David Monroe Tyrrell was born in about 1829 in Scotland. We don’t know who his parents were and we don’t know how or when he came west. He settled in California and he was the foreman of the Overman on the Comstock. He was the mining supervisor of the Stewart and Hennings Claim.
In 1865 he married Emily Amanda Rockwell at Donner Lake, California. This was Emily’s fourth marriage. We do not know if David had previously been married. Emily had four children from her previous marriages: Charles Porter Brizzee, born 5 September 1852 in Sacramento, California; Henry Willard Brizzee Jr., born 29 April 1854 in Sacramento, California; William Richard Woolsey, born 29 June 1857 in Niles, Alameda, California; and Lulu Belle Woolsey, born 14 May 1860 in Washington, Alameda, California. David became the father to all four of the children. We believe he may have adopted Lulu Belle but we do not know about William Richard. He did not adopt Charles or Henry.
According to the 1870 census David and Emily were living with their children in Gold Hill, Nevada.
David and Emily also lived in Aurora, Esmeralda, Nevada. On October 11, 1879 the “Esmeralda Herald” published this story:
“David Monrow Tyrrell, for some time past the foreman of the Overman on the Comstock, has been appointed Superintendent of the Real Del Monte at this place. Mr. Tyrrell is an old and well known miner of many years experience on this coast. Twenty years ago at Alleghantown he had forgotten more about practical mining than nine/tenths of the miners, so-called of the present day known. No better man could have been selected for the position of superintendent here. He is expected to assume charge about the 16th of the present month.”
In about 1880 David and Emily bought a ranch at Grouse Creek, Utah. Their cabin was at Etna. All three of their sons lived in the general area of Grouse Creek.
From a letter written 4 October 1887 to her son, William Richard, with a return address of San Francisco, Emily says that David was in Utah working like a dog. It is probable that David and Emily had a home in San Francisco and the ranch in Grouse Creek. Lulu Belle, their daughter, and her husband Jack were also living in San Francisco at that time.
David M. Tyrrell died 25 April 1897 in the Saint Marks Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah. He had suffered from a heart disease and had been down for two weeks. David is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.