at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Los Angeles, California (Section 5, Row D, Site 20).
Who is Darius Towsley of Towsley Canyon? Tracking Towsley (or Tousley, which actually may have been the correct spelling) was not a very successful task. He was evidently born in Ohio between 1837-1839. The first census that I could find showing a Darius Tousley was the 1860 US Census for the Table Rock Precinct in the county of Jackson in the southern part of the state of Oregon. There, 21 year old miner D. Tousley, born in Ohio, was listed. Jackson was a hotspot for placer gold mining in the 1850's and 60's.
On October 5, 1861, Darius Towsley enlisted in the Union army in Weaverville, California. Weaverville is in northern California located just west of Redding. His age was listed as 24. He entered Company E of the 4th Regiment of the California Infantry as a private. (California Military Registers, 1858-1923). Tousley was discharged, still a private, at Drum Barracks, California, on November 1, 1864. Drum Barracks is located in Wilmington in Los Angeles County.
The discovery of petroleum in Pico Canyon in Los Angeles County was less than three months away. In March of 1865, Towsley would stake out his claims (with co-locators) in what would be called Towsley Canyon (see oil history page). What, if any, work he actually did on his claim is not known. What is known is that in March of 1866, he sold half his interest in the claim to Sylphina Rushmore and half to Henry C. Wiley. I could not find Towsley on the 1870 US Census. He had a history of missing the census taker most of his life.
It's hard to say where Towsley was for the next ten years. He may have stayed around in Los Angeles County. There was mining going on in the Soledad District. He also may have traveled north of there.
However by 1877, he turned up in Kern County, California. The Great Register of Kern County lists Darius Tousley as registering on July 27, 1877. He was a 39 year old miner born in Ohio and living in Kernville. I could not locate him on the 1880 US Census. As a miner, he probably moved around a lot in and out of Kern County, but Kern was apparently his center of operations. At one time he was in Ballarat, a mining town close to Death Valley. We know he was in Randsburg in 1897. Gold was recently discovered there at the Yellow Aster Mine. He was listed on the 1879, 1882, 1888, and 1894 Great Registers of Kern County. On August 7, 1896, he registered for the last time. Tousley was 59 years old and still a miner from Ohio.
The Times-Delta of Visalia, California, of August 12, 1897, reported that a Dr. Bernhard examined old soldier Darius Towsley of White River, Tulare County, for Towsley's application for a government pension. Tousley's voter registration data for the 1890's report that his place of residence was in Woody precinct, located in Kern County, but his postoffice was White River, in Tulare County. White River was a community originally founded as a gold camp in the 1850's. Tousley had filed for a pension on December 11, 1896, on application number 1183984. I'm not sure if he was approved to receive a pension.
On March 14, 1898, Darius was admitted to the US National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Sawtelle, California, for chronic gastritis, a stomach lining problem. He had contracted that in 1897 in Randsburg while mining. He died on January 30, 1900, which the Home listed as caused by exhaustion. However, the Los Angeles County Record of Deaths listed his cause of death as pulmonary tuberculosis. Towsley never married. Sadly, his personal effects were valued at on $2.70. A miner's life was not easy. He was buried in what is now called the Los Angeles National Cemetery located in Los Angeles, California.
The search for relatives: The US National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers form for Darius shown below has a Domestic History section. The Name and Address of Nearest Relative is listed as Loren Tousley, a member of the Home. It also seems to show "(bro)" implying that Loren was the brother of Darius. Loren was in the same Sawtelle Home from 1890-1900 for heart disease (see his form here). Loren was born in August of 1846 in Ohio. He joined the 10th Michigan Cavalry, Company G, on Sept. 26 1863 and was discharged on November 11, 1865. In 1871 he married Christina Ford in Michigan. He moved to Kern County sometime in the 1880's. The 1882 Great Register of Voters lists him as a 35 year old carpenter from Ohio living in Kernville. He died on May 30, 1912, in Kern.
Loren's parents were Nelson and Sally Tousley. He had four brothers and two sisters. Unfortunately, none of his brothers was named Darius. I traced the history of them and they all had histories. None had a first or middle name of Darius. Therefore, as far as I can tell, Loren was not the brother of Darius, but probably a cousin, since they were related.
The documents below were found on either Ancestry dot com or FamilySearch dot org.
On the 1860 census, 21-year old Ohio born D. Tousley is a miner living in Table Rock, Oregon.
This California Civil War roster page lists Darius Towsley as a private in Company E of the 4th Regiment of the California Infantry.
California Military Registers, 1858-1923. Complete version here.
Great Register of Kern County. Tousley registers on July 27, 1877.
Great Register of Kern County. Tousley registers on August 7, 1896.
This is a US National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers form for Darius Tousley alias Towsley. He died of exhaustion on June 30, 1900. This shows that he once was in Ballarat and Randsburg, California. In 1897, in Randsburg, he contracted chronic gastritis. Complete version here.
The Los Angeles County Records of Deaths report that Towsley died of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, probably a more accurate diagnosis than "exhaustion." Larger version here.
View of the cemetery with Wilshire Boulevard out of view straight ahead in the distance. Sepulveda Boulevard is out of sight on the right. I visited there in 2005. The cemetery is on the southwest corner of Wilshire and Sepulveda Boulevards. Tousley's tombstone is in the lower right foreground. The cemetery road on the right is San Juan Hill Avenue.
Another view of the Tousley stone looking more toward Sepulveda Boulevard