Aurora, Nevada doesn’t look like much today. There are no buildings and you can barely find a pile of old boards. The graveyard is still in decent shape. However, Aurora has quite a past.  It was originally thought to be in California but after a government survey it was determined that it was in Nevada. That itself was big deal. Still there was another incident in 1864 that was much more infamous. It was the murder of William Johnson by John Daly and his gang.

    On February 2^nd, 1864 John Daly and three of his gang members, William Buckley, James Masterson, John McDowell killed William Johnson over killing a horse thief named Jimmy Sears. Apparently, Sears stole a horse from Johnson’s Station, in what is now Wellington, Nevada. Johnson sent his hired hand to recover the horse, which he did and ended up killing Sears. The hired hand turned himself in and was let go with no charges. This made Daly angry since Sears was one of his partners in crime, and he swore to get revenge.

    Prior to February 2, John Daly already had a bad reputation from acts of violence that he had done in California. Daly and his gang were hired to protect the mine at $20.00 per day from claim jumpers. The Daly gang had members in prominent positions that were partners with him. He convinced people to hire one of his members (William Carder) as the town Marshal. For about two years there was reign of terror through the town. Evil elements entered politics. Good citizens were afraid to enter the town. 

    This is when things get complicated, Aurora was recently changed from Mono County California to Esmerelda County Nevada. The marshal of Aurora was William Carder and the Sheriff of now Esmeralda County  was D. G. Francis. Daniel Pine replaced Carder and a Citizen Safety Committee formed right after the murder.  400 citizens volunteered to join the committee to assist the Sheriff with the situation. A coroner’s inquest was done by public officials. Once the interviews were done and found that they believed that John Daly and his gang were guilty, the Citizen Safety Committee took over until the hanging was done. 

    On February 9^th John Daly, William Buckley, James Masterson and John McDowell were hung till their deaths. They are buried outside the Aurora Cemetery in unmarked graves. Nevada Territory Governor Nye, US Marshall Wasson and Provost Marshal Van Bokkelen arrived and stayed three nights. The Governor ordered the Safety Committee to return weapons to the armory and end all activities of the Committee. And all were threatened to be thrown in Fort Churchill if any more vigilante activity continued. Once the governor left, the Committee continued to round up roughs, to the towns dismay.

 For further reading I would suggest reading my Sources:

Book: The Last Days of the Daly Gang by Clifford Alpheus Shaw

Book: Mineral County Nevada Volume 1 and 4 by Sue Silver