USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 29
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 29
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 29
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Of manufactures in Nevada there is not much to be said. The assessors' reports for 1884, from which two counties must be subtracted as not sending in any abstracts, and others of which are visibly imper- fect, give 18 grist-mills, making 22,270 barrels of flour, besides which they ground 7,000 bushels of corn, and 22,000 of barley; 121 quartz-mills, crushing 349,688 tons of quartz; 24 smelting furnaces, reducing 64,076 tons of ore; 8 saw-mills and 3 planing-mills ; 8 borax factories, reducing 1,460 tons of the salt; and 25 breweries, manufacturing 246,354 gallons of beer. The Nevada foundry, established at Johntown near Silver City in 1862 by Mead, McCone, and Tascar, formerly of Placerville, was the pioneer iron works of Nevada. The firm removed to Silver City in 1864, where they erected a stone building at a cost of $125,000, employing from seventy-five to one hundred men in the foundry afterwards. The establishment was burned in 1872, when McCone, having purchased
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MANUFACTURES.
the entire interest, again removed to Virginia City, where he bought out the Fulton foundry, erected in 1863 by Thomas R. Jones. There was cast at this foundry, December 11, 1880, a fly-wheel centre for the Yellow Jacket hoisting works weighing 44,500 pounds, the largest casting hitherto made on the Pacific coast. It was here that the first engine and pump made in Nevada were constructed for the Bullion company in 1864. In 1862 Oliver Hyde started the Pioneer foundry at Gold Hill, and in 1864 another was opened at the same place by Greely, called the Gold Hill foundry, which cast the iron flag-staff erected on Mount Davidson in 1878. It was eighty feet high, made in three tubular sections, and replaced a wooden mast erected in 1863. The Pioneer cast the first Nevada cannon, an eight-pounder, in 1864. In 1869 Mead established the Union foundry, and in 1878 Frazer & Cummings established the Virginia foundry, which was removed to Reno in 1880.25
The first iron foundry of eastern Nevada was erected at Bullionville, in February 1873, for the railroad company. Iron works were opened at Eureka in 1880. The figure eight does not by any means rep- resent the number of saw-mills in Nevada, although it appears upon so authentic a document as the asses- sor's report to the surveyor-general. White Pine county alone had five in 1884, and other counties in proportion to their timber and population, But the manufacture of lumber is carried on to a greater ex- tent in Washoe than in any other, and in this business that modern invention, a wood and lumber flume, plays an important part. As I have before mentioned, the flume is V-shaped, wherein lies its great conduct- ing power. Flumes of a box shape were common
25 John Kewes in 1876 started a brass foundry at Virginia City, which suspended after about a year. Machinists received $6 per day in these foundries, blacksmiths $6.50, pattern makers $5.50, and other workmen $3.50 and $4. Kelly's Nev. Dir., 1862, 174; Dayton Lyon County Sentinel, July 16 and Aug. 13, 1864; Gold Hill News, March 21, 1865; Virginia City Chroni- icle, Feb, 6, 1878; Reno Gazette, Dee. 14, 1880; Id., Jan. 31, 1883.
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
enough, and had been used, to float timber down the mountains in California, but the wood lodged, and caused waste and destruction; the V form allowed it to move swiftly without obstruction. The first flume for transporting wood in Nevada was projected in 1865, to run from the west Carson river, in Alpine county, California, to Empire City, in Ormsby county, Nevada, thirty-two and a half miles, the fall being nine hundred and seventy-six feet. Among those who contemplated this scheme was J. W. Haines, who adopted the V-shaped flume, and on being satis- fied of its advantages patented it, in September 1870. At that time there were about twenty-five miles of lum- ber flumes in the state, which increased as their econ- omical value became known. In 1872 J. W. Haines sued William Sharon for an infringement of patent ; but he was beaten in court on its being shown that certain persons, for economical reasons, had used flumes constructed similarly, though without having any idea of the superlative merit of this form over the box flume. 26
In 1874, several other companies having been formed in the mean time, the bonanza firm, for them- selves and other mining operators on the Comstock, having by their agent surveyed and purchased twelve thousand acres of the finest timbered land on the summits of the Sierra, formed the Pacific Wood, Lum-
26 James W. Haines was born in Stanstead, Canada, near the Vermont line, on the 17th of Aug., 1826, his father being a Vermonter of English descent, and his grandfather a revolutionary soldier. In 1833 they left Can- ada for Ashtabula county, Ohio, where they lived upon a farm. When he was 20 years of age he began to follow the lakes, and remained in that ser- vice for about three years, when news of the gold found in Cal. brought him to this coast with a company from Ohio. After a brief experience of min- ing he opened a restaurant in Sac., and made considerable money; went into merchandising with Z. Lake, also from Ohio, and later with A. J. Web- ster. During the squatter riots he was on the squatter side of the quarrel, and was arrested and sent to the prison brig, but was soon released. Having made about $20,000, he returned home and married, but on revisiting Cal. found times somewhat changed. Cholera carried off his wife and numerous friends in 1852. His partner sold out to him and he took another. In 1854, during the excitement caused by the know-nothing party in politics, he was elected marshal of Sac. by that party. In 1857 he purchased an interest in a hay rancho of 8,000 acres, his partner being Alonzo Cheaney. In 1859 he
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FLUME COMPANY.
ber and Flume company, whose name explains its purpose. At a great outlay of labor and capital the machinery for a steam saw-mill was transported to the middle fork of Evans creek, half way to the sum- mit, where it was set up, and began making the lum- ber to be used in the flume. Another mill, two miles further up the mountains, was erected immediately after the first. The flume was made V-shaped, of twenty-four-inch plank two inches in thickness, and had a capacity of five hundred cords of fire-wood, or 500,000 feet of lumber, daily. To gain a uniform grade it was necessary to build it on a trestle-work and stringers the whole distance. To make it strong enough to support heavy timber, it was braced longi- tudinally and across, the supports set in mud-sills. It was fifteen miles in length when opened, terminat- ing in the Truckee meadows at Huffaker's, and the water supply came from Hunter creek, being dammed up in reservoirs. Great as was the expense, the out- lay was soon returned in savings and profits. It was estimated that in twenty years $80,000,000 worth of timber had been taken from the forests on Lake Tahoe and Truckee river, and that the supply remain- ing in the basins of the Truckee and its tributaries was 5,000,000,000 feet, after having cut 40,000,000 annually for ten years. It will be seen from this that the lumber manufacture of the treeless state is, after all, a very important one. The total length of wood flumes in Douglas, Ormsby, and Washoe counties is
sold his store, and again visited the east. On returning he found great ex- eitement prevailing concerning silver, and everybody going to Nevada. He followed with fat eattle and sheep for the miners, and through this business became interested in the young state, finally purehasing a raneho of 800 aeres in what is now Douglas eo. He was elected a member of the first and second constitutional conventions. In 1870 he was elected to the state sen- ate, and was chosen presidential eleetor for Grant. He was also appointed by Grant to receive the C. P. railroad on its completion, together with W. T. Sherman of S. F. and F. A. Tritle of Nevada. Gov. Bradley appointed him commissioner to the centennial exposition at Phila, and he was a second time elected to the state senate. His influence has always been used in seeuring the best interests of the people of Nevada. A man of strong indi- viduality and great activity. His landed interests in Nevada and California are large.
HIST. NEV. 19
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
over eighty miles; the lumber transported in 1879 33,300,000 feet, and the wood 171,000 cords. Large tracts of timber land have been purchased by capital- ists, and the tendency is toward moneyed men owning and controlling those two great natural resources, timber and water, in addition to a monopoly of graz- ing and desert lands.
There is, perhaps, no section of the union in which agricultural development is so largely dependent on irrigation as the state of Nevada. Though in the report of the state surveyor-general for 1888 30,000 acres were classed as agricultural land, with the ex- ception of a narrow strip on the banks of the larger watercourses, its entire surface is practically unavail- able for tillage without other moisture than is sup- plied by the rainfall. With a water area of more than 1,000,000 acres, and with at least 10,000,000 acres of irrigable land, little, as yet, has been accom- plished in this direction, except in the Carson and Humboldt valleys. Within recent years, however, numerous projects have been considered, among which is a tunnel through the eastern slope of the Sierra, starting from a point near Genoa, and tap- ping Lake Tahoe, whereby an immense volume of water would be furnished, not only for irrigating vast sections of the country, but for manufacturing and other purposes.
In 1888 the sum of $100,000 was appropriated by the state legislature for a hydrographic survey, and a state board of reclamation and internal im- provement appointed, of which Senator Evan Wil- liams was made chairman, the remaining members of the board being senators Bradley, Blakeslee, and Springmeyer.
Artesian wells have been successful in some local- ities and have failed in others, though in the great valleys the conditions are such that the existence of vast subterranean basins is assured beyond a perad- venture, for to these valleys there are no outlets, and
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SOCIETY.
the greater portion of the vast streams of water that flow from the mountains sinks below the surface. In 1872 a bill was introduced in Congress by Kendall, of Nevada, to authorize the sinking of wells on the public domain, with a view to the reclamation of desert lands. Congress subsequently offered a grant of one hundred and sixty acres to every person who obtained a flowing well, which stimulated experi- ment in this direction. The cost of sinking wells to a great depth has varied from three or four dollars to twenty, according to the nature of the rock to be penetrated. The Nevada legislature in 1879 enacted a law providing for a bounty of two dollars per foot for sinking a flowing well in any part of the state below a depth of five hundred feet. Per- sons who at the passage of the act had already sunk three hundred feet were included in the bounty. Congress was also asked to make liberal donations of arable land to such persons.
The social condition of Nevada has undergone all those transitions for which mining communities are noted, and in which recklessness and crime are more conspicuous than honor and virtue. Not because miners are worse than other men, or because the criminal classes outnumber the law and order class, but as the shadow of that small satellite, the moon, being nearer, obscures at times the broad face of the sun, so a little evil ofttimes obscures much good. The non-productive, labor-shirking leeches of society swarm where they expect to draw rich blood. The prospec- tor, on the contrary, is a serious-minded man, willing to toil over the mountains and through the rugged cañons, where nature hides her treasures, and it is he who has developed Nevada, and not the stock-gam- blers, faro-dealers, Jawyers, and whisky-sellers. From 1846 to 1880 there were over four hundred homicides. Comparatively few were downright murders for rob-
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
bery, but many were from hasty quarrels over mining or land claims, and were from the excitement caused by intoxicating drink and mingling in the heterogene- ous crowds of new towns where there were no com- fortable homes.
The Chinese were never welcomed to Nevada, and were discriminated against in the laws and the con- stitution of the state, their employment being also prohibited by the charters of the railroads constructed within the state after 1871. They were first intro- duced in 1858, to work on the ditch which Orson Hyde began and J. H. Rose completed, to take water from the Carson river to use in mining at the mouth of Gold cañon. Once in the country they could not be expelled. In 1859 they were working in the mines of Walker river and other localities, but were never tolerated on the Comstock, where the miners' union took care of the question. They were employed in building the Virginia and Truckee railroad, whose franchise- was granted before restrictive laws were passed, and also by the Central Pacific, in grading its road-bed, a kind of work which Americans by common consent have usually left to foreign laborers. But when other industries were approached, the race prejudice showed itself; yet in vain, for in spite of miners' unions, legislative enactments, and popular feeling, the scarcity of house-servants compelled their employment in that capacity, as well as in that of laundrymen, farm-hands, and wood-choppers. Nor was it possible to prevent them from working in the mines where there was no organization against them. An anti-Chinese society was formed in Virginia City in 1879, and further legislation was had against em- ploying them, and yet in 1882 they held their ground in spite of leagues, had begun to engage in quartz mining, and were applying to purchase state lands.
I have already referred to the manner in which the state supported a common school system, by paying interest on a large loan from the school fund derived
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EDUCATION.
from the sale of the school lands. The common-school laws of Nevada are enlightened and liberal, and a certain amount of education is compulsory. The total number of public schools in the state in 1880 was 195; total number of districts, 109 ; average monthly pay of male teachers, $100, of female teachers, $77; whole number of primary schools 81, of intermediate 11, unclassified 81, grammar schools 19, high schools 3. The average rate of county school tax on $100 was 332 cents. There was also a number of private schools, with a total attendance of about 1,000 pupils, promi- nent among them being the seminary established at Reno in 1876, mainly through the efforts of Bishop Whitaker, of the episcopal church. The state uni- versity, originally located at Elko, and in 1886 re- moved to Reno, had two years later 115 students in attendance, with a corps of zealous and efficient teachers, and included a business department, a nor- mal school, and schools of liberal arts, agriculture, mechanic arts, and mining. Under judicious man- agement its land grant of 90,000 acres, together with state appropriations, furnished ample funds for its support. In connection with it was the agricultural experiment station, for which, as in other states and territories, $15,000 was appropriated by the general government. The appropriation for an agricultural college was diverted, with the consent of Congress, to found a college of mining and kindred sciences.
After the Mormons, the pioneer of religion in Ne- vada was Jesse L. Bennett, a methodist, who preached in Carson valley in 1859. In that year a methodist society was organized at Genoa by A. L. Bateman, and another at Carson by Bennett, who also preached the first sermon ever delivered in Virginia City, on C street, in 1861. When the collection was taken up, the humble itinerant was surprised to find he had nearly a hatful of gold and silver coins. Soon after Samuel B. Rooney was appointed to preach regularly at Virginia City, and Bennett was stationed at Washoe.
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
Rooney built a small wooden church at Virginia, on the corner of Taylor and D streets, costing only $2,000. In 1862 C. V. Anthony, his successor, erected a brick edifice costing $45,000, which was dedicated February 14, 1864, and paid for by John C. Fall and Ex-governor Blasdel. A parsonage was also erected, at a cost of $2,000. Nevada had been made a district by the California conference in 1861, N. E. Peck presiding elder; and in 1864 it was erected into an independent conference, whose first annual session was held at Virginia in September 1865, and its sixteenth in September 1880. In July 1871 a high wind unroofed the methodist church at Virginia, and blew down one of the walls. Before repairs were begun, a fire completed the destruction, and a frame building, costing $8,000, was substituted by T. H. McGarth; but on Christmas eve, 1872, another wind wrought $3,000 damage, and in the great fire of 1875 this building was entirely consumed. Finally, in 1876, a frame church, costing $20,000, was erected on the old site. A society was organized among the negroes of Virginia in 1873, under the jurisdiction of the African methodist conference, which in June 1875 completed a small church, only to have it destroyed in the great fire of October.
The second methodist church in Nevada was erected at Dayton in 1863 by J. N. Maddox. An incendiary fire destroyed the building in 1876. In 1863 a church and parsonage were erected at Washoe by McGarth, who preached there for two years. The building was donated to the school trustees about 1873. The methodist church at Gold Hill was erected in 1865 by A. F. Hitchcock, and was a small wooden build- ing. On the 11th of April, 1873, Valentine Right- myer, pastor of this church, died of lingering starvation, having a small salary, a large family, and too much pride to reveal his extreme want, a sacrifice all the more cruel and needless in a community where plenty and liberality were the rule. The methodist church
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RELIGION.
at Austin was built by the management of J. L. Tre- fen in a peculiar manner. When mining shares were subscribed, as they often were, he accepted them gratefully, and pooling the stock organized a metho- dist mining company, of which he became agent, sell- ing the claims in the east, and realizing $250,000 on paper. Out of this amount a brick church was erected, with a fine organ and a commodious parsonage, costing $35,000. But the shares had been sold on install- ments, and the mining furore had subsided, so that no further collections could be made, leaving the concern $6,000 in debt. The church was sold to the county for a court-house, but subsequently redeemed, the society clearing itself from debt. The methodists of Carson City had no church edifice till 1867, when, on September 8th, Bishop Thompson of Ohio dedicated a stone structure which had cost $10,000, and which had been built chiefly by the exertions, and not a little by the personal labor of, Warren Nims. In 1874 the building was repaired and improved. The only meth- odist house of worship at White Pine was the broker's hall at Treasure City, where episcopal service were first held, which building was purchased for a meeting house'in 1872, but subsequently abandoned. No other church has supplanted it. Winnemucca had a frame church, built by George B. Hinckle about 1873; Unionville a frame church, built by L. Ewing ; and Reno a frame church, erected in 1870 by A. R. Ricker. Eureka had a church and parsonage, erected by John A. Gray in 1875, which were destroyed in the fire of 1879. Being partially rebuilt soon after- ward, the church was again burned in another con- flagration in 1880. Another edifice was erected, under the charge of J. T. Ladd, which was dedicated April 17, 1881. At Ruby Hill the methodist so- ciety erected a church in 1876, completing and paying for it before any preacher had come among them. Their first pastor was R. A. Ricker. Mason valley has had a small frame church and a parsonage since
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
1880 ; the former the result of the exertions of Mr Ladd. Methodist societies were established in Tus- carora and Elko. The membership of the methodist church in 1880 was 470, with 13 preachers, and the value of church property $67,300. Losses by fire aggregate $59,600, and abandoned property in de- serted mining camps $6,500. These figures do not represent all that has been spent in church property, which is $160,500.
The first catholic church edifice in Nevada was erected at Genoa in 1860 by Father Gallagher, on King street. It was blown down in 1862, and an- other erected in its place. In 1861 the first religious services were held in Virginia City, by Mr Smeath- man, an episcopal clergyman, and in the following year Franklin S. Rising, of New York, began a mis- sion for his church in Nevada, which was followed by a visit from the bishop of the north-west territories, Talbot of Indiana, who held services at Aurora Octo- ber 4, 1863, and organized a parish with William H. Stoy as its pastor, who was not able long to keep his restless flock together. St Paul's episcopal church at Virginia City was consecrated by Bisop Talbot on this visit, and received as its rector Ozi William Whitaker, afterwards bishop. St John's church was erected at Gold Hill in 1864, and occupied December 18th. It was taken charge of in 1865 by H. D. Lathrop of Ohio, and dedicated October 13, 1867, by Bishop Kip of California. An episcopal church was erected at Silver City in 1874-5 by W. R. Jenvey. Trinity church, Carson, was erected in 1868, and con- secrated June 19, 1870, by Bishop Whitaker, George B. Allen rector. A parish was organized at Dayton December 26, 1863, under the name of church of the ascension. Bishop Talbot held services at Austin in 1863, and Marcus Lane of Michigan ministered there in 1868; but the parish of St George was not organ- ized until 1873, with Christopher S. Stephenson in charge, who was succeeded by S. C. Blackiston, of
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CHURCHES.
Colorado. The church of St George at Austin, built of brick, was the gift of Allen A. Curtis, superinten- dent of the Manhattan mine. The bell was presented by John A. Paxton and N. S. Gage, and the organ by James S. Porteous. The cost of the church and rectory was $17,000. The first episcopal services in White Pine district were held in Broker's hall, Treas- ure City, in the morning of June 10, 1869, and in a justice's court room at Hamilton, on the evening of the same day, by Bishop Whitaker. In September St Luke's parish was organized at Hamilton, with Samuel P. Kelly, of Rhode Island, rector. A small wooden church was erected and consecrated July 14, 1872. Bishop Whitaker visited Pioche September 13, 1870, preaching in a drinking saloon to a large congregation. A year afterward H. L. Badger of Ohio, commenced a mission at that place. The town had just been destroyed by fire, and services were held at private residences until July 21, 1872, when a small frame church and rectory were completed. Eureka also received a visit from the bishop of Ne- vada September 28, 1870, who held services in a canvas restaurant at nine o'clock in the evening, ow- ing to a delay caused by an accident to the coach conveying him. During the following winter, Mr Kelly, of Hamilton, preached occasionally. In May, 1871, St James parish was organized, and the corner stone of the church laid by the bishop. A rectory was completed that year, and occupied by W. Hen- derson; but the church, which was built of stone, was not consecrated until July 28, 1872. In February 1873 the parish of Trinity church was organized, and services held by the bishop in the court house for three years. In the meantime, William Lucas of Ohio was installed as rector, and a church edifice com- pleted June 8, 1878. The first episcopal services were held at Belmont in 1872 by Mr Kelly, S. B. Moore of Pittsburgh taking charge of St Stephen's parish the following year, which was incorporated
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
February 16, 187.4, and a neat wooden church erected. It was consecrated in 1875 by Daniel Flack, of Rochester, New York. The cost of the episcopal churches of Nevada has been about $140,000.
The first catholic church building at Genoa, as I have said, was blown down in 1862, not being entirely completed at the time. Patrick Manogue then took charge of Virginia parish, and erected a better one, which was consecrated to St Mary of the mountains. The passionists in 1862-3 erected a frame church between Virginia and Gold Hill, which was afterward removed to Gold Hill; but being too small for the congregation, Father O'Reilly in 1864 erected a larger one. A catholic church was erected in Austin in 1864 by Father Monteverde ; and at Hamilton in 1868-9 by Father Phelan. The church erected at Virginia City by Father Gallagher in 1860 being un- suited to the population of 1868, a brick church cost- ing $65,000 was erected in that year, by Father Manogue, who was appointed vicar-general of the diocese of Grass Valley, which included the state of Nevada. In 1870 Father Grace built the church of St Teresa at Carson. In 1871 a church was erected at Pioche by Father Scanlan, and in 1872 at Belmont by Father Monteverde, who also built the frame church of St Brendan, at Eureka in 1871, which was replaced three years afterward by a brick church, erected by Father Hynes. In 1871, also, Father Merrill built the first catholic church at Reno. The great fire of 1875 at Virginia City destroyed the church erected by Manogue, who in 1877 replaced it by another, costing only a little less than the first, and beautifully decorated in the interior. The Reno church having been consumed in the fire of 1879, was rebuilt in an improved form. Up to 1885, the catho- lics expended about $250,000 in churches and chari- table institutions.
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