The first Territorial Legislature meet Oct. 1, 1861, at Abraham Curry's Warm Springs Hotel. Today the Nevada State Prison occupies the site.
Saturday
150 Years Ago
Impromptu deputy. Fred Ash, inspired by the high prerogative of every American citizen to render aid to officers of the law, or take their place on a pinch, snarled a perpetual old drunk into jail, yesterday, and locked him up.
140 Years Ago
General S.H. Marlette was down from the lake yesterday. He says the nights are so cold up there that fires must be lighted.
120 Years Ago
Don Biggs, a sheep buyer for King Johnson returned last evening form Halleck with a story of his dynamite find year that place. Biggs was during along the country road and as he crossed a bride noticed something peculiar sticking from under a rafter. He investigated and found two and a half sticks of dynamite, fuse and a box of caps. There is no mining in the area and the mystery cannot be solved by the townspeople. Biggs sent the explosives to Ogden and railroad officials are working on the case, probably a well laid plot to hold up a train. — Gazette
60 Years Ago
A new high for traffic deaths during the Labor Day holiday has been reached. Five hundred and forty-five persons died nationwide during the weekend.
40 Years Ago
Two former Carson City Sheriff deputies have filed civil rights suits in U.S. District Court which they seek more than $1 million in connection with their firings last month.
Sunday
150 Years Ago
Work at the round house: The one-hundred-and-eighty-foot front of this apartment of the Mammoth V&T Railroad structure has a striking appearance and opens to view with eleven ironbound doors and the same number of smokestacks. Inside there is a track that diverges from the round table situated seventy-five yards east from the center of the building. A swarm of Chinese people travel back and forth on a train of six flats to and from the cuts along the road towards the tunnel where they load sand from the rocky hill. The turn table is the iron machine that the cars are to be turned on. It weighs sixteen and a half tons and is made by Sellers’ Co., Philadelphia.
140 Years Ago
They struck: A teacher found it difficult to obtain the prompt attendance of the boys in her Sunday school class. She would give the boys a bright penny to each who were in their places every Sunday. The plan worked well until one Sunday when not a boy was in his place. The next day while walking down the street, she met one of the boys. “Well, Johnnie, where were you yesterday?” “At home mum.” “But why did you and the other boys not come to Sunday-school and get your pennies?” “Oh, teacher because we’ve struck; we won’t come for less than two cents now.”
130 Years Ago
All sorts: An attempt was made to burn the Gold Hill school house.
The Creamery Company shipped 2,570 pounds of butter to California.
110 Years Ago
Quicksilver mines: Louis H. Pohle, superintendent for the Mercury Mines Company at Ione, says the company is shipping thirty flasks of quicksilver a week and that development operations in the mine are proving up tonnage in advance on a very satisfactory scale.
70 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Only 58 Days To Grow That Beard Make Your Costume for Nevada Day, Biggest Wingding in the West.”
30 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Murder on the V&T, Carson-Tahoe Hospital Auxiliary fundraiser, The Nevada State Railroad Museum… Tour the museum, ride the train, visit the silent auction, enjoy live music and dancing. Plus, top the night off with a dinner and murder mystery… $50 per person…”
Monday
150 Years Ago
Warren Company’s bell: Somebody tapped the bell about five o-clock, and there was a general rush for engines and hose charts. The alarm was just to let everybody know that the Little Giant was coming out for a leisurely squirt.
140 Years Ago
In brief: Gas will be introduced in the Mint Building.
Two stagecoaches and ten horses came down from the lake bringing one lady passenger.
J.A. Kerr, the postage stamp counterfeiter, was discharged from custody by U.S. commissioner Edwards.
130 Years Ago
All sorts: Lone highwaymen are prowling about Stockton.
Sells Big Circus rolled off the Nevada narrow gauge and down a bank—two killed and several wounded.
110 Years Ago
Advertisement: “What cash will buy: 15 lbs. sugar - $1; 50 lbs. Gold Medal flour - $1.50; 1 pkg. Kellogg’s corn flakes - 10 cents; 1 box fancy peaches - $1.19; basket fancy grapes, black or white-.35 cents. Signed Frank Lopez, the leading grocer.”
70 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Sky-Vue Drive-in Theatre, Admission 65 cents, children under 11 free. Show starts at 7:45 p.m. Snack bar—playing ‘Outpost in Malaya’ and ‘Under the Red Sea.’ Bring the family—We’ll warm baby’s bottle for you.”
30 Years Ago
9-11: Governor Kenny Guinn was presented a flag by the New York firefighters for his support during 9-11. The flag, one of 342, was used by firefighters when the tower collapsed. Guinn accepted the flag for Nevada at a Mills Park ceremony.
Tuesday
150 Years Ago
Morgan Mill: Mr. John Hanson was in town and said that the Morgan Mill was now crushing about 95 tons of Crown Point ore per day. The Brunswick is running light because of the clarity of water and the Mexican was shut down. The old flume, built in 1863, is being taken up and a new one is going down in its place. Everything about the Mexican Mill will be “ship shape and in Bristol fashion” when the waters do rise again.
140 Years Ago
Keeper of the toll house: “Dutch Charley” keeps the toll house and has cultivated a few acres of ground alongside the road. His log cabin lies at the foot of the rocks which tower above him nearly 1,000 feet high. He has a reservoir of water up on the hillside and runs a system of water works all over his cabin and grounds. A faucet provides cold spring water into his kitchen. In the front yards there is a fountain of four jets that throws its pearly streams into the air.
The toll gate is a long beam about 4 feet from the ground and is counter-balanced at one end. Simply pull a spring and liberate the lighter end, and it rises in the air several feet, giving the team a chance to go under. He lives alone, his dog, books and garden are his only companions.
130 Years Ago
Comedy, Jane, the Queen of Comedies: “Jane,” an English comedy, has had a successful career throughout the country. The humor of the play is so bright, and the complications so amusing, that one can see it a dozen times without losing interest.
110 Years Ago
Escaping 15-year-old: Joe Silva and two companions, appropriated their own use of a 1914 Cadillac roadster with full equipment in Sacramento and headed east. The two youth were overtaken at the Orphans’ Home. The slick youngster obeyed in part and reversed the car and threw it into high gear. They blew a tire and headed toward the hills. The youngsters had not been rounded up as of this writing.
70 Years Ago
Would be thief makes mistake: Chicago. Karl Fosslund admitted before a judge that he made a mistake when he tried to steal a parked car because the owner and two other persons were sitting in it at the time.
30 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Ironwood Cinema 8, 1760 U.S. Highway 395, Minden. ‘Jeepers Creepers 2’ with Ray Wise & Jonathan Breck, ‘Finding Nemo’ from Walt Disney, ‘Italian Job,’ Mark Wahlberg and Edward Norton, and ‘The Medallion ‘with Jackie Chan & Lee Evans.”
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.