Sadly, not much is known about the life of Stella Campbell. This is what we know.
Anything that I include in italics are just my thoughts, they are in no way verified, they are purely conjecture.
Trigger warning: suicide
1886
Stella Campbell is born; one source says we don’t even know if this is her real name and I was unable to find her parents.
I am inclined to believe that this is her real name because they were able to track her mother down after her death.
July 23, 1909
Stella, called “Brick” by her friends, begins drinking that morning with two friends: Ed Drake and Birdie Kelly. All three worked at The Big Casino; Ed was a drummer and Stella & Birdie were chorus girls.
Ed Drake later said that Stella was “despondent” and “cried frequently.” Around seven that evening he reported that Stella said, “Ed, here’s regards,” before downing another drink. This one was full of mercury and she began convulsing almost immediately.
While they waited for a doctor, Ed, Birdie and another friend, Aria Lorimer, tried giving her remedies for that time: olive oil, mustard, egg whites and milk. Stella was taken to Miners Hospital around ten o’clock. One source notes that she said to Ed, “Why didn’t you let me go through?”
August 4, 1909
Stella passes away at the hospital at 4:55 am. Her cause of death is listed as “bichloride of mercury poison.”
Note: On her grave marker it reads, “Employed & lived at the Big Casino & Dance Hall. Lower Main St. Tonopah. Died in her room.” They may have meant that is where she initially attempted suicide.
Her mother was living in Washington DC when she was told of her daughter’s passing; she made plans to come to Nevada immediately. One source says her mother thought she may have been married but there isn’t anything to corroborate this.
Stella very well could have been married. She could have left to go out west, gotten married and told her mother via letter or telegram. Correspondence wasn’t always easy back then, so that may have been all her mother heard about him. If he left her or vice versa, she may not have told her mother. It seems unlikely that he would have died because her mother or friends in Nevada would probably have known if she was widowed.
August 5, 1909
Stella is buried in Old Tonopah Cemetery.
January 1910
Birdie Kelly attempts suicide but survives. It comes out later that she and Stella had a suicide pact, but Birdie didn’t go through with it when she and Stella intended. She later moved to Oakland, CA with her sisters.
References
Where to find Stella
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