Nevada State Library and Archives photo Carson City Fire Station No. 1 was built in 1954 to house the all-volunteer Warren Engine Company.
Saturday
155 Years Ago
All sorts: Doc Sharp, the dentist, was back in town after a two-month whaling voyage on the waters of the Carson. He has been fatting himself on turkeys and trout (caught by nitroglycerine) and has had his breast plate mended.
140 Years Ago
Wayside notes: The French Canadians had a hop at Circe’s Hotel, which was a pleasant affair.
120 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Geo H. Meyers, whole and retail dealer in choice – family – groceries. This store carries at all times the lowest market rates. Customers will find they can purchase the best goods for the least money.”
70 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Carson Theater, ‘Indiscretion of an American Wife’ with Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. Also showing ‘Miss Robin Crusoe’ with Amanda Blake and George Nadar. Cartoon and ‘Autumn in Rome.’”
60 Years Ago
Test site: Mercury — The 200-day old Nevada test site strike ended with a pledge that more than 3,000 union members will return to work. The craft and trade union members were off the job in sympathy with 134 radiation safety technicians still on strike.
Sunday
155 Years Ago
Catching the contagion: The Indian men and boys have caught the baseball contagion and happy ragamuffins, young and old, take much delight in batting and tossing and getting their fingers hurt catching the ball as their more enlightened teachers.
140 Years Ago
Leaf albums: The leaf album craze has broken out in Carson with young ladies gathering Autumn leaves and producing beautiful engravings by a printing process. The engravings are bound in a book. It is done by obtaining a slab of plate glass and spreading upon it a daub of printers’ ink, getting a small roller and rolling it over the ink, then laying the leaf on the inked glass and drawing the roller over it. It is placed between a folded sheet of paper, then pressed and rubbed — take out the leaf, and there is a print. One young lady claims to have preserved 68 varieties of Ormsby County leaves.
120 Years Ago
A rich find: A Piute [sic] Indian by the name of Jimmie Hart brought a sample of very rich rock from the Klueny ranch area. The ore was taken from a ledge, and indications are that it is a very rich find. Interested parties are investigating the matter, and if there is anything in the proposition, will develop it to its fullest extent. (Silver State)
70 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Carson Theater — ‘The Caine Mutiny’ with Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, and Van Johnson.”
60 Years Ago
Security: The Secret Service will expand its machinery for presidential protection significantly in the next few months, adding 75 agents, clerks and technical personnel. Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon said, “The basic emphasis will be on more effective advance and preventive work by the service in connection with presidential travel and use of sophisticated equipment.”
Monday
155 Years Ago
Spiritualistic tricks (London): Spiritualists in London have been in the habit of producing effects by means of a too materialistic nature. W.C. Faulkner, philosophical instrument maker of London, states for many years he has had a large-scale business for spirit rapping magnets and batteries, expressly made for concealment under the floor, in cupboards, under tables, and even for the interior of the center support of large round tables and boxes. Prepared wire can be placed under carpets and oilcloths…. These were made for spirit-rapping, and the rappers carefully placed. There are drums and bells which will ring and beat at command.
140 Years Ago
Wayside notes: Mrs. Gov. Adams gave a dinner party in honor of Cleveland’s election. A miniature representation of the White House, in sugar, was the “tour de force” of the table.
120 Years Ago
Glittering Goldfield: Jim Sweeney is back from a trip to Goldfield. There are 8,000 people there. There is a restaurant called the Palms that makes one think he is in San Francisco —waiters dress in suits that flit about. There is a wealth of decoration and costly bric-a-brac, and the menu is equal to anything in the west. There are automobiles running between Tonopah and Goldfield, and the fare is $5 a trip — carries seven passengers and is always full.
70 Years Ago
Boys sail: Three adventurous boys ages 14, 13 and nine went “sailing” around the windswept and choppy San Francisco Bay in a plastic wading pool and inflated air mattress. The Coast Guard pulled two of the youngsters from the wading pool and a third off the air mattress. The three were wet but unharmed. (San Francisco)
60 Years Ago
Fallout: (United Nations, New York — AP) Radioactive fallout in 1963 from nuclear explosions exceeded that of any previous year. The committee’s 1963 report said long-lived fallout in 1962 was three times that of 1960-61.
Tuesday
155 Years Ago
Roll of honor: The names of the following pupils appear upon the Roll of Honor of the Grammar Department of the Public School for the month of November: No. 1 — Edward Watkins, Nellie Welch, Annie Martin; No. 2 — Maggie Sprague, Mary Musgrove, Flora Heslop, Stella Gates, Jerusha Sprague, Katie Hodgkinson…
140 Years Ago
Wayside notes: Princess Sarah Winnemucca arrived in Reno and had a big talk with her tribe.
Born: To the wife of J.J. Kelly Oct. 14, a son, and christened on Nov. 25, Grover Cleveland Kelly, a young Democratic eight-pounder.
120 Years Ago
Great discovery: Joe Muller, a guard at the prison, was hunting an escaped life termer and found him hidden away in the trunk of a petrified mastodon. More mastodons have been unearthed, and now they are digging them out in an excellent state of preservation. It is Mr. Considine’s idea to use them as ornaments, and he has stationed half a dozen round the yard and at the entrance, and they are majestic and life like. These animals are well worth $100,000 a piece, and Sheriff Kinney will be out there assessing them. (Churchill Standard)
70 Years Ago
Hauling Christmas mail: It will take an average of 200 mail-packed trains a day to haul the nation’s Christmas mail between Dec. 1 and Christmas Day. If each of these trains carries a million pieces of mail, that would average enough to give every American, Canadian and Mexican an average of 25 Christmas gifts each according to the Association of American Railroads.
60 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Join us tonight! (and every Friday night) weiner roast and buffet — at the fireplace in our cocktail lounge, Greeno Hotel, 108 E. Proctor.”
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.