In Focus Volume 14 Number 1

In Focus Volume 14 Number 1

A Journal of Archaeology, Essasys, Fictions, Folklore, Natural History, Native American Culture, Nevada History, Old Photographs, and Poetry.

Churchill County Museum Association

Churchill County Museum Association

2000-2001

Mackedon, Michon, Editor
Pieplow, Jane, Editor
Buhr, Larry
Corkill, Bunny Cushman
Dolak, Cindy
Domonoske, Merton E.
Nelson, Pam

Copyright by Churchill County Museum Association, Some content may have copyrights retained by the author.

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CHURCHILL COUNTY
IN FOCUS
FOCUS
A Journal of
ARCHAEOLOGY ESSAYS FICTION FOLKLORE NATURAL HISTORY NATIVE AMERICAN
CULTURE NEVADA HISTORY OLD PHOTOGRAPHS POETRY
THE CHURCHILL COUNTY
MUSEUM ASSOCIATION, FALLON, NEVADA
2000-2001
CHURCHILL COUNTY
MUSEUM ASSOCIATION, INC.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Bebe Mills, Chairman
John Hanifan, Vice Chairman
Lynne Hartung, Secretary
Myrl Nygren, Treasurer
Norine Arciniega, Trustee
Mike Berney, Trustee
Charles Frey, Trustee
Virgil Getto, Trustee
Jennifer Jones, Trustee
Jim Parrish, Trustee
Glen Perazzo, Trustee
Lynn Pearce, County Commissioner
EDITORIAL POLICY
IN FOCUS solicits articles or photographs of scholarly or popular interest dealing with the history and people of Churchill County and neighboring Nevada regions. Prospective contributors should send their work to the Editor, IN FOCUS, Churchill County Museum & Archives, 1050 South Maine, Fallon, NV 89406. Articles should be typed, double-spaced, and sent to the museum. If the article is available on a computer disk, please contact the museum for further instructions. Manuscripts and photographs for each annual publication must be received by March 1 for consideration for that year's journal.
Authors of articles accepted for publication will receive three complimentary copies of the Journal.
IN FOCUS is published annually by the Churchill County Museum Association, Inc., a non-profit Nevada corporation. A complimentary copy of IN FOCUS is sent to all members of the Museum Association. Membership dues are:
Jr. Member (21 and under) 15.00 Wagonmaster 50.00+
Seniors (60+) 20.00 Pioneer/Business 75.00
Individual 25.00 Homesteader 100.00
Family 30.00
Membership application and dues should be sent to the Director, Churchill County Museum & Archives, 1050 South Maine Street, Fallon, NV 89406. Copies of In Focus are also sold through the MUSEUM MERCANTILE shop, located in the Museum and by mail.
Copyright Churchill County Museum Association, Inc., 2001. The Editors of IN FOCUS and the Churchill County Association disclaim any responsibility for statements, of fact or opinion, made by the contributors.
POSTMASTER: Return postage guaranteed. Send address changes to Churchill County IN FOCUS, 1050 South Maine Street, Fallon, NV 89406.
Cover Photograph: Stillwater residents pose on its main street in 1895. Front row, (1-r): Manie Sanford, Elisha Sanford, Will Sanford, Emma Sanford, Myra Sanford, Nancy Sanford, James Merritt Sanford. Middle row (l-r): Mrs. Shirley (holding baby), Jessie and Charlie Shirley. Among the remaining people are John Higgins, Jim Richards, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Sanford (Native Americans) and Mrs. Brannin and Earl. Back row (l-r): Tom Sanford, Fred Williams and Irving Sanford on horses. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
CHURCHILL COUNTY
IN FOCUS
ANNUAL JOURNAL OF THE CHURCHILL COUNTY MUSEUM ASSOCIATION
VOLUME #14 2000-2001 NUMBER #1
Contents
SOFT FOCUS
The Editors' Comments Michon Mackedon and Jane Pieplow 1
SHADOW CATCHER
Helen Kent: Photographer Pam Nelson 3
SHARP FOCUS
Stillwater, Nevada, Welcomes Its Third Century Bunny Corkill 11
Bernice, Nevada: Once the Largest Town in Churchill County
Merton Domonoske/Jane Pieplow 43
Non-Traditional Materials and the Domestic Architecture of an Arid-
West Agricultural Community: Fallon, Nevada Larry Buhr
Illustrations by Cindy Dolak 62
PIONEERPORTRAITS
R.L. Douglass and the Cottage Hospital: Candidates for National Register
Nomination Jane Pieplow 88
Excerpts from the oral history of Eleanor Douglass Scofield 102
NATIVE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
Across the Road: Fallon Indian Day School and the Baptist Indian
Mission Pam Nelson 113
CONTRIBUTORS 132
SOFT FOCUS
The Editors' Comments
Michon Mackedon
One of the great pleasures of editing In Focus is the opportunity to read so many different accounts of our local history. The content of our contributors' stories is ever refreshing -- challenging preconceptions and misconceptions about place and time and suggesting new ways to view the past and interpret the present. Also, the many writing styles of our authors and their sources (diaries, newspapers, personal accounts and oral histories) deliver up a feast of words and, a glimpse into the past which "content" or facts alone cannot provide.
In this issue of In Focus, I found especially fascinating the historical newspaper accounts quoted by many of our authors.They made me laugh; they sometimes made me wince. But, they provide wonderful windows into the "attitudes" of a given time and place. There is no doubt that journalistic writing has changed over the past 100 years -- whether for better or worse, I will not judge. The modern newspaper style is objective and crisp, utilizing short sentences and direct, mid-level diction and vocabulary. In contrast, the "old" style was characterized by euphoric highs and tragic lows. The writers, one might say, waxed eloquent at every opportunity. They also gossiped, judged, accused, and editorialized at will, with seemingly great pride and, of course, high style. Read in the present, some of their opinions can produce discomfort; they sometimes seem politically "incorrect" or patronizing, especially when local Native Americans are the subjects. For example, quoted from a newspaper report of 1911, we learn that "All Indian children delight to sing" (page 119). Such stereotyping would be met with raised eyebrows by today's readers.
But such "unplugged" journalism can be great fun to read. Note, for example, the detailed and rather mysterious account of Mrs. Greenwood's decision to work in Stillwater. The story is part of her newpaper obituary where we learn, "Mrs. Greenwood remained in Fallon until after the big Fourth of July Celebration that year and then ... started for Alpine via Stillwater, with Jimmy Danielson. At Stillwater Mr. Danielson was talked out of taking her to Alpine by Charles Cirac" (page 18). Hmmm.
A party in Stillwater, given in 1882, is reported in such detail by the Reno Evening Gazette that we learn that "Miss Maggie Kenyon, of Ragtown, was perhaps the best dressed lady, and with her bonde hair and beautiful face and figure, she was to be admired anywhere." The account then describes in some detail the gowns worn
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by the ladies and Miss Lizzie Kincade' s hair, which was "fastened high with an ivory pin" (page 21).
It was also nice to discover that the subject of two of our articles, Bob Douglass, was considered by the local news reporter to be "a young man of sterling worth" who kept a "gentlemanly course in life" (page 94). And, I was delighted to learn that at the first Democratic Convention in Churchill County, a number of recesses were taken "to allow the delgates to wet their whistles" (page 12). Today, such an account would probably usher in a slew of denials or perhaps a demand for a recount. Attitudes change.
I hope you all enjoy these articles as much as I have. Our contributors worked hard to bring the past alive. After reading this issue, plan to make a journey of your own through family diaries or letters or old newspapers, and, please, bring the results to us for publication in In Focus, volume 15.
Jane Pieplow
As our readers are aware, In Focus staff members put their heads together last year to create a special millennial issue, modifying our traditional layout of the publication for this once-in-a-hundred-year event. This year, volume 14 returns to our original format with an interesting collection of articles that cover subjects new to our In Focus series.
Museum staff members Bunny Corkill and Pam Nelson took on the responsibilities of researching and writing articles, and we felt it was again time to dig into our valuable oral history resource library. Co-editor Michon Mackedon used her editing prowess to condense Eleanor Douglass Scofield's remembrances into a very interesting "Pioneer Portrait."
Graduate student Larry Buhr first came to the museum to research the architecture of the Newlands Project. After he began a conversation with Bunny Corkill, he became so interestesed in the non-traditional building materials used in some of the buildings in Churchill County, he wrote an essay about it for one of his classes at the University of Nevada, Reno. The result of his class project is presented here.
We owe many thanks to Merton Domonoske who provided the research materials for our article on Bernice, Nevada, and who donated the White Rock Township Justice Court Journal to the museum's collection. Some of the court proceedings in the article were taken directly from this journal.
In fact, I want to thank all of our hard-working historians for their contributions to this year's publication. We could not create this excellent book without your assistance.
As this edition of In Focus goes to press, our staff members are already thinking about volume 15! Our plan for next year is to ask you, our readers, to contribute bits and pieces of your history to this next volume. So, if you are contacted and are asked to assist us, please volunteer. We promise our request won't be too difficult or too time consuming!
Enjoy spending time with the past as you read this year's In Focus.
SHADOW CATCHER
Helen Hamlin Kent [1876-1963]:
Lady Photographer in Churchill County
Pam Nelson
Helen Hamlin Kent was an accomplished photographer. She was one of the earliest women in photography, which, at that time, was a field overwhelmingly dominated by men. Her photography has given pleasure to many, and her work offers a glimpse into the social environment that Helen documented throughout her life. Of all the photographs in the Churchill County Museum's collection, few are of such interest and relevance to Churchill County history as those that once belonged to Helen Kent.
Helen Hale Hamlin was born December 7, 1876, near Loyalton, Sierra Valley, California, to Roscoe Green and Eunice L. Street Hamlin. Helen's early years were spent in the Sierra Valley area. As a young woman, she moved to Palo Alto, California, with a dear friend, to attend Stanford University. After attending school there, her close friend decided to go to Europe, and Helen moved to Nevada to continue her studies at the Normal School at the University ofNevada. Helen's sister, Edna (Church), her brother Alfred Hamlin and future sister-in-law Florence Kent attended the university at the same time. In 1903, Helen graduated from the university and a short time later, having the courage to explore a distant area, began teaching in Lovelock, Nevada. From Lovelock, Helen ventured to Stillwater, Nevada, a part of the country that was still very much the "Old West," to accept another teaching position.
An active person, Helen loved the outdoors and at a young age her interest in photography blossomed. Although an amateur photographer, Helen, during her years living in Stillwater, developed her own film and prints in her darkroom. Her camera was a natural companion for her innate spirit of independence. It was during this time that Helen met her future husband Charles Kent, who was born in Stillwater in 1881. Charles lived in Stillwater all of his life and took up farming as his father had before him; then he moved into the mercantile business located in the small Stillwater community. Charles Kent and Helen Hamlin were married in 1905 in Reno, Nevada, at the home of Helen's sister, Ethel Hamlin Woodward.
The Kents had two children, Ira "Hammie" Kent and Ethel Kent (McNeely), and the family continued ranching and operating their store in Stillwater. There was little in the line of outdoor work that a woman of that day might not be called upon to handle. And so it was that Helen Hamlin Kent, a fiercely independent woman but always a lady, found many opportunities to photograph life on the ranch. She took
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4 Pam Nelson
Charles and Helen Kent on their wedding day in 1905. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
pictures of the Stillwater area -- mountains, wild mustangs, harvesting, and teams hauling supplies. Her camera accompanied her on horseback rides in the mountains with her husband Charles. Here she enjoyed helping to rope the mustangs and looking for arrowheads. Photographs taken of her much-loved children and the day-to-day activities of the ranch have given pleasure to many. She recorded her life with her camera, documenting insight, wit, grace, elegance and stylish humor of everyday life as she lived it. Helen was more than equal to the considerable difficulties of ranch existence.
Life on the ranch consisted of working in the huge orchard and in the large vegetable garden that always needed tending. "Hearts-O-Gold" melons and sugar beets were just a few of the crops grown. "Mother would always can quarts and quarts and quarts of vegetables," remembered her daughter Ethel, and her father would tend to the butchering and the smoking of the hams and bacon. At one time 5,000 turkeys and an abundance of chickens, pigs and lambs were raised on the ranch.
The turkeys were raised for the Thanksgiving and Christmas markets as they were a big business in the Lahontan Valley around the 1920s. Some birds were shipped out by railroad car to San Francisco, California, and a big share of the turkeys raised in the valley were sold locally to the I.H. Kent Company.
Helen Kent, Photographer 5
For awhile, a herd of registered Holstein dairy cattle was milked on the ranch, and all family members did their part to take care of the animals. However, Helen insisted that her daughter should never learn to milk a cow. She said, "Once you learn, then you're gonna get stuck goin' out and milkin' ." So she would not let Ethel milk the cows. Helen was a strong woman -- she was not going to let a man tell her or her daughter what they had to do!
The Kent ranch hired help to take care of many of the chores that needed to be done. In the summer there would be as many as 50 men working on the ranch, and if the Chinese cook should happen to quit or move on, Helen would end up doing all of the cooking. Women from the Stillwater reservation were hired to help with the laundry. Some of the women worked for Helen for years, washing the clothes in washtubs with washboards. Since electricity was not brought to the Stillwater area until 1928 or so, kerosene lamps, washboards and wood stoves were the order of the day.
In the 1920s, there was a short-lived oil boom in Stillwater. Many investors hoped to strike it rich and began to dig oil wells. Most wells yielded not oil, but hot water. The Kents took advantage of this hot water source and piped it into the houses, bunkhouses and the chicken coops on the ranch to provide them with heat. This hot water was used for cooking, but only selectively because of all of the minerals in it.
In 1933, Helen spent time helping her son Hammie raise chukars. He had purchased approximately one hundred chukars from India, and they were to be sent by steamer to San Francisco, California, with a delivery time from Calcutta of ten days. Instead, the chukars arrived after forty-five days and only thirteen birds had survived out of the hundred. But, Hammie was able to breed the survivors. He sold the progeny from those first birds to the Nevada State Wildlife Office and to several other counties.
The following year Hammie and Helen did a little bit better in the chukar business, and they began selling breeding stock to other people. Helen was the kind of mother that jumped right in and helped her family do what they liked best.
Helen Kent learned to drive a car and drove one for 50 years, but in all of that time she never drove to Reno. She did drive to and from Fallon. After Hammie graduated from the Stillwater School, he and Helen lived in a rented house near grandmother and grandfather Kent and the I.H. Kent Company Store. This arrangement allowed Hammie to attend high school in Fallon, and he and his mother would return to the ranch in Stillwater on weekends. Not only did Hammie attend school, he was able to participate in activities that were important to children growing up. Helen was there to support both her children's interests. Hammie was able to take part in track ,and Ethel had the opportunity to start music lessons and join the Campfire Girls. Helen was from a Quaker family and did not have the humor that a lot of mothers had, but she did have a piano and it was important to her that her children take part in music. Besides piano lessons, the children took violin lessons.
Helen was a dedicated teacher, always available to help her children with math and at times help other children with their algebra and geometry over the
6 Pam Nelson
telephone when they would call for help. Education was a priority which she passed onto her children. Helen was very strict with her children, a disciplinarian but a very loving parent. As her son Hammie said, "She was a strict mother, very strict. You toed the mark, believe me!"
During the summertime, the children would spend a week to two weeks visiting Helen's parents at Sierra Valley, California. They would spend time trout fishing in the creeks there.
Helen was very fond of poetry, and she loved to sew and crochet. She thoroughly loved the radio and would sit for hours listening to her favorite baseball games. Helen was a charter member of P.E.O. Chapter D, played bridge and was very active in the Methodist Church and the Stillwater Friendly Club. Helen wanted her children to receive religious training. She made sure this was done by taking the children to the Fallon Indian Mission where the missionaries would conduct Sunday School classes.
During World War II, Helen kept in contact with several of the young Indian boys who had gone into the service. She would write to them because she was a very caring person and thought enough of the young men to keep in touch. Some never returned from the war.
Helen's husband, Charles Kent, passed away in 1948, and she continued to live on the ranch, keeping the ranch books as she had from the time they were married. Helen loved her family and kept in close contact with her children, grandchildren, sisters and brothers. Right up until the end she enjoyed her friends and doing what she loved, whether it was being out and about looking at the wildflowers and birds or working on the ranch. Through the years, the camera was her companion!
We extend a thank you to Ethel (Kent) McNeely for her assistance with this article.
Helen Hamlin Kent shortly before her death in 1963. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Helen Kent, Photographer 7
Helen's portrait of her son Hammie in 1913 at age three. The Kent family children were favorite subjects for her photographs. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Perched on a chair and holding aflower, Hammie 's three year old sister, Ethel, was captured by her mother 's camera in 1917. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Future Stillwater rancher, Hammie Kent, feeds chickens in the family chicken yard (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Kent ranch cowboys set up their portable tent, seen here on a sled, in anticipation ofa mustang roundup in the Stillwater Mountains. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Helen Kent, Photographer
Helen Kent enjoyed playing a part in the mustang roundups in the Nevada desert. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Ranch employees pitch loose hay into a stationary baler. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
SHARP FOCUS
Stillwater, Nevada,
Welcomes its Third Century
Bunny Corkin
Located about fifteen miles east of Fallon, the hamlet known as Stillwater was established, blossomed and struggled for survival during portions of three centuries. From the arrival of its first settler in 1862 and on up through the decades in which it served as Churchill's county seat, it transformed into a busy little community. The "oil boom" of 1920 brought momentary renewed vigor to the economy. And even today in its present state of "new life sprouting among the decay," it continues to be a viable part of Lahontan Valley.
Stillwater was named for the large pools of tranquil water that were scattered over the landscape. Before Euro-American settlement, these sloughs were the primary focus of subsistence for the Cattail-eater branch of the Northern Paiutes. Later, the deep, fertile soil and available water source made the district a sought after agricultural locale. Thompson and West's History of Nevada 1881 states:
The first settler at Stillwater was J.C. Scott, who located there in the fall of 1862. In the spring of 1863, W.H. Dowd and Moses Job [for whom Job's Peak, the focal point of the Stillwater Mountains, was named] arrived, and soon afterward they were followed by William Page, J.G. Hughes, J.W. Richards, J.M. Sanford, A. W. Doolittle, and others. . . . A station of the Overland Stage Company was also established there in July, 1862. A town gradually grew up. . . . It became the county seat in December, 1868. Stillwater was most prosperous in 1867 and 1868, having then a population of 150. . . . A store, hotel, saloon, restaurant, post office and black-smith shop comprise the places of business. The buildings are constructed of wood.
Not only was Stillwater a center for business activities, it was the site of political activities as well. The first Democratic Convention in Churchill County was held there in 1864. The convention was held on a woodpile belonging to a stage driver known as "Big Ned" Caltron. The Churchill County Standard of October 22, 1904, states:
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12 Bunny Corkin
. . . attendance was not very large, there being but two men present. . . . It was called to order by Mr. James St. Clair, who was made permanent chairman. . . . Mr. William C. Grimes was chosen permanent secretary. . . . Each made an eloquent address of acceptance . . .
After a number of recesses taken from time to time to allow the delegates to wet their whistles, the convention called for the nomination of an Assemblyman. Amidst profound and breathless silence, Mr. Grimes arose to his feet and in a speech that is still ringing through the wilds near Stillwater, placed Hon. J. St. Clair in nomination. Mr. St. Clair . . . expressed himself as deeply moved by the honor conferred upon him. If elected, he would fill the office to the best of his ability. The business of the convention, having been concluded, the meeting adjourned with three rousing cheers for the success of the ticket. And thus ended the first Democratic Convention ever held in Churchill County.
Today, tourists and local residents inquire as to the sites where the buildings that they have seen photos of or have heard stories about were located. Although many wonderful photos of early day Stillwater exist and old newspapers abound with written accounts of special events and day-to-day life, maps of the area are few and far between. This article is an attempt to combine memories of local residents, fragments of written materials, and cherished photos in a manner that will help today's visitor visualize the quaint town of the past.
Because very few of the original buildings remain, the Churchill County Museum staff, with its lack of professional survey skills, can only suggest the "approximate" sites, but we felt there was a need to record what we could before all of the early day residents have passed away. The task is especially difficult because of the high cost and scarcity of building materials here in Nevada's high desert, the building materials from Stillwater were recycled many times. Neighboring mining communities grew and vanished within very short periods of time with Stillwater inheriting some of these structures. They were moved again into Fallon or were assimilated throughout Lahontan Valley. Fire also took its toll on many buildings.
Just before his death on May 31, 2000, Ira Hamlin "Hammie" Kent, a Stillwater native, sketched out a map of the main street and shared his recollections of the little town he called home for nearly nine decades. We will always be grateful to him for his cooperation, and many of his remembrances have been used in this article.
South Side of Main Street
Let us begin our journey, by coming into Stillwater from the west. On the right, or south, side of the road, [near 12300 Stillwater Road] there was once a huge grove of cottonwood trees. They had been planted in such a manner that there was enough space between the rows to allow teams and spring wagons to drive in, thus
Stillwater, Nevada 13
An 1883 survey drawing of the Stillwater townsite. Some of the names of the founding families include Sanford, Murphy, Brannin, Pike and Higgins. The courthouse location is also a prominent feature. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
the people and animals could enjoy the shade. This area was very popular as a picnic spot, and each 4th of July the local residents and guests held a major celebration among the trees. Later, a ballpark was situated near there. The Kent family sold this one hundred acres to Mary deArmond Patterson and her sons on March 24, 1924. The trees became the victims of a receding water table and the Patterson brothers' saws.
Today, all that remains of the lush grove of cottonwoods is a near-empty lot at 12300 Stillwater Road. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
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These beautiful cottonwood trees, lining Stillwater 's Main Street, are representative of those trees that once graced both sides of the slough. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
Just beyond the trees was the criginal Ira Heber and Mary Kaiser Kent home. I.H. had come to Stillwater in the spring of 1876. He and Mary, daughter of well established businessman Charles Kaiser, were married in 1879. Their four children, Charles, Florence, Katie and Ira Longfellow were born in this house. Because it was quite small, the boys slept in the water tank-house behind the building. In 1910, Hammie Kent, Charles' son, was also born in this home. A year later the house burned down, and Charles and his wife Helen built their new home across the slough, north of town.
Jim Richards is credited with having opened the first store in Stillwater. Upon Richards' departure from the village, I.H. Kent opened his original store in the building next to the family home.
I.H. moved his business into Fallon in 1904, after which time Charlie Kent operated the Stillwater store until 1918. It is believed he then sold the contents of his store to Childs and Ryan but it is not recalled how long they were the local merchants. Nearby was the water tower which provided water for the store and yet another house which belonged to the Kent family.
Back to the present and moving east along the main street, one sees a grey cement block "Grade A Dairy" building standing beside the road where historically another grove of trees had once grown. Behind the dairy barn there was a cove in the slough where a man named Tony Freitas lived in a dirt-roofed dugout, that had been cut back into the bank. Freitas, the town barber, cut his customer's hair while they were sitting in the dugout with the door open. If the door was closed, one could not see anything inside because the dugout had no windows.
Stillwater, Nevada 15
The original Ira Heber Kent home. The water tank-house can be seen behind the home at the far right. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
Corning back to the main road, in prior times, one crossed over the slough on the famous A-Frame bridge. Next to the bridge was a blacksmith shop constructed of rock and adobe mortar. Here the prospectors would sharpen their steel drills, and sometimes ranchers would have their horses and mules shod. This building later served as a cellar.
Cattle cross the A-frame bridge in January 1913. This photograph, taken from the album o the late Harold Fitz, includes the notation that the temperature on this day was 14 degrees below zero! (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
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As the years went by, the A-Frame was replaced by a concrete structure. This bridge was severely damaged during the 1954 earthquakes and in time was removed. (The black spot in the road on the left is a smudge pot that, when lit, warned drivers of road damage ahead.) Presently there is an unobtrusive culvert under the gentle curve in the road through which the slough waters run and the mosquitos make merry! (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
Near the bridge was a hand-dug well. Water from this well was also pumped up into a tower for storage and use by Stillwater residents and travelers. The 1954 earthquakes are credited with cutting off the water flow in some of the area's wells.
Turning south off of Main Street, Honker Lane, formerly called Cirac Avenue, today runs parallel to the skeleton "hot-house" buildings where Al Crawford's hydroponic tomatoes were grown during the 1970s. This "avenue" led to three historic houses which belonged to Charles Cirac, Leon Cirac and Charlie Adams, a Civil War veteran who lived at the southwest corner of the slough. All three homes were later moved into Fallon.
Coming back to the main street and still heading east,
Leslie Greenwood draws water from one of the town's wells. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Stillwater, Nevada 17
one next encountered Dave Tannehill's livery stable.The highlight of whatever social season Stillwater had was the annual rodeo. Although there was an arena next to the livery stable, the bucking horse competition usually took place in the middle ofthe main street. The livery stable was later moved to property on Lawrence Lane, and, finally, the wood was incorporated into Eddie Viera's ranch.
The Tannehill family history is not well documented in the museum's archives. However, Francis Marion Tannehill is credited with opening the first general store in Wonder, Nevada. On June 11, 1920, another Tannehill relative, G.F., moved this business and its contents from Wonder into Stillwater. This may have been the building that later became a part of the Stillwater Store.
Today, a small red gasoline pump, a wall of a rock flower box, a cement step, and a large indentation in the ground are all that remain of the Stillwater Store. In 1914, Adeline Marcella Greenwood became postmistress of Stillwater, and, in 1916, purchased the building which looked more like a home than a store. A 1920 newspaper ad stated: "On your way to the oil fields, stop at `Greenwood's Cottage Store' for candy, fruit or tobacco. Cor[ner]. Main St. and Cirac Ave., Stillwater, Nev." Mrs. Greenwood retired as postmistress the last day of January 1940, and her son Leslie was named in her place.
The Fallon Eagle, July 12, 1941, issue, tells more about Mrs. Greenwood's life in her obituary:
Adeline Marcella Greenwood was born June 16, 1861, in San Francisco, later moving with her family to Sacramento, where she was married. She had five children, three daughters and two sons, four of whom survive, one son having passed away many years ago.
Mrs. Greenwood's (cottage store) about 1920. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
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The remodeled Greenwood store and the building that served for years as the Stillwater Post Office c. 1960. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
It was in 1902 that Mrs. Greenwood came to Churchill County from Sacramento where Charlie Bailey had gone in January of that year to break racehorse colts for "Nick of the Woods" Pritchard, former owner of what is now known as the old Sagouspe ranch in Old River District.
Bailey, before going to Sacramento, had been instructed by George W. Likes, now county clerk, who was then raising bees on the ranch near Mt. Toyeh, east of Fallon, now known as the Moiola ranch to secure him [Mr. Likes] a cook. In response to the instructions and arrangements made by Mr. Bailey, Mrs. Greenwood and her daughter, Stella, arrived in Jimtown [Fallon], via Clem Webb's stage from Wadsworth, in February, 1902, and in April of that year Leslie Greenwood followed his mother and sister to the new home.
That spring, also in April, Mr. Likes moved to a house which stood about where West Center and Taylor streets intersect now. Mrs. Greenwood remained in Fallon until after the big Fourth of July Celebration that year and then, with Stella, started for Alpine, via Stillwater, with Jimmy Danielson. At Stillwater Mr. Danielson was talked out of taking her to Alpine by Charles Cirac, who employed her to operate the Stillwater Hotel for him, and to keep the store.
In 1914 she became postmistress and two years later bought her own home and store building. She retired as postmistress the
Stillwater, Nevada 19
last day of January, 1940, and her son, Leslie Greenwood, was named in her place.
In her early life Mrs. Greenwood, who had always been energetic and a keen business woman, gained valuable training as a newsgirl in San Francisco and Sacramento, where she sold newspapers for her father and stepfather.
Besides the son, she leaves three daughters, who are Mrs. Frank Marsh of Fallon, Mrs. C.G. Witbeck of Oakland, and Mrs. R. W. Woods of Woodlawn, California.
During Leslie Greenwood's term as postmaster, Stillwater residents often discovered that their letters had been "mysteriously opened," but appreciated the convenience of having postal service nearby. Greenwood also remodeled the store, removing the porch and adding on to the structure using wood from nearby buildings. The left side of the building was used for merchandise and the right half served as the post office. Ultimately, the dwindling population of Stillwater necessitated the closing of the Stillwater post office. Established on January 11, 1865, it was finally closed on April 30, 1959, and failing health forced Leslie to sell the store to Mr. and Mrs. John L. Savage in 1960.
Mel and Bernice Nelson took a lease on the store in May of 1960 and spent several years catering to the needs of visiting duck hunters, fishermen and locals. Since there was an extremely hot water well [120 degrees] beside the store, the Nelsons invited hunters to scald and pluck their birds near the porch. The feathers were to be rolled up in old newspapers and disposed of in a "burning barrel." Bernice Nelson Lipke recalls that she and Mel closed up the store at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 8, 1963, and left for their cabin at Walker, California, where they usually spent Mondays. She remembers that there was a brisk wind blowing and apparently some of the burning feathers from the barrel blew under the building.
The front page of the Fallon Eagle-Standard of December 10, 1963, tells the rest of the story:
Stillwater General Store Destroyed By Fire Sunday Night The Stillwater general store, a Churchill County landmark, was completely gutted by fire Sunday night about 9:00 p.m. Lack of water and exploding gasoline [aerosol cans] and ammunition added to the difficulties of the Churchill County Fire Department in their efforts to quell the blaze.
A well was pumped dry and then the fire fighters drained two
swimming pools in their fight against the blaze. [The Nelsons had built a hot water swimming pool behind the store.]
When the firemen appeared to be making headway, boxes of
shotgun shells, bottles of liquor and other merchandise would explode, fanning the blaze to new heights.
20 Bunny Corkill
No one was injured. John Bell who lives across the street, turned in the alarm. Two fire engines and 15 volunteer firemen answered the alarm. The entire population of Stillwater, about 20 persons, turned out to watch the fire and help fight it.
The burned structure was owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Savage of Carson City. At the time of the blaze they were in their trailer parked near the store. They used water hoses to spray their trailer to prevent its catching fire.
Nelson's "Greenwood Store" right after the 1963 fire. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Bernice and Mel Nelson lost most of their worldly possessions, including family antiques, in the fire. She said that because there was snow on the ground and driving conditions near their Lake Walker home were so hazardous their Stillwater friends did not even call them to tell about the fire until the next day. After the fire, the Nelsons moved away from Stillwater; the remaining shell of the store was dismantled and has not been replaced.
Presently, to the south of the store site, there stands an adobe building. The adobe was used as an ice house, and, when the jail "overflowed," prisoners where housed in it. The other wooden buildings that remain on the property were built by Leslie Greenwood, who used them as chicken houses.
To the southeast of the store site, the original grammar school building was built in 1872. There were 80 students and two teachers in one small room. This school was closed when the "new" Stillwater School was opened to students in February of 1918. The old grammar school building was purchased by Leslie Greenwood and the lumber used to remodel his store. Today, the 1918 Stillwater School and the teacher's living quarters can still be seen on Stillwater Road just before reaching the town site.
Stillwater, Nevada 21
The Stillwater Courthouse
The Churchill County Seat was moved to Stillwater from LaPlata in 1867. East of the original grammar school is the site of Stillwater' s first courthouse, which was built in 1869 at a cost of about $400. It was a wooden building about sixteen feet by twenty-four feet, consisting of one room. The building was also used as a schoolhouse. A hole was dug under the building and utilized as a jail. Whenever the river was high the jail was covered with water to a depth of two feet or more. Ira H. Kent told that on one occasion three cattle thieves had been placed in the jail for safekeeping overnight. The water began rising suddenly during the night and the sheriff went over early in the morning to see that his charges had not drowned. On his arrival he was surprised to find the prisoners had dug their way out. Sometime afterwards the sheriff received a letter from the thieves stating they would not have played such a scurvy trick, but they were afraid of being drowned.
By 1880, residents realized the need for a larger official courthouse, and county voters approved a tax levy for the new building. It was constructed a block south of Main Street. Costing three thousand dollars, it was considered by many citizens to be an unwanted piece of extravagance.
The most powerful argument in favor of the construction was that the upper floor could be used as a ballroom where guests could show off their finery. A huge wood stove was stoked in the wintertime to keep folks warm while they danced until midnight.
An article from the Reno Evening Gazette, January 11, 1882, describes one such event:
Stillwater, January 9 -- a . . . party in Stillwater, given by
no one in particular, was an immense success last Thursday evening. At 1 o'clock in the afternoon people began to arrive in buggies, carriages, wagons and on horseback, until the usually
quiet town was alive with merrymakers. -
At 7:30 the courthouse was lighted up and the dance was commenced . . . At 12 o'clock all partook of an elegant supper at J.M. Sanford's hotel and then danced till daylight. . . . Miss Maggie Kenyon, of Ragtown, was perhaps the best dressed lady, and with her blonde hair and beautiful face and figure, she was to be admired anywhere. She wore a silk overdress with velvet skirt, knotted with cords, and jet and white tie.
Mrs. Ira Kent, daughter of Senator Kaiser, looked exceedingly well in a walking suit of brown cashmere, white tie, hair dressed simple and gold chain with ornaments. . . . Mrs. W.H.A. Pike [the judge's wife] wore a dark navy blue with cherry colored tie, hair combed back in plaits. . . . Miss Lizzie Kinkade . . . looked sweet in a dark suit, white crape [sic] at the throat, hair fastened high with an ivory pin. . . .
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Today, little remains at the site of the 1881 courthouse. It was located near the power poles in the center of this photograph, one block south of Main Street. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
The "new" courthouse c. 1881. The second floor was used as a dance hall, the lower level as the courtroom. At the far right is the jail and the small building at center is the privy. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Stillwater, Nevada 23
Of all the memories that were initiated in this building, few had the impact on the local population as The Passing of Old Man Kellogg, as recorded in an article written for a special edition of The Fallon Eagle, on September 24, 1932, by Ira Heber Kent:
The story I am about to relate occurred at Stillwater while I was living there about the year of 1894 or 1895. There had been living in our community for many years, a man by the name of Cyrus W. Kellogg, and at the time of my story, he must have been about seventy years of age. How vividly, as I am writing these lines, I can recall how he looked in those days -- a rather small, stoop-shouldered, wiry old man, weighing probably one hundred forty pounds, and standing about five feet, eight inches tall. He would probably be clad in a pair of old shoes, the soles of which had been sewed on by himself and afterwards filled in with nails similar to those worn by the sheep herders of today; a pair of old overalls, probably patched in many places, with possibly leather over the seat and knees. These would be held in place by leather suspenders cut from a latigo strap and fastened to the overalls, perhaps, at one side with a thorn in the place where a button should be, and in other places by large safety pins. He would probably have on an old blue shirt, open at the collar and in front, showing the old gray hairs on his chest. He had a habit of going bare headed most of the time and the top of his head was entirely bald, surrounded by a fringe of wispy hair of a tawny, bleached-out color, hanging down on his neck.
A Living, Intelligent Soul
However, when you faced him, you entirely changed your opinion of the character of the man. His head was large and round, with a forehead wide and deep, such as is usually possessed by scholars or deep thinkers. Below the forehead were two very prominent heavy, bushy eyebrows, the hairs, which resembled wire in coarseness and intensity. The eyebrows protected and shielded a pair of bright, twinkling or penetrating gray eyes . . . and in looking into those eyes, you immediately became aware that you were facing a living and intelligent soul. A very prominent Roman nose extended below, with thin nostrils, and a long upper lip was just above the mouth, which looked like a slash in the face, so straight and thin the lips. The chin was the most characteristic feature of the entire face as it was wide and square, protruding from the face and showing to anyone who could read the owner usually finished anything he started. To complete the whole picture, those portions of the skin that had been exposed to the bright Nevada sun and the winds of the desert, had turned a dark brown and looked like the parchment generally supposed to encase a mummy.
24 Bunny Corkin
Avoided Expensive Habits
I knew the old man quite well as he frequently visited my house and I sometimes spent a night with him in the hills. I recall that earlier in the summer of the year of which I am speaking, I had asked him to dinner and my wife noticed that he had not helped himself to any butter but was eating his bread dry. She tried to prevail upon him to help himself to the butter, but he said he would only be there for one meal and would have no butter at home, so it would not benefit him to resume a habit he would be unable to continue after he left our house.
Had Made Several Fortunes
He was a kind hearted old gentleman, although clothed in rags, and in his younger days had traveled in many foreign countries, from South America to China, had made several fortunes, and lost them. In fact, I think it was on account of his last wife stealing his money and running away with another man that caused him to be in the predicament he was in. Nothing could be more entertaining than to listen to his adventures of his earlier days, told in the language of a scholar and a man of education.He never used profane language under any conditions that I ever remember and was an inherent old gentleman.
Owned Black Prince Claims
The old man was the owner of six claims known as the Black Prince Mines, in addition to his other holdings, lying on the ridge and extending down each side of the mountain above Cox's Canyon, as we called it in those days, about twenty miles from Stillwater, and he usually came in about every two months for a bill of groceries, and departed to return only when his groceries were exhausted. He would come in on his saddle horse with his mule which he named "Jack Gitney" and which was as celebrated a character in the community as the old man himself
Mule Eats Bankroll
I recall one time he came in, tied the mule to the fence and absent mindedly hung his vest, in the pocket of which was about $100 in greenbacks, on the pack saddle. The mule turned its head, espied the greenbacks in the vest pocket, and others, seeing what the mule was up to, called the old man, who retrieved the vest, but only in time to see the last of the greenbacks disappear down the throat of Jack Gitney.
I recall going up Cox's Canyon at one time when the old man was working on this side of the ridge in the canyon, and as there was only one place where we could secure pure ice-cold water, in a pool at the end of a tunnel about 80 feet long, we would take our canteens and utensils and go down there and get water. On
Stillwater, Nevada 25
this occasion Mr. Jack Gitney had entered the mouth of the tunnel to be in the shade, and when we threw rocks at him, he let both his heels fly at us. We returned, bringing with us the old man, who walked to the mouth of the tunnel, speaking to Jack Gitney and pressing him to one side, walked . . . him out, driving him up on the hillside so we could secure our water.
I think it must have been in October that the old man came in the last time to buy his stock of groceries and supplies to last him two months, as was his usual custom.
Saloon was Social Hall
At the time of which I am writing, there were probably ten or twelve families living in Stillwater and its immediate vicinity. Mr. J.M. Sanford ran the saloon which was our only place in which to congregate nights, gossip, and tell each other the news. Mr. Sanford, while not an educated man, was a natural born leader of men, and in all work of a public nature the leadership was usually acceded to him by common consent. For instance, if we were to put a big cottonwood tree on the dam in the summer or early fall, to raise the water, Mr. Sanford would grab hold of the tree and say "Come on, boys, take hold," and would wade in perhaps up to his neck in the water; and you can readily understand such leadership usually got results.
Not Much Drinking Done
He was an autocrat in the saloon, too. While we would assemble there every evening, ten or fifteen of us, playing cards and talking matters over, there wasn't much drinking done. When it came ten o'clock, Sanford would say, "Well, boys, it's time to shut up," and as he began to put out the lights, we would necessarily adjourn our gathering until the next night.
Fear Felt For Kellogg
Along in the middle of December, there came some heavy snow storms and we could see that the snow, glistening in the sunlight, must be very deep up around the country in which the Black Prince Mines were situated. So we ran over the holidays up to about the 5th of January, when someone raised the question one evening if we didn't think we ought to go up and see what had become of the old man; that he could not have much grub left by this time and maybe some accident had happened to him. This desultory discussion led to our assembling one morning in front of the saloon about four o'clock, and leaving for the mountains. . . . We had two pack horses loaded with blankets and our own grub, and I think there were four or five in the party who were mounted on their best horses, with a string of ten or fifteen head of loose saddle horses we drove ahead of us to break down the trail.
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Snow Makes Going Tough
When we reached the canyon and started up the backbone of the ridge to go over to the Black Prince Mines we found the snow even deeper than we had anticipated. Sometimes we would go through drifts from two to five feet deep. The man in front, riding his horse, would plunge and break the trail and when his horse was exhausted, he would fall back and a fresh man would ride ahead and take up his work. In this manner we arrived at the camp of old man Kellogg along about mid-day, as near as I can remember.
Now I wonder if I can draw a picture of the mine and surroundings so that it will be intelligible to my readers. The mine was situated at the head of a blind gully about twenty feet wide. As you approached the north side, the trail led down into the gully leaving the cabin about twenty or thirty feet to the right, and on ground about four or five feet higher than the bottom of the gully. The side of the cabin faced the gully, with a huge fireplace that would accommodate pine logs about three feet long, opposite the door. On the end nearest the mountain was the mouth of the tunnel which had been covered over so that Mr. Kellogg, after eating his meals, could proceed through this covered way into the tunnel which at that period I should think must have extended about two hundred feet into the mountain with crosscuts at various points where ore had been taken out in between. Directly in front of the door, on the opposite side of the gully, was a juniper tree the top of which was about fifteen feet high, or about five feet from the top of the bank which would be about twenty feet east of the trail.
Find Kellogg in Tree
When we had arrived at the edge of the gully on the trail, wading through snow from two to four feet deep, we saw an object apparently sitting in the top of the juniper tree at the side of the trail about five feet below us. Upon closer examination this proved to be the body of the old man. He was in a sitting posture, with his knees drawn up under him and his head bending down onto his knees. His right hand, in an extended position, was clutching a limb of the juniper tree which we eventually had to saw off to let the old man down as we could not detach his fingers. From his position he could look directly into the door of his cabin, which was standing wide open, and at that time a stretch of snow a foot or more deep extended across the room.
Start Homeward Trip
We immediately got busy and let the old man down, placed him on a pack saddle in a sitting position, covered him with blankets and lashing him fast with ropes we had brought with us . . . we started for home.
Stillwater, Nevada 27
Now let me reconstruct the story as we figured it out. The old man was sitting in his cabin before the burning logs, in his big armchair, with the snow and the sleet blowing outside, when he thought he heard a voice calling. He immediately started out up the trail, leaving the door wide open so he could see the light on his return. As he went down the trail, he thought he heard the voice again, and imagining that it must be someone freezing to death and perhaps calling upon him for assistance, he continued farther. Finally he could get no reply in answer to his repeated calls and he turned to retrace his steps.
Discovers Own Danger
It was then, probably, that he first realized that his life was in the greatest danger as he tried to work his way back, with the sleet and snow blowing in his face, probably in a gale of thirty or forty miles an hour. In his struggle to find his cabin, he got off the trail on the right hand side and the first thing he realized was that he went over the bank into the top of the juniper tree. Whether he was injured very badly in his fall, we were unable to determine -- at least none of his limbs was broken -- but from his position with his head down on his knees, he could see the bright, warm fire burning in the open door, and let us hope that a merciful Providence soon ended his suffering.
We estimated that he had intended to come in to Stillwater for supplies about the middle of December when the storm came up and he thought he could wait a few days until the weather got better; then other storms followed, making it impossible for him to think of leaving the cabin, so he must have been in the top of the tree for about 20 days.
We proceeded home, arriving there about twelve o'clock, and deposited the body of Mr. Kellogg in the lower front room of the courthouse, and each immediately repaired to his own home. When I arrived home my wife had a red hot fire and hot coffee on the stove waiting for me, and as soon as I could thaw out, I went to bed thoroughly tired and half frozen at that.
Plans Made For Funeral
Bright and early the next morning we all gathered at headquarters and sent word to all concerned of the accident and that the funeral would be held at two o'clock the second day following, inviting everyone to come to the funeral. Word was sent east to Eastgate and as far as Austin, and over to Pizen Switch, upon the site of which the town of Yerington now stands; also up the river to the Big Bend which is now known as the Towle ranch [Bucklands Station] where the highway crosses the bridge on the way to Yerington.
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Thaw Out The Body
We also sent word by the stage driver into Wadsworth and some of us proceeded into the courthouse in the front room of which was a big box stove in which we could put logs about three feet long, and on the top of which we put a boiler and washtub of water. We laid the body of the old man Kellogg on a table and proceeded to dip blankets into the boiling water and apply them to his body in an effort to thaw him out sufficiently that we would be able to place him in a coffin. In the meantime others had made a coffin of rough boards about two feet square and six feet long, and others were digging the grave out west of Stillwater in what is now known as the [in 1932] Langford ranch [3500 Lawrence Lane], where there was a round elevation in which others had been buried. We finally succeeded in getting Mr. Kellogg's limbs stretched out so we could place him in the coffin and cover him with blankets, ready for burial.
Big Crowd Responds
On the day set for the funeral, people began to arrive from all directions and in all kinds of rigs and on horseback. The hotel was soon filled and every family living in Stillwater and its immediate vicinity took on such guests as they could accommodate. No one expected to sleep -- it was only a question of feeding the multitude. Many, however; brought some lunch with them which helped out amazingly. I remember in our house we must have fed at least ten people.
The funeral took place as scheduled with an Adventist minister, a resident of the valley, officiating. The coffin, which must have weighed at least 250 pounds, was put on a hayrack, conveyed to the place of burial and in a little while we had done all we could for old man Kellogg.
Big Dance Follows
The people all returned to the places at which they had gathered and proceeded to get ready to have a big dance that night. As we had nothing in particular to do, the dance began early -- I should say between seven and eight o'clock -- in the courthouse, upstairs, which had been built for this very purpose. My recollection is that the room upstairs was about 26 feet wide and 60 feet long. The floor had been laid of the finest Oregon pine, vertical grain, an inch and one half thick.
In the back of the hall, an organ stood on a small platform which was occupied by the fiddlers, as we did not boast any violin players in those days, who, when tired out, would change off and perhaps add in place of the organ a guitar or a drum or any instrument with which they were equipped.
Stillwater, Nevada 29
Dance Lasts All Night
The dance continued until about seven or eight o'clock in the morning, but there were a great many more people present than they could get into the hall at one time, so they would take turns in going home to lunch after twelve o'clock, and in that way everyone had a good time.
Greatest Funeral Ever
In the morning, everyone left for home, declaring this was the greatest funeral and finest dance that had ever been held in Churchill County without any exception, and for the next several years, if two people were in dispute as to what year some event occurred, one would say, "Oh, I remember. That was the second year after old man Kellogg's funeral and the big dance at Stillwater."
County Seat Moves to Fallon
After the county seat was moved into Fallon in 1904, this wonderful old building continued to serve the local residents as a meeting and party place. During February of 1920, a notice of sale appeared in the local newspapers; "Stillwater Courthouse, building only, will be sold to the highest bidder for cash. No bid will be received or accepted for said property in a sum less that $535.00" Frank Hier was the lucky purchaser. Later the lumber was purchased by Albert Weishaupt who constructed his family home at 3775 Lawrence Lane from it in 1925. Henry Osgood tore down the old brick jail, and the bricks were located in his yard at 10995 Stillwater Road for many years.
The Karl Weishaupt home, located at 3775 Lawrence Lane, as it appears today. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
3 0 Bunny Corkill
North Side of Main Street
Having finished our journey down the south side of town, let us begin the tour of the north side of Stillwater's Main Street by returning to Freeman Lane, a county road which turns off of Stillwater Road, just west of the historic town.
James Merritt Sanford [1835-1905] and his wife Nancy Ann Whitney [18401928], arrived in Lahontan Valley in 1861 and settled at Ragtown for a time. Nancy always claimed that she was the second white woman to live in Churchill County, Catherine Kenyon of Ragtown being the first. By 1870 they had chosen to establish a home, a hotel business and become residents of Stillwater. Just to the east of Freeman Lane, the Sanfords built a large wooden granary where feeds and grain were stored until they could be hauled by freight teams out to the mines at Wonder and Fairview. Next to the granary, the Sanfords built a home where several generations of their family were born. As the years passed and family members moved into Fallon, Roy Hamlin, one time Stillwater Postmaster, lived in this residence.
The beginning of the north side of Main Street, Stillwater, 1899. The Sanford family granary, corrals and hotel are at the right. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Just before one reaches the slough, a road leads off to the north and arrives at the present-day ranch home of Bruce and Jamie Kent. They reside in the former Charles and Helen Hamlin Kent house which had been constructed in 1911 after the original I.H. Kent home burned.
Just across the slough, there is a deserted, red wooden building. Although situated upon the site of the original Sanford Hotel, in the history of Stillwater, this building is relatively new. It has served as a bar and a store, featuring sandwiches, pop, hunting licenses, duck stamps and sporting goods. A gasoline pump here has offered nourishment for automobiles while the bar inside has provided liquid
Stillwater, Nevada 31
The old Duck-Inn Bar, 2001. Today's residents recall that Walter and Cecilia deBraga Miller also ran this store for several years. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
refreshment for hunters and nearby residents. Under the ownership of Buck and Robin Gardner during the 1970-80s it was known as the B&R Stillwater Store and Duck-Inn Bar.
The first Sanford Hotel was a canvas tent with a dirt floor. In 1870, a large, white, wood-frame hotel was opened by the Sanfords. It was said that Nancy never turned a hungry person away from her table, but required the recipient of a meal to chop wood in payment. Neighbors said her woodpile was taller than most people's hay stacks. She also used to trade the local Indians a meal of victuals for a sackful of greasewood
roots. _
A small post office Unidentified townsfolk await their mail at Stillwater's first building was located to the post office, to the west of the Sanford Hotel. (Churchill west of the hotel. To the County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.) east, a saloon, operated by
32 Bunny Corkill
Ladies gossip over the front fence at the Sanford Hotel while the barkeeper (right) airs out canvases next door. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Sanford, was the only place for Stillwaterites to congregate at night, to gossip and tell each other the news.
The Sanfords, who had gained fame as genial and accommodating hosts, moved to Wadsworth, Nevada, in 1898, selling their hotel property to Charles Cirac. After a few years in Wadsworth, the couple returned to Fallon to spend the remainder of their lives. Charles P. Cirac remodeled the old hotel extensively in 1903 and hired the aforementioned Mrs. Adeline Marcella Greenwood to run it for him.
Shortly thereafter, Stillwater blossomed. On May 19, 1900, Nevada's mining boom began in Tonopah with prospector Jim Butler's big silver strike. Northern Nevada was caught up in this rush for silver, and "hopefuls" crowded into Stillwater from everywhere. There were not enough accommodations to take care of this influx, so in October of 1907, Charles P. Cirac hired brick mason Jimmy Orchard to construct a new two-story-brick hotel building for him at Stillwater, adjacent to his other establishment. The hotel was to have a barroom on the ground floor and nine rooms upstairs. The outside shell was finished during the spring of 1908 but the upstairs was not finished at that time. One story says this was because of poor workmanship and another says it was the result of the 1907 depression. It is remembered that the laborers drank their wages up in whiskey.
Once the bar and dance hall on the ground floor were opened, the infamous mining man, Tex Rickard, and his sporting crowd, came up from Tonopah to attend the free dance and feed. According to old timers, the diamonds they wore for the occasion, "looked as big as cart wheels."
Stillwater, Nevada 33
Jimmy Orchard's brick masons give header stones for the second story of Cirac 's new hotel a hearty"heave-ho" to raise them into place. This new hotel was directly east of the Sanford's wooden hotel. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
During April of 1916, Charles P. Cirac sold his hotel, ranch, stock and saloon to G. W. Cavness of Reno and Albert LeBeau of Stillwater; LeBeau taking the fifty-five acres of the ranch and Caveness taking the remainder of the property.
As the years went by, the hotel would go through a series of owners, including the Churchill County Bank, and would be used as an office, a bootleg joint, and a dance hall.
The Cirac Hotel's grandest hours coincided with Stillwater's renewed vigor and exploitation ofthe local citizenry during the "Oil Boom" days ofthe 1920s which brought excitement and speculation to the entire Lahontan Valley.
The Churchill County Eagle of November 26, 1920 records:
J.M. Vogeli [of Wheeler Oil Syndicate] has taken over the Stillwater hotel and has made extensive improvements throughout. He intends to open it as a general resort . . . and to make his resort famous in every way. An electric light plant has been installed, the baths have been remodeled; one of the finest dance halls in the state has been installed and Mr. Vogeli is at
34 Bunny Corkill
Stillwater has always been a headquarters for duck hunters and sportsmen. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
present installing an electric orchestra which will furnish music for dancing. This orchestra is one of the very latest things in its line and costs $2,000. . . . The resort will be dedicated with a grand opening on Saturday, Dec. 4, when a big dance and old fashioned chicken dinner will be given.
The Cirac Hotel's final demise came in March of 1946 when it was torn down by a Reno contractor who wished to salvage the bricks for reuse because of the shortage of building materials following World War II. The old wooden Sanford Hotel was also razed after its usefulness was spent.
To the north of the hotels, Charles Kent dug a well in 1919 to obtain water for his cattle to drink during the wintertime. To his surprise, the water was extremely hot. Shortly, W.W. Wheeler and a man named Freeman drilled near here in a futile attempt to find oil. The extremely hot water loosened the hydraulic jacks used in
Stillwater, Nevada 35
drilling for oil and made drilling difficult. During the week of June 18, 1920, the Wheeler "oil well," which had been drilled four hundred feet into the earth, developed into a hot water geyser, shooting water to the top of the sixty-four foot derrick. Following the eruption, several workers were seriously burned. The geyser "blew" for a year or more before it could be capped off. Oil was never discovered, but the hot waters of Stillwater would soon become a very valuable asset to the community. The water would be used for medicinal bathing, piped into homes for heat and, years later, used to generate geothermal power.
"Oil Boom" Speculation As soon as the oil rigs pulled into Stillwater, entrepreneurs began promoting the town. The following excerpts were gleaned from local newspapers.
Churchill County Eagle, May 11, 1920:
In 1920, Wheeler's dreams of "black gold" went up in steam. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Park Wheeler [of the Wheeler Oil Company] is in from Stillwater and brings news of renewed activities in that place due to the oil developments. He says he has recently sold a large number of town lots to parties who contemplate buildings.
Frank Hires is planning to move the old courthouse over to Main street for a business block, and a general air of optimism pervades the former county seat town.
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The Fallon Standard, June 10, 1920:
Charles P. Cirac . . one of the most consistent of the advocates of promised greatness for Stillwater and his partner . . . Albert LeBeau . . . sold 60 acres of land to R. W. Mufich of Vallejo, California. . . . Mufich plans to install a big hot water system from which he proposes to serve all residences to be erected with both heat and cooking facilities . . . he expects to interest a large amount of California capital. Behind Stillwater are vast resources, including agriculture, oil and metal mining and as time passes and this project's potentialities are converted into actualities, it is asseverated that Fallon can not always hope to occupy a position of municipal exclusiveness. . . .
Churchill County Eagle, February 26, 1921:
Mrs. R.H. Westlake returned this week from Reno, where she spent the past month selling lots in the Wheeler Addition to Stillwater to people of the Riverside Town. She reports having been quite successful. Her proposition that the buyer gets the lot's proportion of the Wheeler Oil Syndicate's 240 acres of oil rights in this locality, and the agricultural value of the ground besides, clinched the deal of many speculators.
Unfortunately, the "Oil Boom" soon passed, and Stillwater was forced to return to its bucolic existence.
Just prior to the "boom," to the east of the brick hotel, Charles Cirac commenced digging a large outdoor swimming pool. Upon completion it became a popular spot for swimming, and many believed that the minerals in the water at the hot baths contained restorative and medicinal qualities. Hundreds of people from Fallon and other locations joined with the local residents in enjoying the warm water. Cirac also constructed two more pools inside a large metal building, which, though vandalized, stands today. Mrs. Ella Ada Johnson Maxwell moved to Stillwater in 1921 and very shortly took over running the swimming pools. A very special event occurred in April of 1920 when thirty-four members ofthe Baptist Indian Mission were baptized in one of the pools.
Mrs. Maxwell married Albert LeBeau on March 29, 1928. LeBeau had come to Nevada with his parents in 1864 and had settled in Stillwater in 1917. Together they would improve and operate the "LeBeau Plunge" which was about sixty feet by one hundred feet, with a depth ranging from one foot to five feet. They claimed that the water would leave no headaches nor "furzed" tongues!
The couple resided in the building, located in front of the metal bath house, which, in 2001, sports a crushed roof. Albert LeBeau had his business office upstairs
Stillwater, Nevada 37
Kemma Osgood and friend bask in Stillwater's sunlight at the bottom of the new Cirac outdoor pool during its construction. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Above: The Cirac/LeBeau indoor swimming pool and health resort was closed to the public c. 1970. Right: Principal players in this article include: Stella Greenwood [Mrs. Frank Marsh], Adeline Greenwood, Charles Cirac and his sister Alice Cirac [Mrs. Walter Philips]. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
3 8 Bunny Corkill
in the brick hotel. The LeBeau's kitchen served as a meeting place for local farmers who came into town to stop by and enjoy a cup of coffee and an amiable game of cards.
The Fallon Eagle, Saturday, April 19, 1930 edition, reported that LeBeau's outdoor pool would be opening soon for the summer season. It continued, ". . . the enclosed pool has been popular through the winter and within three weeks the facilities will include .. . steam baths and an Indian pool, which . .. has been in demand for some time." (The exact date that the outdoor pool was filled with dirt is unknown.)
On Wednesday morning, December 28, 1932, Albert LeBeau chose to take his own life with a prized, ancient 25-20 weapon that had been manufactured in 1892. His body was discovered in an indoor pool at "the resort." He left no note of explanation for his action, but during the inquest, it was revealed that he had brooded over his illness and financial reverses. It also came to light that an earthquake, on the night of December 20, had badly damaged his brick store and hotel building, adding to his despondency. His widow, Ella, continued with the business activities until her death on September 17, 1939. Her son, Charles Maxwell, took over "the Kolstrup service station" at Stillwater and his mother's business for an undetermined length of time. During later years, subsequent owners have envisioned re-opening the pool, but due to structural problems and health requirements have not succeeded. Today, steam can still be seen coming from the well which once supplied the bath house with healing waters.
The brown wooden building, now with a crushed roof, served the community early on as I.B. Marsh's meat market. The slaughterhouse which provided the store with meat was located over at the Charles Kent ranch. The carcasses would be brought to the store, cut and sold. The Marsh brothers would later become proprietors of meat markets in Fallon.
In 2001, this ruin is all that remains of the Marsh's Meat Market/Albert LeBeau home. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Stillwater, Nevada
William Edgon "Pony Ned" VanBlaricon [often spelled VanBlaricom] carved out a niche in Stillwater' s history for himself, and remains the town's most unforgettable character! During his final years, he lived in and ran a business out of an adobe building which set on a site just east of the Marsh's Meat Market.
"Van" was born in Wisconsin in 1849. He told many differing stories about his life. Most were about half true and highly exaggerated, but it is remembered how blue and intense his eyes were when he was telling one of his mighty tales. Depending upon which "version" of his life story he was telling, the details varied. Amazingly, there is enough written about him in the Fallon newspapers, to fill a book.
He often mentioned that his life as an Indian Fighter, Pony Express Rider, and stage and freight team driver began upon the death of his parents when he was about 14 years of age. He claimed the name "Pony Ned" was given to him by "Buffalo Bill" Cody.
He told that he began the chapter of his life as a "Pony Express Rider," riding from Unionville to Silver City at age 18. In his early experiences in Nevada he was asked to carry war messages for the Interior Department. When President Lincoln was assassinated he made a ride of 55 miles, had supper and was ordered to ride back, making the event a 110 mile ride without rest. In 1865, he was told to carry a message to Boise, Idaho, over a route he had never traveled. He made that ride of 170 miles in 18 hours and 20 minutes. All his expenses were paid at the time by the Overland Pony Express Company.
His next career was that of a stage driver and, still later, he drove a sixteen-horse freight team, hauling supplies to the mines in the eastern part of Nevada. By the time he arrived in Stillwater to make a final home, he was having trouble with his eyesight and he was becoming rather decrepit. He bought the old adobe building for $125. "Van" was admired by Stillwater residents for his honesty and square dealings, so when it was realized that the building had no roof on it, his neighbors responded. Charles Kent, George Chester, Sr., Tex Reynolds, Glenn Reynolds and many others got together and put a roof on Van's new place of business.
39
William Edgon "Pony Ned" VanBlaricon, Stillwater legend, stands on the porch of his adobe home, c 1930. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
VanBlaricon's adobe house stands at far right. Note the two trees in front of the house. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
The site of VanBlaricon's adobe as it appears in 2001. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.
Stillwater, Nevada 41
From his little bar he served old fashioned Sarsaparillas in brown containers to neighborhood kids and bitters to the cowboys and freighters, making enough profit to survive. All in all he created memories around the Stillwater area for over sixty years. On June 9, 1934, he was honored at a Pony Express celebration at Genoa where he unveiled a marker erected there commemorating the work of the riders. On July 5, 1934, at age eighty-five, "Pony Ned" passed away at the Flora Morriss hospital in Fallon where he had been taken with a broken hip. His "ride" on this earth was completed.
Above right: After the two trees in front of the adobe were cut down, "Van" planted rose bushes in the stumps of the trees. Note the Pony Express emblem at the high point of the adobe's gabled roof. Above: VanBlaricon's adobe store/home after it was destroyed during the 1954 earthquake. This landmark was razed soon after this photograph was taken. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
42 Bunny Corkill
As a political power, Stillwater began to lose ground when the county seat was moved into Fallon in 1904, but it remained a "township" until 1956 and had its own Justice of the Peace and Constable. The Stillwater precinct was abolished by resolution of the county board of commissioners at their May 17th, meeting of that year, because it was deemed that the continuation of the township and township officers resulted in a needless expenditure of county funds.
Throughout history, other buildings have also graced Main Street, Stillwater, Nevada, but they have long since been committed to dust. Sadly, 2001 finds the street lined with abandoned autos and duck hunters' cabins in varying degrees of decay. The beautiful trees are gone, and, because of the high salt content in the water around the slough, will never come back. However, the wonderful news is -- there is renewed life on the edge of town. We invite you to discover it for yourself.
Stillwater lives! On your visit to the locale, listen carefully to the whispers in the wind, remember the past, and enjoy the present!
Sources
Churchill County Eagle, July 8, 1911, p. 3:3,4
Churchill County Eagle, June 11, 1920, p.8:1
Churchill County Eagle, May 11, 1920, p.1:5
Churchill County Eagle, November 26, 1920, p.1:5
Churchill County Deeds. Book 16, pg. 461. March 22, 1924
Churchill County Deeds. Book 17, pgs. 9-10. January 13, 1925
Churchill County Deeds. Book 17, pg. 31. February 18, 1925
deBraga, Marcia. Dig No Graves. Copyright 1964. pgs. 24-32
Lahontan Valley News, "Tales Of Mr. Jack" By George Chester, February 2, 1981
Personal Interview: Kent, Ira Hamlin "Hammie." May 23, 2000
Personal Interview: Lipke, Bernice Nelson. April 11, 2001
Personal Interview: Viera, Eddie. April 7, 2001
Shamberger, Hugh A. Historic Mining Camps of Nevada. Wonder. pg. 16.
Thompson and West's History ofNevada 1881. Howell-North, Berkeley, California 1958.
pg. 364
Townley, John M. Turn This Water into Gold. Second Edition. pg.8
Photographs
Special thanks to the following people who loaned their photos for this article:
Bruce and Jamie Kent
Bernice Nelson Lipke
M. Joyce McClelland
Eddie Viera
Connie Philips Walters
Bernice, Nevada: Once the
Largest Town in Churchill County
Compiled from family narratives and other sources collected by
Merton E. Domonoske
edited by Jane Pieplow
Illustration of the quartz mill at Bernice by Fallon artist Victor Williams.
Casket. What a name for a mining town! Wallace W. Goodell, prospecting out in the wilds of Churchill County in 1881, was a 48 year old Civil War veteran who had made his way from New York state to the vast emptiness of Nevada. Not a rich man, he must have been very excited when he hit a ledge of quartz that looked promising. He located his mining claim, and, naming it for the unique shape of the ledge, promptly christened the camp Casket (sometimes known as Coffin), Nevada*.
Goodell worked at his claim for two years before he leased it to George W. Bothwell, a Nevada mining man of much experience. The lease included an option for Bothwell to purchase the claim and erect a ten-stamp quartz mill near the site. Hoping to strike it rich (most of the minerals in the mine were silver with a small percentage of gold), Bothwell took out some ore and milled it, but to his disappoint-
* Other historical sources say James Wardell was the first to find the quartz ledge.
43
44 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
ment he lost the quartz vein when he unknowingly ran his second mine tunnel in the wrong direction. Discouraged and thinking there was no more ore, Bothwell gave up his lease/purchase option and turned the claim back over to Goodell. By then Goodell had met Warren W. Williams and his half-brother, George Williams, who were willing to purchase some shares in the mine. In 1884, Goodell quickly sold one half of his claim to Warren and one fourth of his claim to George for $10,000.
Pockets flush with cash, Goodell left the desolation of Nevada for the high life at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California. For the next two years he enjoyed fine food, liquor, fancy clothing and upscale social contacts. He was having the most marvelous time of his life and, never regretting a moment of it, returned to Nevada destitute. Warren Williams gave him a job as his company bookkeeper, and Goodell settled back into a more staid lifestyle.
Who were these Williams men who could afford to put $10,000 down to buy most of the shares in Goodell's mine? Warren Willard Williams, born on December 20, 1837, was raised and schooled in New Portland, Maine. When he was 19 years old he accompanied his cousin Alden W. Jackson on a sailing trip from New York to San Francisco in order to join his older brother Abram Williams. After arriving in San Francisco, Warren left for Virginia City, Nevada, to work in his brother's store located on the divide below the Nevada town. Warren's duties included bringing in supplies for the store with a pack train. He encountered some adventures on this job. During one trip he and a young helper were attacked by Indians near Mono Lake and lost their supplies, but saved themselves by hiding in the river under a cutbank.
Over the next two decades, Warren would move back and forth over the Sierras between Nevada and California, quenching his thirst for both adventure and fortune.
Years later, Warren's half-brother Eugene would write down many of the young man's Wild West escapades. These events give us insight into Warren Williams' character and give us clues as to how he had amassed much of his vast Nevada holdings by the time he became an investor in Bernice.
In the spring of 1861, five years after venturing west, Warren was among a number of men in a large prospecting party looking for ore in western Nevada. The expedition soon came to the Walker River. There was no easy means of crossing the river at this time except to have a volunteer from the party swim across the river and attach a strong rope firmly to an object on the further shore. Supplies and pack animals could then be guided along the rope for a safe crossing.
The leader of the party, a man of much intelligence and experience, called for volunteers to undertake the dangerous mission of carrying the rope across the river. Warren, 24 years old, a young man with grit and possessed of a powerful, 6'4" physique, was an expert swimmer and volunteered to do the deed. The foreman then suggested Warren be properly prepared for the chilly swim by removing his clothes. He then asked him to run up and down the bank of the river while cold water from the stream was thrown upon him. The young man ran back and forth for about fifteen minutes in order to change the temperature of his blood to better
Bernice, Nevada
enable him to resist the Walker River's frigid waters, composed mainly of melting snow from the Sierras.
This being done, a knot was tied in one end of the rope which Warren took between his teeth as he plunged forward into the icy waters. Heading across the river, he bravely battled against the swift current, finally reaching the opposite shore some distance downstream. Witnesses stated it required several attempts before he could regain his footing, his body was so numb from the cold, but presently he stood erect and held the rope high to the cheers of the party on the opposite bank. After tying off the guide rope, the rest of the party -- men, supplies and pack animals, safely crossed the river.
Another interesting incident that Warren's half-brother Eugene recounted shows his older brother's strength of character. The event took place back in California in 1863, when Warren was in charge of the Markley racing stable, owned by the Markley Brothers in Shaw Flats. As Warren returned from a race meeting in the San Joaquin Valley near Stockton, California, he stopped in the little town of LaGrange. As he entered the town, riding his spirited race horse, he saw a frightened horse racing down the street dragging a young girl whose foot was caught in the stirrup of her saddle. Many townspeople looked on in horror at the spectacle, but were unwilling or unable to help.
Taking the lariat from his saddle, Warren started in pursuit of the runaway. The race was fast and furious, and when he reached a point about twenty feet behind the frightened animal, Warren raised up in the saddle, threw his lariat over the head of the running horse and took a few turns of his rope around his saddlehorn. Within seconds, both horses had been halted. To the great joy of her parents and the crowd which had quickly gathered, Warren quickly dismounted and extricated the frightened girl from the dangling stirrup. It is reported that later the girl sent a message to her hero expressing a desire to meet him to show her graditude. Warren went to her home and received the fond thanks of her parents. He felt he had won the heart of the young girl, but being at the time without settled plans in life, and of little means but ambition to make a fortune, he distanced himself from any thoughts of matrimony.
Yet another story demonstrates that Warren could fully defend himself when the need arose. About the same time as he was racing horses, Warren was also
45
Warren Willard Williams. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
46 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
engaged in placer mining in the vicinity of Sonora on some of his own claims. A group of claim jumpers attempted to take possession of them by means of violence. When the young man resisted, two men threatened him with an old time six shooter loaded with powder and ball. Pointing the pistol at Warren's chest at very close range, one of the men pulled the trigger. Luckily, the gun did not discharge, and Warren lost no time in putting his only weapon, a miner's pick, into action. In a few minutes, the two ringleaders were laid out on the ground more dead than alive and the other men had fled the scene. The injured men recovered in time, but did not return. Thereafter, the young miner worked his claims without interference.
Warren soon sought different employment in California, driving freight teams at the sawmills in the summer and ox teams in logging regions in the winter. Driving ox teams in the logging camps was dangerous employment as the teams were compelled to run very fast down the steep places in the logging roads. Warren, running alongside them, was obliged to take a firm hold of the near oxbow and keep pace with his team. On many occasions he would lose his footing and the oxbow would become his life preserver.
One more event in Warren's early life shows his allegiance to family members. In the winter of 1864, his younger brother Ward Spooner Williams was employed as a schoolteacher in a mining town called Copperopolis, not far from Sonora, California. After administering punishment to a misbehaving student, the boy's father, a hot-tempered southern man named Woodside, vowed to get even. North/ South sentiments ran high all over the nation at the close of the Civil War and as Woodside loaded a sawed-off shotgun, he declared he was going to kill the "damn Yankee" on sight. Ward, hearing of Woodside's comment, closed the school and went into hiding for a few days. Warren heard of the threat upon his brother's life and secured a man to drive his freight team while he went to Ward's aid.
Once in Copperopolis, Warren went quietly from place to place seeking his brother's enemy, like a player in a western movie. Woodside was soon located in a local saloon and Warren, armed with a revolver and Bowie knife as was the western custom, entered the establishment. He took a position within striking distance of Woodside, looked him squarely in the eye and said, "damn you, the teacher is my brother." As he said this he drew his six shooter, and, using it as a bludgeon, struck his antagonist a blow on the head which rendered him unconscious. A few days later Warren sent a challenge to Woodside to a shootout in the street, but the man declined. Woodside soon sold his property and moved his family to another town. Peace was restored in Copperopolis.
Warren continued to drive freight teams for other companies for a number of years. Soon he had saved enough to buy his own team and began hauling supplies to the mining camps in Nevada. With a number of his brothers already in Nevada and the surrounding area, Warren wrote a letter back home asking his half-brother George Burell Williams to come to Nevada to operate one of the freight stations at Dead Horse Wells. George liked the idea and came out west straightaway.
Bernice, Nevada 47
After helping his half-brother in the freighting business for a few years, George joined Warren when he went into a sheep ranching partnership with Charles Kaiser. Kaiser and Williams brought 3,000 head from California and established ranches in Churchill County at Stillwater and at Clan Alpine. The Kaiser/Williams partnership dissolved in 1878 with Kaiser keeping the ranch at Stillwater and Williams the ranch at Clan Alpine. George and Warren Williams continued in the freighting business (which was sold in 1882), and also partnered in ranching, raising sheep and mining.
It was their mining ventures which bring us back to the story of the Casket claims, and Goodell's spending spree in San Francisco. Much had transpired in Casket during the two years that Goodell was away. In 1883, the forty-three year old, 6'4" Warren Williams brought his eighteen year old, 4'8" wife of four years to view the claims in Casket, which he hoped to soon own. Addie Mattison Williams was a very bright person, an expert rifle shot, could dance the Schottische and spoke several languages. Given her education and her strong Baptist beliefs, she may have been the one to state she was displeased with the little town's depressing name. Addie may have held four year old Lizzie Beth, the couple's first child, near as she turned to the Bible in search of a title with more grandeur for the camp. It is quite probable that Addie encouraged her husband to rename the area after Queen Bernice, wife of the Greek King Agripa (Acts 25: 13-23). The Williams family
The mining town of Bernice was located 92 road miles east of Fallon. Austin was 85 miles further east of the town. Bernice was 65 miles southeast of Lovelock- (This map is taken from the book Mines of Churchill and Mineral Counties by William 0. Vanderburg.)
48 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
A jaunty George Williams and his favorite buggy team, taken c. 1884. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
always pronounced the name "bur-niss," possibly its biblical pronunciation, but either pronunciation means "bringer of victory."
With the mining camp now properly named, there was great discussion as to what to call the William's new mine located on the hillside above the town. Logic prevailed and the mine was christened the Golden Crown, a fitting "accessory" for Queen Bernice. (History reveals that naming mines after Kings and Queens was quite common. The Summit King and the Copper Queen mines are two Nevada examples.) Whatever the source, Bernice and the Golden Crown surely sounded better to the ear, and to the townspeople, than Casket.
What the Williams brothers and their families (George had just married Cora May Williamson) saw in 1884 when they looked down on the town of Bernice from their mine site 800 feet above the camp, was a place situated at the junction of Bernice Canyon and Bernice Creek, on a flat area of approximately five acres, ranging from ten to twenty feet above the canyon floor.
Good water, or lack of it, was always a concern in the deserts of Nevada. The water that flowed near the mill site was so full of arsenic it was undrinkable, but fortunately, two good water sources for the town were available. Bernice Creek's water was tested and found to be good enough to water the town's livestock. A few springs below the town provided drinking water during most of the year. If the springs froze or ceased to flow during cold weather months, residents drank water from melted snow.
Spring in the canyon was reflected in the large groves of cottonwood trees whose green leaves danced in the breezes. Watered by the creek, the wildflowers
Bernice, Nevada 49
bloomed and wild horses, deer, mountain lions and other wildlife were abundant. Winter in the area was another story. Located over a mile above sea level, the storms and cold temperatures in Bernice could be severe. The Cottonwood groves and pinon pine trees were toppled and sledded across the snow before being cut up and sacrificed to the "cast iron stove" to keep the townspeople from freezing.
The town's commercial buildings included the Hoyt hotel, a boarding house, two stores, saloons (including the Williams Saloon), an assay office with a canvas ceiling upon which the signs of the zodiac were painted, a livery stable, a ten stamp quartz mill, a blacksmith shop and stables and a Post Office (which operated from June 5, 1883 to June 5, 1894). There is no record of a church.
With a population of about 60 people (counting the Chinese and Native American population brought the number to 100) there was soon opportunity enough in Bernice for another Williams brother -- Eugene Lawrence Williams. Eugene was born in New Portland in 1858. Sixteen years younger than his half-brother Warren and four years younger than George, Eugene had farmed, taught school and received a law degree by the time he traveled to Nevada. Upon arriving in Bernice, Eugene took over the running of the Williams store and became bookkeeper for the mining company. The twenty-seven year old man also took time to write journal entries about the Williams' activities in and around Bernice. (These journals, probably written between 1915 and 1919, have been handed down through the family and have provided many of the historical insights included in this article.)
Eugene used his law degree on occasion in Bernice, as the camp was large enough to allow its official functions to be carried out in Justice Court by the Justice of the Peace or the Constable. The few children in town were taught at the District 5 School in nearby Clan Alpine, a six hour buggy ride away, where Warren Williams' sister, Mary Williams Young, was the teacher. Children in Bernice may have been sent to ranches in Edwards Creek Valley to be boarded so they could attend the seasonal school located there.
Warren Williams had a home in Bernice, near the Williams Boarding House, where he and his family stayed when they visited the mine. Mr. and Mrs. R.H. Parker, James Deveny and Constable W.P. Dennis also had homes in the area and cabins were scattered elsewhere around the landscape.
There were some connections to the outside world, as a buggy road, starting near the Curtis tunnel of the Golden Crown Mine, went over the mountain to Shoshone Springs and then down the valley to Clan Alpine. Mail came to the town from Lovelock three times a week -- during good weather. In the winter of 1884, a citizen of Bernice joked in a letter to the editor in Austin's Reese River Reveille that tri-weekly mail from Lovelock to Bernice, ". . . means get through one week and try to get back the next, but which ordinarily gets through on time."
Not only mail and citizens went to and fro from Bernice; all of the supplies for the mine and town residents had to be hauled in by freight wagons. The town's main trade center was Lovelock's Ranch (now Lovelock) on the Central Pacific Railroad. During part of the year when the roads were passable, weekly deliveries of three wagon trains were required to supply this bustling community. Total weight
50 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
of the wagons was 20 tons, pulled by teams of from ten to twenty horses or mules. The round trip would take two weeks, one freight team coming into town meeting another on its way back to Lovelock.
Reliance on outside sources for every supply in town made Bernice residents very aware of the condition of their roads. In 1885, an angry Bernice resident sent a letter to the The Reese River Reveille and complained:
The roads from here to Lovelock are in bad condition and Churchill County Commissioners seem to think all they have to do is send out their Assessor and collect taxes and let us alone till they are due again, but the day will come when we will have the power, and they will feel how good it is to be in our place!
Apparently the Churchill County Commissioners got the message, for on July 5, 1886, they ordered that a Road District be established between the towns of Cottonwood and Bernice. Presumably this designation would provide more regular road repair.
The mining camp had its own Chinatown up Bernice Canyon, east of the mill. The men living in Chinatown were most likely laborers who had helped lay the tracks of the Central Pacific railroad over the treacherous terrain of the High Sierra in the 1860s. These men were used to living
in simple dwellings (in Bernice they were dugouts in the hills) and cooking their own
meals of rice and fish, dried oysters, fruit, mushrooms and seaweed and, of course,
tea.
The Chinese men living near Bernice were employed as cooks, laundrymen, and at least twenty-five of these men were employed by the mine owners to cut and stack pinon pine logs for the fires that roasted the crushed ore, as it contained arsenical iron, and roasting was the only way to get rid of the arsenic.
The Chinese developed an ingenious way of getting the logs from high up on the hillsides to the mill site below. Two posts would be driven into the ground in a
Supply List Required by the Town of Bernice and the Mines
Lumber
Quick Silver (Mercury) for the Mill Salt for the Mill
Lubricants for the Mill
Chemicals/retorts for Assay Office Iron, rods, bolts, nuts, rivets and charcoal for blacksmith shop Saddle soap and leather for tack Whiskey, beer and sarsaparilla for saloons
Hay and grain for stock
Black powder, fuses, candles, picks, shovels, crow bars and drill steel for mines
Food, hardware and dry goods for
stores: sacks of flour, table salt, sugar, tea, bars of laundry soap, rice, beans, tins of matches, coffee, maple syrup, macaroni, baking powder, crackers, wheels of cheese, bacon and hams.
Other items: coal oil, brooms, guns and ammunition, stoves
Meat was butchered on the premises and hung in cold weather and in summer put down in brine and corned. Beef was available from the surrounding ranches. Lamb and pork was also procured nearby.
Bernice, Nevada 51
straight line on the side of the canyon, parallel to the canyon's floor and less than a log's width apart. A dozen cut logs would then be stacked behind these posts, which would hold them in place. A number of these stacks would be made all over the hillsides. When the wood was needed down at the mill, the two front posts would be knocked down, allowing the logs to roll to the bottom of the canyon to be hauled to the mill by horse teams with drag lines.
Chinese workers were later employed as miners, digging below the earth through the shale under neighboring Hoyt Canyon, one and one half miles north, driving a tunnel known as the Golden Crown Extension. The laborers entered the existing mine tunnel from the back, trying to locate a vein that had faulted. The tunnel they dug was beautifully done, five feet wide with a seven foot arched ceiling. It is rumored that these men found a small gold ledge,and, unbeknownst to the Williams brothers, kept the profits and supplemented their incomes by selling the gold at Lovelock's Ranch.
Other men often employed in and around the mines or at other jobs in the town were the local Native Americans. Even in these isolated areas of Churchill County, cultural diversity could be found.
From their humble beginnings as mine owners and leaseholders of the Bothwell quartz mill, the Williams brother's holdings in Bernice eventually encompassed a number of business sites -- and the town itself. The mine's main stables and blacksmith shop were located to the east of the stamp mill along a sandy shelf of land above Bernice Creek. The blacksmith shop was certainly essential for the operations of the mine. Horses and mules had to be shod and wagons repaired. Wagon wheels had to be replaced and tightened, steel drill bits sharpened and repairs made to the mill. In fact, because sharp tools were a must for efficient mining, there was a small building at the mouth of each tunnel of the Golden Crown Mine that contained a forge where the drills could be made sharp again on the spot.
The ore bin at the mine held ten tons, requiring three or four trips a day for the wagons hauling the ore to the mill to be processed. Once a wagon was loaded with ore up at the mine, it made the slow trip down the narrow, steep trail to the mill in the town below. For the first quarter mile of the downward trip, a trail left the mouth of a lower tunnel in the mine, at 6,289 feet elevation, by way of a very steep ridge. The trail itself was difficult to traverse, as often a boggy area was created by a natural spring. Wagons hitched with four horses or mules and loaded with ore continued to lumber down the 18% grade until they were about half a mile above the mill. Here they took a branch road, which was cut into the side of the canyon. If this was navigated safely, the wagons would arrive just above the mill so they could dump their loads of ore. The noise in and around the millsite must have been deafening. Ten huge, noisy stamps, powered by a large Scottish steam engine, methodically drummed up and down, crushing large rocks into smaller pieces that would release their precious minerals.
After emptying their loads, the ore wagons proceeded west down the main street, along the edge of the townsite and down a short grade to the canyon floor where they passed below the mill and above the tailings pond. At this point, team-
52 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
sters could go straight ahead to the stables to change teams to make the arduous trip back up the canyon to the mine.
The stable area was also full of activity. In addition to the blacksmith pounding away at his forge, horses and mules had to be cared for, watered and fed. About a dozen saddle horses and a few buckboard teams added to the workload. A milk cow or two to supply the boarding house completed the picture. All the stock would require at least four hundred tons of hay and grain to feed them each year. Fortunately, these goods could be purchased from the surrounding ranches, hauled to Bernice where the hay was stacked high near the feed corrals. Water for the animals was laboriously hauled from nearby Bernice Creek.
From June 1884 until July of 1885, Williams' wagons and teams made their way up and down the hillside from the mine to the mill. By July the brothers' lease on George Bothwell's one and two story wood frame quartz mill had expired, and Warren and George decided not renew it due to the low price of silver. The brothers did keep up work at the mine, however, contracting with the "Cornish boys" to develop three new tunnels deep in the earth: the Curtis (elev. 6,396 ft.), the Williams (elev. 6,289 ft.) and the Lower (elev. 6,093 ft.).
The expiration of the quartz mill lease allowed owner George Bothwell to take over again and custom operate his mill for the nearby Hoyt and Healy mines in the Bernice Mining District. Bothwell's mistake that year was to attempt to transport these ores over the private road constructed by the Williams Brothers to the Golden Crown Mine's dump site.
When Warren Williams heard of Bothwell's trespassing, he was not too concerned. At this point in his life he was experienced in handling minor problems at his ranches and at his mines. Because he did not live in Bernice year round, Warren had to hire mine superintendents and shift bosses to keep things running smoothly. At one time he had a problem with one of his mine shift bosses. It is assumed both men were involved in an angry exchange of words. Sometime later, while Warren was inspecting the mine, he stepped onto the treads of a ladder in one of the stopes and fell, badly cutting his cheek. Close inspection of the ladder treads revealed they had been sawn nearly in two and all evidence pointed to the shift boss. Warren asked one of his men to sew up his cheek with a needle and thread right there in the mine tunnel, and by the time he made his way out of the mine, the perpetrator had disappeared, never to be seen again. The scar left from this accident might explain why Warren Williams wore a full beard later in life.
Another business worry for the Williams brothers was Harry Runisdow, the first mining superintendent they hired. In 1884 the ore coming out of the Golden Crown Mine was yielding $125 per ton at the mill. Upon hiring Runisdow, these yields began to drop. It was discovered that the new superintendent did not understand how to treat the ores successfully in the milling process. Special processing of the ore was necessary to allow the mine owners to save most of the metals, mainly silver carrying a small percentage of gold. Runisdow's lack of experience meant
Bernice, Nevada 53
that great quantity of the metals were going into the tailings pond and not into the owners' pockets. Jerry Downey, an old mill-man of much experience, soon joined the Golden Crown Mine as the new superintendent.
From the beginning, Downey obtained good results, and the company began shipping bullion to San Francisco. The greatest monthly shipment of bullion was in May of 1885, consisting of eighteen bars of silver, a net profit of ten thousand dollars to the owners. By now, Warren Williams had bought out Wallace Goodell's remaining 1/4 share of the mining claim, and profits from the mine were used to build up his ranching interests. Soon he was running more than 110,000 head of sheep on ranches from Churchill to Elko counties.
In the fall of 1885, Warren's brother George was forced to move to Sacramento, California. He had been living in Bernice with his new bride Cora for about 6 months, but it soon became clear that Cora's tuberculosis was worsening in the severe Nevada climate. She was also expecting their first child. Unfortunately, the move to California did not improve Cora's health. In January she gave birth to a baby girl and within a few weeks both mother and daughter died. The mother and her little babe were buried side by side in the cemetery of that city.
However, neither ranching nor sad family matters had dimmed much of Warren Williams' spirit when George Bothwell began to use the Golden Crown's Mining road for his own. As evidenced by Warren's adventures in his younger days, he was not easily intimidated! His brother Eugene Williams recorded the story of the battle over the quartz road in his journal, written about 1915-1919:
. . . Warren gave orders to his mine foreman to prevent such use by building a strong log fence across the road at a certain point, which when completed, was ordered by Mr. Bothwell to be set on fire by his foreman. Whereupon, Mr. Hiram Barton, foreman for Mr. Williams, placed more brush on the fire, adding fire to the flames, thus affecting a blockade much too warm for the passage of the ore-team employed by Mr. Bothwell. This gave Mr. Williams time to appear on the battleground with his attorney, the author of this book [Eugene], then a young man of little experience in court.
It happened that the owner of the ore team, employed by Mr. Bothwell to haul ore over the disputed quartz road, was in debt to Mr. Williams on a small promissory note. After consultation between attorney and client, it was decided that during the night a crew of men should drive a deep cut through the quartz road at a point on the Golden Crown mining claim, with the innocent purpose of following a lead or ore stringer into the side of the hill for development work on the mining ground. The men were at once set to work. In the mean time, an attachment was filed against the owner of the ore team on the note, all of which was accomplished during the night.
54 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
About two o'clock in the morning, after the complaint had been filed in the Court of the Justice of the Peace, James Ironsides, and proper attachment issued, and the writ and copy had been placed in the hands of a special constable appointed by the court for serving the papers, the officer went forth armed with the authority of the law, took possession of the quartz-wagon, removed the six mules from their warm stable in cold winter morning, tied them around the quartz-wagon, awakened the owner, who to this fond driver each animal was a pet of his and to him a human. He, being an old character of the desert mining regions of Nevada, the scene which followed was intensely humorous. He fumed and swore, then fed his affectionate animals with hay, and turning around shook his fists at the newly constituted special officer, he then drove the tines of his pitchfork into the ground half way acting a part worthy of the attention of the movies.
The next morning Mr. Bothwell not only awoke to find the quartz-team, of which he had boastfully declared the night before, would be driven on the quartz-road on the next day if he had to call in the United States Marshall, was in custody of the law at the hands of his opponent. A cut fifteen feet wide and
George Williams (left), unknown child and Eugene Williams, author of the Williams memoirs. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Bernice, Nevada 55
twelve feet long yawned in the quartz-road, and Mr. Bothwell after due reflection realized that he had been "out generaled." To this day, the author recalls his legal experience of that night with special interest and enjoyment, and as having furnished one of the most humorous and interesting reminiscences of his law practice.
Apparently, the argument between Warren Williams and Bothwell over the quartz road did not last long. In the spring of 1886, overtures of peace were made to Warren, and he purchased the quartz mill and all of the other interests of Bothwell in the camp. Soon Bothwell deserted the town for other fields.
Even though the price of silver remained low, a considerable amount of development work was done in the Golden Crown Mine between 1886 until January of 1888. A shaft one hundred feet in depth was sunk on the ore between the Williams and Lower Tunnels. The workers drifted on the vein, taking considerable rock from the stopes and milling it.
New work in the mine brought changes in personnel. After having served as bookkeeper and storekeeper for his brothers for three years, Eugene Williams left Bernice in the fall of 1887, heading for Seattle, Washington. He may have seen the "writing on the wall," as, in spite of the fact that new ore was being milled, its sale did not bring in enough money to keep the mine open. The Golden Crown Mine was closed in 1888.
The town of Bernice, however, continued to operate during this time just like any other town. Many tragic, humorous and mundane events took place that were not directly related to the Williams' mining operations.
A shooting occurred in Bernice in October of 1884. The perpetrator of the crime was one Gotlieb Frank Wildley, employed in the stock business, who shot and killed Frank Lee, another employee. Wildley pleaded not guilty and the court proceedings are recorded in the White Rock Township Justice Court proceedings. Eye witnesses to the event said that Wildley had just returned from a visit to Chinatown (apparently the Chinese men provided meals and drink for the general public), when Lee confronted him and asked Wildley why he had not taken care of feeding their herd of horses before he had gone to the town to shoot off his pistol. Wildley said he would shoot his pistol off whenever he liked when he was out of town and said menacingly, "if you don't like it you can have some of it!" After this inflammatory remark, the two began to scuffle and shots were fired. Frank Lee was shot twice and died from his wounds. The jury accused Gotlieb Frank Wildley of the murder of Frank Lee. Curiously, his punishment for the crime has not been recorded.
Alcohol and guns have never made for peaceful combinations. An 1886 court case involved a D.J. Huntsman of Bernice who wanted to have Thomas Duffy arrested after Duffy had threatened to "wipe him off the face of the earth." Once in court, Duffy was undefended, but Eugene Williams served as council for the plaintiff, Huntsman.
According to Huntsman, his day had begun innocently enough. He had proceeded to the Williams' boarding house in the canyon for the purpose of getting
56 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
some butter. He sat down in the boarding house and began a conversation with Angel Garabaldi. Garabaldi mentioned that two eye witnesses, Jerry Downey and Robert Thomas, had been in the saloon one night and heard Duffy say, "give me twenty dollars, I want to go kill Huntsman." Later in the trial, Downey and Thomas both testified that this was true. Asked whether Duffy had been drunk when he had uttered this threat, Thomas replied, "I don't think he was beastly drunk nor do I think he was beastly sober." Whatever the case, Duffy certainly cared little for Huntsman. Their feud escalated so that at one point Hunstman drew his pistol and leveled it at Duffy. Fortunately, no shots were fired. As the court proceedings came to a conclusion, the reason for their hatred was never revealed. Duffy received a fine of $300, was admonished to "keep the peace," and was turned over to the Sheriff of Churchill County.
During the same year, Garabaldi had his "day in court" when he accused Hiram George of drawing a deadly weapon upon his person in the saloon of H.J. Barton. The outcome of these court proceedings is not recorded.
Tragedy for the Williams family came neither by gun nor drink on one of their visits to Bernice in 1887. It took only one instant for them to lose their firstborn little girl. Lizzie Beth, then a happy six year old, was run over by an ore wagon when she tried to climb aboard while it was in motion. Her attempt failed, and she fell into the path of the lumbering wagon, slipping beneath its front wheel. After the accident, Addie rode beside her husband with her daughter in her arms as Warren drove their buggy to the nearest doctor in Austin, but the child died before they reached their destination.
For years Lizzie' s grave was tended in a little plot surrounded by a picket fence out behind the town. Her body was later moved to Fallon and placed in the Williams plot in the Fallon cemetery. Although the
Addle Mattison Williams with the couple's firstborn, Lizzie Beth c. 1883. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Bernice, Nevada
four other Williams girls, Abby, Ada, Elizabeth and Cora lived to adulthood, it is believed that little Lizzie Beth's death resulted in major damage to Addie's nervous system as she suffered for the rest of her life from epilepsy. Years later, she also had to endure the early deaths of her 21 year old daughter Abby, in childbirth, and the 25 year old, recently-widowed Elizabeth, who was ill for several weeks at the family's Fallon home before she died in 1913. Each tragedy was another blow from which Addie found it difficult to recover.
These early violent and tragic events in Bernice faded from memory when the area's population drifted from the area as mining activity declined. The Golden Crown Mine had closed in 1888, because the main silver vein was just about worked out. The ground had faulted and the vein had been lost. Some mining continued nearby, however, and the Taverna Saloon became a neighborhood waterhole for the few remaining residents. Food, gas, oil and other supplies could be obtained there.
Bernice was barely alive and kicking at the turn of the 20th century yet Warren Williams still retained ownership of his Bernice property. He felt there was more quartz in the Golden Crown Mine, and during the years 1910-1913, he ordered more development work done. In December of 1913, workers drove a drift to the left just beyond the portal of the Lower Tunnel and found the quartz ledge from Goodell's original mining claim. By then they had burrowed fourteen hundred feet from the mouth of the tunnel. This ledge indicated to Warren that the Golden Crown was more valuable than ever. He had spent much thought, time and money on the mine in the belief that in depth there was an increase in quantity and value. This new find was a matter of great satisfaction to the seventy-six year old man. Just before he died the next year, Warren Williams advised his daughter Cora to reopen the mine when the price of silver got
57
Warren Williams and
Addie Mattison Williams
Daughters:
Lizzie Beth
b. October 28, 1881
d. October 11, 1887
Abby Craigin
b. October 22, 1882 d. February 6, 1904 Married to John Earl Danielson, died in childbirth
Ada Bernice
b. August 22, 1885
d. January 9, 1934
Married to William Arthur Keddie (Served as Nevada State Senator, killed in July of 1921 in an airplane crash near Elko)
Married to D.F. Ezelle
Elizabeth
b. October 1, 1887
d. June 28, 1913
Married to Ernest (Ernie)
John Freeman
Cora Estelle
b. November 12, 1889
d. June 17, 1964
Married to Ernest Harold
Hursh
58 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
over a dollar, or $50 in today's market. This never occurred and the mine remained closed.
After Bernice declined, Warren kept busy overseeing a section of his ranch at the intersection of the roads from St. Clair to Stillwater. In 1901, he and Addie moved from their ranch at Clan Alpine to their newly acquired property -- the ranch of Mike Fallon. Warren laid out Fallon's streets with the help of John Oats and the dusty crossroads soon grew into a bustling community. The Williams family lived in the then-existing house on their new ranch at what is today 376 W. Williams Avenue.
Warren's involvement in the new town continued through his civic service as a banker, county commissioner, merchant and by serving eight years as a Nevada State Senator. He also donated land for the courthouse, jail, Baptist Church and the first district school building. Today, many of Fallon's streets are part of his legacy.
Warren W. Williams died in Fallon on January 27, 1914. Two years later his widow had a new house built on the site of the original ranch home and that house still stands today. Addie lived in the home for many years until she was laid to rest beside her husband at the Fallon Cemetery in 1940.
After the death of Warren Williams, the Williams Estate Company hired a watchman to help protect their property in Bernice. By 1932, following the stock market crash, the Company could no longer afford to pay a watchman. By then the road to Bernice was in very poor condition and it was difficult to get to the mine. Even so, unbeknownst to the family, the mill and other buildings were being torn down a piece at a time to become homes and farm buildings in Dixie Valley, which had opened to homesteading in 1916.
Other hardy souls out to make a buck braved the road as well. The old Scottish steam engine and a five-stamp mill were stolen during World War II and hauled off for scrap metal. Someone else sunk a shaft into the old mine's tailing pond and was paid compensation by the Navy for them to use the area as a gunnery range. The true owners of the property never received a dime from any of these illegal escapades!
Today, the old townsite of Bernice is still private property and is owned by Merton Domonoske (1/2), Ward Nichols (1/4) and his son, Ward Ryan Nichols (1/4). In 1994, local archaeologist Dr. William C. Davis received permission from Merton Domonoske to do an archaeological recording of the site of Bernice. A copy of his report indicates that, for the trained eye at least, evidence of the mining activity of the 20th century was visible up and down four of the five miles of Bernice Canyon. Once within the canyon's walls, tunnels, pits and prospects can be seen. What remains of a massive fireplace is barely visible in a hillside; glass shards, wrought iron pieces, cut nails and wood stove parts litter the area. A timberless drift contains decomposed explosives and chemicals. Remnants of the old Chinatown are there as well. Davis' report is filled with the bits and pieces of the lives left behind by the hardy people who once lived there.
Bernice, Nevada 59
Many who have read about Churchill County's mining history are likely to point out Fairview and Wonder as the two most important early mining sites, but the research unearthed by Merton Domonoske in preparing his source book on Bernice and the area surrounding shows that the mining activity there was certainly equal to, or may have even overshadowed, the aforementioned towns.
Warren Williams' Family Names Fallon Streets
Warren Williams and John Oats laid out the town of Fallon, Williams the west
side of town, and Oats the east. After pacing off the townsite, Williams
named the Fallon streets on his property after close friends of the family with
the exception of one name, after his native state. Many of these street names
are still with us today:
Williams Avenue - named after Warren Willard Williams
Maine Street - after Warren Williams' state of birth.
Bailey - after Joe Bailey who owned the Island Ranch and most of the
Island District.
Allen - after Lt. Governor Lemuel Allen.
Russell - after George Russell of the Elko County Russell family.
Taylor - after John G. Taylor of Lovelock who was a wealthy Nevada
sheepman.
Richards - after Jim Richards whose store at the corner of Williams and
Maine Streets served as the center of Fallon.
LaVerne - after LaVerne Wildes, first white child born in Churchill County.
Ada - after Ada Williams Keddie, the William's third daughter.
Kaiser - after Senator Charles Kaiser.
Keddie - after Arthur Keddie, husband of Warren's daughter, Ada.
Carson - after Kit Carson.
Dalton - after William T. Dalton, former owner of Eastgate Ranch.
Grimes - after William C. Grimes whose ranch was located near present-day
Grimes Point Petroglyph Site.
60 Merton E. Domonoske/Jane Pieplow
Bernice Events at a Glance
1881 - Wallace Goodell discovers quartz ledge, gets mining claim and names town Casket.
1883 - George Bothwell leases mining claim from Goodell with an option to purchase the same and erect a ten-stamp quartz mill.
1884 - Bothwell turns the claim back over to Goodell after losing quartz vein.
1884 - Goodell sells 3/4 of the claim to brothers Warren W. and George B. Williams. George buys 1/4 of the claim, Warren purchasing 1/2. July 1, 1884 - The Williams' brothers and Goodell lease the quartz mill for one year and begin developing the mine.
1884 or 1885 - Warren Williams purchases the 1/4 quarter interest in the mine from Goodell. Warren now owns 3/4 interest in the Golden Crown mine and his brother George owns 1/4.
July 1, 1885 - The Williams brothers let their lease on the quartz mill expire due to the low price of silver.
1885-1887 - The brothers contract with the Cornish boys to develop three new tunnels deep in the mine, the Curtis (elev. 6,396 ft.), the Williams (elev. 6,289 ft.) and the Lower (elev. 6,093 ft.)
1886 - The Williams brothers purchased the quartz mill and all other interests in the camp from Bothwell.
January 1888 - The mine closes due to the low price of silver.
1910 -1913 - Some development work is done in the mine by driving a drift to the left just beyond the portal of the Lower Tunnel.
January 27, 1914 - Warren Williams dies.
1914 - Williams had advised his daughter Cora to reopen the mine when the price of silver got over a dollar. This did not happen, but the mine and the townsite of Bernice remains in the Warren family.
1914 - The Williams Estate Company hires watchman for their property. (In 1932 this practice ends.)
1932 - Unbeknownst to the family, the mill and other buildings in the town are carried away to become homes and farm buildings in Dixie Valley. World War II - the old Scotch steam engine and a five-stamp mill are stolen and hauled off for scrap metal.
Today - The property of Bernice is owned by Merton E. Domonoske (1/ 2), Ward Nichols (1/4) and his son, Ward Ryan Nichols (1/4).
Bernice, Nevada 61
About the Author . . January 11, 1923:
. Merton E. Domonoske
Born in Berkeley, California
Parents: Arthur Bouque Domonoske
Gladys Eloise Boydstrum Domonoske
Attended grade school at Stanford University; middle
school at Mayfied;
Graduated from Palo Alto, CA, high school
Entered University of Nevada at Reno
Enlisted United States Army Infantry:
Outfit - "Fighting Irish" (Pacific Service)
Graduated UNR with honors - B.S. Agricultural Economics
Attended graduate schools: Washington State College at
Pullman, WA and UNR
Accepted job with Farmer's Home Administration at
Caliente, NV (Caliente and Fallon Offices)
Employed by Farmer's Home Administration in Fallon
Married to Nadine Hursh [May 27, 1918 -July 18, 1995]
Daughter of Ernest Harold and Cora Estelle Williams Hursh
Granddaughter of Warren Willard and Addie Mattison
Williams
Resigned position with Farmer's Home Administration
Joined E. H Hursh Insurance and Real Estate: began career in real
estate and insurance
Appointed to Fallon City Council: Served until 1971
Elected Mayor of Fallon: Served until 1987
Retired to pursue hobbies: historical writing
Married Paula Prudler Coverston
1929-1940:
September 1940: October 18, 1942:
1947:
1947 and again in 1950:
1948:
1948:
August 19, 1950:
July 4,1952:
August 1, 1952:
Apri14, 1960:
June 11,1971:
1995:
1995:
An Amazing Story as told by Merton E. Domonoske
My father, Arthur Donomoske, was born on a ranch above German Town, Colusa County, California, on January 1, 1884. His mother died when he was ten years old. His younger sisters were sent to aunts in Oakland, California, but my father was old enough to stay on the ranch and was raised by the cook, "Sam Chinaman." He was apparently a very good cook and fed large harvest crews for my grandfather. After my father graduated from grade school, he too was sent down to his aunts, to go to high school and later graduate from the University of California with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
My father had a friend at the university, Professor Boelter, who spoke Chinese. While the professer was on a trip to China he was hailed by a sick old man sitting beside the road. The man said, "I can tell you are an American. Do you come from California?" Boelter said that he did. "Do you know a man named Arthur Domonoske?" asked Sam Chinaman. "I have a friend at the university by that name," responded Boelter. "You tell him Sam Chinaman save enough to come home and buy a wife, but bandits have stolen everything and me now die. Arthur was a good boy. Tell him hello."
Upon returning home, Professor Boelter told my father of the meeting. My father was astounded and saddened to hear about his old friend, Sam Chinaman, and sorry that Sam could not have lived out his remaining years in peace.
Non-Traditional Materials and the Domestic
Architecture of an Arid-West Agricultural
Community: Fallon, Nevada
Lan-y E. Buhr
This essay will investigate examples of historic domestic architecture in the community of Fallon, Churchill County, Nevada, which utilized "non-traditional" materials in their construction, especially as pertaining to structural elements. Fallon is located in the center of the irrigated portion of the Newlands Project -- the first large-scale reclamation project in the Arid-West, begun shortly after the passing of the Federal Reclamation Act in 1902. It remains centrally an agricultural community but with several additional significant influences such as an adjacent naval airbase and a growing non-agrarian/commuter urban base largely associated with the densely populated Reno-Carson City corridor. Other factors, such as pre-reclamation ranching, the nearby Fallon Paiute Shoshone reservation, mining in more remote portions of the county, and a position both as a mid-1800s overland stage and later mid-1900s Lincoln Highway terminus, have contributed to the character and makeup of Fallon's population and its architectural inventory.
A discussion of definition, purpose and background will begin this essay, followed by descriptions of the architectural examples studied. Extant, currently-existing examples will be the primary focus. These are presented in a chronological appearance, mirroring as closely as possible different historical trends and factors which influenced the Fallon community and the structures built within it.
Inspiration and assistance for this research was provided by the Churchill County Museum staff in Fallon. Their knowledge of the subject and personal ties to the people in this community were invaluable in arranging and conducting fieldwork at the various site locations. Thanks also goes to many of the owners of the structures studied, who graciously allowed in-depth documentation regarding their respective architectural examples. Dr. Robert Winzeler of the Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, must also be thanked -- it was via his pivotal Anthropology of Domestic Architecture class that this essay was initially submitted and evaluated.
Definitions and Background
It seems prudent at this point to discuss both definition of the title topic and to examine the purpose of pursuing this topic. Additional background information follows to contextualize this discussion within the larger realm of Nevada itself.
62
Domestic Architecture 63
First, the definition of "non-traditional" domestic architectural materials needs clarification. In the most general sense this refers to non-lumber materials as used, at a minimum, in the structural portions of a domestic dwelling or associated building. In this, "traditional" architectural materials primarily include sawn lumber categories such as planks, boards, studs and other milled, squared wooden construction products produced by mechanical means. This assumes that lumber is the most desirable, commonly utilized, or dominant structural material during construction of domestic structures. In most parts of the western United States this is accurate but such an assumption is relative to a given area. Some geographic contexts may have, for example, a large proportion of brick construction, which would then also constitute a "traditional" material. Other categories such as commercially-produced concrete "cinder-blocks," commercially quarried stone, traditional log-construction or timber-framing materials, or structural steel and aluminum could fall under the same criteria.
This definition is also time-dependent, particularly in regard to the now-common or "traditional" building technique of "balloon-framing." While utilizing sawn lumber almost exclusively, this technique only became popular in North America from the mid-nineteenth century onward. However, as the focus of this discussion dates from this temporal marker, such consideration should not pose a problem. For the purposes of this essay then, non-traditional materials will refer to:
1) non-sawn-lumber materials as used in the structural portions of a domestic structure, and,
2) a material, as in 1), which is uncommon in usage relative to a particular locality and time period.
In terms of purpose, the novelty of non-traditional or unusual materials in domestic architecture will tend to warrant considerable public interest which shouldn't be viewed as necessarily trivial or trite. As large-scale suburban housing projects demonstrate worldwide, especially since WWII, the tastes of most home-dwellers lean toward the conservative, with one house tending to mirror the next in terms of architectural form, materials, and color, as well as house placement within a yard and overall landscaping. Wherever someone is willing to construct with non-traditional materials there is a break to this consistency, suggesting a non-conformist individual. This is particularly important because of the general nature of buildings -- they are hard to hide or contain, unlike an object such as an unusual automobile which can be garaged, or provocative clothing which can be easily replaced with articles more commonplace. The subsequent "indexical" statement, according to R. E. Blanton, is a form of non-verbal communication addressed to the outside world which a unique building will make, and cannot be easily diminished or reversed (Blanton 1994:8-13).
In regard to the Fallon community, as perhaps representative of rural, arid Nevada in general, non-traditional architectural materials likely represent more the resourceful attempts of cash-strapped individuals to construct practical and useful dwellings in a region with minimal conventional lumber resources. Of the hundreds of early Nevada mining communities from the 1860s onwards, most began as tent-
64 Larry Buhr
villages and within a year -- if the mining strike continued to be successful -- developed into towns with more permanent dwellings. If sawn lumber was available, usually at substantial prices, lumber-only dwellings would often use a minimal amount, as with either single-wall or board-and-batten construction. Local alternatives would therefore be attractive, leading to many varieties of dwellings built from materials such as uncut field stone; cut quarried stone; adobe "mud" brick; local trees and shrubs such as pinon pine, juniper, and cottonwood; and eventually several creative usages of commonly disposed articles such as cans and bottles. However, firewood demand and the poor lumber choices available likely negated the local wood option for dwellings in general. "Dugouts" fashioned into hillsides were initially popular although few if any instances of living in the end of an abandoned mine adit -- the equivalent of a prehistoric cave or rock-shelter dwelling -- seem to be known or recorded. The Great Plains/prairie non-traditional architectural medium of sod was not an option due to the absence of thick organic matter in a moist context.
Several of the popular Nevada ghost town and general tourist books, as well as analogous websites, highlight examples of unusual materials utilized in domestic architecture, usually via historic photographs. The most popular specific example is the extant bottle house from the abandoned mining boom town of Rhyolite (Figure 1) (Florin 1971:75; Miller 1979:113, 116; Toll 1981:39). Analogous bottle house construction is also noted from the abandoned Nevada mining towns of Silver Peak and Fitting (Miller 1979:132; wwwwestlife.com/oldnevada/snaps/ humbolO.htm). Adobe, undressed stone, and brush dwellings are commonly portrayed, with the early twentieth-century mining town of Tonopah perhaps the most interesting in having its own bottle house as well as a can house and several dirt-filled-barrel houses (Miller 1979:140-141; Mack and Sawyer 1966:93; Nevada Archaeological Association 1996). Across Nevada, unrolled and flattened cans or metal pails were also popular as either siding or roofing -- the larger sizes being more efficient in covering area (Mack and Sawyer 1966:93, Shamberger 1974:22).
Figure 1: Rhyolite Bottle House. Illustration by Cindy Dolak.
i 1U ~rl 513 tirt-vriS
+4-4-10 mow-
Domestic Architecture 65
The phenomenon of building with surplus containers not originally intended as building materials seems to significantly occur within Nevada only from the early 1900s onwards. This likely relates to late-nineteenth century advances in many forms of mass production as well as a larger proportion of rolled steel being used in products such as cans and pails. Mining and processing led to large, concentrated demands for products such as kerosene in large steel pails, while a transplanted urban attitude of Victorianism in these frontier mining districts led to large demands for domestic goods in jars, bottles, and cans, termed "conspicuous consumption." This is described by Donald Hardesty and Eugene Hattori in relation to the Western American mining realm in the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries, with an emphasis upon the reuse aspect in such "frontier" situations:
Victorian culture is associated with large quantities of material culture that are rapidly disposed of and replaced with "new" items. . . mass-produced goods for daily use . . . visible in trash dumps that accumulate at an enormous rate. The frontier expression of conspicuous consumption is . . . also marked by the increasingly rapid accumulation of trash dumps; however, the reuse of mass-produced commodities is much more common here than in the Victorian heartland (Hardesty and Hattori 1983:61, original emphasis).
The majority of mining communities were, however, incredibly insecure in terms of their longevity. Virginia City and Gold Hill, centers of the Comstock Lode, the largest precious metals strike in Nevada's history, declined from the 1880s onwards but remain today in a largely archaic, museum-like form. Besides a few other examples, such as Tonopah, Austin, and Goldfield which remain viable towns, most mining communities in Nevada not only quickly died but quickly were reduced to their foundations or less by fire and the reuse of building components: either in whole as with small, portable structures, or in part for construction reuse or simply firewood (Toll 1981:10-14). Examples of non-traditional architectural materials in domestic structures have thus not fared well in such contexts -- even the noted Rhyolite bottle house owes much of its current existence to restoration in 1920 by a movie company and several subsequent tourist-oriented, promotional occupants (Toll 1981:39).
As the largest, best preserved historic Nevada mining town, Virginia City is also interesting in having few examples of domestic structures with non-traditional architectural materials. This seems to relate to its early and close access to lumber from the Sierra Nevada mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe, plus the obvious wealth which made lumber purchases affordable. Brick construction here also strongly constitutes a "traditional" material in which up to five local brickyards were active in supplying businesses and wealthier private individuals with the higher-status image of brick masonry construction. Truly a fully-stratified small city, the range of domestic dwellings here ranged from mansions to fine middle-class houses, then to mid- to
66 Larry Buhr
lower-class houses, rooming houses, and above-business downtown apartments, and finally to lower-class dwellings of various ethnic minorities. Traditional sawn lumber, augmented by brick and occasionally stone, were the dominant materials in nearly all cases, however.
Returning then to Fallon, one finds a community of authentic Nevada character but with a much different, relatively non-stratified makeup not borne of great wealth relegated to a fortunate few, as all the longer-sustained mining towns and cities demonstrated. Instead, it has been one of the few Nevada communities with a more sustained, stable nature relating to a ranching and agricultural -- versus mining -- history. Never having experienced particularly flush times when compared to the mining booms, this agricultural basis focused upon relatively small ranch and homestead parcels. Along with the typical Nevada scenario of little locally available, traditional building materials and often cash-strapped individuals, this led to a substantial number of domestic structures constructed with non-traditional materials. The difference from most mining town scenarios is that many of these examples have survived along with the survival of the community -- albeit often with altered form and usages. This survival factor makes Fallon an especially fine repository in which to study this category of domestic structures, from which wider generalizations may be extrapolated to the rural Nevada and Great Basin area as a whole.
Examples of Non-Traditional Materials and Domestic Architecture
A total of ten extant structural examples were chosen for this study, most of which were examined in June of 1999 with additional field-trips in March, 2000, and March, 2001. These are loosely grouped in terms of approximate time spans into:
• early ranching/pre-Newlands Project period (c.1860-1903)
• early Newlands Project irrigated agriculture period (1903-1945)
• later Newlands Project irrigated agriculture/post WWII period (1945-present)
These categories are somewhat arbitrary but provide a means of organizing and grouping the discussed elements into historical periods of significance.
Early Ranching/Pre-Newlands Project Period (c.1860-1903)
This period represents the majority of the earliest historic occupations of the Fallon district, up to the time when Fallon was formally organized as a town and fourth (to the present) county seat. The earliest Euroamerican occupants of Churchill County had arrived just prior to this time in 1854, setting up a stage provisioning station within the Lahontan Valley of the Carson River, known as "Ragtown," about six miles west of present-day downtown Fallon. This was a key spot on the Overland Trail, where emigrants to California would arrive exhausted from the tortuous trip through the Forty Mile Desert to the northeast. Photographs show a conventional wood frame structure at Ragtown, where Asa Kenyon, the proprietor, made a prosperous living selling merchandise and services (Townley 1998:2-3). However, the locally-available medium of adobe mud-brick and plastering soon became popular. Adobe was used for the construction of Fort Churchill in 1860, the first federal
Domestic Architecture 67
military installation in Nevada, some 20 miles west of Ragtown. This was set up to quell conflicts between settlers and the local Native Americans of the region (Toll 1981 : 117). Despite providing the name for the county, later border shifts placed the remains of Fort Churchill outside the Churchill County boundary.
Adobe mud-brick was also used in several early ranch homes in the Lahontan Valley, pre-Fallon area. These ranches were largely intended to serve as provisioning sources after word of the nearby 1859 Comstock mining discovery became well-known. J.J. Cushman and David Wightman arrived and set up ranches by 1860, followed by more individuals in the succeeding decades (Townley 1998:3-4). Of these, the Dillard Adobe at 3500 Cushman Road represents a construction date of approximately 1863 (Figures 2 and 3).
Dillard Adobe
The Dillard Adobe represents a usage of adobe, non-fired mud brick which had frequent usage in the earliest settlement of the Lahontan Valley/Fallon area. Today it is likely the last extant example from this period, with many others having dissolved and perished through inattention and accidental water discharges associated with the Newlands Project irrigation system. This is also the oldest building in Churchill County and has had numerous repairs over the years to maintain its structural integrity, such as a concrete foundation sill, corrugated steel roof with wide overhanging eaves, and periodic re-mudding of the exterior walls.
The early survival of this structure beyond its original residential role seems to be related to its compact dimensions of about 13' by 24' for its exterior walls, and about two feet less for the interior, or about 11' by 22'. This allowed it to be reused as a storage shed after a larger, more substantial house was built to the north. However, as may occur in these situations, the second, larger house with ultimately less reuse potential was removed some years ago, while the original, smaller dwelling remained as the survivor (Bunny Corkill, personal communication, 2000). It was electrified and
Figure 2: Dillard Adobe: facing southeast corner. Illustration by Cindy Dolak.
68 Larry Buhr
Figure 3: Dillard Adobe, northwall. Illustration by Cindy Dolak.
has otherwise continued to serve as a functional part of the ranch, although a series of property transfers leaves its future less certain in the present.
While the exterior may have changed in appearance over the years, the interior still retains much of the original character. It appears that this small dwelling may have in fact been a duplex of two still smaller dwellings, of only about 11' by 11' each in area (Figure 4). The two exterior doorways are centrally located on the north side, with exterior and interior doors in both cases, spaced about one foot apart by the thick adobe wall. Inside, a good deal of plaster is evident, including that covering a dividing adobe wall set between the two duplex units which does not appear to have had a joining doorway (Figure 5). Windows are also oddly absent, except for one in the south wall of the west "unit." Structurally a 4" x 6" beam lays along the top-center of the two end walls and the middle dividing wall, over which perpendicular 1" x 10" planks are laid across with a slight downward slope towards the eaves. Perhaps this arrangement served originally as the base of a low-pitched roof -- presently it serves both as the ceiling of the main rooms and the base for a small loft under the relatively medium-pitched steel-covered roof -- accessible by a small exterior door on the east gable.
The floor of the Dillard Adobe is dirt, at somewhat below the grade of the surrounding yard, which is graveled in the immediate vicinity. This suggests that the surrounding yard height has increased slightly in the intervening fourteen decades.
Early Newlands Project, Irrigated Agriculture Period (1903-1945) Most photographs of the first homestead dwellings from the Newlands Project (originally termed the "Truckee-Carson Project") show small frame, wood structures with a double-gabled or hipped roof and perhaps extra features such as a
Domestic Architecture 69
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Figure 4 (Above): Floor plan and orientation of the Dillard Adobe. Illustration by Larry Buhr.
Figure 5(left): Interior ofDillard Adobe, facing west towards interior dividing wall. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
simple verandah or a dormer addition to create a small room in the attic (Townley 1998:28, 29, 42-44). This suggests that most of these early homesteaders began with limited means, although much of their initial capital would have supported grading and preparation of their field plots for eventual flood irrigating. Some non-traditional architectural methods such as dugouts were ruled out by the flat nature of the Lahontan Valley surrounding Fallon -- the same feature that made flood irrigation feasible. However, forms of non-traditional materials would find favor, with examples ranging from a utilitarian structure with a brush-and-mud roof to unusual masonry categories of reused locally made brick, made-on-site concrete blocks, and imported soft "tufa" stone.
The Cushman Potato Cellar
A particularly intriguing non-residential category of non-traditional domestic architecture is that of semi-subterranean, brush and mud-roofed potato cellars. These can be frequently seen in southern Idaho while in Nevada they seem a rarity. At least one excellent example remains in the Fallon community, being associated with the Cushman Ranch earlier noted (Figures 6 and 7).
Date of construction was during the early years of the Newlands Project, perhaps in the 1920s. While not associated with homesteaders per se, by this point all early Fallon-area ranches were essentially integrated within the Newlands Project. The cellar blends in smoothly with the surrounding environment and could easily be
70 Larry Buhr
mistaken for a small hummock if not for the two ventilators exiting above the roof level. Some erosion of the mud covering from above the gables also belies the structure, with the north end having a sharp drop which leads to the series of entrance doors. Not used for some years, straw from potato insulation is still evident on the dirt floor. The ventilators would have prevented moisture buildup in the chamber, which measures about 30' by 10' for the interior floor area, and by 6' in height for 1,800 cubic feet of gross storage space (Figure 8).
The cellar floor is approximately three feet below grade at present. Construction consisted of conventional 2" x 4" studs backed with 1" x 12" rough planks for the walls while the roof was of locally-obtained materials -- possibly cottonwood logs for the lintels and ridge pole, and smaller logs, brush/twigs, and mud for the roof covering (Figures 9 and 10). The 4" x 4" vertical timber supports appear to be later additions.
Figure 6: Cushman Potato Cellar -- upper photograph facing northeast corner. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
Domestic Architecture 71
Figure 7: Photograph details erosion over south gable, showing brush below mud layer. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
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72 Larry Buhr

Figure 9: Interior of the Cushman Potato Cellar. Photograph by Larry Buhr.

Figure 10: Cushman Potato Cellar -- Lintel and Ridge Pole Detail. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
74 Lany Buhr
Figure 12: Edgemon/Socialist Colony House, facing north end. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
suggest its pre-WWI/pre-socialist colony construction, by which point such Victorian features were largely out of fashion.
An examination of the northwest corner of the structure is interesting in pointing out the two types of block forms used on this house -- smooth on the corners, perhaps to suggest fully cut stone, and the rougher form on the bulk of the building, suggesting cut stone with the facing left rough (Figure 13). Such construc-
Figure 13: Edgemon/Socialist Colony House -- Facing North-West Corner. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
Domestic Architecture 73
Edgemon/Socialist Colony House
The second example of early Newlands Project-era dwellings made with non-traditional materials is the Edgemon/Socialist Colony House, a dwelling constructed of made-on-site concrete blocks (Figures 11 and 12). A predecessor to the lighter, wide-spread cinder blocks of the post-WWII period, building constructed in this form involved small machines operated by hand, often on-site at the building project, and often operated by "do-it-yourselfers" (Pieplow 1998:40-42). The relatively heavy weight of these early blocks made proximity to the building site necessary, while the simple machines were flexible in having interchangeable mold plates so that plain or textured, especially as "rock-faced," products could be produced. Such machines were available, especially by mail-order by the early 1900s, and continued in use for some decades. However, this construction method usually constituted a relatively low proportion of the overall construction within a given area because of the time and effort it took to make up a suitably large batch of product for a moderately-sized structure. The peak usage and popularity of this procedure with these simple machines was therefore pre-WWI.
The Edgemon/Socialist Colony House is notable for being built of these blocks and its historical position as the central house or "hotel" of the short-lived socialist colony, the Nevada Colony Corporation, which named its central village
Figure 11: Edgemon/Socialist Colony House -- facing southeast corner.
"Nevada City." Formed in 1916, it existed into 1919, with about 200 members at its peak. The colony owned several separated farm parcels with the central village of Nevada City placed on the former J. Scott Harmon ranch, four miles east of Fallon (Shepperson 1966: ix-xi) . It is likely, however, that it was Harmon who built the house, and not the colonists, although its historical significance clearly rests with the latter.
The house is relatively conventional in its architectural design, having late-Victorian qualities of asymmetrical, off-center gables on a partially hipped roof, fish-scale shingles within these gables, and an enclosed front porch with a parlor off to one side -- the parlor being placed underneath a second frontal gable (Figure 12). A rear sun-porch was also part of the design (Figure 11). These qualities again
Domestic Architecture 75
tion is relatively easy to distinguish from actual stone in that all the faces of a particular form are the same. The "bond," or laying pattern, of these blocks is the conventional alternating or "running bond" associated with common brick-laying: each new row being set the length of one-half block over from the preceding row.
Layout of the building is relatively conventional for a late Victorian structure as well (Figure 14). The large attic section appears not to have been utilized despite reasonable ceiling height and a relatively large window at the front.
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Baumann/Ansotegui House
A mile east of the Edgemon/Socialist Colony House is a second rural example constructed of made on-the-site concrete blocks, the Baumann/Ansotegui House (Figure 15). Its construction story is well known, as its original owner was pioneer rancher and nurse, Martha Baumann. In 1915 she made the blocks with the help of her brother Louis, then she built the house with assistance from a professional contractor who had just constructed the nearby school of similar materials (Pieplow 1998:42). The house's architecture is again conventional, though of a bungalow style, post-dating the Victorian style of the Edgemon/Socialist Colony example.
Technically, this example is interesting because of the "double-size" blocks made by a suitably large machine. Each of these blocks has two conventionally-sized concrete block faces, which allows an unusual appearance of vertically-stacked blocks, when in fact closer inspection reveals that they were laid in conventional
J.H. Corn Building
The J.H. Corn Building, within Fallon at 240 East Fairview Street (Figures 17 and 18), is intriguing in terms of architecture not for either its design or materials per se but for the origin and usage of the materials. These seem to be derived from the large sugar beet factory of the Nevada Sugar Company built in 1910, just northeast of Fallon. This was a set of two large industrial structures built of yellow bricks made onsite -- one of the few known examples of brickmaking in the Fallon community. Unfortunately, the factory did not prove viable, and, after several attempts, was
76 Lany Buhr
Figure 15 (Above): Baumann/ Ansotegui House. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
Figure 16 (Left): Baumann/ Ansotegui House -- detail of exterior wall. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
(and stronger) running-bond or alternating courses (Figure 16). These blocks would have been even heavier than the single-sized examples, and again demonstrated the value of making the blocks onsite, in this case by a female rancher.
Domestic Architecture 77
Figures 17 (Above) and 18 (Right): J.H. Corn Building. Photographs by Larry Buhr.
finally torn down in the 1930s. The steel was shipped to Japan while the attractive bricks were largely reused, perhaps most often as riprap in irrigation canals (Townley 1998:58).
Examination of the sugar beet factory site yielded broken samples of the yellowish brick, while a complete comparative specimen was supplied by the Churchill County Museum. With these artifacts as guides, a search of Fallon and area was made for evidence of possible reuse in construction. Of two large yellow-brick buildings located initially (with imported, red-brick being much more common in the Fallon community), one proved to be a match -- the Corn building of 1940. It is a two story apartment block of simple, relatively late Victorian architectural form, and appears to have contained either a commercial business or garage spaces on the lower floor, judging by the later infilling of differing masonry.
78 Larry Buhr
Garage behind 70/80/90 West Center Street, Fallon
A second building in Fallon, a small garage, was later noted to also contain this locally-made, reused brick (Figure 19). Located behind 70-80-90 West Center Street, it has been painted over but some of the brick has been exposed at a corner where vehicles appear to have contacted the structure.
Figure 19: Garage Behind 70-80-90 West Center Street, Fallon. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
Mackedon House
A third building, located just north of Fallon, is arguably the most interesting and significant reuse example of the sugar beet factory brick (Figures 20-22). It is a large country residence originally built in 1939 with some later additions, all utilizing the yellow Fallon brick to good advantage. The dwelling was built for Leonard Mackedon's parents, and he and Julia Mackedon were married in the living room of the house in 1940. They have continued to live in it to the present, except for a period during WWII when both served the war effort.
Construction was a team effort by Leonard, several relatives, and a few craftsmen in the Fallon community. The result was a single story ranch home with a low pitched cottage roof on the original portion, short eaves, and numerous details of interest such as an angled main entrance door with set-in, polished mineral specimens on each side; a flagstone sidewalk; a Spanish-Colonial styled exterior porch area, and interesting treatment of the two brick chimneys. The original chimney has upper detail more typical of the Victorian era while the rear, fireplace chimney sits at a 45 degree angle to the sidewalls of the house.
Domestic Architecture
79
Figure 20 (Above): Mackedon House, south side.
Figures 21 (Right): Mackedon House, west end.
Figure 22 (Left): Mackedon House, detail of inset mineral specimens by main entrance. Photographs by Larry Buhr.
80 Larry Buhr
70-80-90 West Center Street, Fallon
The last masonry example in this section concerns a usage of imported soft "tufa" limestone, likely from an area some 60 miles east of Fallon where other structural examples using this material are known. Apparently at least three business structures in Fallon were built with this material in the 1920s period, of which only one survives -- the tri-plex office structure at 70-80-90 West Center Street, Fallon -- the same address as the aforementioned back alley brick garage (Bunny Corkill, personal communication 2000) (Figures 23 and 24). The building is stuccoed but via one prominent crack the tufa stone was observed by flashlight in March of 2000 (the crack has since been repaired).
Figures 23 (Above): 70-8090 West Center Street, Fallon facing southwest corner.
Figure and 24 (Left): facing northwest corner. Photographs by Larry Buhr.
Domestic Architecture 81
Later Newlands Project, Irrigated Agriculture Period (1945-present) The period after WWII had several effects on the Fallon community. The Great Depression was over and economically the community was in better shape, leading to a considerable amount of construction. Most of this was in conventional lumber format, with arguably a smaller proportion of non-traditional materials being used than in the earlier, more cash-strapped period. The two examples given here are from the immediate post-WWII period, when the postwar boom had not yet taken great hold. The first represents a basic reuse of a non-traditional-material structure relating to the WWII military effort. The second demonstrates an innovative usage of an otherwise disposed material -- automotive oil cans -- in a manner reminiscent of earlier Nevada bottle, barrel, and can houses.
Quonset Hut at 315 1/2 East Richards Street, Fallon
The first example of non-traditional architectural materials in a domestic context during the later Newlands Project is a Quonset Hut dwelling in Fallon, at 315 1/2 East Richards Street (Figure 25). It is the only example of perhaps several quonset huts moved into Fallon from the Naval Air Station southeast of the town, which operated from mid-1944 to 1946, being reopened and expanded in later years and continuing in operation at the present (Townley 1998:70). Built of a self-supporting skin of corrugated steel, the Quonset could be made to serve as an innovative but unconventional domestic structure. This particular example was placed behind the Catholic Church and served at least for a time as a venue for catechism services (Bunny Corkill, personal communication 2000). However, with its own street address, this Quonset Hut appears to also have served as a residence. At present it does not appear to be utilized for this purpose and likely serves in a basic storage capacity only.
3
Figure 25: Quonset Hut at 315 1/2 East Richards Street, Fallon. Illustration by Larry Buhr.
Oil Can House
The Oil Can House, situated about one mile south of Fallon on the west side of Highway 95, was apparently constructed in the immediate post-WWII period out of automotive oil cans mortared with Portland cement (Figures 26 and 27). Stucco was then applied over the cans, although their form can be readily observed today.
82 Larry Buhr
Figure 27: Oil Can House, facing the east, front wall of structure. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
Figure 26: Oil Can House, facing south-east corner. Photograph by Larry Buhr.
Domestic Architecture 83
A later addition of concrete bricks in about 1951 was added by the second and longtime resident, Carl Renken, who lived there with wife Peggy and their children.
An unmistakable Southwest theme is apparent from the overall blocky shape and the 16 wooden posts which project from the front and sides under the roof top, suggesting Southwest adobe wooden lintels. This theme was "sympathetically" continued at the rear of the added concrete-brick structure with sections of round eaves-trough pipe. Neither set of projecting items appears functional -- at the back the roof appears drained by a central trough cutout and not the pipes (Figure 28).
The floor plan of the structure is modest, with the addition containing the kitchen and bathroom (Figure 29). Presently the structure is unoccupied but in good structural condition.
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84 Larry Buhr
Along with the Quonset Hut example, this structure may also have been associated with the Naval Air Base -- not in being moved from the base but in consisting of oil can debris from the base. The base would have been the largest user of automotive oil during the late war effort, when civilians were rationed on such goods. Regardless of the can source, this example demonstrates an innovative reuse of an otherwise disposed, mass-produced, container category, in the tradition of Nevada non-traditional architecture since the early 1900s.
Discussion
The overarching theme in this collection of structures composed of "nontraditional" materials is that of resourcefulness and ingenuity. As noted, rural Nevada is largely devoid of in-situ, traditional building materials -- particularly in terms of lumber resources. At the same time, rural Nevada has tended to attract industrious but relatively non-wealthy individuals as workers, prospectors, and settlers. Especially in considering the two realms of mining and agriculture, with their attendant economic fluctuations and attached risk in being so employed, a resourceful utilization of non-traditional architectural materials may well then be expected.
This utilization was evident in many historic mining situations as noted in period photographs and from a few remaining architectural examples. The strength of a study in the Fallon community, being an economically more stable, long-term community compared to examples of a mining nature, is that a much greater proportion of these structures have survived over the years for posterity and ultimate research consideration. In addition, the examination of such architectural usage from the earliest settlement of this community to the present lends another useful means of charting the history of the Fallon community itself, whose significance as the major center within the irrigation heart of the first Federal reclamation project is undeniable.
Beyond the basic tenets of resourcefulness and ingenuity can be seen other intriguing, interpretative facets. First of all, none of the materials or techniques noted here were unique to this community -- they all seemed to be borrowed or diffused from earlier examples in this region. An early can house is documented from Tonopah, Nevada, while similarly constructed bottle houses are documented at many sites both in and outside of Nevada, as noted. The creator of the Oil Can House at Fallon was likely aware of some or many of these examples. So too would the creators of the Dillard Adobe, a century earlier, have been aware of other adobe constructions.
An aspect of both the Dillard Adobe and the Fallon Oil Can House to consider is the materials used versus the actual architectural style reflected in the finished product. The Dillard Adobe used a material -- adobe -- commonly associated with the Arid American West, especially the Southwest, yet the form of the structure is more akin to a conventional wooden frame structure of the American East. The roof, especially as at present, is a common two-gabled example constructed of sawn lumber, as opposed to incorporating log lintels into the adobe walls and apply-
Domestic Architecture 85
ing brush and mud over that to form a roof in the true Southwest fashion (similar to the roof construction used on the Cushman Potato Cellar). In this, the adobe was essentially a material substitution. Meanwhile, the builder of the much later Oil Can House, using materials traditionally foreign to the American Southwest -- oil cans and concrete -- created the finished product in the style of an American Southwest structure. The walls are straight, the roof is flat, while symbolic lintel logs extend from the upper portions of the exterior walls. Similar to Southwest Adobes the facade is also symmetrical with a centrally-placed threshold and one window on each side.
Amos Rapaport notes both of these presented possibilities of architecture in stating:
Materials in themselves do not seem to determine form . . . change of materials does not necessarily change the form of the house . . . and vice versa . . . ifirequently the same materials can be
used in very different forms . . . (Rapaport 1969:26).
In both the Dillard Adobe and the Oil Can House examples, there must have been a mental template of what the final product form would be once completed, regardless of the materials employed. Considering this, the execution of the Dillard Adobe may have been largely unconscious while the Oil Can House seems to have been much more deliberate, as evidenced by the non-functional, symbolic exposed lintel posts. The Oil Can House also falls into the category, earlier noted, of individuals who depart from the norm of house construction -- here both in terms of materials and of architectural form -- to create an indexical statement of their uniqueness and non-conformity to the outside public. This is perhaps the only example within this research collection of this phenomenon, as the others seem much more functionally based rather than purely indexical.
Class stratification is not strongly suggested by this group of structures, primarily because agricultural communities do not tend to exhibit this characteristic strongly, versus the longer-lived Nevada mining towns. Certainly the Edgemon/So-cialist Colony House represented a solidly middle-class structure with its late-Victorian themes as opposed to the much smaller and simpler Dillard Adobe and Oil Can House examples. However, each of these three is of a different time frame and context which must be considered in the challenge of not "comparing apples and oranges."
Reuse of materials originally made for architectural purposes, as opposed to disposal classes such as cans, pails, and bottles, is best represented by brick reuse. Lumber reuse is also common but more difficult to distinguish, as well as being out of the scope of "non-traditional" materials in this discussion. Three brick reuse examples were presented -- that of the strictly functional reuse of locally-made bricks from the former sugar-beet factory in the small garage, and the more stylish, symbolic reuse in both the J.H. Corn Building and the Mackedon House. These examples represent a material, architectural continuity within this community,
86 Larry Buhr
which by the durability of the brick medium may continue into new architectural reuse applications in the future.
Conclusion
This essay represents research which attempted to document and interpret a variety examples of domestic architecture utilizing non-traditional materials in the community of Fallon, Nevada. As a focus of investigation, Fallon represents both an uncommon Nevadan example of a primarily agriculture-focused community and a representative example of rural Nevada in general, including the more common mining-based genre. This proved useful in examining the types of non-traditional materials which would be utilized in a landscape largely devoid of lumber resources, yet settled by determined though often cash-strapped individuals. Resourcefulness and ingenuity were characteristics strongly demonstrated in this scenario, along with elements of diffusionary borrowing, adaptation, and in several examples, symbolic meaning.
Historical patterns could also be delineated by this examination, which covered a temporal range from 1860s pioneer ranching through early and later stages of reclamation irrigation farming, and finally to the multi-factorial present involving such factors as non-agricultural urbanization and an associated military installation. It remains to be seen as to what further "non-traditional materials" will come to be utilized within the domestic architecture of this community.
References
Blanton, R. E.
1994 Houses and Households: A Comparative Study. Plenum Press, New York. Florin, L.
1971 Nevada Ghost Towns. Superior Publishing Company, Seattle. Hardesty, D. L. and E. M. Hattori
1983 Archaeological Studies in the Cortez Mining District, 1982. Bureau of Land Management, Nevada, Contributions to the Study of Cultural Resources, Technical Report No. 12. Bureau of Land Management, Reno, Nevada.
Mack, E. M. and B. W. Sayer
1965 Here is Nevada: A History of the State. Western Printing and Publishing
Co., Sparks, Nevada.
Miller, D. C.
1979 Ghost Towns ofNevada. Pruett Publishing Company, Boulder, Colorado. Nevada Archaeological Association
1996 Annual poster promoting Archaeological Awareness Week and Historic Preservation Week in Nevada. Displays six historic photographs of Tonopah, Nevada. Nevada Archaeological Association, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Domestic Architecture 87
Pieplow, J. All-American family houses: Fallon's architectural styles. In-Focus 11:3656.
1998 House Form and Culture. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Systems of activities and systems of settings. In Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space, edited by Susan Kent, pp.9-20. New Directions in Archaeology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Rapoport, A.
1969
1990
Shamberger, H. S.
1974 The Story of Wonder: Churchill County, Nevada. Nevada Historical Press,
Carson City, Nevada.
Shepperson, W. S
1966 Retreat to Nevada: A Socialist Colony of World War I. University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada.
Toll, D. W. The Compleat Nevada Traveler: A Guide to the State. Gold Hill Publishing Co., Inc., Gold Hill, Nevada.
1981 Turn This Water Into Gold: The Story of the Newlands Project (second edition, edited with additional chapters by S. A. James). Nevada Historical Society, Reno, Nevada.
Townley, J. M.
1998
PIONEER PORTRAITS
R.L. Douglass House and the Cottage Hospital: Candidates for National Register Nomination?
Jane Pieplow
In the fall of 2000, museum staff members were contacted by Suzanne and Jerry Noonkester, owners of "The 1906 House" bed and breakfast, who asked for help in getting their home listed on our State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places. Their call came to my desk, and I agreed to give them the help they needed to see this project through. During my time as Director of the High Plains Museum in Goodland, Kansas, I was involved in getting a number of buildings listed on the Kansas and National Registers, so I had a pretty good idea as to where to start on the Noonkester's project.
In Focus readers may wonder just when these registers were created and what purpose they serve. The National Register of Historic Places was created with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966. The need for such an act came about because of a national concern that growth and development in cities and towns was threatening to destroy the historic fabric of our nation and its communities. The act recognized the importance of history, and the remains of history, to our sense of identity and stability as a nation.
The National Register list of the nation's historic properties is maintained by the National Register Office, a department of the National Park Service, in Washington, D.C., and currently contains 66,000 historic properties. (Nevada has approximately 230 properties on that list, some of which are historic districts.)
Even though there may be no direct monetary gain from National Register listing, there are many benefits. The Register is an important tool for planning at the federal, state and local levels. The nomination process allows for a greater understanding of our history and ourselves. The Register is also an educational tool. Listing a building on the National Register is an honor and identifies the property as one that has been recognized as important to our history. Listed properties might also be eligible for federal preservation assistance, when such programs are available (e.g., the rehabilitation tax credit program, Historic Preservation Fund grants, etc.).
It is hoped that the act of listing a building on the National Register will further pride in this country's history and prevent the destruction of historic properties. While some see historic preservation as threatening -- affecting private property rights and progress -- these are misconceptions. There are no protections or restrictions for properties on the National Register, as these buildings can be demol-
88
National Register of Historic Places 89
ished or remodeled at will. (The only exceptions are listed properties that receive federal grant funds for improvements. These types of restoration projects must follow strict preservation guidelines.)
The establishment of the National Historic Preservation Act brought with it the need for each state to create offices that were responsible for coordinating the many activities of the NHPA. In 1966, the Federal Government created a State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in each of the 50 states. These offices work with local citizens on preservation programs that receive federal funding, federal and state level restoration projects, state and local preservation planning, the National Register program, grant programs, the Certified Local Government program and others.
The State Register of Historic Places, established in 1979 under NRS 383.085, is maintained by SHPO and utilizes the same criteria for historic properties as the National Register. Properties that qualify for the National Register are automatically eligible for the State Register, but properties eligible for the State Register may not be eligible for the National Register because, in Nevada at least, National Register criteria have been applied more loosely by the SHPO and members of the State Board of Museums and History to allow more of Nevada's historic structures to be acknowledged. Listing on the State Register requires owner consent, and, like the National Register, does not place protection over or restrictions on the property.
By encouraging the preservation and the appreciation of Nevada's historic properties, the State Register brings significance to a local level and allows citizens to become more involved with their local history. Acquiring a listing on the State Register could also qualify a building for funding through the Commission on Cultural Affairs, which provides grants to rehabilitate historic buildings that will be used as cultural centers. (Oats Park School is an example of a local building which is listed on both the State and National Registers and which has received funding from the Commission on Cultural Affairs.)
Before any SHPO can get to work on State and National Register nominations, the kind of historic significance the structure may have must be determined. What constitutes a historic property? For both Registers, a historic property can be a building, a structure (a mining headframe, a bridge, a locomotive, a ship, etc.), an object (a statue, a fountain, etc.), a site or a district, which is comprised of any combination of the above types of properties (Virginia City Historic District, for example).
When a district is listed on the National Register, the properties contained therein are identified as "contributing" or "non-contributing" properties. For example, the Eureka Historic District contains the contributing historic Eureka Opera House, whereas a new fast food restaurant in the district would be considered a non-contributing property.
90 Jane Pieplow
Historic properties can be listed on the National Register for four reasons:
1. association with activities in our past (mining, transportation, settlement, etc.)
2. association with important people
(of national, statewide or local importance)
3. as a representative of the manmade expression of culture or technology (architectural examples)
4. ability to yield important information about prehistory or history (usually archaeological sites)
A likely historic site need only qualify for one of these four criteria to be eligible for the National Register. "Eligibility" is an important question when discussing the National Register because the listing process for historic properties is somewhat long and technically difficult. The most difficult element in listing a property on the National Register is a carefully worded essay which places the property in its historic context and answers the question "why is this an important site?"
Other required elements for the registration form include: a written legal description of the property, black-and-white photographs and a United States Geological Survey (USGS) site map pinpointing the historic site's location.
After the completed National Register nomination is reviewed by the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, it is presented to members of the Board of Museums and History for review and approval. The nomination, if approved, can be added to the State Register and will then be forwarded to the National Register in Washington D.C. The National Register has 45 days to comment on the nomination, most of which are approved.
The Robert Lee (R.L.) Douglass House Nomination
Once a likely historic site has been identified for listing on the National Register, the real detective work begins. Perhaps the information supplied as research for "The 1906 House" to Mella Harmon, Historic Preservation Specialist at SHPO,will serve as a useful example for those who are contemplating similar research on their own homes or other historic sites. Ms. Harmon was of great help to me in preparing the nomination and in the preparation of this article.
Using the resources available at the museum -- newspapers, photographs and an oral history, as well as an assessor's map from the county -- museum staff members were able to piece together the information needed to complete the newly-named R.L. Douglass House/Cottage Hospital National Register nomination form.
Past and Current Function
The past and current function of the property was the first question to be answered. The historic function and use of the Douglass House was listed as follows:
On April 23, 1904, The Churchill Standard newspaper announced that the plans for the R.L. Douglass mansion had been completed by a Reno architect (no name given). Construction on the home began two weeks later. The Churchill
National Register of Historic Places 91
Taken in 1906, two years after the house was completed, Douglass shows off his new Mercedes. The garage with the turntable can be seen at left. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection-)
Standard kept up with all steps of the construction, as this home was a grand design
for Fallon:
April 30: Ground broken for the home.
May 14: The foundation was nearly in place. The home was to be lighted
by electricity.
May 21: The stone foundation had been completed.
June 11: The new home was nearing completion.
July 2: Plumbers were at work piping the interior of the home.
July 16: G.E. Porter, Reno electrician, was at work on the home.
By September of that year, Douglass and his wife, Eleanor Ernst, moved in.
Because of his love of cars, R.L. was not slow in building a garage just south of his new home. This building included a turntable that allowed him to drive his car up onto this device. Once the car was inside the garage, the turntable was manually spun to turn the car around to face forward again, ready to be easily driven out.
In August of 1905, Eleanor's 20 year old brother, Charles H. Ernst, died at their home from typhoid. This family death is one explanation for the Douglass' early move to the Island Ranch. One story has it that Eleanor was so devastated by the death of her brother that she wanted to move from the unpleasant memories. Another version of the story says that Eleanor wanted to move from "the mansion" because it was so large she could not keep it clean and domestic help was hard to find. Whatever the case, the couple moved to their Island Ranch in Churchill County in November of 1906.
92 Jane Pieplow
Between 1906 and 1913, the Churchill County Eagle noted that several organizations were interested in buying the Douglass residence to use as a clubhouse, but it was never sold for such use.
The September 13, 1913, issue of the Churchill County Eagle reported that Dr. F.E. Nichols had purchased the Douglass home. The first winter of his residence, the home was used for the doctor's office and as a hospital. A year later, the garage to the south of the home was remodeled into a modern 10-bed hospital, called the Cottage Hospital, which included an operating room and fully-equipped laboratory.
On September 3, 1916, Dr. Nichols married Annie B. Coffrin, and the couple continued to live in the Douglass residence. The doctor leased out the Cottage Hospital in July of 1919, continuing to use his residence as his medical office. In 1923, the former Cottage Hospital building was converted into an apartment building, remaining under the Nichols' ownership.
On Tuesday, April 5, 1931, the Douglass residence was seriously damaged by an attic fire. According to the newspaper, the roof was destroyed and water damage was evident in the upstairs portion. Repairs were quickly made to the roof and the second story.
Upon the death of Dr. Nichols in 1935, his widow managed both properties until this job may have become too much for her. In 1946, she sold the hospital/ apartment building to Mr. and Mrs. M.B. Walker. The next year the structure was sold again, this time to Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Forsberg.
In May of 1951, Mrs. Nichols sold the last piece of the Douglass property, its residence, to the Forsbergs and once again the home and apartment building were under single ownership. From this date forward, the two properties have been sold as one. Other owners of the R.L. Douglass home include:
1. March 17, 1961: Forsberg sold to Samuel J. and Beryl Higginbotham
2. August 11, 1966: Higginbotham sold to Tom M. and Anna M. Hickman
3. August 1974: Hickman sold to Lauf Corporation
4. Nov. 14, 1975: Lauf Corporation sold to Richard C. and Betty P. Smith
5. December 3, 1976: Smith sold to Clifford G. and Lucille M. Kimbrell
6. 1991: Kimbrell sold to Bruce and Darby Homer
On October 18, 1991, a suspected arson fire broke out in the basement of the home. This damage was repaired.
7. 1996: Home sold to present owners, Jerry R. and Suzanne Noonkester.
For most of its existence, the R.L. Douglass House served as a single-family residence, however, just before the Noonkesters purchased it, it had served as a Realty office and antique shop and as a boarding house.
Today, the R.L. Douglass House serves as the residence of Jerry and Suzanne Noonkester. It is also known as The 1906 House and is run as a bed and breakfast with two of the upstairs bedrooms being used for this purpose. The Noonkesters have put hours of work and thousands of dollars into the restoration of the house to return it to its former glory.
(One word of explanation about the name of The 1906 House. When the Noonkesters applied for their business license, their historic facts were not exact and
National Register of Historic Places 93
they set the date for the home's construction in 1906. It was only after they had their business name, telephone number, the printing on their stationery, business cards and invoices completed that they realized their error. According to Suzanne, by this time it was just too to change the business name.)
Meeting Criterion 2.
It was determined that the Douglass House qualified for nomination under two of the categories listed on page 90 -association with important people and as an architectural example. In order to comply with criterion number 2, association with important people, it was necessary to give a brief biography of the life of Robert Lee Douglass.
Robert Lee Douglass was one of Fallon's most influential citizens. His life was filled with more financial success than most, but his experiences in Nevada and Churchill County parallel those of many of the pioneers that settled the west. His landmark Queen Anne Victorian home in Fallon stands today in restored splendor and his nearby Island Ranch, with its prairie style residence, continues under cultivation and is a landscaped showplace.
Robert Lee Douglass was born on a farm in Louisiana, Missouri, on December 5, 1877. He moved to Nevada in 1900 with his constant companion -- an automobile. Always an auto enthusiast, it has been said that Douglass may have brought the first automobile into the state.
Douglass had ventured west to join his uncle, J.M. Douglass, whose extensive land and cattle interests were headquartered in Virginia City. R.L. tried mining on the old Comstock, and, when the boom started in Alaska, he was one of the first to sail north. The young man soon returned home and began working on his uncle's ranch in the Island District in Churchill County.
Upon the death of his uncle in 1904, the ranch was left to J.M.' s nephews William J. and Robert L. Douglass. Other life-changing events were in store for R.L.
In Louisiana, Missouri, a young R.L. Douglass (on bicycle) is steadiedfor the photographer by Ernest Maupin. Both men would soon move to Churchill County. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
94 Jane Pieplow
that year as on February 10, he married Eleanor Marie Ernst. The Churchill Standard describes the couple:
Mr. Douglass, or "Bob" as he is familiarly called, is a young man of sterling worth and ranks as one of the wealthiest young men in Nevada. His gentlemanly course in life and his careful consideration for the feelings of others less favored in worldly affluence have made him a large circle of friends .
Miss Ernst is a youngest daughter of Senator Ernst . . .
On April second, Douglass purchased two lots on the corner of Williams and Carson Street and, by the end of the month, construction began on the couple's new home.
That same year, construction of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation Project was underway. Up until this time, homesteaders to the area were forced to settle near the banks of the Carson River in order to have adequate irrigation for their limited crops. Natural grass hay grew in these areas and was harvested as winter feed for livestock. Soon, a few large ranches occupied all the irrigable sites along the river.
Nationally, the push was on to make every acre of the United States productive. President McKinley's assassination unexpectedly paved the way for Theodore Roosevelt to become President in 1900 and the progressive politicians began the drive to reclaim the desert.
Back in Churchill County, the United States Reclamation Service began work on Derby Dam in 1904. By 1914, Lahontan Dam was completed and homesteaders were settling the area. During the course of the construction of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation Project, R.L. Douglass refused to join with the local irrigation district by withdrawing his lands from water-right contracts. He may have felt the organization would fail, or he may not have wanted to be tied to the federal government through water rights to his property. Whatever the case, it is obvious that Douglass was involved in every aspect of this ranch work.
Although involved with his ranch, Douglass was also a well-known and prosperous Fallon businessman. In 1904 he was President of the Churchill Bank, the first bank in Fallon, and he oversaw the construction of the modern, four-room, stone and brick bank building that still stands on Fallon's Maine Street. R.L. was also involved with the Douglass-Jarvis Bank at Fairview, Nevada, and owned the Fallon Meat Company and the Douglass-Cano-Hazen-Fallon Stage Line. His interests even extended so far as to let him propose and map a new community called Island City in Churchill County.
Not content to keep his knowledge and skills working for him in Churchill County alone, Douglass broadened his knowledge of state and national politcs by representing the county in the Nevada State Senate from 1907 to 1911. He was also a Democratic presidential elector and bearer for Nevada's electoral vote for President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C., during 1917.
National Register of Historic Places 95
For pleasure, the Senator continued to indulge his love of expensive automobiles. Involved in auto racing, Douglass was on the scene when Barney Oldfield came to Reno in 1904. He purchased a 6 passenger Pope-Toledo passenger car and entered it in the Hazen-Fairview run in 1906.
With his business and ranching interests in full swing, Douglass' busy life came to a halt in 1913.
Eleanor Ernst Douglass a few years
That year was marked by tragedy when his wife Eleanor died from malaria and rheumatism, complicated by jaundice. She was 32 years of age and left behind three children: Mary Martha (1904-1984), Robert Lee, Jr. (1909-
1930), and Eleanor M. (1911- ).
Douglass married Mrs. Mantee Thorpe in 1918 and they had a daughter named Josephine.
His interest in and talent for racing continued, and in 1914, Douglass, now the former Senator, won the trophy cup in a big Reno race driving a stylish Stutz Bearcat.
For a short time, flying seems to have been another racy hobby for the fast-paced Douglass as the Churchill County Eagle quoted the Reno Evening Gazette report that his presence on a September 20,1919, flight made him the "first civilian to make a
before her
death in1913. (Churchill County Museum & Ar-
flight from Fallon to Reno."
chives Photograph Collection.) The 1920s saw Douglass as busy
as ever. From 1927 to 1932 he served as
chairman for the Nevada State Fish and Game Commission, and he continued his work as Internal Revenue Agent for the state, a position he held for 18 years. His political activities within the Democratic party also kept him occupied.
Over the years, the large ranch R.L. had inherited from this uncle had been subdivided and sold. This choice property always found a ready market. In 1928, the largest land sale ever made in Churchill County was the sale of the 1,300 acres comprising the Island Ranch, to the Dodge Brothers. (The Dodge family stills owns this property, now the Dodge Island Ranch.)
In 1944, Charles Peckham Frey purchased the rest ofthe Douglass ranch and R.L. and Mantee moved to Oakland, California. In October of 1954, seventy-seven years old and in ill health, Robert Lee Douglass died in Oakland of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Knights Templar conducted last rites for him in Fallon.
96 Jane Pieplow
R.L. Douglass in his Carson City IRS Office in the 1920s. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
Meeting Criterion 4.
This portion of the nomination form was most difficult for me to research as I have not been trained as an architectural historian. I did know that the Douglass House was built in the Queen Anne Victorian style, and that it is the most elaborate example ofthis style in the county. The multi-gabled roofline, front turret, wraparound porch and gingerbread details all point to the Queen Anne style.
Inside the home today, all the original built-in furniture and woodwork remains -- and it has never been painted! The pine floors and ornate woodwork as well as the oak fireplace mantel are all intact.
Since I was submitting this nomination history to Mella Harmon at SHPO, who was creating the final draft of this form, I left completing the technical aspects of the Queen Anne style of the Douglass House, inside and out, to her. She was pleased to complete this part of the project. A portion of her description from the National Register Nomination Form follows:
The R.L. Douglas House . . . employs all of the style-defining characteristics of a cross-gabled, free classic Queen Anne, with a few spindlework elements thrown in for good measure. . . the free classic porch wraps around the southern corner of the front elevation, while the two-story turret projects from the northeast corner. The complex roofline employs a combination of hipped and
National Register of Historic Places 97
gabled forms, with a hexagonal hipped rood, topped by a finial, covering the turret . . . Extending from the entrance, the porch wraps around a one-story bay window at the southeast corner of the building. Six Doric columns that extend to the porch floor bear the load of the shallow-pitched porch cover. Breaking the plane of the porch cover over the front door is a shallow pediment with a deep tympanum. The projecting eaves of the porch roof are accented by diminutive paired brackets, and the spindlework is reflected in the balustrade. Five concrete steps lead onto the porch . . . the front entry, which consists of a single door with sidelights and transoms . . . is surrounded by leaded glass panels in a variety of geometric forms including diamonds, circles, rectangles and squares.
The nomination form goes into even more description of the architectural style, but it can be seen that the technical aspects of the architecture are best left to those who have studied the subject in depth. Staff members of Nevada's State Historic Preservation Office are available to provide expert assistance.
"Contributing" and "Non-contributing" Structures
At some point in any register project, it becomes necessary to address all of the structures on the property in question. Is each structure considered "contributing," i.e., a building whose history falls into one of the four criteria, or is the structure "noncontributing," i.e., a modern structure outside the nomination criteria? In the case of the Noonkester' s property there were three buildings to consider; the Douglass House, the old Cottage Hospital (the present apartment building), and a 1950s garage, sandwiched between the two larger buildings.
The construction date of the garage and its lack of connection with the Douglass family or the hospital placed it firmly in the "non-contributing" category. All that was necessary on the nomination form for this structure was to acknowledge this fact and document the building with a photograph.
The Cottage Hospital was another story. The fact that the building began life as Douglass' garage with the unique turntable was considered a plus for the contributing side. Dr. F.E. Nichols' purchase and remodeling of the garage into a hospital was also a positive point. More history on Nichols was needed to complete the status on this building. Further research at the museum unearthed the following information:
Franklin E. Nichols was born in Elizabethtown, New York, on September 22, 1861. The youngest of eleven children, he was a small child when his family moved to Iowa. He attended college at York, Nebraska, later helping to move the college to Lincoln and to build one of the buildings on the college campus. After this experience he went to Chicago where he graduated from Hahnemanum Medical College in 1890.
98 Jane Pieplow
That same year he was married to Miss Jessie Ewing and to this union three children were born: Dean, Maxwell and Margaret (Salisbury). For twenty years Nichols practiced medicine in Quincy, Illinois.
In 1912, at the age of 51, he came to Fallon to continue his practice. In September of 1913, F.E. purchased the Douglass home, and the Cottage Hospital was created and opened. According to one Fallon old-timer, Dr. Nichols ran his clinic for all patients, but had a reputation for performing abortions.
On September 3, 1916, E.F. married Annie B. Coffrin, a teacher in the Fallon schools. (No mention is made in the newspaper as to whether he was divorced from his first wife or widowed. Perhaps Nevada's easy divorce policy led the doctor to this state.)
The doctor leased out the Cottage Hospital in July of 1919. The name was changed to the Fallon Hospital and was leased by Mrs. Carr and Mrs. Mitchell. Elizabeth Carter was the Directrice.
It is clear that Dr. Nichols also owned agricultural property outside of town, because on March 3, 1920, the United States Reclamation Service purchased his land for their new experiment farm. This farm was the result of the Newlands Project and was designed to help new homesteaders learn farming methods in the valley.
In October of 1921, the hospital changed hands again and became known as Fallon General Hospital with Mrs. Steinbrook as the Proprietor. By December 2, 1922, it was again called Fallon Hospital and was run by Mrs. Mears, a nurse.
In 1923, the hospital closed to the public and was converted into apartments. Dr. Nichols continued his medical practice in Fallon, using the R.L. Douglass residence as his home and clinic. He died on April 21, 1935, at 74 years of age, after suffering a long illness.
His obituary in the Fallon Eagle described him as a leader in the upgrading of Fallon (purchasing the Douglass house and constructing the hospital are good examples of this type of activity). He was involved in community activities, was a member of the Masonic Lodge #26 and was a lifelong learner.
The paper continued:
He was an interesting conversationalist, a good friend and companion. The Consolidated "B" schools were dismissed on Monday (April 22) in honor of his memory. Mrs. Nichols has been a member of the Consolidated "B" board for many years.
Research had proved that Dr. Nichols and the hospital were both important to Fallon history, but the biggest question for the nomination was whether or not the architecture of the Cottage Hospital building had been so significantly changed as to label it "non-contributing."
More research in the archives and on site revealed that sometime between 1927 and the 1960s the building's front porch had been enclosed, sliding aluminum windows had been installed and stucco added to the outside of the building (the
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Dr. F-E. Nichol's Cottage Hospital as it appeared soon after opening its doors in 1913. Today this building serves as apartments. Nichols used the Douglass House as his medical office and residence- (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
house has also had the stucco treatment). A large addition seemed to have been added on to the rear of the old hospital building as well. Another question asked was how much the creation of the eight apartments inside the old hospital building had changed the interior of the structure. In the end, even though the external and internal changes to the Cottage Hospital were significant, the staff at the National Register Office told SHPO to list it as a "contributing" structure on the application, based mostly on the building's historic significance to Fallon.
Final Details for the National Register Nomination
At the time of this writing, early in May of 2001, Mella Harmon was set to submit the R.L. Douglass House nomination to the Board of Museums and History meeting on June 12. If approved, the R.L. Douglass House/Cottage Hospital property will be placed on the State Register and the nomination form will be sent to the National Register Office. Approval for the National Register will be given or denied within 45 days.
If In Focus readers are curious as to the outcome of The 1906 House nomination, watch the front porch of the home. By the end of summer, if the nomination is successful, owners Jerry and Suzanne Noonkester plan to purchase and display a plaque that announces that their historic home has been placed on our State and the National Registers of Historic Places!
Final Thoughts on National Register Nominations
For those who enjoy history and think it is important to stay in touch with the past, nominating your own home or another structure or site to the State or National Registers is a labor of love. The interest generated by my research on The 1906 House was great among the people I contacted with my questions. The help of
100 Jane Pieplow
Mella Harmon at SHP() made my job that much easier. I was her research assistant in Fallon and she put the form together in Carson City.
During my Douglass research, mention was made of the banker's ranch home in the Island District. Today this structure is owned by Charlie and Debbie Frey and the Prairie Style home, designed by one of Nevada's famous architects, Frederick DeLongchamps, is certainly eligible for both the State and National Registers. With the permission of the Frey family, the listing of this property may be my next register project!
Other buildings on our list of potential nominees include Fallon's City Hall, the old county jail, a number of downtown buildings and probably a few more city and ranch homes. Fallon and Churchill County already have a number of buildings and structures on the State and National Register (see list next page), the most recent being The Overland Hotel listing on the State Register. Owner George Machado hired Museum Docent Dottie Parr to do the work for this nomination and they are to be commended for their efforts.
If you think you may live in or own a building that is eligible for the State and National Registers, contact me at the museum or call Mella Harmon at the State Historic Preservation Office in Carson City at 775-684-3447. She can be reached by e-mail at: mrharmon@clan.lib.nv.us.
Help us preserve the history of our city and county!
National Register of Historic Places 101
Churchill County Buildings/Properties Listed on the State Register and the National Register of Historic Places as of 5/01:
Building/Property State Register: National Register:
Carson River Diversion Dam 1981
Churchill County Courthouse 1992 1992
Cold Springs (Rock Creek Station) 1972
Cold Springs Pony Express Station 1981 1978
Ft. Churchill-Sand Springs Toll Road 1997
Grimes Point 1981 1972
Harmon School 1988 1989
Humboldt Cave 1976
Lahontan Dam and Power Station 1981
Lovelock Cave 1984
Oats Park Grammar School 1990
Overland Hotel 1999
Sand Springs Pony Express Station 1981 1980
Stillwater Marsh 1975
R.L. Douglass House/
Cottage Hospital (pending) (pending)
Excerpts from an Interview with
Eleanor Douglass Scofield
Interviewed by Marian Hennen LaVoy, June 6, 1992, at the former
Douglass Ranch home, now owned by Charlie and Debbie Frey
On her Father, Robert E. Lee Douglass, his Marriage to
Eleanor (Ernst) and the Building of the "1906 House"
[Robert E. Lee Douglass was born] in Louisiana, Missouri . . .
His uncle, Joseph McCune Douglass of Virginia City, had asked for several of his nephews to come from Missouri and work for him. My father was one of them and he learned the banking business from his uncle Joe. That's why he had banks in some of the towns such as Fairview, Wonder, and Fallon. Later in life he was part owner of Reno Security Bank. Then, when Uncle Joe, a bachelor, died, he left quite a fortune to my father and another nephew, William Douglass, who was of Reno, and they divided with another nephew they felt should have inherited.
. . . [Joseph McCune Douglass] was born in Missouri, and as a young man in St. Joseph, Missouri, he saw all the people coming west. He had his horse and twenty dollars, and, the owner of the store that he worked for offered him half interest if he would stay, but he said, "No," he was going west. So he went to Placerville [California] and came across the continent on I don't know which trail. Then he stayed in Placerville and knowing the business, he worked in stores. He came over to Virginia City, and he saw that the miners had lumbago. They had not wanted to bring long-handled shovels, due to the weight, in the Conestoga wagons, so they brought their short-handled shovels, and as they worked they got lumbago. Well, Uncle Joe imported long-handled shovels to Placerville, and he had them taken by mule back and warehoused in Virginia City. Then when the miners really had lumbago, he sold them for sixty dollars each, and that was his first real amount of money. So when he died, he owned Wells Fargo Bank, the Crystal Bar, the Washoe Club which was fancier than anything in San Francisco. And my son inherited the glass punch bowl and ladle from the Washoe Club ... it was a private club -- and in all he owned twelve buildings. So my father inherited the twelve thousand acres here which Dad always called the Island Ranch, and it was known as the Great Bailey Tract. So that's how my father . . . owned the Island Ranch and married my mother who was born Eleanor Maria Ernst in Belmont, Nevada.
. . . He didn't meet her there [in Belmont]. She was born there. And she was graduated from Elko High School. Then Grandfather and Grandmother Ernst had a ranch at Old River. I've been asked where Old River is, and I get my directions a bit
102
Oral History Excerpts 103
confused (chuckle), but it was the opposite side of Fallon than our ranch [now the Dodge Island Ranch], and they had country dances, and that is how they met. Grandmother Ernst told us that my mother, as we know, played the piano and she sang and she was a very happy, outgoing person and that she asked . . . [her mother if she could] wear her diamond ring; she said, "because I want to impress Bob Douglass."
[They were married] . . . in San Francisco. . . . in the Grand Hotel. Now, this is prior to the earthquake of 1906. At that time there was a passageway over Market Street between the Palace Hotel and the Grand Hotel and they were married in the Grand Hotel which is no longer there nor the overhead passage. I suppose that's why we always stayed at the Palace when we visited. It was early February, 1904, and Grandmother and Grandfather and my mother went by train, and one of the Fallon men was at a little depot. They had to stop a train to take them down to San Francisco. . . . Then Dad and my mother honeymooned at Hotel Del Coronado, and I have pictures taken of them at their honeymoon. . . . They returned to Virginia City, Nevada, and stayed at the Arlington which was like an inn, I'm told. It's no longer there and my sister was born there November 29, 1904, and she was named for the two grandmothers, Mary and Martha.
. . . Ten days after Mary was born they moved into the house Dad had been building which is in Fallon. ... On the corner of Williams and Carson. . . . Of course, it was white and trimmed with green as I remember it. . . . my brother was born in that house on March 4, 1909. He was named for my father so he was Robert Lee Douglass, Junior.
My mother's brother, Clarence, who worked for my father in his bank, died [in the house] of typhoid and my mother was very superstitious, and she refused to stay in the house. They moved out to the ranch house which we always called the Lower Ranch once the Island Ranch was built. I don't believe the house is still standing.
Robert's Businesses and Pleasures
... He owned the bank, and he always had run the ranches for his Uncle Joe so he knew ranching as well as banking, and he always had interests in mines as well.
... My father was tall and slender and he was very polite. He was very strict, and yet he gave us everything, but we had to behave. [As I said, ] in San Francisco we always stayed at the Palace Hotel. He expected us to behave ourselves, be polite, and we could do what we wanted within those ranges. Then every summer we went to Lake Tahoe, and before he built a home up there -- which was in later years -- we stayed at Tahoe Tavern. It was considered quite the elegant place. It's on the California side and of course no longer in existence. But, one day we arrived and we dressed for dinner, which we always had, and I took my dolls, my dolls were always dressed for dinner, and they told my father, "The children have to be in the children's dining room," and my father said, "I always have dinner with my children," and he just turned to us and he said, "Go and pack your bags. We're leaving." So, we did, and we drove down to Brockway. So, the first thing, he went in. He came out, and he said, "This is the place we'll stay. We'll have dinner here." And from then on, for many
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years, we always stayed at Brockway, and we loved it. The owners there -- Bob Sherman was one -- became so friendly that they would come down and stay with us here at the ranch and go duck hunting. So we had wonderful times. I couldn't have had a happier childhood.
. . . Dad, with two other men, Howard Brown and a man from Yerington, subdivided four hundred acres at Cave Rock Cove [at Lake Tahoe], and the idea was that these would be large lots and that they would have a good-sized home put on them. One was sold to Ty [Tyrus] Cobb, the baseball player. Our home was the closest to Cave Rock. Dad built that in 1936, and the first time I visited was 1936 and 1937, and I brought my nine-month old son. So that would have been 1938, that summer . .. we stayed at the Lake. It was a beautiful, beautiful home.
Early Fallon
. . . His closest friend, like a buddy, was Art Keddie, and Art Keddie would ride with Dad when Dad raced Stutz Bearcats. . . . at the Reno Jockey Club and different places. Once in awhile in Elko, Nevada. I don't know all of the places, but he won the big cup in 1914 in Reno. ... Dad and Art Keddie took flying lessons. After the war, someone in Reno gave flying lessons in the old Jenny planes, and Art was the first to solo. He came down in flames and some of my relatives, the Russells, saw the plane come down, and Art was killed instantly. Dad never took flying lessons again. He never would go near a plane until my brother was extremely ill and Dad then would fly to San Francisco where he was in the hospital.
(Art Keddie died in an airplane crash on July 17, 1921. He was flying a new "aeroplane" he had recently purchased in kit form. He had supervised the work of a crew of mechanics during its assembly. On its solo flight, the plane took off from the Elko aviation field only to fall 100 feet to earth, crashing in flames. Both Art Keddie and his aviator, John Austin Frost, a young man from Ely, were killed)
[Dad was also close to the Maupin family in Fallon]. .. [he] knew the Maupins back in Lousiana, Missouri, and I have a photograph of my father on a bicycle and the elderly Mr. Maupin standing beside him. (See page 93.) So Dad started racing bicycles in Missouri and then raced Stutz Bearcats here.
Yes, and that's why the Maupin family came to Fallon. Mrs. Maupin was very friendly with my mother, and I have a postcard that my mother sent when I was born. I was born in Oakland due to my mother's ill health.
. . . Ernie Blair managed the bank and [we were] very, very friendly with his wife Minnie Blair, and we always admired how she raised these wonderful turkeys, and in later years they'd even be listed as the Fallon, Nevada turkeys on the big hotel menus in San Francisco. . . . their daughter, Helen [Blair Millward], and I were very good friends, and Helen used to come out to the ranch and stay with me. Also, Charles Hoover, who had the Barrel House, was a close friend and his daughter, Josephine, was my closest friend from age eight. We met at a circus one day in Fallon and became very, very best friends all of our lives.
Oral History Excerpts 105
Eleanor Ernst Douglass' Death
So, then . . . [in 1913] my mother developed blood poisoning, and Dad, again, took the whole family down to Oakland. It was a private train, and they [Southern Pacific] sidetracked the train. And so, in a later date, there was a lawsuit. . . . I don't know why it was sidetracked.
[In Oakland] my sister, Mary, said she had never seen such a Christmas as Dad had knowing that my mother probably would not survive. That's when Dad even went to Capwell' s Store and bought a bisque doll that wore size four dresses [as a display doll] for Mary Martha, and the doll was dressed in everything from underwear with little corsets . . . And then my mother died in the Peralta Hospital, and Dad brought us back and we were at the, what we call Lower Ranch, but it's now known as Dodge Ranch.
[ Some time later] my father, with Ernie Maupin Senior, drove his Stutz Bearcat through . . . they were caught in a blizzard at Donner and Dad knew . . . the timetables, and he had a railroad watch . . . so they drove through the [railroad] snowsheds in the Stutz Bearcat, and a train came off schedule and [they] went up the cow catcher. Dad told Ernie Maupin to hang on, but Ernie jumped, and he was in the hospital for several months. . . Dad held on and he was all right.
. .. The lawsuit followed and my dad was sued by Southern Pacific Railroad for going through the tunnel. Well, Dad did that, of course, because he was caught in a blizzard, and there was no other way. So then Dad sued them for sidetracking my mother's train because he always believed if the train could have gone through, my mother's life would have been saved.
Douglass children Mary (left), Robert Jr. and Eleanor in vintage auto in Oakland, California. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photograph Collection.)
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Life on the Island Ranch and at the Island School
We always had some Fords, pickup trucks and Ford coupes, something like that. The subterranean basement held three big cars that Dad always had. No one drove those cars except Dad. Leland-built Lincoln, Packard Straight Eight, Stutz Bearcat, but there were always three, and that's all it would hold, actually. . . . Dad bought a house in California, San Mateo, and my brother came home with a golf ball and golf midiron and we had sunk a tin can in the lawn of the home in San Mateo and we were trying to putt. So Dad came home, and he had always ridiculed golfers in their caps and their knickers and their argyle socks, and he immediately took the golf club from Bob and started putting. Two days later Dad came home in knickers and argyle socks and caps and sweaters and golf clubs and he said, "I'm taking lessons from a young fellow named Bobby Jones." So, from then on, we all played golf. On this open spot [on the north side of what is now the Frey house] Dad . . . so that he could keep his golf swing . .. had a ball that was on a wire and when he hit that it spun around and the dial on the top indicated how many yards he had hit so he could keep his golf game up in inclement weather. . . . after dinner that's what we did and we all had our golf clubs the right height for each one of us.
Dad ran the ranches himself. He never could get anyone to irrigate for him, and he slept on that porch across over there. See the porch? [the southeast porch of the current Frey house] ... from there with his binoculars he could watch the irrigation go on and then he'd take one of the box Fords and my dog which was an Australian Shepherd. . . . Dad said he was better than any three men he'd ever hired 'cause he could divide cattle. It was just instinctive, I believe, and he went everywhere with Dad.
But I never was expected to do anything except learn to sew, embroider, and paint China. Do ladylike things and ride my horse. . . I had a couple of horses . . . riding the horses was .. . transportation to the Island School. (Eleanor attended here in third and fifth grades. She spent fourth grade in a school in San Mateo and sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Oats Park School. She says that she and her siblings, "had no trouble in going from one school to another.')
My brother and I rode. My sister at that time was in boarding school in California. So the two of us rode to the one-room schoolhouse, and it was right by the church my father had built for my mother in a grove of trees, and the horses didn't want to go to school. We had to urge them to go to school, and then we tied them up and they always had a bale of hay there the men would bring down for us. Then at recess we would take them to the canal, and sometimes they'd drink and sometimes they wouldn't, but we always .. . you wouldn't dream of not taking them to the canal at recess and again at lunch, and school was out at four o'clock, and then we'd ride home. The horses loved to head for the barn, and my brother urged them along. We had to make a right hand turn from the main road 'cause our ranch house is a mile from the main road. So we had to make that turn and then as we came hell bent for the barn and the river -- it's different now -- but we had a river and it wound around, and on one side was a barb[ed] wire fence and my father had planted climbing roses so it was very beautiful. On the other side was the river, and I never knew which I was going to head into whether it'd be the roses and the barb[ed] wire fence or right
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into the river 'cause my brother would hit my horse's flank with his reins and we came hell bent for the barn, and I would never touch the horn. We both rode Western, of course. Once in awhile a surcingle [a girth fastened around the body of a horse to bind a saddle or pack to its back], but usually it was the Western saddle. Then we curried our horses down because that was part of it -- always take good care of your horse.
[At the Island School] we had a new teacher every year because no teacher ever wanted to return. My brother and Donald Renfro were the eldest. Just after we'd had a big sandstorm, why Bob would say, "Now, we always have our classes outdoors because this is Indian country and it's such a lovely day. We always have our classes out and then we hunt for arrowheads." And the teacher would always say, "That's a lovely idea! I'll bring the books and the bell," and she'd dismiss us and we'd grab our lunches from the cloakroom. That was the end. We never had any classes. We just hunted arrowheads. . . . Oh, yes. We would find arrowheads. The main thing was we had to figure out what time it was so that we rode home at four o'clock so we would get to the ranch at the proper time. So we'd make sundials. I'm sure that was educational. (laughing)
. . . I don't think Dad ever knew [about the arrowhead hunts], or if he did, why he never said anything. We had one teacher that gave us each a piece of paper. She said, "Your homework is put your name at the top of the page and write exactly what you think of me." So, that night Dad said, "What's your homework?" and we told him. He said, "What do you think ofthe teacher?" We said, "Nothing. Nothing." Dad said, "That's exactly right. Put your name at the top and just don't write anything at all." So we handed in a blank paper. Nothing was ever said. Then, one day, the new teacher, Mrs. Reed, had an appointment with my father, and my father's office was that porch that's glassed in there by the front of the house, the south part of the house, and that's where he had his big desk and telephone. Everything was right there. So Mrs. Reed came and she went in, and Dad closed the door. . . . [You] see, in the living room there had been French doors, and Dad had [had] those removed, and a bookcase. Bob and I had discovered that if you wanted to hear what was going on in the office all you had to do was sit there by the bookcase. You could hear every word and Mrs. Reed said, "Mr. Douglass, I understand that you own the church," and Dad said he did.
[The church was] by the Island Ranch. It was charming . . . well, there was a little entryway and then the church with a center aisle and then a raised area where we had our Christmas plays or graduation or whatever, and every Sunday Dad had a protestant minister come in the old days. Now this was built in my mother's name and she was Episcopalian, but the people around were various protestant denominations. He would have a different minister come, and then as people had their own transportation to Fallon, of course, they went to their own churches, so it was not used as the church. It had a nice little organ in it, and it was a pretty little church and the belfry, of course. [Reed] said, "I prefer not to live with a family. I would like to live in the church," and she said, "Mr. Douglass, I will never put my suitcase on the altar." And Dad went, "Gr-r-rumph." We knew that Dad was almost ready to burst out
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laughing. He said, "Mrs. Reed, if you promise you will never put your suitcase on the altar you may live in the church."
. . . So, he helped her with providing things so she could live there. So my brother named her the Church Mouse. Well, one day she picked up a note about the Church Mouse, and she gave (sigh) a roomful of us a lecture. There were no mice in the church and this is the house of God and she went on and on about it. Well, she never realized that she was the Church Mouse. (laughing) So we had a variety of teachers.
. . . And I had always taken sewing and embroidery, and my stepmother [Mantee Thorpe] sewed beautifully and my sister did, too. In fact, growing up, Dad would let us order anything we wanted, so we would order shiny satin and maribou and fur, you name it, from Sears, Roebuck, and then we would make costumes. One time down at the Lower Ranch, I remember, we paraded out to show all the workmen. The Lower Ranch required many workmen . . . the Island Ranch was mechanized and [had] very few workers. Only feeders for the cattle and a chore man and that was about it. But down there [Lower Ranch] we had a lot of men, so we paraded out to show the costumes, but they were shingling the barn and that looked like much more fun, so we climbed up in our fancy costumes with maribou and all, while we helped shingle the barn. When Dad came home, he thought that was pretty hilarious.
. . . As we grew older he [Dad] became very strict with us, and I think that he felt that the schools were very good here, but they didn't have the fringe benefits, the extra things, so he sent us all to private schools. My brother went to Wentworth Military Academy, and my sister was graduated from Castelleja and I from Notre Dame in Belmont (she attended ninth grade at CCHS) . . . And we had parties at high school, and then the juniors always gave parties for the seniors but the whole school attended. Somebody said to Dad once, he said, "Well, Bob, you'd save money if you'd put your children in the same school if you're going to send them away. `Specially the girls." And Dad said, "No school should have more than one of them at a time." (laughing)
Our cook for many years was a Japanese man. He'd worked for my mother and through the years my father was a widower. Then my father had remarried. So as we came by the bunkhouse he always had something for us right out of the oven `cause he'd see us coming. Whether it was shoestring potatoes, and he could just make those so marvelously or whatever, it was why we went in. We could do no wrong. In his eyes we were just perfect.
. . . [His name was] Kay Kimachi and he liked our cats, and when he let us have mama cat stay in the pantry in a great big crock -- a tremendous one -- to have her babies, we were so pleased. But our stepmother thought -- she was Pennsylvania Dutch and my brother always likened her to the woman on the Dutch cleanser cans chasing dirt with that stick -- so Fourth of July came along, and everyone went to Fallon. I mean, the cooks, the men, everyone went, but this particular time my stepmother said no, she wanted to stay home. So we all took off. When we came back,
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`course we went to see how mama cat and the babies were. They weren't there. She had cleaned Kay's kitchen and Kay's pantry, and he was very put out and we were very put out, and we had a hard time finding where mama cat had taken her babies.
So, eventually then, Kay wanted to go back to Japan. That was the year I was in fourth grade in San Mateo,and he came to the front door. He'd never come to the front door. Ever. He was dressed in a high black silk hat, a black suit -- of course, most Japanese gentlemen do. Arms loaded with gifts he had bought in San Francisco. He'd come down, found out how to get to San Mateo and he called on us, and that's the last we ever saw of Kay.
The Tragic Death of Bob Douglass, Jr., Age 22
(Son of Robert E. Lee Douglass and Eleanor Ernst Douglas; brother to Eleanor Scofield)
He died in September, 1930. All of the boys in Fallon that he knew went off working on construction jobs. . . . Pat Sanford was one and interested Bob in going to work for Dodge Brothers on construction, and Dad knew where the construction was, and he objected strenuously. He said, "They will pull your insides out." I heard Dad say this right in the kitchen of this house, and I thought oh, that Bob should go with his friends and work 'cause the other boys had to work for their money for college but none of us had to. But Bob wanted to go off which was, to me, very understandable, and Dad said, "I'll pay you equal pay working here 'cause you can work all the machinery." We had lots of machinery on this ranch, but Bob wanted to go with the boys. So they did, and he was put on working a very strenuous machine and that's what caused the rupture of his kidney. Bob had his own car and a sizeable bank account, so he and Pat Sanford went fishing up around Elko. So Bob became ill and he told me later, "I was so sick. I could see Aunt Daisy's house [Ellen Daisy Russell], but I knew I had to get to a hospital." So Pat got him to Carson City to the hospital.
I answered the phone that night, and they wanted to operate on Bob. I woke Dad up, and he said, "There's no doctor in Carson City that is touching my son. You take him to St. Mary's, and I will have a doctor there." Then he talked to the doctor, this is in the middle of the night, and he said, "If you feel you must operate, go ahead, and if it's appendix you save those appendix because I want to see them." Dad left. We went up the next day, and my stepmother said, "Oh, excuse me, this isn't our son's room," and it was Bob. He looked terrible. Cheeks sunken and his eyes; 'course he had very large eyes, and it was Bob. So Bob and I were alone in the hospital room, and he said, "See if there's a mirror." There was and I put it in a drawer, and I said, "There's no mirror." He said, "You have a compact." I gave him my compact, but he couldn't hold it very well, so he knew he didn't look recognizable. He was in St. Mary's with nurses -- in those days it was a day nurse and a night nurse -- for weeks and weeks, and it was not appendicitis. He'd had the operation but the appendix were perfect, and he had two open wounds on his back for drainage. Dad fainted when he first saw it. So he heard of a doctor, Dr. Hinman of Boston. Again I heard Dad make
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the phone call and it was Dad that [said] . . . no two ways. . . . he wanted him to come.We knew it was [a] kidney [problem].
By this time he had Bob moved to San Francisco, University of California. So this was going on all summer. See, it was not a sudden death at all, and he'd had more exploratory examinations. Dad sent me to summer school, so I'd be there with Bob. Then, with Dr. Hinman, I heard Dad say, "You will get five thousand dollars today" because Hinman said he would not come without five thousand in advance. So Dr. Hinman came, and he was the one that found that Bob was born with connecting kidneys. Therefore when one ruptured, he had no kidneys. But the idea was that he could wear some kind of apparatus, but Bob told me he'd never be able to come home.
Well, Maudie Dunbar [from Churchill County] fancied that he [Bob] liked her very much. He liked her mother's cooking very much, so Maudie went down and spent the summer [near Bob] . . .
... [His] private nurse was so cute. She was little and she'd told me that when she applied to be his day nurse, she said, "Bob just took one look at me and said, 'You can't turn me. You're too small. You can't lift me.' And she said, "This is Depression days, you know. I'm trained and will you give me a one day chance?" So he did.. . And then [Bob's nurse would] tell me that every day that Maudie came, Bob'd [pretend to]go off to sleep and wake up and ask for the bed pan. (laughing) Maudie would go flying out of the room. (laughing)
. . . Maudie asked for Bob's signet ring after he had passed away, so Dad gave it to her, but there was never any [interest] . . . on Bob's part anyway.
[After my brother's death, Dad] sold all of the livestock off of the ranch and had a caretaker in the bunkhouse. Everything in this house was covered with sheets, and he accepted a position of director of Internal Revenue and he was appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. To my knowledge the only director who's ever had a presidential appointment, so his name never came up for review.
Eleanor Scofield's Later Life in Hollywood
He [Eleanor Scofield's first husband, Frederick Hoyt Kopp] was in charge of all the art advertising for Universal Studios, and, of course, we went to all the previews and we went to the parties and we had to do a great deal of entertaining of people. [We entertained] Gene Autry and some of those who were with Universal Studios. Then he went to Ruth, Roth and Ryan as art director when J. Arthur Rank came from England and bought Universal Studios and he chopped the heads off of all the departments including my husband's, and that was no disgrace whatsoever. At first, then, he just wanted to paint in oils, and I saw money going out and nothing coming in. A friend of ours who was west coast editor of Mademoiselle Magazine and her husband every time they'd come -- by this time Tammy [my daughter] was growing up, a pre-schooler. (Eleanor designed and sewed all her children's clothes for them.) -- Isabelle would say, "It is not fair that Tammy has clothes that other little girls
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can't have. Why don't you design in the wholesale market?" And I said, "Well, I can't. My husband's position, the whole thing. There's no way." So one day she said to me, "If you ever, ever consider designing, will you call me first?"
So at this period with my husband just painting in oils in the backyard and all, why I phoned her and I said, "What do I do to prepare? And the second question is, would it ever be possible to work a half day?" And she said, "Yes." I said, "Well, what do I do?" She said, "You put Tammy's clothes in a suitcase and get to my office as fast as you can." Two hours later I was hired, and I worked in the Cooper building. I was absolutely delighted. I knew nothing. I'd never been inside of a plant or a factory, and the owner of this place was Armenian, and I learned later he had a very hot temper, but he told me that he would be leaving for New York in two days and I was to start -- this was a Friday -- on a Monday. So I went in on Monday morning and he said, "I have five thousand yards of red and white polka dot, five thousand yards of navy and white polka dot, and I want a reversible dress. Size four." I said, "Yes, Mr. Hanna." And he said, "Did you bring your blocks?" I'd never heard of blocks, so I said, "No, I didn't." He said, "I thought you would bring your blocks." I said, "Well, since you're leaving for New York, Mr. Hanna, is there anything wrong with your blocks?" He said, "No." So I said, "Well, then, why don't we use your blocks until you return?" So, he said, "Very well." His brother was head of pattern department, so I said, "I want the blocks and I want to hurry because I'm only working half day and I would like a basic pattern." He immediately brought it to me. Well, it was very easy to see [what a] block [was]. I had no idea, but blocks are simply a basic pattern without the seam allowance so you design with that. So, that was easy. I had that all figured out within an hour, so I went right ahead and I just made a big circle skirt, very basic, and a puff sleeve that was easy with double fabric. He came back from New York and his daughter, Amelia, was size four and her picture was taken, and it made the cover, in color, on Juvenile Trends so I had a job and I enjoyed it.
I worked very hard and then within three months I was offered a position with a large volume house, and those times I had not heard the words Little and Martin. I had no idea. I didn't ever know who they were until I kept watching in the magazines and things that the trade papers -- which I'd never seen before -- and they were the top house in Los Angeles in children's wear. They were not satisfied with their designer and anyone that saw the things, they'd always say, "You belong at Little and Martin."
Well, anyway, it ended up that they [Little and Martin] hired me, and I did some showroom work. I'd had an interview and this woman [who] had asked me to fill in on showroom work for her. So I did, and I answered the phone, and they asked for a Mary Cheely and I said, "She is out. She will return. I will take the message." He said, "Well, I'm anxious to talk with her." He said, "Who am I speaking to?" This time I knew it was Ernest R. Little, the head of Little and Martin. And I worked under my maiden name, and I very quietly said, "Eleanor Douglass." And he laughed. He said, "Well, that's what I was calling her about, but if you're running her showroom I know that she will give you a top recommendation. How soon could you start with us?" So, I was under contract with them for several years and enjoyed it thoroughly.
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So, you see, people say, "Well, here you were quote" a top designer' and how did that happen coming from a little cow town called Fallon, Nevada?" But I think it came from liking to sew and we always had very nice clothes. Dad took us to San Francisco. All our clothes were bought in San Francisco, and I think it was just liking quality and the art school training.
. . . And then from that I helped a woman with a ballet costume because I had done some ballet costumes and I know the principle and the French cut which is below the waistline where you have all the net coming from. I knew a few things, so I advised her on the costume and ended up by having her daughter coming to my home and I helped them with it. That night I thought, "There must be lots of little girls that need tutus and their mothers won't have them in the carnival-looking clothes that are cheap and glitzy, so I started the company doing ballet costumes there, not intending it to be very big. [Later, my own company was called] Eleanor Douglass Designs because I worked under the name, Eleanor Douglass. . . . I had a large garage and I set my small, little plant up there, and my neighbors were all excited about it and they said, "We won't complain until we see fifty little . . . girls coming in every morning and leaving every night." They were all supportive so I had a very good time doing the costumes. Then my children were out of school, and I wanted to sell my home, which I did, and do some traveling. (Eleanor divorced Frederick Kopp in 1952. In 1969, she married Paul Scofield and they honeymooned in Fallon, attending the 50th high school reunion of what would have been her graduating class had she not transferred to California schools. She and Paul won the newlywed prize.)
Conclusion
(Robert E. Lee Douglas died in 1954 in California of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, after leaving a note, "I love you all very dearly." He had been in poor health.)
Well, when I think back that my mother died at age thirty-two, their second child, William, died at birth and then Bob died at age twenty two, and he tried to keep us together. . . . He gave his word. . . . [Right after my mother died, my] brother lived with Grandmother for a while, Mary in private school in Oakland . . . and myself with Aunt Daisy in Deeth. So he tried to keep us [together], get a roof over our heads.
. . Dad really loved Nevada, and loved the people here, and I share that. We had prize winning wheat and alfalfa. We had lots of fruit trees. You couldn't even see the bunkhouse for all of the trees and the truck garden down below. Then Dad had trenches dug with special soil put in to raise peonies and roses. Dad loved to do that, and when starting Rotary Club, he always took in all the fresh flowers for the Rotary Club and anybody else that wanted them. And, of course the duck ponds were way out there.
. . . I've always thought that Fallon was . . . a pretty town entering on Williams Avenue where the trees touched overhead from one side to the other, and I miss that. We really had a wonderful life here.
NATIVE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
Across the Road:
Fallon Indian Day School [1908-1943]
and the Baptist Indian Mission
Pam Nelson
The history ofthe American West in the 19th century is the story of Manifest Destiny. As America's borders were expanded west to the Pacific, the indigenous Indian tribes were, one by one, conquered and resettled on government reservation land. By the late 1800s, there was increased public awareness in America of the problems these Indian tribes were facing, especially in the area of education. Many tribal members themselves began laying plans to help improve the quality of life for their people. One of these visionaries was Sarah Winnemucca. Sarah, a self-educated woman of the Northern Paiute people, was one of the original woman activists in America. It was her belief and mission to create an Indian school taught by Indians where their children would not be separated from their culture, families, and languages.
However, in the later years of Sarah Winnemucca's work, she felt that she could only help her people by helping them to assimilate into the prevailing white society. To this end, she advocated teaching English to the children and giving them a good, basic education grounded in the "three R's." Sarah said:
These are the days of civilization. We must all be good, sober and industrious and follow the example of our white brothers. We must become educated, and give our children an education so that they may become farmers, mechanics and business men. We must build houses and earn an honest living(1)
Sarah Winnemucca's dream was partially realized when the Dawes Act was passed by Congress in Februrary, 1887. The act contained several provisions allocating land to tribal members, and laid the foundation for Indian public school education. The Act established a system of Indian boarding schools, which, in retrospect, might be viewed as implementing Sarah's vision that Indian children receive an education following the example of the "white brother." However, the Dawes Act also had its nightmarish underside in that many of the boarding schools established by the Act were engaged in an effort to stamp out all native cultural remnants.
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Under the Dawes Act, 160 acres were alloted to the head of an Indian family, but the land was not to be sold for 25 years. If it was held on to for the 25 years, then the family would receive the title to their land and their American citizenship. During the 25 year waiting period, assimilation was expected to take place, as Indians were believed capable of conforming to the white culture. This act was strongly supported by the Protestant churches, who were actively involved in missionary work among the Indians, the Indian Rights Association, and the liberal wing of the Republican Party.
On September 19, 1890, the 160 acre parcels were alloted to the heads of the Indian families. In Nevada, on December 12, 1890, a treaty was established between the United States Indian Service and the "Pah-Ute" Indians, located at Stillwater, Churchill County, State ofNevada. The treaty officially conveyed the parcels alloted under the Act. Unfortunately, a short time later, it was decided that these parcels were too big for the families to put into cultivation. The original treaty was amended and a second treaty went into effect, giving the heads of the household ten acres of water-righted land on which to farm.
In addition to land allotments, the Dawes Act required Indian children to be educated in English speaking schools, primarily day schools and boarding schools. The goal of Indian education from the 1880s through the 1920s was to assimilate Indian people into the melting pot of America by placing them in institutions where traditional ways could be replaced by those sanctioned by the government. In this way, the policy makers believed, young people would be immersed in the values and practical knowledge of the dominant American society while being kept away from any influences imparted by their traditionally-minded relatives.
The problem was that the education was mandated for Indian children with or without parental permission. The establishment of boarding schools away from the children's reservations cut off contact with their families. At the school, the children's native language was forbidden to be spoken. Denial of certain intangible educational and cultural rights became an acceptable part of governmental policy. This action eventually brought conflict between government policy and Indian culture.
As Churchill County tried to comply with the national mandates for Indian education in the early 1900s, it became clear that an established school near the Indian reservation was needed. In 1906, over 100 Indian children lived there. The distance for the children to go to school in town was too far and there was not enough room in the public schools for the large number of children from Stillwater. An Indian School was thought to be the solution and school attendance would be compulsory. With the support of Bureau of Indian Affairs agent Casson, the Indians would be required to reside upon their ten acre allotments at the reservation and their children would be provided with a day school and other conveniences at the expense of the government until such time as the people could learn to build schools for themselves under their own organization.
Consistent with the prevailing ideas, Indian authorities and agents felt that Indian children, by learning domestic science skills, basic reading, writing and
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arithmetic, hygiene, and moral values, would gain efficiency. In addition, their power to resist disease would be increased.
Indeed, these sentiments, especially relating to cleanliness, prevailed for many years. In the early 1940s, one former student of the Fallon Indian Day School remembers that every Monday morning the children were given baths and haircuts and were checked for lice. She felt they were referred to as the "dirty little Indians" by school teachers and, therefore, she did not like anything about her early school years.
Another former student from the same school remembers that the kids had to brush their teeth before and after lunch. Despite this, she really enjoyed school even though she could only speak her own language, for, as a child, she did not know how to speak "white."
In 1907, The Women's Home Missionary Society sent Miss Lillian R. Corwin, a graduate ofthe Chicago Baptist Training School, to work among the Indians in Nevada. Miss Corwin's work as a missionary had been extensive. She had worked at Loyalton, California, and Elko, Nevada and was an expert in answering the questions on Indian education often asked by educators and government officials. In Washington D.C., Miss Corwin had consulted with the Department of the Interior more than once regarding issues pertaining to the Indian population.
With Miss Corwin's arrival, there was no doubt that an Indian Day School would soon be underway. Two public roads crossed at the proposed site, making it a convenient location for the children living on their families' allotments. Plans for the school complex included amain school room, a kitchen, dining room and living quarters for a teacher and a cook. Notice was given that bids for the construction of the Fallon Indian Day School would be received by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at
Buildings at the Fallon Indian Day School, ten miles east of Fallon, c. 1911. Note the school bell at far right. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
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Children at the mission enjoy a tea party. Notes in the scrapbook from which this photograph was copied listed the back row children as: Mamie Williams, Mabel Breckenridge, Lorraine Williams, Nina Dixon, white children unknown. Front row children are Max Conrad, Max's cousin Jim Baldwin and an unidentified boy. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph-)
Washington until June 22, 1908; bids were to include furnishing and delivering the necessary materials to construct a schoolhouse and employees' quarters. Plans and specifications were submitted and a contract for building the school was awarded to I.H. Kent. The contract called for the construction and completion of the school for $1,170.50. Adding in the cost of the employees' quarters brought the total to $2,027.
Local people were hired to work on the project. Robinson and Wildes constructed the buildings, and the concrete foundation was taken care of by Orchard & Galloway. Painting and papering were completed by Harry Clinton. The work deadline called for the buildings to be completed by October 1, 1908.
Staff for the new school included a female teacher and a male teacher, who was hired to instruct the children in practical farming. The Indian children were to attend this school during the day and be provided a hot meal at noon; then they would return to their homes for the evening.
Which Indian families should be allowed allotments in Churchill County was a burning question, for a good many ofthe Stillwater Indians had moved to the Pyramid Lake Reservation. The question to be decided was whether those who had relocated should now be entitled to land at Stillwater. The decision was worked out by C. H. Asbury, Superintendent of Indian Schools in Nevada and agent in charge of the allotments. By 1908, twenty-five Indians had selected their allotments and more were in line to do the same. Irrigation ditches had been dug by the Government to all of the allotments set aside as part of the Newlands Project. Farms were beginning to take shape as the land was prepared for cultivation.
In addition to his work with the allotments, Asbury also oversaw the inspection ofthe new school buildings at Stillwater. He said, "this institution promises
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to be one ofthe largest and most successful Indian Schools in the state." (2) The Fallon Indian School at Stillwater was completed on September 30, 1908, on the very eve of the deadline. The furniture would not arrive until February of 1909.
W.A. VanVoorhis of Tahalah, Washington, came to Nevada in January of 1909 to administrate the Fallon Indian Day School. He was accompanied by his wife, Lillie, baby, Bruce and his wife' s mother, and the family made their home in Stillwater. VanVoorhis had worked for the Indian Service on the Quinoriet Indian Reservation in Washington so he was experienced at this type of work.
One of the first projects facing Van Voorhis was the installation of a cement cistern of 110 barrel capacity, to supply water for domestic purposes. It was made of brick faced with cement and designed to be tightly covered. Filtered ditch water was used as the water source. The cistern was successfully installed by Walter Busch of the firm Busch & Henriksen.
Since part of the goal of the Dawes Act was to assimilate Indians into white society, special attention was given to Christian customs and holidays. The Fallon Indian Day School was opened in time for the celebration of the most honored of Christian celebrations, Christmas. Nowhere throughout the Christian lands was Christmas celebrated with more sincerity and entertainment for children than in the nation's many Indian Day Schools. Thousands of Indian children were granted gifts by Indian Agents and faithful missionary workers. No matter how remote the school, provisions were made for Christmas trees and for the proper observation of Yuletide with the view of impressing upon the students the importance ofthis Christian custom.
Throughout the early decades of the 20th century, Baptist Missionary Miss Corwin, traveled the state, reinforcing her Christian values, ministering to both the physical and spiritual needs of the Indians. She spent several days a month at the
Christmas celebration with the children displaying their gifts. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
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Indian Day School working with the children and adults. Her record in the state shows that she was a splendid worker among the Indians of Western Nevada.
For the 1910 Christmas celebration on the reservation, Miss Corwin brought with her two trunks filled with useful articles, and with the assistance ofthe Rev. P.J. Spoon, Mrs. Cora Connelly and Miss Maggie Spoon, she dispensed these items to the Indians at the Baptist Church. Approximately 160 Paiute children and their families each received an article of clothing. In addition there were toys, rattles and baby quilts for the little ones. The boys received horns, marbles, tops, toy horses and overalls. Dolls, hair ribbons, gingham dresses and toys were given out to the girls. The women were given sewing materials and other useful items including aprons and handkerchiefs, while the men all received socks, ties, and red bandanas. In addition, scrapbooks, pencils and books were passed out to all those who could read and write. Candies, nuts, and cake were given out after a large dinner consisting of beef stew, potatoes, bread and butter.
In later years, Christmas continued to be celebrated as a special event at the Indian Day School. The merchants of Fallon presented a Christmas tree to the school. One of the moments that stood out in the memory of a former student was one particular Christmas program during the early 1940s. She remembered that the parents would participate in a play with the men dressed as shepherds. The children would form two groups and one would try to out sing the other. "The singing would be so very loud and it was a lot of fun."
The Fallon Indian School surpassed others of its kind in staying open during the cold winter months. Keeping the school open served a dual purpose: the teaching ofthe children continued and the buildings offered warm shelter. Shelter was needed, as the little children would come to school from home carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands, too frozen to be put on.
Although cold weather did not force the school to close, in February 1910 Indian Agent VanVoorhis temporarily stopped classes to halt the spread of small pox or chicken pox, one of which was active in the area at the time. This precautionary measure was upheld until all signs of the disease had cleared the area.
A new disease entered the reservation in the early spring of March 1910 and spread among the Indian people at an alarming rate. The first symptom of this disease, Trachoma, was pain in the eyeballs as they became bloodshot. The eye's pupils would be affected next and they would contract, until, eventually, sight was lost. Trachoma was confined to the Indian people of Stillwater and was not transmitted to the white population. Day School children were not involved in the screening process for trachoma, but, to help avoid an epidemic, missionary women kept busy screening the adult Indian population at Stillwater for this highly communicable disease. Authorities warned of employing adult Indians outside of the reservation unless they were examined by a physician and found to be free from the malady.
In 1911, Miss Corwin, continuing to provide religious leadership, changed some of her job responsibilities and came to work full-time at the Indian Day School in Stillwater. In addition to her work with the children there, she was instrumental in raising funds to help build a mission and residence near the Fallon reservation. Later,
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with the help of generous Nevadans, she was able to erect a residence and chapel near the Stewart Indian School.
One local newspaper of this time reported on Miss Corwin's chapel work:
The influence of good chapel exercises was a valuable addition to the other wholesome work of an Indian School. We all like good music-it inspires us to holier effort-and chapel exercises of the right kind have a special mission to fill in an Indian educational institution. All Indian children delight to sing, and outside of the special feature it is a time when every student may participate at one time in a school exercise. The training influence is a powerful, subconscious factor in inculcating good principles and high ideals in students.0)
An elderly Paiute is examined for trachoma at Stillwater by one of the government's doctors. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
In May of 1911, Miss Corwin was sent back east on a special assignment to raise money for the purpose of erecting a Baptist mission, consisting of a chapel and cottages, across the road from the Fallon Indian Day School. Part of the money was on hand, and work on the building commenced the first of March ofthat year, but there was a delay in securing title to the land and funding was still short.
A woman named Mrs. McIntosh relieved Miss Corwin at the school so that she could travel back east to pursue raising money for the Indian Mission. She presented this matter to officials in Chicago, and her persistent work resulted in the actual building of the misson at a cost of about $2,000.
Once the building was completed, mission activities began. A sewing class composed of Indian women and girls was held every week. This was in addition to the regularly scheduled quilting sessions. Services led by Miss Corwin were held in the chapel every other Sunday when she would talk and present her views. The children sang and recited their lessons. As many as 70 people were in attendance at these services.
At about this time, Miss Corwin's workload was alleviated by the arrival of other Baptist missionaries who helped her with her tasks. One of them was Miss Eva Fewel, who had begun her training in missionary work when still a young woman at the Baptist Training School in Chicago. There she had formed a friendship with Miss Mary Brown, also a student at the school. The two young ladies' comradeship was to last through the years. When Miss Fewel' s training was completed at the Missionary School, she was sent to Cuba and later to Nevada where she met up again with Mary Brown. The two added their talents to the Baptist Indian Mission.
With the addition of Misses Brown and Fewel, church services could be held every week, and Miss Corwin was free to attend to her other missionary work at the Stewart Institute in Carson City, Nevada, which had about 300 students.
In the spring of 1913, there were reports that the Stillwater chapel was filled every Sunday morning and Thursday evening because the children and adults were preparing for an Easter festival. In time for the Easter holiday, the walls ofthe Mission were freshened up with a coat of kalsomine. This pleasing look was accomplished by Miss Fewel.
The children and adults recited their Easter exercises under the watchful eyes of Miss Fewel and Miss Brown, while Fred Williams, a prosperous Indian farmer of Stillwater, assisted with the music, playing his violin to organ accompaniment.
This festive event is only one example of the activities that involved the Baptist Indian Mission and the whole reservation community. Sunday mornings on the reservation were described as a picturesque scene with the Indian women wearing
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siat.
A completed quilt top is held up for the photographer by a missionary instructor and a proud seamstress. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph-)
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their bright shawls and head scarfs and the men their handkerchiefs, making their way to the mission on foot, horseback and in wagons.
Baptist Missionary activites took place off the reservation as well. Miss Fewel was kept busy visiting satellite facilities in Fallon, Carson City and other communities, providing domestic classes in sewing and other skills for Indian women who could not readily make the trip to the reservation.
During the building ofthe Baptist Indian Mission, improvements at the Fallon Indian Scool were also taking place. Superintendent VanVoorhis purchased material for a new water system that he installed at the school. This system improved upon the original cistern, and the water was to be used for stock and domestic purposes as well as for fire protection. The tank had a capacity of 2,000 gallons, and the water was to be pumped with a gasoline engine.
A new school year for the Stillwater Indian children began on September 18, 1911, with the addition of a new teacher. Mrs. Peter Cook temporarily filled the teaching position until the regular teacher arrived. That same year VanVoorhis was impressed with the crops on the reservation and commented they were better than the previous year with 60% more yield. Z.F. Schillig had been head farmer at the school for 2 1/2 years, but left to move east to engage in stock raising and farming. His replacement as head farmer, I.F. Crofut, spent many hours and days preparing the school farm for the next harvest, and he also assisted the adult Indians in getting their ground and seed wheat ready. Many of the Indians engaged in sugar beet culture as well.
In addition to starting a new school year and harvesting more bountiful crops, VanVoorhis worked on a plan to employ two Indian policemen with the condition that the county pay the salary for one and the government pay for the other. The Indian police, it was felt, would get better results among their tribesmen than could be achieved by white officers.
It was claimed that VanVoorhis was a very efficient superintendent of the Fallon Indian School. Added to his position was the overseeing ofthe Lovelock Indian School after their superintendent was transferred to Cass Lake, Idaho, to take charge of the Indian boarding school there.
One ofthe more interesting and exciting activities ofthose early Mission and School days was Decoration Day (today known as Memorial Day). In May of 1914, memorial services for the Paiute Indians of Stillwater were organized by Miss Mary Brown.
Earlier, Miss Brown organized a conference to prepare for Decoration Day on the reservation. Conference members included Rev. J.M. Wilson of the Epworth Methodist Church and Rev. E.L. Spaulding of the Baptist Church, both in Fallon; Major Ingalls, a worker for the Indians and former head of the Indian work in Oklahoma and Captain Dave, one of the last chiefs of the Paiute Tribe and other members of the tribe.
That first Decoration Day at the mission was a memorable one. About 300 Indians gathered to head out to the reservation cemetery, ten acres which had been set apart for a burial grounds when the Newlands project was started. Their plan was
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Students busy constructing the water system's new pump house for the Fallon Indian School in 1911. Inset: the water tower as it appears today- (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
to clean and restore the area as the cemetery was badly in need of repair. Located in the sand hills, it had been uncared for for many years. Graves were mixed in with patches of greasewood and most had no markers except for a few sticks.
On the appointed day, Miss Brown called upon Tootsey Tony (which means "Little Flower of the Mountains") to lead the procession to the cemetery with her horse, Goldie, pulling her buggy. Captain Dave rode with her. As they neared the cemetery the Indians started their ceremonial chant which grew to form quite a sound. Workers began clearing the land of brush and grasses. Boys from the Indian Day School had painted and lettered white wooden headstones that were now placed on the graves. A fence was installed to surround the entire ten acre plot. Indians bearing wildflowers and alfalfa proceeded to the Indian cemetery to place their offerings on the graves of their departed relatives and friends. A picnic lunch was served, and afterwards Miss Brown coaxed the young men, led by Willie Steve, Sr., and some of the boys into organizing the reservation's first group of baseball players.
While things were going smoothly at the Fallon Indian Day School, a national reorganization was underway to revamp pre-vocational and vocational work in the Indian schools.
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With Tootsey Tony at the reins and Captain Dave beside her, Goldie leads the Decoration Day procession to the reservation's cemetery in 1914. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
The national model further outlined classwork by requiring pre-vocational classes for boys in farming, dairying, carpentry work and such other trades as the schools were able to provide. The girls would receive training in cooking, sewing, laundry work and other domestic areas. The difference was that greater emphasis was to be placed on vocational learning. This course of study was to be introduced into all Indian schools as soon as possible after the first of February, 1916. Special Indian Agent C.H. Asbury, his assistant, J. Polland and James B. Royce of Carson City, Nevada, worked on perfecting plans to introduce these changes.
The Fallon Indian Day School did its best to comply with this federal mandate. On the eve of the adoption of this new model, the Indian School and Mission learned that Superintendent VanVoorhis was planning to leave Fallon to assume a similar but more lucrative position in Wyoming. The school had seen great improvements under VanVoorhis' tenure as there was great harmony between superintendent and all involved in the school and Mission. Missionary Eva Fewel said that she had received great encouragement from VanVoorhis while working with the Indians.
A short time later, VanVoorhis was replaced by Harry M. Carter from Dalton, Georgia, who assumed the duties of agent on the Stillwater Indian Reservation. Carter had spent time in the Indian Service working on a reservation in Yuma, Arizona. He also spent time at the most noted of all Indian schools, the Carlisle Industrial Training Institute in Pennsylvania.
The VanVoorhis family transferred to Fort Washake, Wyoming and VanVoorhis took over the Indian agency there. After nine months of working at Fort Washake, VanVoorhis resigned his position as Indian agent in order to return to Fallon to live where his children would receive the benefit of good schools. He accepted a position with the I.H. Kent Company. Almost nine months later, on January 8, 1919, W.A. VanVoorhis died at his home from pneumonia. VanVoorhis had spent eight years as the Indian agent at the Indian Reservation near Stillwater. The Fallon Indian
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Day School had been under his guidance during the early years of its existence. VanVoorhis was a genial man, respected and liked by all. He was survived by his wife Lillie, and sons Bruce and Wayne. (The two VanVoorhis sons were destined to die heroes in WWII. VanVoorhis Field, at NAS Fallon, is named for Bruce.)
The 1920s saw the Fallon Indian Day School continue to change. Half day sessions for the pupils were put into effect. One half of the day was spent with lessons, forcing the teachers to use their classroom minutes to their best advantage. The other half day was set aside for the children to work outdoors. Utilizing the considerable acreage at the mission, the students took part in farming activities such as tending to the garden, taking care of animals such as lambs and turkeys and painting, building, repairing and taking care of the school. Many of the girls also worked outside.
Regular church services continued at the Mission at this time with a total congregation reaching over sixty-one members. Another new Missionary, Part of the Fallon Indian Day School's classwork required Miss Helen Gibson, joined the that students keep up the appearance of the school's build- effort. She was able to attend a
ings. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.) convention in Los Angeles,
California, for the World's Sunday School. Shortly after her return, Rev. Scott, the former reverend at the Fallon Indian Mission in 1922, passed away and local services were conducted at the Mission by Miss Eva Fewel and Miss Gibson. The Reverend had been the founder of Dresslerville, the Washoe Indian reservation near Gardnerville, Nevada. Upon Rev. Scott's death, Mr. and Mrs. Carter took over as superintendents followed by Dr. and
Adults and children boarded this wagon for a ride to the reservation's church c. 1914. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
Mrs. Taylor. The Taylors were Baptists and were well received by the reservation population.
The physical work continued at the Mission during the 1920s even though the facilities were increasingly challenged because of their small size. The Missionaries had hoped to enlarge the main building and to add extra rooms, but apparently this did not occur. More students meant that the buildings were not of sufficient size to accommodate the larger classes. The Mission was in need of a large main room but made do with two smaller rooms that could be used for children's classes. The storehouse was fixed up for use as a Sunday School, and the walls covered with Bible pictures. There was a long, low table and little chairs for the students, and one of the Indian women worked as an assistant teacher. Mary Brown, now Mrs. DeArmond, used the dining room as a classroom.
Crowded buildings were not the only signs that things at the Mission were in need of repair. The cistern, built by Van Voorhis, was no longer useable, and water was hauled in from somewhere else on the reservation. During the winter months, inside the Mission it was far from warm, and fires were built outside and people could stand around them to keep warm during programs or to just wait until worship was over. On Saturday, November 16, 1929, a fire destroyed the Indian school teacherage. The blaze had evidently smoldered most of the night and broke out between 4 and 5 a.m. Aid was summoned and neighbors were able to save the other buildings nearby. Fortunately, no one was residing in the teacherage at the time.
Throughout the 1930s, activities continued at the Baptist Indian Mission, even though the number of school children declined. Miss Eva Fewel, who had been stationed there several years, was given a surprise going away party at the mission
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May 24, 1930. Her replacement was Mrs. R. L. Macy who joined the two current missionaries, Miss Loreen Briar and Miss Mary Teter. These ladies were instrumental in planning a bazaar to sell handmade items at the I.H. Kent Co. in December of 1931.
The Baptist Missionary Society took part in an enjoyable event at the mission when an all-day meeting was held. Women from the missionary societies of Sparks, Reno, and Yerington met, and a basket lunch was served. Miss Charlene Bonstel and Miss Ruth Hunter, who worked at the mission, had coached the Indian children to perform a Japanese play, "The Other Point of View." The children concluded the event by singing several songs they had learned.
On March 27, 1935, the Indian Mission celebrated the 24th anniversary of its founding. Special services were held at the mission concluding with a supper. The program looked back at the mission's history. The first converts to the mission had been baptized on March 28, 1920, after nine years of persistent work by missionary personnel. The Immanuel Indian Church had been organized and its membership had grown to 78 participants.
At this time the work at the mission was still under the guidance of Miss Charlene Bonstel and Miss Ruth Hunter. In January of 1938, the school experienced an unexpected closing when Dr. H.K. Wilson, the county health officer, ordered no school for one week. Whooping cough had broken out in the area to such an extent that this action was necessary. The Stillwater school was also closed, not because of whooping cough but because of an outbreak of mumps. Harmon School was also heavily hit by the mumps but it remained open.
Fallon Indian Day School children gather around their teacher, missionary Mary Brown, at the Immanuel Indian Mission in Stillwater. (Churchill County Museum & Archives photograph.)
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Far more disconcerting to reservation residents than the temporary closing of the school was the rumor that the supervisor of day schools for the Indian Service, E.H. Crotzer of Lovelock, was in Fallon because officials of the Indian Service wanted to close the Indian Day School at Stillwater as there were now only ten children attending. Supervisor Crotzer stated that it was not economical for the Service to maintain a teacher, run a bus and cover other expenses of the school given the small number of children enrolled. A meeting with the Consolidated "B" school board of the Churchill County School District was planned to see whether something could be worked out so that the few children left in the day school could attend Fallon schools. The board met to discuss this matter on February 20, 1940. Crotzer, Ross P. Wiley, director of education for the Indian Service, and William Dial, public school relations officer and field agent for the Service, presented their proposals before the board.
At this meeting, it was decided, after consideration, that the local schools could not take on the younger Indian children. Board members pointed out that these new pupils would be too much for the teaching staff to handle, particularly in view of the fact that both language and customs of the whites must be taught to the beginners. However, the federal government would pay tuition for all the older Indian children that were presently attending the Consolidated "B" schools.
The vote of the school board did not stand the test of time. More and more Indian children moved into the public school system. As one former student remembers, when the students began school in town, they were put back one grade because they were behind the "white kids" in their schooling. Most of the Indian students did not speak the English language when they began public schooling and therefore they had a hard time catching up.
Even though the plans were made to close down the school in the 1940s, the school's teachers continued activities for the children with help from the Mission. For one event, the women of the federal rehabilitation sewing project presented a pageant written by Mrs. Bessie Johnnie, forewoman, and directed by Michael P. Schmidt, Day School teacher, depicting the life of the early Indians in Nevada. The costumes were made by the women under the direction of Mrs. Maggie Steve, second forewoman. Among the dancers were Frank Kaiser and Manuel Tobey of Fallon who had danced at the World's Fair in San Francisco the summer before.
The Day School also did its part to help in the War effort. The need for victory gardens for every home in the community was stressed by the members of the local garden committee. The group talked about the desirability of growing a few good vegetables in every garden, even if it was necessary to plant them between rows offlowers. Emil Frey, one ofthe teachers of the Fallon Indian Day School who wanted every family to have a garden, reported on the good work the Indians were doing in preparing their plots. Frey also noted that there were to be community and school gardens so as to have fresh vegetables for those who would need them. Garden produce that was not eaten during the season would be stored for future use by the reservation population. The children at the Day School were no exception, as they worked very hard on their victory garden. They spent every day tending to the
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gardens, pulling weeds and singing, as one former student said, "propaganda" songs that he can still remember to this day. Patriotic fever ran high on the reservation as many of its young men had reported for duty and had been sent overseas -- some never to return.
In 1941, demonstration gardens were planted, and many Indians of the reservation donated labor to the three community gardens that were in progress at the Fallon Indian Day School. They were Lucy Kaiser, Mary Gilbert, Clara Williams, Laura Williams, Maybelline Williams, Nellie Williams, Tom Horn, Joaquin Brown, Albert P. Hicks and Joe Sheehan. In addition, Mrs. Lena Weeks, Judge Ike Harris and Emil Frey all assisted. The gardens were part of an Indian Day School program entitled "For Food for Victory." Many of the Indians also grew excellent individual home subsistence gardens.
Miss Mary Kennington, home demonstration agent, a Carson Indian agent, and Emil J. Frey were in charge of beet and string bean canning and turnip drying demonstrations at the 1941 fair held at the Fallon Indian Day School. Indians taking an active part in these activities were Lucy Kaiser, Nelly Donnelly, Mrs. W. Scott, Lillian Allen, Mary Gilbert, Minnie Steve, Hazel Allen, Marietta Allen and Tom Whistler at the Fallon Indian Day School. Hazel Allen furnished beans from her garden. One of the leaders declared, "We hope to have more food for victory in 194243 ! "(4)
The former students who were interviewed for this article remember very fondly the fair they put together at the Day School. A junior poultry project was just one of the many activities the children participated in. They raised Barred Plymouth Rock baby chicks for themselves and also to supply the needs for the school noonday hot lunch program for the next winter. The children who took part in these projects were Marlin Washington, Katharine Washington, Ashley George, Herman Dixon, Darrel Williams, Donald Austin, Donald Hicks, Richard Hicks, Lorenzo Morino, Hilda O'Neil and Marie Dyer.
In 1942, once again, a new pastor came to the mission. The Rev. and Mrs. W. J. Gordon, recently from Prescott, Arizona, joined the mission, continuing to teach the Baptist faith to the Indian people there.
With only six students left in its classroom, the Fallon Indian Day School officially closed in October of 1943. It had been in existence since 1908, offering thirty five years of continuous service to the Indian children. The current teacher, Miss Dolah Meek, a native ofNorth Dakota who had also spent time at Indian reservations in McDermitt and Nixon, Nevada, was transferred to the school at Campbell Ranch, nine miles from Yerington, Nevada. On her departure, she told the local newspaper that she was unsure how long her job in Yerington would last, as there were only six children enrolled there as well.
With the close of the Fallon Indian Day School, assimilation into Churchill County public schools became the only alternative for Indian education. The local school district had always objected to the younger reservation children joining the in-town groups as these primary classes had always been overcrowded, but by 1943 many children from the reservation in grades four and up had already been attending
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school in Fallon so the younger ones were gradually added. Because of the long distance to be traveled to school, they were bused into town. About fifty children were transported in one large bus and a station wagon. Other transportation was also provided. One former student remembers riding to school in an old truck that was uncovered but had short side rails for safety. This ride was a lot of fun for them, because the students had their sling shots and they never missed an opportunity to shoot at something.
Another former student considered the days attending public school as the best days of his life, saying, "School was enjoyable!"
Not only did the 1940s see the closure of the Fallon Indian Day School, but former supporters and workers at the school began to pass away. Michael L. Hannifan, a former farm agent for the Fallon Sub-Indian Agency at the Stillwater Reservation in 1935, passed away in 1945. He had spent eighteen years with the Indian Services and was highly regarded by his co-workers and the Indian community for his outstanding business efficiency and congenial personality. In March of 1949, one ofthe original Missionary women at the school, Eva Fewell (Speed), passed away in California. She had worked at the school for twenty years after which she married John Speed, Executive Secretary of Baptist Activities in Nevada. The couple had then moved to California where he pursued a pastorate position. It was indeed the end of the day school era.
Afterword
The late 1960s witnessed the beginning of self-determination in Indian education. This was a time when government policy allowed Indians to control their own tribal destinies. The widespread use ofpublicity to influence national opinion dealt with a common theme -- that education was both the source of the Indians' problems and the hope for their resolution. The most legitimate critics of Indian education were the Indian people.
Students from the Stillwater Reservation continued to be enrolled in public schools. Work to develop a rapport between the tribe and the local schools was undertaken. New organizations emerged that were concerned about Indian control of education.
By the early 1970s, Indian education was on the threshold of a new direction that would reverse the trend of early day Indian education. New legislation was signed into law in 1972 with the establishment of the Indian Education Act. This act provided supplementary funds for new and innovative programs for Indian students. In 1979 the Department of Education changed the organizational placement and status of Indian Education Programs authorized by Public Law 92-318, Title IV. To date, no other single piece of legislation has permitted more far-reaching impact of educational achievement for Native American people than the Indian Education Act of 1972. These programs emphasized the unique culture ofIndian people and linked it to public education.
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Throughout the implementation of the Dawes Act, there was resistance by Indians to their forced assimilation through education. The new public educational policies at least recognized the value of native cultures and languages, but, as with so much of our history, it is hard to judge how much cultural identity was lost in service of earlier government policy.
Reference Material
Cranfield, Gae Whitney. Sarah Winnemucca of the Northern Pauites. University of
Oklahoma Press: Norman and London, 1988, Churchill County Museum Archives.
Fallon, Nevada.
Churchill County Eagle: May 14, 1908
May 28, 1908
July 16, 1908, 1:5
August 27,1908, 4:3
September 3, 1908, 4:5
October 8, 1908,1:2
January 7,1909, 1:4
April 8, 1909,3:2
February 17,1910, 4:3
March 17, 1910
Apri17, 1910,3:2
Apri128, 1910, 4:3
September 23, 1911, 4:2
December 16,1911, 4:2
June 5, 1912, 1:7
June 15, 1912, 1:7
October 5, 1912, 1:2
February 7,1914, 5:1
June 20,1940, 1:2
September 8, 1906,3:2
The Fallon Standard: December 23, 1909, 4:1
January 13, 1910,3:3
February 3, 1910, 4:2
January 24,1940, 3:2
February 21,1940, 4:2
DeJong, David H. Promises of the Past: A History of Indian Education in the United States.
North American Press (a division of Falcrum Publishing) Golden, CO.
Fischbacher, Theodore. A Study of the Role of the Federal Government in the Education of
the American Indian.(A dissertation), Arizona State University, 1967
Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca, Reproduction of Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and
Claims (edited by Mrs. Horace Mann), Chalfant Press, Inc. Bishop, California.
Interviews were held at the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Indian Reservation, Fallon, Nevada
(confidential -- names not to be used)
Schools on the Reservation 131
Journal of American Indian Education. Vol. 25, No. 3, May 1896.
National Indian Education Association papers.
Prucha, Francis Paul. The Churches and the Indian Schools 1888-1912. University of
Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1979
Reno Gazette: May 8, 1911, 3:2
Scott, Lalla. Karnee A Paiute Narrative. Fawcett Publications, Inc. Greenwich, Conneticut
Stone, Helen. "Helen Stone Speaks - Excerpts From the Memoirs of Helen Bowser Stone." In
Focus: Annual Journal of the Churchill County Museum Association, Fallon,
Nevada, 1987-1988, pp. 50-51.
Szasz, Margaret Connell. Education and the American Indian: The Road to Self
Determination Since 1928. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM
1977
The Indian Historian. Indian Community Control of Schools. Vol 3, No. 2, Spring 1970.
The Indian School Journal. Vol. 14, No. 6, February 1914. Chilocco, Oklahoma.
The National Archives of the United States. Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record
Group 75.
U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs
Notes
' Cranfield, Gae Whitney. Sarah Winnemucca of The Nothern Paiutes. University of
Oklahoma Press: Norman and London, 1988, p. 237.
2 Ibid. P.245
Quote-Superintendent Asbury
Quote-from Newspaper 1942-43
CONTRIBUTORS
Larry Buhr is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno. He specializes in historical and industrial archaeology, including architectural anthropology. His major interests are brick manufacturing in North America and the study of irrigation in the Western Great Basin -- including both historic and prehistoric time periods.
Bunny Cushman Corkill is a member of a seven generation Lahontan Valley family. She is the Research Curator at the Churchill County Museum.
Cindy Dolak is an undergraduate student in the Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno. Her focus is physical anthropology and museology, in addition to graphic design and illustration.
Merton E. Domonoske is the retired Mayor of Fallon. A description of his lifelong activities can be found on page 61 of this issue.
Michon Maupin Mackedon is an English instructor at Western Nevada Community College where she was honored in 1996 and 1999 as Instructor of the Year. She holds a B.A. degree in history and a Masters Degree in English, both from the University of Nevada. She continues to work on her book dealing with the nuclear age in Nevada. She is co-editor of In Focus.
Pam Nelson has been the Photography Curator at the Churchill County Museum since June of 1997. Earlier, she spent three years at the Nevada State Museum interning with the exhibit and registrar departments and four years at the Nevada Historical Society working with the manuscript collections. After working for the Churchill County School District for ten years with the Title V program (now Title IX) tutorial/Native American program with the 7-12th grade students, Pam returned to the museum field and received a B.A. in museum studies/library science from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her ongoing interest in the county's Native American students led her to research and write about the early education of these children in Lahontan Valley.
132
Contributors 133
Jane Pieplow has been the Director/Curator of the Churchill County Museum since November of 1992. In addition to her museum duties, she also enjoys arranging music for and performing with her Fallon friends who make up Harmony Five. They have released their third collection of 1950s songs entitled The Way We Were. Jane is co-editor and the mastermind behind the production of In Focus.
Corrections and Additions
The following information has been corrected or added as a result of reader information (which we appreciate!) and/or continued museum research:
Volume 12 Page 101: paragraph two, line two should read: "on April 4, 1864,
Volume 13 Walter L. Gates was appointed as the first sheriff."
Chart at bottom of the page: 1872 & 1874 - "Samuel Turman"
Page: 113: Charles H. Cress was inadvertently left off the list of Fallon's Chiefs of Police. He served from June 17, 1944 thru May 18, 1947. Charles H. Cress was born in 1878 at Batchtown, Illinois. He came to Fallon in 1908. He passed away July 27, 1970.
Page 102: Caption under FIB Opening photo: M.W. Boman should read, W.H. Boman; Middle row "unknown" is W.W. Hopper; H.B. Andrews should read A.B. Andrews.
Page 120: Caption under museum grand opening photo: "two unidentified Native American women" are Lorinda Thompson and Charlotte Cornbread.
Page 126: E.C. Best served at the Junior High School from 19631988; then it became an elementary school.
Page 126: Minnie Blair School: Original building was completed in 1975 with grades sixth and seventh, never with grades eight and nine.
Page 136: . . . "Native Americans still live at the western base of Rattlesnake Hill" . . .
Page 140: Photo #2: . . . "Safeway has since moved twice" . . [It has been in four different locations.]
CHURCHILL COUNTY
MUSEUM & ARCHIVES
1050 South Maine Street
Fallon, NV 89406
Phone (775) 423-3677
Fax (775) 423-3662
e-mail: ccmuseum@phonewave.net
Web site: ccmuseum.org
MUSEUM STAFF
Jane Pieplow, Director
Bunny Corkill, Research Curator
Shery Hayes-Zorn, Registrar
Karen McNary, Education Curator
Pam Nelson, Photograph Curator
Paulie Alles, Hostess
Cindy Loper, Hostess
Georgine Scheuermann, Hostess
Bob Walker, Host
Brad Sumner, Exhibits Assistant
IN FOCUS STAFF
Michon Mackedon, Co-Editor
Jane Pieplow, Co-Editor
Pam Nelson, Photograph Curator
Bunny Corkill, Research Curator
PRODUCTION CREDITS 2000-2001 ISSUE
Production Photography: Karen Corkill
Typesetting: Laser Printer and PageMaker software Production: Braun-Brumfield, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
FOUNDED IN 1967, the Churchill County Museum Association seeks to advance the study and preservation of local history. The Association does this through special programs, exhibits in the Churchill County Museum & Archives, which opened in 1968, and this publication, Churchill County In Focus. The Association is also active in the collection and preservation of historic photographs and it collects manuscripts, maps, artifacts and books, making its collections available for research. The Museum is the repository for both the City of Fallon and Churchill County government records.

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