150 Years Ago
Tempestuous night. High winds blowing culminated in a gale so furious as to be entitled significant to a tornado. People sleeping in brick buildings were awakened by the jarring of walls, signs were torn from fastenings, shingles were torn from roofs, shrubbery and trees were prostrated. A stable belonging to Drs. Munckton and Warner was completely wrecked, the bell tower of the Warren Engine Company was blown flat to the ground (the bell sustained no injury), and the front of a blacksmith’s shop near the White house went down.
130 Years Ago
All sorts. Regent Getchell came down from Virginia City. Tornadoes, cyclones are still mangling up the face of nature in the East. Judge Wright is now a grandfather, his son, Stanley, having become the father of a 12-pound girl.
110 Years Ago
San Francisco ruins (continued from Wednesday). The tremendous heat from the fires was so intense that men stationed to protect the structure were driven away. The heat destroyed many of the tall buildings as it did the Fairmont. The Post Office was saved from fire, but shows the effect of the earthquake with massive stone cracked in a hundred places. Concrete reinforced with a steel frame back and asbestos between floors are needed in San Francisco. According to Underwriters figures, San Francisco losses are $113,441,595.
70 Years Ago
Carson High Celebrates “C” Day. Senior class members will have the opportunity to supervise work as the annual and increasingly popular “C” day is held. Seniors watch fellow students of lesser importance trudge up the side of the mountain to paint the large “C” on the side of the hill. Their work is followed by a picnic. Line committee includes: Frank Cliff, Dale James, Mickey Laxalt, Joe Pieretti.
50 Years Ago
State hopper. Nevada’s hope in the most serious of tongue-in-cheek competition is a four-pound wonder called “Slattery’s People.” The spotted frog was found at a pond west of Reno by Nevada State Frog Racing Commissioner Donald Dondero, a Reno photographer, to represent Nevada in the Frog Jumping Competition at Angels Camp, Calif.
20 Years Ago
Snaps from the past is the Adolph Sutro home at Sutro (Nevada) that burned in December 1941. On Aug. 10, 1898, the Appeal ran the following about Sutro’s death: “On Monday last there died in San Francisco one of the most remarkable men this coast has ever produced. He came to Nevada ragged and poor, speaking the language with difficulty, and amassed a fortune of five million. He was projector and builder of the Sutro Tunnel ...”
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.