USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 31
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 31
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 31
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
(Treasure City). White Pine News
1870, Jan
(Hamilton).
309
AUTHORITIES.
Mineralogique Des Régions Mexicaines, suive De Notes Archéologiques et Eth- nographiques, par M. E. Guillemin Tarayre, etc., 1869, is a careful report on these subjeets to the minister of publie instruction at Paris. Nevada is merely touched upon in the work, a chapter being given to the Indian tribes, and a few pages to the geography and mineralogy of the state. Also Pacific Coast Mining Review, 1878-9; Hayne, in King's Survey, iii. 316, 394, 409, 423; Grote in Hayden's Geological Survey, vi. no. 2, 255-77; Overland Monthly, Mareh 1869, 273-80; Cadwalader Guide, etc .; Williams' Pac Tourist, 175,. 203-7; Safford's Narr., MS., 31-2; Thornton's Oregon and California, i. 170- SS; ii. 100-20; Beckwith, in Pac R. R. Report, ii. 25-39, 62, 68, 88-9; Reise Durch die felsenebirge, 130-9; notes of travel through Nevada; Galaxy ( mag.), xxi. April 1876; Galveston News, Dec. 1, 1884; Brackett, in Western Monthly, 239; Wheelock's Guide to Reese River; Austin Directory, 1866, 26-40; New Mex- ico Scraps, 58-60; Directory Pacific Coast, 1871-3, 343-76; Blatchly's Rept on Mineral Resources of Reese River, 5-6, 35, 48; Harper's Mag., June 1866, 27-8, 34; De Groot's Report on the Mineral Deposits and Other Properties of the Nevada Consolidated Borax Company; Fox's Mason Valley Settlement, MS., 1; National Almanac, 1864, 452; Message of Governor Adams, 1885; Meteorological Observa- tions, made at Carson observatory, 1883-4; Adventures in the Far West and Life Among the Mormons, by Mrs C. V. Waite, 1882, deseribes among other things the society of Carson City, 262-71; Greeley's Overland Journey, 270- SO; Life and Labor in the Far, Far West, by W. Henry Barneby, is 'notes of a tour in the western states, British Columbia, Manitoba, and the north-west territory,' with glances at Nevada. The writer of the last named work is English, and an industrious observer of wayside seenes and local eustoms. The book is good of its kind. From Wisconsin to California and Return, by James Ross and George Gary. A Comprehensive View of our Country and its Resources, by James D. McCabe, Jr, 1876, gives a brief outline of the his- tory of the nation and each of the states separately, with descriptive mat- ter and present resources. From the Orient to the Occident, or L. Boyer's Trip Across the Rocky Mountains in April 1877, is the title of a book of 145 pages describing what was seen upon the journey. A few pages are given to Fair & Maekay's lumber flume. Crofutt's Overland Tourist is a travellers' guide book, and gives a brief history of each station on the railroad, and also of other points of interest in the state. White Pine, its Geographical Location, Topography, Geological Formation, Mining Laws, Mineral Resources, Towns, etc., by Albert S. Evans, 1869, is a pamphlet of 49 pages, which keeps the promise of its title page better than many a more pretentious book. Six Months in California, by J. G. Player Frowd, an English traveller, is a pleas- ant account of a summer jaunt, and is devoted chiefly to California, but con- tains a chapter on the mines of Nevada, with here and there a bit of deserip- tion worth reading. From the Atlantic to the Pacific Overland is a series of let- ters by Demas Barnes describing the journey, and also the ocean voyage home by the isthmus of Panamá. A dozen pages are given to mining in Nevada out of 135 in all. Ten Thousand Miles of Travel, Sport, and Adven- ture, by F. French Townshend, capt 2d Life Guards, is a running account of what the writer saw and heard in his sea and land travel, with some hunting on the plains, and some remarks upon mining in Nevada. Adventures in the Apache Country; A Tour Through Arizona and Sonora, with Notes on the Silver Regions of Nevada, deals with the descriptive and historical in a elear and very readable style. Fifty-three pages are given to the southern portion of Nevada. Reports of the State Controller of Nevada, Attorney-general of Nevada. State Treasurer of Nevada, and Secretary of State of Nevada, for 1884.
CHAPTER XI.
PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
1881-1888.
FINANCES-REDUCTION OF EXPENSES-PURLIC BUILDINGS-STATE PRISON WAR-STATE UNIVERSITY-PUBLIC CHARITIES-EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS -PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF SOUTHERN IDAHO-MINING-RAILROADS- POLITICS.
FOLLOWING the excitement of the bonanza period, and the struggle in congress over the silver question, was a period of quiet adjustment to existing condi- tions. Nevada had begun its career under those cir- cumstances which foster a spirit of recklessness in expenditure, and had for some time been making endeavors to bring the cost of county and state gov- ernment down to a level of reasonable economy. Only one defalcation of importance had occurred to stain the records of the state-that of the treasurer, Eben Rhoades, in 1869, when $106,432.58 of the state's money were feloniously converted to his use. The bonded state debt in 1872 amounted tto $500,000, bearing fifteen per cent interest per annum, then nearly due, with very little in the treasury to meet it.
To remedy this unfortunate condition of affairs the legislature of 1871 had passed a law authorizing the state to borrow $280,000, and to issue its bonds there- for, payable in 1881, with interest at ten per cent per annum. A loan of $160,000 was negotiated in April 1871, and a further loan of $120,000 at nine and a half per cent, payable in 1882. In 1875 the legisla- ture authorized the purchase and cancellation of these
(310)
311
FINANCES.
bonds, and $119,600 were so cancelled at that time. The state moneys were also applied to the purchase of United States and California state bonds, the inter- est on which was devoted, with the principal, to extin- guishing the debt of Nevada. But there was also what was known as the territorial debt amounting to $380,000, which the legislature of 1871 provided for in a manner similar to that adopted for the state debt, by borrowing and issuing bonds at nine and a half cents interest, and payable in 1887. United States bonds to the amount of $100,000 were also purchased toward the extinguishment of this debt during the years previous to 1878. With a view to the cancel- lation of the territorial debt, which congress had repeatedly been asked to assume,' the legislature of 1877 passed a state law authorizing the application to this purpose of the assets of the territorial interest and sinking fund, the bonds belonging to the state school fund, and $50,000 from the general fund.
This law contemplated the issuance by the state to the school fund of an irreducible bond, bearing five per cent interest per annum, for the sum of $380,000, which was considered to be the best application of the assets in the state school fund that could be made in the interest of the public schools. But the holders of the territorial bonds refused at that time to accept this exchange. The debt, however, was virtually extinguished, as the means were in hand to pay the bonds whenever surrendered.
There was in Nevada at this time a singular dis- proportion of revenue to expenses, notwithstanding the refusal of the bonanza mine-owners to pay taxes according to law, there being in 1879 a surplus " far beyond the wants of the state,"? besides the mining
1 The legislature of 1867 endeavored to have congress assume this iudebt- edness. Nev. Laws, 1867-83; and again in 1869 memorialized to the same effect. Id. 1869; 293. These claims were still unsettled in 1887, but were then nnder consideration, and have since been paid.
2Governor Bradley's Message to the Legislature 1879 p. 6.
312
PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
tax due amounting to $290,275.95, and a penalty for refusal to pay off $101,596.57, for which suits were pending in the state courts,3 and the territorial debt due from congress, and notwithstanding the leg- islature of 1875 had reduced the tax for all state pur- poses from a dollar and twenty-five cents on every $100 to ninety cents, which reduction amounted to half a million in the four years following. Clearly, taxes were inordinate when the state treasury was overflowing. However, the valuation of real and personal property fell off between 1873 and 1878 from
$26,466,505 to $21,342,663. This simply showed that other resources of the state had been neglected to give undue attention to mining, and also that min- ing property was not taxed as it should have been. The state had produced an annual average of $25,000,- 000 in bullion ever since its admission, doing more to help resume specie payment after the war than many of the older states, and had asked and received less in appropriations than any other commonwealths, maintaining also a clean record as to its public trusts. Nothing was wanting but a little time to bring min- ing to a legitimate basis, and to develop the agricul- tural and other resources of the state. In 1882 the valuation had again risen to $27,000,000. Yet, a bill was before congress in that year to abolish the state of Nevada and attach the territory to Cali- fornia ! It was quite the fashion in some quarters, after the failure of the bonanza mines, to disparage the battle-born member of the republic,4 which had so speedily relieved the government by its support ; but this fashion proceeded solely from the spleen common to humanity when any prodigal gift once enjoyed is withheld.
Senator W. W. Hobart of Eureka county intro- duced a bill, which passed the legislature in 1881, reducing the public expenses about $26,000 annually,
3 These taxes were finally paid according to the decsion of the supreme court.
313
FINANCES.
first by diminishing the number of legislators from seventy-five to sixty, and secondly by reducing the salaries of the state officers." The pay of the latter having been adjusted to the cost of living in the early territorial and flush mining times, and to the expectation that the state would become populous and wealthy, could very properly be made to conform to later condi- tions without an exhibition of parsimony. With a view to reforms, the legislature of 1883 submitted to the peo- ple the question of calling a convention to revise the constitution, but the proposition was negatived, and Hobart's bill took its place.5
At the close of 1888 the finances of Nevada were in a sound condition. It had between $600,000 and $700,000 in cash in the treasury, and $600,000 in United States bonds. The school funds, chiefly in- vested in United States and Nevada state bonds, amounted to $1,250,000. The revenue was still considerably in excess of expenses. The state owed little except its debt to the school fund, which there was money in the treasury to meet, and which amounted to about $400,000, of which $380,000 was in the form of a five per cent irreducible bond, the interest on which was payable semi-an- nually, and the remainder in forty-five $1,000. bonds at four per cent. This conversion of the school fund into a fund for the support of the state was found to be beneficial to both. It at least prevented specu- lations in the school fund which were carried on to a considerable extent in another of the Pacific States. All that the state owed in 1885 was due to this fund which was irredeemable, as well as irreducible, and the interest alone applicable for educational purposes. Public buildings in Nevada have kept pace with
+ Says Gov. Adams: 'We find a system of state government much too cumbersome for our present wants, and requiring an annual expenditure en- tirely out of proportion to our taxable resources.' Biennial Message, 1886.
5 The salaries of sup. judges were reduced from $7,000 to $5,000; govern- or's salary from $6,000 to $5,000; secretary's salary from $3,600 to $3,000; treasurer's the same, and smaller salaries in proportion. The mileage of the legislators was reduced from 40 to 25 cents. The law went into effect in 1883. Gov. Message, 1885; Treas. Rept, 1884,
314
PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
the general progress of the state. The United States branch mint erected at Carson was founded Septem- ber 25, 1866, and its machinery put in motion Novem- ber 1, 1869. It is a handsome structure, built of sand- stone, with a front of 90 feet, and two and a half stories high.6 In January 1869 the legislature appropriated $100,000 to erect a capitol of sandstone, the corner- stone of which was laid on the 9th of June, 1870.7 The state prison was also located at Carson, where a stone quarry marked by the footprints of primeval man furn- ished the material for its construction. Curry was the owner of the land, of whom the legislature pur- chased the site, and was the first warden appointed before the purchase, while the property was under a lease. The state in 1864 paid $80,000 for twenty acres with the buildings and appurtenances as they then existed. In 1867 the buildings were destroyed by fire, together with the records. The stone for the new prison was quarried by the convicts, and over $72,000 was spent in its erection, besides the labor and material on hand.8 But in 1873 the political exigencies of the democratic party in the state, and the wishes of the inhabitants of Washoe county, caused the legislature to assume that there was a suf-
6 The block of granite contributed by Nevada to the national monument expressed the temper of the people. It was a simple slab 2x3 feet and 6 inches in thickness, with a raised panel highly polished, inscribed: 'All for our country,' the letters being lined with gold and arranged in a semicircle, with the date 1SS1 beneath. Across the face is the word Nevada in letters 4 inches in height of native silver set in the stone.
Nev. Laws, 1869, 73-5. Contract awarded to Peter Cavanaugh for $84,000, to be completed in Jan. 187].
8 Nev. Jour. Sen., 1869, 181-6. Id., 1879, 103-4. In 1870 a number of prisoners attempted to escape, and several persons were wounded. A still more serious uprising took place in 1871, in which Lieut. - gov. Denver and 4 guards were seriously wounded, F. M. Isaacs, guard, and Matthew Pixley, a prominent citizen, killed, and 29 of the most desperate characters escaped. The militia were called out. After that, in 1873, there was what was known as the state prison war, when Denver, who was warden, refused to surrender the prison to his successor, P. C. Hyman. Gov. Bradley called out the militia in this instance, also, and 60 armed men under Maj .- gen. Van Bok- kelen, with one piece of artillery, were ordered to place the new incumbent in possession, even at the cost of life. Denver then surrendered. In 1877 there was a third attempt at escape, made by 8 men employed in a shoe fac- tory, which had been added to the prison, in which one convict was killed, and the deputy warden, captain of the guard, and one prisoner wounded. An attempt was made to burn the prison in Aug. 1879, which was detected,
315
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
ficiently urgent need for more room for prisoners to justify the expenditure necessary to the project, and an act was passed providing for a new prison at Reno. For this purpose a state building fund was created. Into this fund the law transferred any surplus re- maining in the state capitol fund, and a tax of one- eighth of one per cent. was levied for its special use, the first $100,000 so obtained to be devoted to the purchase of the necessary lands and the erection of buildings to accomodate not less than 300 prisoners.
The labor of the prisoners was to be utilized in the prosecution of the work. The commissioners pro- ceeded to purchase 200 acres of land on the Truckee river, at Reno in a good location for mills and ma- chinery, the foundations were laid, and the walls erected. But notwithstanding the better financial condition of the state subsequently, no further pro- gress has been made. In 1888, convicts were ac- commodated in the old prison at Carson which proved sufficiently large under a different administration, and it was discovered that while undoubtedly the site at Reno was an excellent one, there was some doubt about the advisability of bringing prison labor in competition with wage workers, as they must be at Reno. And as nothing occurred to determine the question, the subject remains in abeyance. But in the meantime an asylum for the insane was erected at Reno; and the mentally afflicted were recalled from California hospitals and provided for at home.
Nevada received from the general government the usual grant of seventy-two sections of land to aid in establishing a state university, and 90,000 acres for the maintenance of a college of agriculture and mechanic arts. In the case of the latter grant the appropriation was converted with the consent of con- gress to the maintenance of a mining college.' The university was located at Elko, remote from the ex-
9 Nev. Jour. Sen., 1869, app. no. 1, p. 20; no. 8, p. 12-14, 43-9.
316
PROGRESS CF EVENTS.
isting centres of population, and was for a long time no more than a preparatory school or academy. The citizens of Elko in order to secure the university offered to erect a brick edifice with accommodations for one hundred pupils as the initial foundation of the state colleges. A school was first opened there in 1874, and taught for four years by D. R. Sessions, A. M. and B. A. of Princeton college. With but meagre appropriations by the state, the university languished until 1887, when, it having been removed to Reno, a more eligible locality, the legislature ap- propriated $30,000 for its support, and started it upon a more useful career.
Congress had been liberal to Nevada in the matter of land grants. The school lands amounted to 3,925,- 000, acres, of which the state had sold previous to the 16th of June, 1880, 16,967 acres. By relinquish- ing to the United States all the remaining 16th and 36th sections, many of which were not agricultural, the state secured the privilege of selecting 2,000,000 acres of any unappropriated non-mineral lands, to be disposed of under such laws and regulations as the legislature should prescribe.1º The grants besides those above mentioned were 500,000 acres for internal improvements, 12,800 for public buildings, and 12,800 for a penitentiary.
The state made provision for public charities, erect- ing an orphanage 11 at Carson in 1869. In 1873 Geo. H. Morrison was the author of assembly bill 29, which greatly enlarged the usefulness of the institu- tion, since which time it has been one of the best charities on the Pacific coast.12 There is an asylum for
10 Surveyor-general's Rept, 1884. 31.
11 Nev. Jour. Assem., 1866. 247-9; Nev. Jour. Sen., 1873, app. no. 9, 10; Reno State Journal, Jan. 27, 1877; Gold Hill News, April 13, 1881; White Pine News, Dec. 24, 1881; Eureka Leader, April 9, 1881.
12 Morrison was born in Calais Maine, Nov. 8, 1845. He came to Nevada in 1864; was assessor of Virginia City in 1866; represented Storey county in the state legislature in 1873; was chief clerk of the assembly in 1883; mar- ried Mary E. Howard of Boston in 1870. In 1SS9 he was elected director of the Bancroft-Whitney law publishing co., and director and secretary of the History company. He rendered me valuable aid in gathering data for my historical work.
317
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
the insane at Reno. Until 1882 insane patients were sent to California asylums at the expense of the state; but the legislature at length appropriated $80,000 to found a proper sanitarium for brain-sick members of the body politic, and in 1881 was laid the corner- stone of the Nevada asylum. The deaf, dumb, and blind were sent to California institutions for instruc- tion, the number of such unfortunates in Nevada's population not justifying the expenditure of a large sum for state schools. 13
A favorite idea with Senator Stewart was the annexation of southern Idaho, with its mines and population. There were better ways of obtaining population, as the neighboring territories and youth- ful states with boards of trade and immigration bureaux have reminded him, than by any arbitrary proceedings. In anticipation of a possible consolida- tion, perhaps, and remembering that a large number of the citizens of southern Idaho were Mormons in. faith, the Nevada legislature of 1877, by a joint con- current resolution, amended the constitution so as to exclude from the privilege of electors any bigamist or polygamist, or any person who belonged to or affiliated with any order or organization inconsistent with or hostile to the government of the state or of the United States, or which sanctioned or tolerated bigamy or polygamy. This was turning the cold shoulder to Idaho, which half inclined to come into the arrangement with Nevada for the sake of achiev- ing statehood. If the Mormons of Idaho saved that long-tried territory from being deprived of its indi- vidual existence, they served it better than they knew, and left the burden of increasing Nevada's strength and honors where it properly belonged.
The legislature of 1887 took a step in the right direction when it enacted laws encouraging the sink-
13 Nev. Jour. Sen., 1869, app. no. 8; Carson Appeal, Feb. 21, ISS1; White Pine News, June 24, 1882; Elko Independent, June 14, 1882; Eureka Sentinel, July 4, 1882; Reno Gazette, July 1, 1SS2; Nev. Statutes, 1869, 103; Nev. Sen. Jour., 1877, app. no. 7, 23-4, and no. 12, S.
318
PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
ing of artesian wells, and the storage of water from the snow-fall of winter. For the soil only awaited a sufficiency of moisture to change its condition from one of sterility to that of fertility, as had been dor e in the state of Colorado and the territory of Wyom- ing. Another important bill looked to the mining interests of the state by authorizing the appointment of a board of commissioners to hear and consider testimony as to the most economical and best methods of treating and reducing ores of gold and silver found and reduced in the state thereafter. Rewards were authorized to be paid out of the general state fund for the most economical method, and the most suc- cessful method, separately, economy taking the first prize.
Mining, although causing less excitement than in the early history of the state, was by no means on the decline as an industry. The amount of bullion returned for taxation in 1887 was $7,000,000, which did not represent more than half the actual output, but even at the assessor's figures this sum divided among a population of 60,000, which was thecensus of 1880, would give every inhabitant $116 from mining alone. New discoveries were frequently made, the country never having been thoroughly prospected; hence the law of 1887 to stimulate this industry and reduce it to a scientific basis.1
Nothing in the history of Nevada ever gave greater satisfaction than the passage of the interstate com- merce bill of congress, compelling the railroads to cease discrimination against the owners of short-haul freight, compelling a merchant at Battle Mountain, for instance, to pay a higher rate from New York than the San Francisco merchant whose goods
14 A new concentrating process was employed in the Reese river district with great success in 1887. It was invented by Hanchett and applied by Hanchett and Whipple to the dump of mills in that district, making a sav- ing of $6,000,000 from ore that without this method would be wasted, the former mills reducing no ores assaying less than $40 per ton, while the tail- ings thus discarded often held $30, of which the concentrator saved 80 per cent.
319
RAILROADS.
were carried for two days' time farther west. This heavy tax upon the people of the state, dependent entirely upon railroad transportation, was sufficient of itself to prevent the undertaking of various enter- prises which would otherwise have been set on foot for the development of the state's resources, and the relief felt and expressed at the passage of the relief bill of congress was universal.
. Railroads, the great want of this state, as of every other in this era of rapid movement, were now thrice welcome. Fortunately for Nevada, 1887 was a year of great activity in railroads, which were spying out new lines in all directions, anticipating the growth which they were, more than any other agency, to pro- mote. 15 15 Such was the business on the Central Pacific in this year that blockades of freight were frequent, more cars being loaded f r the west than the com- pany had locomotives to move. There was the same condition on the other transcontinental roads, showing that with the half dozen eastern roads to the Pacific there was room for more. Naturally, Nevada looked to have her hopes gratified, when the Chicago, Bur- lington and Quincy company-"the old reliable," as it was fondly named by th expectant Wyoming and Nevada people, had surveying parties in the field who actually had made more than one rec nnoissance over the Sierra into California She had hope also of the Utah Central, which was understood to have a stake in California. And the finger of prophecy pointed besides to the Northwestern which was hesitating at a point in Wyoming whether to go northwest to Oregon, or west to California. The year of 1888 went by, however, and no definite measures were
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.