The Williams Family

LaVOY: Nadine, your family has played an important part in the founding of Fallon, and of the county seat of Churchill County, so I'd like you to start this interview by giving me the name of your maternal grandparents.
DOMONOSKE: My grandfather was Warren Willard Williams.
LaVOY: And where was he born?
DOMONOSKE: New Portland, Maine.
LaVOY: Do you remember his birth date?
DOMONOSKE: No but I can give it to you as soon as Mert comes downstairs.
LaVOY: All right. And your grandmother, where was she born?
DOMONOSKE: Iowa.
LaVOY: Buckham County?
DOMONOSKE: No, no I think it was Burmingham [Burmingham, Buckman Co., Iowa, April 10, 1866 - March 3, 1940] or something like that, he's got it upstairs he pulled it out of the Bible so . . .
LaVOY: How did your grandfather happen to come to Churchill County?
DOMONOSKE: Well, it's a long story, he came around the Horn [Cape Horn] at the age of seventeen, I think, on his way to San Francisco to meet with his brother, Abram Williams, who was then a resident of San Francisco and doing well, and wanted his younger brother to come and join him. Therefore, my grandfather landed in San Francisco in 1849, and then the two of them, Abram and Warren Williams joined hands and went to Gold Hill and Virginia City and started a store. They also had started one at Mono Lake. That's how he came.
LaVOY: What type of a store was it?
DOMONOSKE: Merchandising store, little of everything, you know, miners and . . .
LaVOY: Well, then, how did he happen to come to Churchill County?
DOMONOSKE: Well, he was riding, he did lots of Pony Express riding and he rode through Churchill County and he liked it then, that's as I remember being told about it. Then he looked around and he decided to stay here, but first, he became a partner of Mr. Kaiser [Senator Charles Kaiser] who lived in Stillwater and had a ranch. And my grandfather snaked the biggest bands of sheep that had ever come over the Sierra's for he and Mr. Kaiser.
LaVOY: Was that the band of three thousand?
DOMONOSKE: Yeah.
LaVOY: I understand that your grandfather was the best sheep counter in the entire state, that he was just a natural mathematician, have you heard this?
DOMONOSKE: Yes, I have. He was very sharp at math. I have heard that all my life.
LaVOY: Well, when he settled here in Churchill County, I understand he got involved with a mining company, can you tell me something about that?
DOMONOSKE: He was in a mining company, when he, let's see, after he and Mr. Kaiser dissolved their partnership he had saved enough money, he had taken a look at this mine in Dixie Valley--above Dixie Valley, called Bernice. At least that's what my family calls it. And he knew the man that owned Bernice whose name was Wallace Goodell. He also has a tombstone right opposite the Williams family plot that my grandfather put up for him years ago. Anyway, he bought Bernice from Wallace Goodell, I think around 1884, give a little or take a little. Anyway, he took five hundred thousand dollars worth of silver out of that mine, of which, when he finished he started to accumulate what was later known as the Williams Estate. He accumulated Alpine, he'd already had Clan Alpine, 'cause that was his home.
LaVOY: Now, where is Clan Alpine?
DOMONOSKE: It was above Alpine . .
LaVOY: In Churchill County?
DOMONOSKE: Oh, yeah, you bet, it's right at the foot of the mountain there on the east side. There's not
anything left of it, Marian. People, brick by brick, walked away with it (laughing).
LaVOY: That's happened very often.
DOMONOSKE: Yes, especially when you don't have it anymore.
LaVOY: Yes. Well, then, when did he decide to come into what is now Fallon proper?
DOMONOSKE: 1901. He came in and bought what was known as the Fallon Ranch, and it was also the post office here. He never bothered to rename it in his own name. Fallon Ranch was over six hundred acres. He owned everything from Williams Avenue to the city limits west and everything north of Williams Avenue to the canal.
LaVOY: That was a tremendous piece of property.
DOMONOSKE: And he owned everything south, taking out the high school, taking out Verplanks, which was I don't know how many acres they had, maybe forty, and he owned everything west past Allen Road.

LaVOY: Something that I thought was rather interesting, I read someplace that when James Richard owned the little store that was in the center of what is now Maine and Williams, where Maine and Williams cross, and the Indians coming from Stillwater always, they'd ask them where they were going and they'd always say, "To Jim town." So that before the town was actually named Fallon it was "Jim Town."
DOMONOSKE: Well, the reason it was Fallon is because this was the Fallon Ranch, we're sitting on it right now, where it began.
LaVOY: Where was the house for the Fallon Ranch?
DOMONOSKE: Right here.
LaVOY: On this property at 376 . .
DOMONOSKE: And it now sits on, and now is occupied, by the way, by the Venturacci's. It's the two story house over there, that Venturacci has. I mean the Venturacci Ranch which was over six hundred acres.
LaVOY: Was that the home that your grandparents lived in?
DOMONOSKE: That was the home my grandfather bought from Mike Fallon, or not Mike Fallon, but from whichever Fallon that was.
LaVOY: Now, how did they move that house again from here? On a capstan and moved it up to where it is at the present time, and then your grandparents lived in that for awhile.
DOMONOSKE: They lived in that house from the time they bought it until the time this house was built. This house was built in 1916 so my mother said.
LaVOY: Here at 376 West Williams?
DOMONOSKE: Yeah, right.
LaVOY: Well, now, tell me how did your grandfather happen to meet your grandmother?
DOMONOSKE: In Austin, Nevada, and they were married [May 13, 1880] in Austin, Nevada.
LaVOY: But you don't know how they met?
DOMONOSKE: No, she came from Susanville, I mean that is she was raised partially in Susanville. Her mother had re-married, 'cause her father had died, and her mother had re-married a man by the name of Woodstock. There were many Woodstocks in that area, I don't think any of 'em are alive anymore, but I don't know.
LaVOY: Well, now, when did your grandfather go into politics?
DOMONOSKE: I don't know.
LaVOY: How long did he serve as State Senator, do you know?
DOMONOSKE: For one term, I think. Do you think I'm right?
LaVOY: I believe he served for eight years.
DOMONOSKE: Yeah, all right, two terms.
LaVOY: He's the one, I understand, that drafted the bill to move the county seat from Stillwater to Fallon.
Did you hear any stories about that?
DOMONOSKE: That's the reason why he ran for State Senator. He wanted the seat in Fallon, Nevada. He wanted it out of Stillwater, and he got it out of Stillwater.
LaVOY: Who were his allies in that, do you know? No, I don't.
DOMONOSKE: LaVOY: I understood that Lem Allen and Tom Dolf were two of his staunchest allies.
DOMONOSKE: I don't doubt that because Allen Street is named after Lem's family. Because they were very dear friends of my grandfather's.
LaVOY: Oh. And I. H. Kent was very opposed to it.
DOMONOSKE: Oh, he fought it.
LaVOY: Do you remember any of the story about that?
DOMONOSKE: Let's see, yeah, well, see, my grandfather also had a store on the corner of Williams and Maine, a two story stone block store. He and I. H. Kent were somewhat rivals. And I. H. Kent was a Democrat, my grandfather was a Republican, and there's an old story that whenever one was in power or in some bigger position, they would take the post office from one side of the street and put it on the other. Whether that's true or not, I don't know., but at least that's what I have heard throughout my life.
LaVOY: I think that's very very funny (laughing)
DOMONOSKE: The Democrats were in power, I . H. came and got the post office and put it on his side of the street, I guess.
LaVOY: But it was interesting to read that after your grandfather won out on putting this as the county
LaVOY: seat, I. H. moved his store that he had at Stillwater in here, and put it on Maine Street.
DOMONOSKE: Yes, he did. Well, his wife, Mary, was a very dear friend of my grandfather. They both came from the state of Maine.
Oh, I didn't realize that. I've also heard that Stillwater did not want to give the county records up to Fallon, did you know anything about that?
Well, I've heard all kinds of odds and ends.
LaVOY: Would you tell us some of them?
DOMONOSKE: I think I heard that they went down and took the records and they chased them back but they couldn't catch them or some such story like that.
LaVOY: Yes, I believe they took them in the middle of the night, and when the hue and cry was aroused in Stillwater they started chasing them and some of the records were lost because they were traveling so fast they were flying out of the wagons (laughing).
DOMONOSKE: God only knows whether that's true, Marian, but it could be, you know.
LaVOY: Now, tell me, what land, what were some of the things that your grandfather gave to the City of Fallon that are still here? The land for the Courthouse perhaps?
DOMONOSKE: Yeah, the land for the Courthouse, the land for the Baptist Church is still being used by the County of Churchill as their main office--their business office. The high school--I think he had something to do with giving that piece of land, too, if I'm not wrong.
I believe that he gave the land for the first district school in Fallon, and I have seen pictures of your mother in that class, and I believe that's on the corner of Maine and Center Street.
DOMONOSKE: That's where the Fallon National Bank sits now.
LaVOY: He donated that?
DOMONOSKE: I know he did that, so my mother said anyway.
LaVOY: Now the jail, I understand he donated the land for that too?
DOMONOSKE: Yes.
LaVOY: Now, that's the building next to the Courthouse.
DOMONOSKE: He also donated the land for the county, used to be the county fairgrounds.
LaVOY: Yes, I love the story of how the state fair happened to come to Fallon, do you recall that? Your grandfather wanted the state fair here and so your uncle--is it Arthur Keddie?--was a state senator at that time, so he finagled getting the state fair to Fallon, and the first one was in 1915. But it was because your grandfather wanted it here.
DOMONOSKE: I'm sure that's true.
LaVOY: And he gave the land where the fairgrounds were. Now, getting back to the buildings that your grandfather put up, which I believe was called the Williams Estate building, did you know anything about the history of the building of that?
The stone was quarried from a quarry at Rattlesnake Hill, Mount Toyeh, they used to call it and it's actual name is Mount Toyeh. We've always called it Rattlesnake Hill. But he took this rockwork out of Rattlesnake Hill and it was put together by Basque sheepherders.
Now, I want to ask you, the building that you have behind this house at 376 West Williams is very interesting stone work building. Can you tell me something about that?
DOMONOSKE: Basque sheepherders built that one too.
LaVOY: What was the building used for?
DOMONOSKE: Part of it was saddles, bridles, pertaining to…
LaVOY: A tack room in other words.
DOMONOSKE: A tack room, right. The other part was milk, butter, cheese, cream. It was cool, you see,
because the walls are very, very thick.