Nevada Genealogy Trails Storey County Hon. Joseph A. Conboie Biography

HON. JOSEPH A. CONBOIE, now county clerk and treasurer of Storey county, Nevada, was bom in Ireland, and when a child was brought to the United States by his parents. George and Mary G. (Neri) Conboie, both natives of Ireland. They settled in New York city, where his father was a constructor and builder, later he removed to Cincinnati, returning to New York and there dying, when fiftv years of age. His wife survived him and lived to be ninety years of age. They were the parents of five daughters and three sons, Mr. Conboie and three sisters alone surviving.

Mr. Conboie was educated in New York city, in the public schools and by private tutors, and remained with his parents until he was seventeen, learning the carpenter and bricklayer trades, but not liking tlie latter, he worked for some years as a carpenter. Later he read medicine with a physician, Dr. Bond, of New York, for some time. In 1859 he went to California and worked as a miner at Gold Run and Gold Flat, Nevada county. His party was disbanded, and he returned to Sacramento, where he found work at his trade. Then he moved to Chico, where he built for General Bidwell the Masonic hall and postoffice building. During the winter of 1861 he was in Sacramento, and participated in some of the incidents of the flood. Later he engaged in an undertaking business in that city, and thus continued until 1874, when he sold out and bought a drug store in San Jose, but as it did not prove a success he sold the property for six thousand dollars and went to San Francisco and remained two years. Thence he went to Virginia City and engaged in the undertaking business, and is now the oldest in that line in the city. He has given much attention to his business, and is very capable and in demand whenever his offices are required. A patent of his has been found very desirable for holding the hands of the deceased in place, and he follows many original ideas in his work. Like many others in Virginia City, Mr. Conboie has taken an active interest in mining stock, and still has holdings.

Mr. Conboie is a Republican and was coroner in Sacramento. In 1895 he was elected to the Nevada legislature, but was defeated for the following term. He was then elected to the state senate, as it was believed that the incumbent could not retain his seat and the position of army paymaster, but he could and did. Mr. Conboie was returned to his present responsible office by a good majority. Mr. Conboie is held in the highest esteem throughout the state. He served on the staff of Major General Keating with rank of colonel, and upon the staff of two of the succeeding governors, and is now on the staff of Governor Sparks with the same rank. For the past forty years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and for twenty years a Knight of Pythias, and is on the staff of Major General Carnabun with the rank of colonel in the uniform rank.

In 1876 he was happily married to Alice Agnes Fuller, a native of California and a daughter of Richard Fuller, who was a connection of the family of Chief Justice Fuller. One son was born of this union, namely. Joseph A., Jr., now married and a resident of San Francisco. Mrs. Conboie died in 1888.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904