Hi Bob,

Thank you for the response (and research!). Of course, I also have to
explain how the tag came to end up in SE Nevada and I am not quite sure
until I have a good grasp on which George E. Corey it might represent.
There are PLENTY of George E. Corey's out there. There is another one in
the area of Hamlet, NY that may be a slightly better fit. He served in the
18th Volunteer PA cavalry in the Civil War and I can't seem to find him in
the 1870 census. He does end up back in the Hamlet, NY area as an oil
prospector in 1880 and he ended up passing away in the 1890s. This mining
town in SE Nevada seems to have some sort of link to Civil War veterans.
Although Corey's cavalry never ended up near Nevada, he might have heard
about it through colleagues. He might have made his own personalized
identification tag / miner's tag since he was going to be so far from home
so that someone would notify his wife if something happened. That's my best
guess at the moment. But, the 1868 date is throwing me off unless, as you
suggested, it is commemorative.

Shannon


On Sat, Oct 3, 2015 at 6:59 AM, Bob Skiles <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Shannon,
>
> My guess would be that it is the fob off the end of a "cheap" watch-chain
> once belonging to George E. Corey of Hamlet, New York.
>
> A further guess might be that he could have been a student enrolled at the
> famed (Methodist) Cazenovia Seminary located in that town, (and even wilder
> and further imagined), as outlined in the history of that institution [
> First Fifty Years of Cazenovia Seminary 1825-1875: Its History, Proceedings
> ... 1877 ... see at page 52, here:
> https://books.google.com/books?id=5K9GAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA683&dq=%22Hamlet+NY%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDUQ6AEwA2oVChMIvL6sy7KmyAIVjJINCh1chQc7#v=onepage&q=watch&f=false
> ] he might have been presented a similar watch by his father [such was a
> traditional gift at the time on such an occasion ... ca. 1868] as that
> described for an actual enrolling seminarian, one Daniel D. Pratt:
>
> "His father made him a present of an old "bull's-eye" silver watch, valued
> at five dollars - not so much for its time-keeping capabilities, for it
> would not run a tick, but for the solid silver in it."
>
> The chains and fobs on those things, however, often tended to be less
> precious, like your example ... NOT solid silver, only plated.
>
> Regards,
>
> PS - For whatever it may be worth, according to the same source-book, Mr.
> John Williams, a teacher at Cazenovia, then [1877] deceased, had married
> Miss Eliza Corey in 1831. Further, according to another source [1884 Annual
> Report American Missionary Association 38:51] Miss Julia M. Corey of
> Hamlet, NY, was then a student at the LeMoyne Normal Institute at Memphis,
> TN.
>
>
> On 10/2/2015 11:59 PM, Shannon S. Mahoney wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have any ideas about the utilitarian purposes for this tag? I
>> would appreciate it (you can click past the dropbox sign in):
>>
>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/oa5ilmtgxriipe6/24060%20LC_Miner%20Tag.jpg?dl=0
>>
>> The tag reads: "Geo. E. Corey. / 1868 / Hamlet. N.Y."
>>
>> It was found in an 1860s mining camp in southeastern Nevada. I'll be
>> giving
>> a paper on this site at SHA 2016. So, stay tuned.
>>
>> Shannon
>>
>>
>