Past Pages March 27

130 YEARS AGO

Sam Wright as a temperance reformer: Sam Wright was sent for to bury a man who had died in a lodging house, but the party who made the order made a mistake in the room number. Wright and his assistant went to the place with a coffin and placed it in two chairs beside the bed ... and started to lift the man out of the bed. The man was just clear of the bed when he opened his eyes and remarked, "What's up?" The two men dropped the corpse and got to the door like a flash. The party, seeing the coffin, thought he had the delirium tremens (alcohol withdrawal) and began to yell lustily ... "Don't plant me now ... Don't you see I ain't dead!" This was quite satisfactory and the man was so affected by the adventure that he hasn't touched a drop of liquor since.

120 YEARS AGO

All sorts: The Indian School is nearly finished. Miss Laura Friend has returned from California. D.L. Bliss and son have returned to Carson. Seven bars of bullion arrived at the Mint today.

70 YEARS AGO

"Like father - like son." True to the ideals of his grandfather to help "the great white father," Chief Winnemucca, grandson of the Indian chieftain has joined Uncle Sam's thousands of census enumerators.

50 YEARS AGO

Conforte "Ranch" burned by Sheriff: Storey County Sheriff Cecil Morrison resorted to a torch to eliminate one thorn in the collective side of the county's elective officer - one of two brothels at the Triangle ranch near Wadsworth. With a court order signed by Carson City district judge Richard Hanna, Morrison touched fire to the frame structure after the girls were allowed to remove a few of their personal belongings from the structure.

20 YEARS AGO

America returns to daylight time on Sunday. The law calls for the change to be the first Sunday in April.

10 YEARS AGO

The state unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent in the Carson City area between January and February according to Carol Jackson, Chief of the Department of of Employment Training and Rehabilitation.

• Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.