In Focus Volume 6 No 1

In Focus Volume 6 No 1

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

Churchill County Museum Associaiton

Churchill County Museum Association

1992-1993

Stan Lehman.
Michon Mackedon
Joseph R. Nardone,.
Jane Pieplow
Marie Sundquist

Copyright Churchill County Museum Association

Published Journal, TIF, PDF

English

CHURCHILL COUNTY
IN FOCUS
A Journal of
ARCHAEOLOGY NATIVE AMERICAN
ESSAYS CULTURE
FICTION NEVADA HISTORY
FOLKLORE- OLD PHOTOGRAPHS
NATURAL HISTORY POETRY
THE CHURCHILL COUNTY
MUSEUM ASSOCIATION, FALLON, NEVADA
1992-1993
CHURCHILL COUNTY
MUSEUM ASSOCIATION, INC.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Elmo Dericco, Chairman
Jack Scheuermann, Vice Chairman
Glenda Price, Secretary
Myrl Nygren, Treasurer
Kathy Albiston, Trustee
Vaughna Bendickson, Trustee
Wilva Blue, Trustee
Pat Boden, Trustee
Virgil Getto, Trustee
Don Johnson, Trustee
Glen Perazzo, Trustee
Cyril Schank, 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. Copyright Churchill County Museum Association, Inc., 1993. 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 nonprofit Nevada corporation. A complimentary copy of IN FOCUS is sent to all members of the Museum Association. Membership dues are:
Seniors (60+) $ 10.00 Wagonmaster $ 50.00
Student 10.00 Pioneer 100.00
Individual 15.00 Homesteader 200.00+
Family 20.00
Membership application and dues should be sent to the Director, Churchill County Museum & Archives, 1050 South Maine Street, Fallon, NV 89406. Copies are also sold through the MUSEUM MERCANTILE shop, located in the Museum, by mail, and at several retail outlets.
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: LR: Elizabeth McCulloch Cushman, Dottie Tunney Prime, Pete Cushman, Mary McCulloch Tunney, Josiah Jordan Cushman and ranch dog enjoy a family moment on the Cushman' s homestead, established in 1861. -- (Churchill County Museum & Archives, photographer unknown).
CHURCHILL COUNTY
IN FOCUS
ANNUAL JOURNAL OF THE CHURCHILL COUNTY MUSEUM ASSOCIATION
VOLUME #6 1992-1993 NUMBER # 1
Contents
SOFT FOCUS
The Editors' Comments Michon Mackedon and Jane Pieplow 1
SHADOW CATCHER
Desert Challenge:
One Day At A Time Bunny Corkill and Carol Cote 3
SHARP FOCUS
Anna Johnson: "The Turkey Queen" Jane Pieplow 11
Berlin Stories Firmin Bruner 20
The Pony Express in Churchill County Joseph R. Nardone 24
NATIVE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
The Saga Of The Long-Legged Turtle Adam Fortunate Eagle 36
PIONEER PORTRAITS
Excerpts from the Oral History interview of Frank Woodliff, Jr.
Marian LaVoy, Interviewer Frank Woodliff, Jr. 44
FAMILY SNAPSHOTS
The "Berney Connection" Staff 54
Cushman-Berney Families Remembered:
The Way It Was Madge Berney Kindig 55
Memories of Grandfather Em Peter Berney 63
Excerpts from the Oral History interview of E.S."Bud" Berney, Jr.
Bill Davis, Interviewer E.S. Berney, Jr. 74
CREATIVE FOCUS
The Shades Of Lahontan Marie Sundquist 89
Child of Lahontan Gene Doughty 90
My Lahontan Teresa Moon 91
Cowboy Hell Stan Lehman 92
SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE
Lahontan City Overview William C. Davis 95
MUSEUM PORTRAIT
A New Director Jane Pieplow 104
IN MEMORY
Jean Jensen, Harold Rogers and Al Glaubitz. Staff 106
CONTRIBUTORS 109
SOFT FOCUS
The Editors' Comments
Michon Mackedon
The more dedicated readers of In Focus have most likely wondered what happened to the 1992-93 issue, which, had we followed our usual printing schedule, would have arrived in time for Christmas reading and giving. Well, the answer is that we slipped our publication schedule for several reasons: we wanted to include our new Museum Director in publication decisions, and we needed more computer expertise than we had in order to complete the project.
As it happens, the wait was worth the while. Your new Museum Director, Jane Pieplow, brings needed skills, a fresh perspective, and great enthusiasm to In Focus. Note, for example, that the delightful "long-legged turtles" walking through Adam Fortunate Eagle's tale were created by Jane. She also brings academic training and computer experience to the museum. When her talents are combined with the research skills and local knowledge of the Museum Research Assistant, Bunny Corkill, we have the "right stuff" to produce a journal. So, you now hold a new 1992-93 issue of In Focus and a promise of future issues, to arrive on our new summer delivery schedule.
Editing a journal like In Focus is great fun and hard work. It provides a good excuse to look into dusty files and examine old manuscripts. It stimulates dialogue with people in the community who have ideas for articles or want to write for the journal. And, it forces the editor to read with at least two pairs of eyes: one pair scans the work, questioning structure, grammar and punctuation; another pair serves as the potential readers' eyes, questioning readability, interest, accuracy, and relevance of the material. This second pair has the harder job, for what appeals to one reader is sure to put the next to sleep. So, we try to present a range of articles which further our goals of preserving local history, presenting local impressions or reminiscences, and exploring the geology and archaeology of the Lahontan Valley.
1
2 Mackedon
Occasionally, we have to deal with the conflict presented by remaining faithful to an historical text, on one hand, and remaining sensitive to minorities or special interest groups, on the other. The classic example of the problem is Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. In that book, Twain uses the word "nigger" repeatedly, making the modem reader uncomfortable (Twain would be pleased; he knew what he was doing). However, the book has stood at the center of a debate that has produced calls for censorship, cries of racism, etc. Yet, most of us would agree that the book should and must be left as is. A similar problem arose for us in some of the material included in this issue of In Focus, specifically references to "bucks" and "squaws." The fact that words like these have acquired the power to shock the contemporary reader is one of the more valuable messages within.
Jane Pieplow
I have enjoyed working with all of the people involved with In Focus on my first issue. When Michon asked me to include an editorial comment in this issue I hesitated! I started my new position as Director/Curator at the Churchill County Museum in November -- hardly time to contribute too much! I am glad I was able to create some illustrations, write an article and give layout advice for this issue. I look forward to working with museum staff and volunteers on the 1993-94 publication. Planning for next year will begin soon so now is the time to let us know what subjects you would like to see covered in future articles or submit an article of your own.
I hope you will read this issue from cover to cover and then share it with a friend. It is so important not to lose touch with our past!
SHADOW CATCHER
A photo essay, with excerpts from the
Desert Challenge:
One Day At a Time
Bunny Corkill and Carol Cote
The struggle to coexist with Mother Nature, as she has visited Lahontan Valley with her many extreme moods, has united in a common sisterhood all of the women who have ever inhabited this region. Each of the ladies featured in this essay possessed a quality or a place in history that made her unique.
Our Paiute predecessors are believed to have arrived here some 3,000-5,000 years ago and were first observed by Caucasians in the early 1800's.
Unidentified Indian lady c. 1910. (Churchill
County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
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4 Bunny Corkill and Carol Cote
Mamie Tom Charley (1900-1983).
(Churchill County Museum & Archives, Albert A. Alcorn Collection)
Mamie, a portrait of tranquility, was educated at the Stewart Indian School near Carson City. Married to Dave Charley, she spent most of her lifetime in the Alpine area of eastern Churchill County, creating Native American craft items.
Nancy claimed that she was the second permanent white female resident at Ragtown. Coming from Illinois in 1861 with her husband, James Merritt, "Grandma" Sanford became a midwife and mother of 6. She operated the Stillwater Hotel for thirty years. In 1927, she was proclaimed the "oldest pioneer in Nevada."
Nancy Ann Whitney Sanford (1840-1928). (Churchill
County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
Desert Challenge - 5
Peugh Sisters. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
Coming from Van Buren County, Iowa in 1862, the Peugh sisters had an impact on our county's history like few families have had.
Left to Right: Elizabeth Ferguson (1832-1917), was the mother of 7 and with her husband, Jackson, homesteaded south of town and helped establish the Adventist religion here.
Eliza Harmon (1836-1916), a midwife and mother of 4, established, with her husband William, a fine farm east of town.
Sarah Ann Allen (1839-1926), mother of 8, worked beside her husband, Lemuel, to establish the Wild Cat Station and the St. Clair Station trading post and post office, which in time extended into a 2,500 acre ranch. An experienced hostess, she was an asset to her husband while he was Lieutenant Governor of Nevada.
6 Bunny Corkin and Carol Cote
Elizabeth emigrated to Nevada from New Brunswick, Canada, and attempted to grow ferns in the desert. In 1886, she married Josiah Jordan Cushman, who had homesteaded along the south branch of the Carson River in 1861. At age 46, she became the mother of her seventh child. Seven generations of her family have resided in Churchill County.
Elizabeth McCulloch Cushman (1854-1933). (Churchill County Museum & Archive Photo Collection)
Mary, the cherished only daughter of a Leominster, England, family, left home at age 22 to meet and wed her fiance, Edward Thomas Morgan in Ogden, Utah, on November 14, 1900. She was never to see her parents and two brothers again. Leaving the security of their first home in Reno at Governor John Sparks' Alamo Ranch, the family moved to the Newlands Project in 1906. She peddled food from tent to tent at Lahontan City. Her final home on the Schurz Highway became a "Garden of Eden."
Mary Kington Morgan (1878-1957). (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
Desert Challenge - 7
Virginia, center of photo, was a county physician who practiced medicine here from c. 1905. She was the mother of 6 and wife of Charles Smith, who filed for a homestead at age 79. Their adobe home was located on present day Adobe Road in Manchester Estates.
Nancy Sanford, Dr. Virginia Paine Smith (1841-1923), Martha Smith Lee. (Churchill
County Museum & Archives, George Abbe Photo)
Eva, a six foot tall Missourian, was a traveling school teacher in the remote area near Madera, New Mexico, in 1920, when mutual friends introduced her and Charles Lawrence, a Stillwater rancher, through the mail. She arrived in Fallon in May and they were married on July 10. Too soon she became a widow but continued in the ranching tradition. Her son Dale carries on the legacy of this "mail order bride."
Eva Mae Edwards Lawrence (1893-1978).
(Churchill County Museum & Archives
Dorothy Lawrence Photo)
8 Bunny Corkill and Carol Cote
Minnie, a native Californian, married Ernest William Blair during a ceremony on 26 December 1908, held at 5:30 a.m. in Placerville, California, so that the newlyweds could catch the only outgoing train headed for Goldfield, Nevada. In April of 1924 they arrived in Fallon with their three children. A humanitarian and political activist, Minnie developed her "At Last a Ranch," became renowned for her turkeys and established the Spudnut Shop.
Minnie Pauline Nichols Blair (1887-1973
(Churchill County Museum & Archive,
Helen Millward Photo)
Alice, a native Nevadan and campus activist, was graduated in 1918 from U.C. Berkeley. A Republican, she was elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1922. She was married to William Young and the mother of two children. Her life was taken in a tragic accident at age 38.
Alice Towle (1896-1934). (Churchill County Museum & Archive, Fallon Eagle Photo)
Desert Challenge - 9
Daisy, a St. Clair district native, daughter of Lem and Sarah Allen, and a Democrat, was elected to serve in the 1925 Assembly. She managed the Allen Hotel for years, and in 1953 was declared the "oldest native of Churchill County."
Mary Daisy Allen Williams White (1873-1958).
(Churchill County Museum & Archives, Nevada
State Archives Photo)
Lillie Van Voorhis Pinger (?-1959). (Churchill County Museum & Archives, U.S. Navy Photo)
Lillie came to Fallon in 1909 with her Indian agent husband, Walter Van Voorhis. Following his death, she gained employment as a secretary to the board of directors of the T.C.I.D. In 1921, she was married to Leo Pinger. A Republican, she was elected to the 1921 Nevada Assembly. Leo died in December of 1941. Her son, Wayne, was captured on Bataan and died from malaria as a result of the infamous march on July 10, 1942. Her son, Bruce, was killed in
10 Bunny Corkill and Carol Cote
action, July 6, 1943, near the Soloman Islands. He is Nevada's only Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and Fallon's Naval Air Station was named in his honor in November of 1959. Lillie had lost the three beloved men in her life in less than a 20 month period.
Illinois native Luella arrived in Fallon in 1906. A Democrat and women's rights advocate, she was the only woman elected to the 1939 legislature. She and her husband, Andrew Dellard Drumm, Sr., a rancher and building contractor, were the parents of three children, including Nevada highway contractor, A.D. Drumm, Jr.
Luella K. Drumm (1872-1962).
(Churchill County Museum & Archives, Nevada State Archives Photo)
As we prepare to enter the 21st Century, Churchill County overflows with outstanding women ... the movers and shakers of today ... the leaden in politics, education, banking, administration, the arts, medicine publishing, homemaking and ranching. We shall allow history to record how each met the "Desert Challenge: One Day At A Time."
SHARP FOCUS
Anna Johnson:
"The Turkey Queen"
Jane Pieplow
Anna Johnson in her garden in 1922.
Reprinted from Sunset Magazine, February, 1922:
Interesting Westerners
"Eleven years ago Miss Anna Johnson, a church deaconess and teacher of manual training and agriculture in a boys' school in Illinois, faced a discouraging future. She was broken in health and possessed a bank account of only three hundred dollars.
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12 Jane Pieplow
For the previous eleven years she had given her services in return for a room, food and a small sum monthly. One day, having watched the boys troop happily out into the fresh air she listlessly picked up a magazine lying on her desk. A line caught her eye: "Truckee-Carson Project Open at Fallon, Nevada."
Within an hour, having absorbed the main facts of the article, she had made definite plans. She would go to Fallon, take up a homestead, engage in the poultry business, become economically independent and rest her tired nerves with the sight of great wide spaces and distant purple peaks.
Two months later, having left the deaconess' cap and the schoolroom behind, Miss Johnson alighted from the train at Fallon and surveyed a small town which boasted no sidewalks, no lawns and few painted houses but which had an unmistakable atmosphere of bustling progress. She felt in the air that indefinable something which exists where men and women, leaving old established customs and comforts behind, dare to build a new life in a land of greater possibilities. A few days afterward, having selected her homestead and made entry, she borrowed a horse and wagon, hauled lumber from Fallon and began the building of a bridge across the big irrigation ditch which ran in front of the site upon which she intended to build. That first year she hired five acres of land leveled and seeded to alfalfa; today she has forty-five of her eighty acres under cultivation and until quite recently did all of the irrigating herself.
During the first year of loneliness and readjustment Miss Johnson began a turkey-crop. Few scientific reports upon the subject were to be found, so she spent as much time with the first seventeen turkeys as she now spends with four hundred and fifty. That first turkey-crop was like bringing up the first baby in a family. She walked an unblazed trail. Each year for eleven years she has steadily increased the number of breeding hens; added bit by bit to her knowledge of caring for them; studied the difficult art of luring them at certain seasons of the year away from an adjacent neighbor's wheatfield, and fought in season and out her enemies
weasels, skunks, badgers, coyotes and bobcats. Miss Johnson handles a gun as well as any man and a moonlight excursion in pursuit of a coyote or bobcat is no unusual diversion.
Four hundred and fifty turkeys at holiday prices, added to the income from the alfalfa crop, gives the former impoverished deaconess a comforting bank account. She no longer borrows a horse and wagon. A trim little car carries her swiftly into the prosperous town where cement
"The Turkey Queen" 13
walks, well-watered lawns and freshly painted dwelling houses proclaim the fact that its inhabitants, like Miss Johnson, have come to stay. In her home is furniture made by her hands. A long book-case is filled with good books, and two wild-cat skins are stretched upon the wall. Trees grow about the door; at the rear stretches a fine field of alfalfa and at one side is a flourishing garden.
Three hundred dollars and broken health -- many a woman would have imposed herself upon charity or have sunk hopelessly to utter defeat. Only one of courage, of self-reliance, of sufficient imagination to foresee success and enough industry to work steadily toward it could accomplish what Miss Johnson has accomplished -- a happy independence.
Sheila O'Neill
After reading this article, Museum Staff decided to research Miss Johnson in more detail, because her story seemed different from those more often told. We were also curious as to the accuracy of the magazine story. Had the author embellished the truth to add more "punch" to the article? A woman had interviewed Anna and written the piece. Did she reflect current views on women in her writing?
Certainly, the article underscores what recent history has revealed about the roles and choices open to females in the early 20th century. Born in Center County, Pennsylvania on September 18, 1865, Anna was about 34 years years old when she became Assistant Principal of the Chaddock School for Boys in Quincy, Illinois. The school taught manual training and agricultural techniques to its students. Anna's obituary, printed in The Fallon Eagle on May 18, 1935, indicates that a woman, Miss Eleanor Toby, was the founder of the boys' school. The Sunset Magazine article states that Anna wanted a change in her life, especially one that would improve her financial status. Historically, single women had few career paths to choose from, and no choice was very lucrative. Most available jobs were extensions of women's expected household roles; laundress, boarding house owner, seamstress, nurse or cook. Teaching had always been a respectable occupation for the single woman and was the profession Anna chose. By 1900 many more women, married and single, were entering the workforce. They began to replace men in the secretarial
14 Jane Pieplow
field, especially in the Eastern states. New job fields for women slowly opened, but for those who were not married, the salary at any of these jobs was rarely enough to provide a woman with much of a savings account, let alone a retirement plan!
What was different about life in the western states? What convinced men and women alike to leave their homes and families to travel into unknown, and sometimes dangerous, territory? Wide open spaces, lack of population, abundant natural resources and participation in adventure appealed to both men and women. The United States government, entering a progressive era in politics, urged settlers west to help aid the growing country. Enticements included free or low-cost land, something unheard of in populated eastern states. Women were free to homestead their own land, and, in some western states, were allowed to vote as early as 1870. Looking at the plains of Kansas, Nebraska and North and South Dakota, government officials wanted the prairie sod turned under and crops grown to help feed the world. In the arid deserts of Nevada the government urged rechanneling of the water to provide yet more farmland. Mississippi lawyer and U.S. Senator Francis G. Newlands, new to Nevada in 1889, owned property where he felt a dam could be built that would provide water to this area of the state. A dam would control erratic flooding and would measure out the water during extended dry periods. In theory this idea worked but even huge Lahontan Dam could not completely control Mother Nature. Nonetheless, Newlands sold his project to the Federal Government and by 1914 the Truckee Canal and Derby and Lahontan Dams were completed.
To encourage more settlers to the area, the government sent out flyers that claimed that "choice" acreage, and installment plans without interest could easily be obtained. About 1912, two years before the dam was completed, the Churchill County Chamber of Commerce published a promotional pamphlet which described the area in glowing terms. 200,000 acres of farmable land were to be created by the time the dam was finished. A variety of crops were listed as likely to grow here. "Wonderful results have already been achieved in staple vegetables such as potatoes, onions, celery, asparagus, cantaloupes, etc. These and other truck crops present boundless opportunity for growers who will devote their time and industry to improved methods and improved products. There is undoubtedly a wide open opportunity here for the selection and standardizing for fancy markets such crops as potatoes, onions,
"The Turkey Queen" 15
cantaloupes and celery, which here reach their greatest perfection." The health conditions of the valley were described as "exceptionally good. The climate is mild yet the seasons are sufficiently varied to give relief to the monotony felt in a climate of non-varying temperature. During the winter season the thermometer occasionally drops to zero, which has an invigorating effect. The almost constant sunshine, absence of fogs and the medium altitude we have in this valley make it one of the most desirable localities for people with insipient lung troubles. Many who come here, thus afflicted, make a rapid and permanent recovery."
Perhaps Anna picked up and read this very pamphlet the day she decided to make a change in her life. Her health was poor; here was a place to recover. She had farming and animal husbandry knowledge and was used to living frugally on a limited income. Maybe she read this commonsense letter, also published in the pamphlet, solicited from a local homesteader:
"As I have had eight years experience on a homestead here, the local Chamber of Commerce has asked me to give you such information as I think will help you decide whether or not you should come here and acquire a tract of our irrigated lands.
I came here with little money ... what I had saved from a modest salary in two years. I came believing I could acquire a farm and a home much more easily by taking free land and paying for the water right on the terms offered by the Government than I could by trying to earn money to buy a farm that would support a family. The course I have taken has been hard enough, but I now have the farm ... had I taken the other course I might not own a farm ... probably I would not. Our valley is still new and offers as good or better opportunities today than when I came here, both for those who wish to buy and for those who prefer to homestead Government land. Water costs more; but if you will consider that it is sold on time without interest you will find that half the price put on interest will pay for the water.
... With your land selected, your problems will be chiefly those of business management. Remember that your income must come from your fields. Plan your expenditures so that the greatest number of acres possible will be leveled and put into cultivation each of the earlier years. If your capital is small forego the modern dwelling and the costly brood mares you have been 'clay-dreaming about' till the income from the farm
16 Jane Pieplow
will warrant them ...
Perhaps the hardest question for you to decide is whether or not the money you have will prove sufficient to tide you over until you begin getting returns from your land ... If you are succeeding where you are it is very probable that even with small capital, you will do much better in a new country like ours. If you are spending all you make where you are, very likely you would not manage so as to get ahead here ... the fault being yours, not the country's ...
Very truly yours,
S. J. Rogers"
Anna no doubt felt Churchill County was a place where a single woman could really live independently, could own her own property, could be her own boss. All of these things convinced her to leave Illinois to come west. The former schoolteacher appears to have been fortunate in her choice of Churchill County property. She was able to have an orchard and garden and to raise alfalfa and many turkeys. Other settlers weren't so lucky. What the promotional pamphlet did not say was that there was plenty of land that was too sandy to grow anything. Irrigation canals ran out of water by the time they reached some farms. Mother Nature treated settlers to years of drought or brief, drenching rains. Banks were not always as willing to lend money nor were they compelled to offer everything that was listed in Reclamation Service propaganda. Even though Mr. Rogers' letter indicated people could only blame themselves for the failure of their farming venture, there were many uncontrollable events that for some made their move to Nevada's desert an unhappy experience at best.
Whether she knew about these problems or not, Anna chose to come to Fallon in 1910. The article leads the reader to believe she came alone (portraying a romantic, adventurous women to readers) but according to her obituary in The Fallon Eagle, 45 year old Anna was accompanied west by the boys' school founder, Eleanor Toby. One would assume after Anna read the article about the Truckee-Carson Project, she discussed her ideas with her friend and they made plans to travel west together. Both women acquired ranch land in Island District that same year. Eleanor did not stick to the truly independent life as she became Mrs. Ned Shoeraff. The couple soon moved to the San Francisco area.
Anna, however, continued to expand and improve her ranch. Her luck
"The Turkey Queen" 17
in choosing fertile land and her years of reading about and teaching about agriculture paid off as she saw her acres yield more every year. She truly was an independent, hard working individual, having built her own home which still stands today. She did not have running water to her house, but had water pipes running underground to her two acre orchard and her poultry houses. Local historian Fix-min Bruner related that Anna powered her gravity flow water system with a single cylinder, air-cooled AERO gas engine. She hired the firm of Jones and McCall who sent out an employee to install her water works. Ed Brandon was brought out to the ranch by horse and buggy and left there to finish the job. He was not able to complete work on the water system by dusk, and former church deaconess Anna told him that he must leave as no man was to be on her property after dark. Brandon walked several miles to spend the night at Charles Renfro's land-leveling camp and then walked back to Anna's the next day to complete his work.
In addition to growing her orchard, currant bushes, grapes, vegetable garden and asparagus patch, Anna raised hundreds of chickens and turkeys, earning her the local nickname of "Turkey Queen." As evidenced in the magazine article, she learned by doing, as did most local turkey growers. A 1984 article from the Lahontan Valley News summarizes the
18 Jane Pieplow
turkey growing industry in Fallon. From 1911 through 1914 the number of turkeys in Churchill County grew from a few hundred to at least 9,500. The climate proved to be ideal for chicken and turkey breeding as diseases that normally devastated poultry grown in lowland conditions rarely appeared at higher altitudes. Poultry loss in other areas was as high as 20% but in Lahontan Valley was only 5%. Eighty farms raised turkeys, dressing birds and delivering them to packing sheds near the railroad depot where producers graded them and shipped them under the "Diamond N" or "Norbest" labels.
During World War I, some local turkeys went as far as the Philippines to feed American troops. Prices remained at about 25 cents per pound and the number of turkeys raised more than tripled. By 1920, a few years after Anna's arrival, one hundred tons of turkeys left the Fallon area in time to adorn holiday tables. In 1926 sixty-five of the largest local breeders met at the county extension office to form the Churchill County Poultrymen, Inc., a group set up to promote and organize local egg, fryer and turkey industries. Most farms combined turkey and chicken production. (Local resident John Achurra says that Anna set her turkey eggs under chicken hens because she felt they made better mothers!) Innovative growers experimented with different breed varieties.
Raising these birds was not always easy. Anna and others involved in turkey-raising enterprises recounted experiences of stock loss and skeletal defects. In Minnie Blair's lifetime reminiscences, written in 1968, she describes some of the trials of raising turkeys in Fallon about 1924. A new hatch of her turkey poults were not doing very well so she called out the extension agent to look at them. He suggested a change in nutrition,
Unidentified Fallon woman herding her turkeys. Could it be Anna? (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
"The Turkey Queen" 19
but after he left Minnie saw what the problem really was: "The (adult) feather brooders were simply overrun with red mites, and these horrible insects sucked the very lives from the little poults at night. They hid in the cracks in the wood during the day. Well, this called for a lot of fumigating and washing the brooders in gasoline. I really had my hands full trying to save the poults from dying." Always interested in new turkey breeds, Minnie bought some from a hatchery in Willows, California. They proved popular and she sold many of these to Anna. Minnie says she remembered when Anna raised six hundred birds at a time saying, "I thought she was a real magician, and I looked to her for real advice." Soon Minnie was handling 2,500 birds, the most one person had raised in the entire valley. By 1929 turkey production was on the decline. America's economic depression, a drop in turkey prices and rising production costs sent most growers searching for alternative "crops."
Anna Johnson arrived in Fallon in 1910 and died May 14, 1935. The Sunset Magazine article describes her as an independent woman who was willing and able to make the land work for her. The fact that she was a single woman creating her own lifestyle was a very important part of the reporter's story. Anna was not entirely alone, however. Her obituary states that her sister, probably a widow, lived with her for eleven years. She also had enticed a niece and nephew to Fallon so she had family nearby. The rest of her relatives stayed in the east, wondering why she would ever want to come to this part of the west. Anna knew her choice had been the right one.
Berlin Stories
Firmin Bruner
Town of Berlin, Nevada circa 1902. Churchill (County Museum & Archives, Firmin Bruner)
Chinese Sam ran a saloon in Union (Puccinelli Saloon). The saloon was beside the road midway between Union Canyon and Berlin. Business was not very good there so Billie Bell and S. Lompa bought the Puccinelli Saloon. Business still remained poor so they closed up. Billie built a saloon below Berlin with two large tents, end to end; then he went to Rawhide and bought the Montezuma. Johnson's saloon near Berlin had a 5
20
Berlin Stories 21
cent slot machine that played a tune then usually kept your nickel. A fortune teller was on the saloon porch.
John Mullen, stage driver, married Essie Kennedy, our schoolteacher, in 1905; they moved to Austin and he quit driving stage. Ed Dieringer drove after that until about 1912. He made three trips a week, laid over on Mondays and occasionally played fiddle for Monday night dances. The Nevada Company of Berlin kept a six or eight horse team on the road at all times hauling supplies from Austin. The backhaul was milled concentrates to be shipped out on the narrow gauge Nevada Central, transferred to Central Pacific RR cars and delivered to the Selby Smelter in the San Francisco bay area for further refining. There were tons of concentrates because the ore from the mine contained an unusually large amount of iron pyrite, better known as fool's gold. Southern Pacific took over the Central Pacific RR around 1920.
The company team, on the trip nearest before the 20th of each month, (which was payday at most of the mines in this area) would load a cannonball shaped safe which had a time lock on the door. It was solid cast on a platform with four rollers. My guess is that it stood about 3 feet high and weighed close to 400 pounds. The Bank of Austin would load enough gold and silver money in it to pay the laborers and meet current expenses. Then the time lock would be set for the 20th of the month. They used planks on which it was rolled up into the wagon bed. It was unloaded by using planks also. On the 20th Mr. Watson, who was the pay master, store manager and postmaster, would work the combination and open the safe. At that time you seldom saw paper money.
The store was headquarters for a myriad of services. It was the main office of the company; the post office was located in the southwest corner. For the lack of a jail house the prisoners were chained to either their bunk bed or to the pillars that supported the porch in front. It was the only place where drugs were available except when Dr. Bruton gave them to his patients from the black satchel that he carried. They sold shoes and clothing, hardware of numerous descriptions, groceries of all kinds, candy and SenSen chewing gum, but no alcohol of any kind. Occasionally meat was available from the little screened addition to the northwest outside corner of the store building, that being the shadiest location. Bill Welch and Mr. Warner, upper Reese River ranchers, frequently peddled meat from their wagons by the cut. Choice steaks sold for seven cents per pound. On a warm day the smell of the meat attracted hordes of flies
22 Firmin Bruner
which followed the wagon as it went from door to door through town.
When the stage arrived from Austin, all activities around the store came to a standstill until Mr. Watson had sorted and placed the letters in the alphabetically marked pigeon holes. In the meantime everyone stood in line waiting for the window to open. Although we seldom received any mail, I seldom missed the lineup. Once when another kid tried to push me out of line in order to take my place, Mr. Davis, the deputy sheriff, told me to hang onto him. When the kid saw that Mr. Davis was on my side he took his place at the end of the line.
When Stokes purchased the Berlin Mine from T.J. Bell and his associates and organized the Nevada Company, the method of drilling deep wells for water had not yet come into use. At first the new owners contemplated sending their ore to the little five ton mill in lower Ione Canyon and the twenty ton mill in Knickerbocker Canyon. They decided instead to build their own mill in Berlin; the problem was that they had no water. So they bought the five stamp "Pioneer" mill and the twenty stamp mill in Knickerbocker, including their water rights. They used the machinery from both mills and, by adding five more new stamps, they built the thirty stamp or thirty ton mill, which means that the mill was capable of processing thirty ton of ore in twenty four hours. They figured in dry years they might need additional water so they also laid a pipeline eighteen miles long from Sunny Side Canyon, which is located twelve miles north of Ione.
The combination machine and blacksmith shop was capable of making or repairing many kinds of light or heavy machinery. When automobiles that had broken down were towed to its door, in a day or two they would be fixed and driven away.
The mine was a two compartment incline shaft with eight levels. It was completely housed over. It had three steam boilers and two steam hoist engines. It had a black forge for making repairs and sharpening drill steel. Mr. Armstrong, the blacksmith, had two helpers including my father. Two of the hoist engineers were named Harry Schooner and Matt Kennedy. Only one hoist engineer worked on each shift. After the company closed down all operations due to the miner's strike, there was on hand a large supply of materials that had been stock piled to last over the winter months, including many cords of wood for the steam boilers. In 1910 a Mr. Parman and Mr. Feenam leased the mine and mill. Berlin took on a new lease on life but by the time the stock pile of supplies was used up,
Berlin Stories 23
the lease proved unprofitable and all activity ceased. Berlin became a ghost town except that A.M. Smith leased the tailings, which contained $2.50 in values that the mill had failed to recover. Smith set up a series of huge tanks and filled them with tailings sand. Then he would pump cyanide solution into them for several days and let the solution filter over and over through the sand. The solution would dissolve the gold and silver and carry the values until it went through troughs that contained zinc shavings, at which time it would drop the gold and silver in the form of black sludge that sank to the bottom of the trough. The solution would exchange the gold and silver for zinc and recirculate. The lease proved to be very profitable.
Mrs. Smith was post mistress and liquidated the merchandise that was left in the store. Some of the clothing was quite out of style by that time. Their two sons began their schooling in Ione. Smith brought them to school and came back to pick them up each day in his Model T Ford. After the Smiths left, A.S. Tanner was hired as a watchman for the town. After Tanner left, Olie Olson, who had holdings in mining property in Ione, became watchman. He died suddenly, soon after he took the job. On the day before, Oscar Hufford, an old time saloon man from Lodi, Nevada, also had died in Ione. The residents of Ione had built a coffin for Oscar out of lumber retrieved from an old vacant building in Ione, but because Olie had to be transferred to Austin and they needed a coffin to carry Olie's remains, Oscar's funeral was held up until the wooden coffin had been returned to Ione. Oscar was buried in Ione.
W.E. Goldsworthy and his wife were the last paid watchmen, at which time all the machinery was sold as scrap iron during World War II. Mrs. Goldworthy was a registered nurse. When anyone in the area was sick, she would get on her horse to go to help them voluntarily. She died in Berlin and is buried in the Berlin Cemetery.
Dr. Bruton stayed in Berlin until everyone else had moved away. There was not enough practice in the roundabout area so he moved to Austin. There were already two doctors in Austin so times were hard for him. He confided to a friend that he had very few patients and those that he had could not pay him. Soon afterward he became despondent and shot himself. We that knew him felt that we had lost a true friend. It was saddening that a man who had done so much good for his fellow man should at last feel that the world had rejected him and no longer needed his kind friendship and services.
The Pony Express
in Churchill County
Joseph R. Nardone
[Since 198S, Joe Nardone has devoted his full time to the pursuit of the history of the Pony Express. He has now logged over 296,000 miles, accumulated over 20,000 hours of research and has followed the actual trail over 44 times. He has mapped the entire route including all related sites.
In 1991 he became the first person to ride the entire route on horseback from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco, California. In June 1993 he also became the first person to fly an aircraft directly over the trail in one day. In 1994 he plans to become the
first person to walk the entire route in a five month period. He will leave from St. Joseph on April 3rd which is the 134th anniversary of the start of the Pony Express. He will be carrying commemorative envelopes that the public can purchase with the proceeds going into marking the route of the Pony Express.
He can be reached at Western Trails Enterprises, 25082 Southport St., Laguna Hills, CA 926S3.]
The history of the Pony Express and the route that it followed, from April 3, 1860 to November 20, 1861, contains some of the most glaring inaccuracies ever put forth in Western studies.
Many, if not most, of the truths about the history of the Pony Express have been available, yet most of the authors on this subject have not
24
Pony Express 25
followed through on their research. Thus, armed with some factual history and knowing the final outcome of the event, these authors have created missing facts or invented reasons why the event took place. Other authors, relying on the previous articles, have carried this misinformation into their own works, thereby allowing what is actually fiction to start the process towards becoming truth. Even a lie told often enough starts to become truth, especially if put into writing.
Two of these errors, out of more than three dozen this author is about to correct, will be focused on in this article. One is generic to the history of the Pony Express and the other concerns Churchill County history.
Throughout this article I will refer to the Pony Express as a route, not a trail. A trail is named after a person, group, or organization or after a place where a trail terminates. It is blazed or created. Some trails had short lives because other trails were better. Good trails were improved with use and when they became useful for commerce were elevated to road or route status. "The Central Overland California and Pike's Peak Express Company" (abbreviated as C.O.0 & P.P.), and "The Overland Mail Company" (O.M.C.), did not create one mile of trail for the Pony Express. They had their riders and stagecoach drivers follow existing roads from Missouri to California. Some of the sections of road that the Pony Express used were so well improved by 1860 and 1861 that they had become toll roads.(1)
The first factual error about the Pony Express concerns its final operating date. It is well-documented that the first trip of the Pony Express commenced on April 3, 1860. The organization that started the Pony Express over the Central Route was known as the C.O.C. & P.P.(2) Riders left St. Joseph, Missouri at 7:15 p.m. and San Francisco, California at 3:45 p.m. on that date. They arrived on April 13, 1860 at 5:00 p.m. and on April 14, 1860 at 1:00 a.m. respectively. At first, the trips of the Pony Express averaged ten days, until the Indian uprising from Central Nevada to Central Utah began in late May, 1860. The Indian troubles were resolved by the middle of June, 1860, after which the trips averaged twelve days during non-winter months and fourteen to fifteen days during the winter.(3) The Pony Express was discontinued over the Central Route due to the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line between San Francisco and Omaha, Nebraska on October 24, 1861 at Salt Lake City, Utah.(4) This same date, October 24, 1861 is used as the last date of the Pony Express in almost every written article. My research at first
26 Joseph R. Nardone
included the reading of all newspapers, issued from March 1, 1860 through to October 31, 1861, that might shed light on the history of the Pony Express. Included were those newspapers along the route of the Pony Express from St. Joseph to San Francisco. In addition, other newspapers located in the cities of Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, Washington, D.C. and other remote cities were researched.
I entered all of the Pony Express trips reported by these newspapers by date and time for both the departure and arrival, if given, into my computer. This research began in January, 1985 and has continued full time to date. Only now are the facts about the Pony Express coming to light.
Initially, I also used the date of October 24, 1861 to mark the end of the Pony Express. Thus, my newspaper research did not go past October 31, 1861. Then, on April 22, 1987, as I was looking at my computer print out of Pony Express trips, I noted that Pony Express trips had left from San Francisco on October 19 and 23, 1861 and from Atchison, Kansas, then the terminus of the Pony Express route, on October 16, 23, and 30, 18605) With the average trip taking at least twelve days, these mail deliveries would have arrived in November 1861, after my research period.
Further research revealed that the two eastbound trips arrived on November 4 and 7, 1861 and the three westbound trips arrived on November 5, 18 and 20 respectively.(6) Due to this I expanded my research period from January 1, 1857 through December 31, 1869. Since this discovery, I have not accepted anything about the Pony Express as fact. I have completed my own research and have checked out sources that were footnoted in other articles on the Pony Express. I also expanded my research to other non-traditional archive repositories starting in May of 1987. This has, in turn, allowed me to locate more source data thus clarifying existing written history or changing in some cases the history and route information on the Pony Express. For example, we now consider November 20, 1861 and not October 24, 1861 as the ending date of the Pony Express over the Central Route.
Other discoveries have to do with the routes themselves. The C.O.C. & P.P. were responsible for the Pony Express from April 3, 1860 to March 16, 1861. The Pony Express was a private enterprise during this time and was not subsidized by the United States Government. However, the C.O.C.& P.P. company did have the Post Office's semi-monthly mail
Pony Express 27
contracts over the Central Route. One contract was for mail delivery by stagecoach from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City and the other from
Salt Lake City to Placerville, California. The annual contracts were worth $163,000.(7) Certain events were about to take place that would change the Pony Express routes and plans: to be specific, the Civil War was about to begin. The main overland Post Office stagecoach mail route between Missouri and California was not over the Central Route,which was shorter by over 600 miles, but over the Southern Route. The contract had been awarded on September 16, 1857, to the O.M.C. Service was to begin one year later on September 15, 1858, providing delivery semi-weekly at $600,000. per annum.(8) The route went from St. Louis to Tipton, Missouri by railroad and then by stagecoach to San Francisco, a trip of over 2,635 miles.
From Tipton the route went south to Springfield, Missouri and then crossed over the Ozark Mountains to Fayetteville and then to Fort Smith, Arkansas where additional mail arrived from Memphis, Tennessee. The route then crossed the southeastern part of Indian Territory, today known as Oklahoma, crossing the Red River at Colbert's Ferry, thence through northern Texas to Fort Chadbourne, along the Pecos River. From there it headed through Guadalupe Pass and into El Paso, Texas. It continued through southern New Mexico and Arizona to Tucson, turning northwest and following the Gila River west to Yuma, Arizona where it crossed the Colorado River. It then entered the country of Mexico for over fifty miles before heading northwest into the United States towards Carrizo Creek, and across the mountains at Warner's Pass to Los Angeles. The road then went north through San Francisquito Canyon, then west and north over Tejon Pass and up through the Central California Valley to Firebaugh. It crossed over Pacheco Pass to Gilroy and thence north to San Jose and finally to San Francisco. It was longer than the Central Route but winter weather was less likely to interfere with travel. Since the southern supporters in Congress were a powerful group of legislators, the Southern Route was selected and the contract awarded. The New York newspapers called this the "Ox-Bow Route."
The problem lay in the fact that this Southern Route went through what would become, with the start of the Civil War, a mixture of Union and Confederate territory. By the first of March 1861 seven states had passed ordinances and the southern confederacy had been formed. Reports reached Congress that the O.M.C. mail service through Texas had been
28 Joseph R. Nardone
stopped.(9) So, on March 2, 1861 the new Post Office Appropriation bill became law, providing $1,000,000 per annum for a daily overland mail service on the Central Route and for a semi-weekly Pony Express until the completion of the transcontinental telegraph.(10) The bill was signed by President Buchanan (newly elected President Lincoln would be inaugurated on March 4).
The new contract was not awarded to the original creators of the Pony Express over the Central route, the C.O.C. & P.P. The law provided that the O.M.C. line would be moved to the Central Route, and on March 12, 1861 the Postmaster-general ordered a modification of its original contract with the O.M.C. in compliance with the Act of March 2, 1861. The O.M.C. accepted(11) On March 16, 1861 President Dinsmore of the O.M.C. entered into a contract with President Russell of the C.O.C. & P.P., wherein the C.O.C. & P.P. subcontracted to operate the line from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City and the O.M.C., who held the Post Office mail contract, would operate that part of the line from Salt Lake City west. (12) The Post Office mail contract was to begin on July 1, 1861 and end on July 1, 1864; service would commence somewhere on the Missouri River and extend to Placerville, California.(13)
At first the C.O.C. & P.P. charged $ 5.00 per half ounce to send a letter by Pony Express. They modified that rate in August, 1860 to allow lighter mailings at $ 2.50 per one-fourth ounce. In April 1861 President Russell of the C.O.C. & P.P. placed notices in the California newspapers that their office and everything pertaining thereto were being transferred to Wells, Fargo and Co. All letters to be forwarded by Pony Express must be delivered at their office. In addition, the same newspapers announced a reduced rate by Wells, Fargo & Co. of $2.00 per half ounce for Pony Express letters.(14) Wells, Fargo & Co., also issued stamps, with the picture of a horse with rider, to be used on Pony Express mail going eastbound. The new rate was in effect until July 1, 1861, when, in accordance with the March 2, 1861 law, a rate of $ 1.00 per half ounce commenced.
The daily stagecoach mail service was started from both St. Joseph and Placerville on July 1, 1861. To fill in the gap between San Francisco and Placerville, Wells, Fargo & Co. announced a Pony Express run that would meet the O.M.C. Pony Express at Placerville for both the eastbound departure and the westbound arrival of the O.M.C. Pony Express.(15) The point of origin of the Central Route, previously St.Joseph, Missouri, was changed to Atchison, Kansas on September 14, 186016) The route crossed
Pony Express 29
Kansas through Kennekuk, Seneca, Marysville and Hollenburg Ranch and then to Rock Creek, Nebraska. From there it headed northwest to the south bank of the Platte River and then west to Ft. Kearny. Continuing along the south bank of the Platte and South Platte Rivers to Julesburg, Colorado, the route crossed the South Platte River and followed Lodgepole Creek for approximately 32 miles. It then headed north to Court House Rock, following the south bank of the North Platte River, past Chimney Rock, Scott's Bluff, Ft. Laramie to the bridge crossing the North Platte River at present day Casper, Wyoming. The route then struck out for the Sweetwater River near Independence Rock and followed this river to the Continental Divide at South Pass to Ft. Bridger, Wyoming. It should be noted that the route from Hollenburg Ranch, Kansas to Ft. Bridger was known as the Oregon Trail. At Fort Bridger, it followed the trail blazed to Salt Lake City in 1846 by the ill-fated Donner Party, later improved by the Mormons. From Salt Lake City it went South to the ford at the Jordan River and then headed west to Camp Floyd. From Camp Floyd it followed the trail blazed by Howard Egan and later followed by the Chorpenning mail route of 1859 and the Simpson survey of 1859 from Camp Floyd to Carson City, Nevada. From here the route followed the great Virginia City to Sacramento wagon road which crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. Then, at Sacramento, the mail was put on board the 2:00 p.m. boat to San Francisco. However, the Pony Express did ride between Sacramento and San Francisco over eighteen times when the 2:00 p.m. boat (the last boat of the day) had already left. In fact on its second and third westbound trips, the Pony Express missed the 2:00 p.m. boat, and the mail was ridden to San Francisco. There would not be another overland ride from Sacramento to San Francisco until 186017)
Meanwhile, the telegraph line between San Francisco and Omaha was about to be completed. By the end of October 1860 the telegraph line was finished from San Francisco to Ft. Churchill, Nevada and from Omaha to Ft. Kearny, Nebraska, with another from Omaha going down the Missouri River to St. Joseph and Atchison.(18) The distance between Ft. Kearny and Ft. Churchill on the Central Route was 1,378 miles. This allowed the Pony Express, when carrying telegraph dispatches, to bring news to San Francisco within seven to eight days by the use of the telegraph. To repeat a now famous story, the regular Pony Express trip from St. Joseph had already left Ft. Kearny on November 7, 1860 when the news arrived by telegraph that President Lincoln had been elected. The C.O.C. & P.P. had
30 Joseph R. Nardone
already made plans to start an extra trip from Ft. Kearny to Ft. Churchill if this happened. The rider on this extra trip, carrying only important telegraph dispatches, arrived at Ft. Churchill in 6 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes. The regular rider arrived 4 hours and 50 minutes later and continued to California carrying the mail.(19)
The Pacific Telegraph Company was established to construct telegraph lines over the section between Ft. Kearny and Salt Lake City and the Overland Telegraph Company was established to construct the line between Ft. Churchill and Salt Lake City. During the spring of 1861 the telegraph companies made plans for the final construction of the transcontinental telegraph line.(2°)
Both telegraph companies were ready to start, and Salt Lake City was selected as the place for the completion of the line. On May 27, 1861 the Overland Telegraph Company began construction, and on July 4, 1861 the first pole was set by the Pacific Telegraph Company. The telegraph companies worked out a special arrangement with the O.M.C. to use the Pony Express to cover the gap between the telegraph lines as they moved towards each other, a convenient arrangement since the telegraph line followed the Central route.(21)
Along the route, the Pony Express used two types of stations. At the beginning of the project the stations were an average of 25 to 30 miles apart. The main station sites were called "Home" stations, where a rider would begin or finish his ride and pass the mail off to a new rider. Home stations averaged 75 to 100 miles apart. Other stations placed between the Home stations were known as "Relay" stations. Their sole purpose was to furnish a fresh horse to the incoming rider.
Horse exchanges were completed in an average time of two minutes. However, certain exchanges took longer due to new mail being added or existing mail being taken out of the mochila (a type of saddle bag used on most rides). Problems asssociated with very severe weather also caused rider delays.
As the new mail contract called for daily stagecoach mail service, the existing stations sites, which the C.O.C. & P.P. had used for their semi-monthly stagecoach mail service and Pony Express, were found to be too far apart. Additional stations were needed and by August 1861 were added to the route. The average distance was reduced so that stations were now 12 to 15 miles apart.
Telegraph companies also used some of the station sites for a telegraph
Pony Express 31
room and a place for their operator. However, in some cases, due to the water content of the soil (moist soil being preferable for telegraph communication), it was necessary to build a telegraph station a distance away from the existing Pony Express and stage station.
Let us now turn to the Pony Express route as it existed in Churchill County in 1860 and 1861. The March 12, 1861 Post Office mail contract listed the station names that would be used by the O.M.C.(22) I have turned up five additional sources from the 1860 and 1861 period that show not only the station names but the mileage between each station. The most important source document, which has not been published, is a schedule made by the C.O.C. & P.P. in October 1861 for use by stagecoach passengers or as an advertising handout. In August of 1861 a newspaper published an account of a reporter who took the stagecoach from Folsom, California to Salt Lake City. Both of these reports list the stations names and mileage between each station.(22)
The station sites in Churchill County that have been traditionally reported are five in number. Starting at the eastern boundary of the County, they are Edward's Creek, Cold Springs, Middle Gate, Sand Springs and Carson Sink.
The three principal maps available today of the Pony Express route do not use the correct names or show the accurate route east of Middle Gate. These are the 1935 blueprint map of Gerald Harrington, which also shows the territorial and state boundaries as of 1860; the 1935 blueprint map of map of William Honnell; and the 1960 colored centennial map of William Jackson. The last two maps display today's existing state boundaries. These maps use the following station names and spellings west from Edward's Creek: (23)
HARRINGTON HONNELL JACKSON
Edward's Creek Edwards Creek Edward's Ck.
Cold Springs Cold Springs Cold Spr.
Middle Gate Middle Gate Middle Ck.
Fairview Fairview Fairview
Mountain Well Mountain Well Mountain Well
Sand Springs
Stillwater Still Water Stillwater
Carson Sink Sink of the Carson
Old River
32 Joseph R. Nardone
Why the difference in station names? One of the first major works on the Pony Express published a schedule citing the station names and their respective mileage from Atchison and Placerville.(24) The only trouble was that the schedule was printed for the year 1863 and by that time the Pony Express route of 1860 and 1861 had gone through some major and minor changes. Some of these changes were corrected but not for the route in Churchill County.
The route change in Churchill County probably took place between the middle of 1862 and January 1863. The new route went northwest from Middle Gate to Fairview, Mountain Wells, Stillwater, Old River (Fallon), Cottonwood and Nevada (Dayton). From Fallon to Dayton the stagecoach route of 1862 approximately followed highway 50, but this was not the route of the Pony Express. This new route also used different sites, but kept the same names, for Edward's Creek and Cold Springs, creating more confusion.
Harrington and especially Honnell tried to combine both routes by using station names associated with each route. This is a physical impossibility since these two routes were at least 12 miles apart a majority of the time.
As pointed out, five station sites are usually listed in articles referring to the Pony Express stations in Churchill County. Yet, one of the major works completed for the Nevada Bureau of Land Management in 1976 failed to mention Middle Gate station.(25) Another station, Sand Hill, located between Sand Springs and Carson Sink station sites, is overlooked in just about every report, yet both Sand Hill and Middle Gate were listed in the March 12, 1861 Postmaster-general's contract with the O.M.C. and the other two documents of 1861 that were previously mentioned.
A correct listing of the related station sites located in Churchill
County includes:
- - - - -
STATION NAME (1) (2) DATE COMMENTS
1 Edward's Creek X July/Aug 1861 Ruins
2a Cold Springs X April 1860 Ruins
2b Cold Springs Aug 1862 Ruins
(also known as Rock Creek)
2c Telegraph Station Aug 1862 Ruins
3 Middle Gate X July/Aug 1861 No Ruins (site located)
4 X April 1860 Ruins
5 Sand
Sand SpringsI X July/Aug 1861 Visible remains
6 Carson Sink X April 1860
*(adobe foundation about gone) (1) = Original Station Sites (2) = Added Station Sites
Pony Express 33
It should be noted that the original station sites at Sand Springs and Cold Springs were reinforced and enlarged after the May 1860 Indian uprising. The second Cold Springs and Telegraph station sites were built after the Pony Express.(26) This was part of the route improvement made in 1862 and 1863 by the O.M.C., that was discussed earlier.
Only recently was the Sand Hill station site located as a result of the map collection I have accumulated over the years and knowledge of the reported mileage between the Sand Springs, Sand Hill and Carson Sink stations. Using this data we recorded this known information to the same scale on our large size United States Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) maps. We then went into the field and located the Sand Hill Pony Express Station site.
Thus, Churchill County has six Pony Express Station sites, placing the county in a tie for fifth place for most number of sites among the forty nine counties in the eight states along the route of the Pony Express. The leader among all the counties is El Dorado, California with ten sites.
May these small examples of factual discovery cited in this article inspire others to pursue accurate research in their related historic fields. This new information will allow future generations to better understand America's past. Although it will still remain one of the most romantic stories of the West, only with actual facts will the Pony Express history be based on truth, not misinformation or unsubstantiated myth.
34 Joseph R. Nardone
NOTES
1 Joseph R. Nardone, In Search of the Pony Express - Fact or Fiction (Santa Ana, California: Western Trails Publishing, future publi cation).
2 Private Laws of the Territory of Kansas. Legislative Assembly of 1860 at the City of Lawrence, p. 254-259.
3 Nardone, op. cit.
4 Kate B. Carter, The Story of Telegraphy (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1961), p. 15-16.
5 Nardone, op. cit.
6 Ibid.
7 U.S. House. Executive Documents, 36th congress, second session,
n. 73, vol.x,p. 347; U.S.Congressional Globe, 36th congress, second
session, p. 573.
8 U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. xi, p. 190.
9 U.S. Congressional Globe, 36th congress, second session, p. 1112.
10 U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. xii, p. 206.
11 Postmaster-generals Report, 1861, p. 560.
12 Contract for Joint Carriage of Mail (San Marino, California: Huntington Library, Waddell Papers).
13 U.S. Statutes at Large, vol. xii, p. 206.
14 Sacramento Daily Union (Sacramento), April 17, 1861, p. 2,c. 6.
15 Evening Bulletin ( San Francisco), June 26, 1861, p. 2, c.4.
Pony Express 35
16 Nardone, op. cit.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Sacramento Daily Union (Sacramento), November 24, 1860, p.1,c.4.
20 An Act to Incorporate the Pacific Telegraph Company (Passed by the Legislature of the Territory of Nebraska, January 12,1861); Western Union Telegraph Company, Corporate History of the Western Union Telegraph Company, p. 107.
21 Robert Luther Thompson, Wiring A Continent (London: Geoffrey Cumbelege, Oxford University Press, 1947), p. 358-361.
22 Postmaster-generals Report, 1861, p. 560, Route No. 12578.
23 Joe Nardone (Private map collection).
24 Frant A. Root, and William E. Connelley, The Overland Stage to
California (Topeka, Kansas: Published by the authors, 1901. Reprint. Glorietta, New Mexico: Rio Grande-Press, Inc., 1970), p.102-103.
25 Dorothy Mason, The Pony Express in Nevada (Reno, Nevada: Harrah's 1976), p.5.
26 Donald L. Hardesty, The Pony Express in Central Nevada
(Reno, Nevada: Nevada State Office, Bureau of Land Management,
1979), p. 55.
NATIVE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
The Saga of The Lahontan Valley
Long-Legged Turtle
Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall
The fading sun sat down atop the Stillwater mountains, pausing for a few moments before climbing down into the darkness. The light painted the neat white mobile home a slight pink and lengthened the shadow cast by a tall cottonwood in the front yard.
The eager sounds of fighting, resembling loud claps and shouts, filtered through the sliding glass door into the still air. An old man sat on the porch, listening to the muffled, slightly tinny noises, and smiled.
He rose from a creaking lawn chair, the white metal skeleton under the cracked vinyl floral cushion rusted by too many winters outdoors.
"What are you boys watching?" he asked as he slid the porch door open.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Grandpa," said one boy with deep brown eyes, dark skin and a head of jet black hair braided into an eight inch tail. He answered without looking away from the television screen.
"It's this show about four big turtles who are ninja warriors," said the other boy with much shorter hair, who looked enough like the pony tailed boy to be his younger brother. "They fight against these evil guys who look like rhinoceros, rats and other neat stuff. They're really awesome."
On the screen, one of the human sized cartoon turtles leaped high into the air and kicked the head of a rat faced creature dressed like a punk rock motorcyclist. In the same motion, he threw a fork shaped knife at another
36
Long-Legged Turtle 37
creature, this one resembling a giant lizard.
"Did you know there used to be turtles in this area?" the old man asked.
"Yeah, right, Grandpa," said the boy with the ponytail. "Is this another story like the one about the sea serpent that lives in Walker Lake?"
Smiling, the old man turned and walked back out onto the porch, closing the door behind him. Within seconds, the two boys opened the door and came out on the porch.
"Do you boys want to hear about the turtles?" he asked.
"Only because I don't believe you," said the boy with the ponytail, who stood a few inches taller than his brother. "I know this is another of your made-up stories." The old man shrugged, then said, "As you say," and began.
"During the heyday of the Great Dinosaur period, there existed in what is now Nevada a great inland sea. The water teemed with exotic prehistoric life forms ranging from the tiny trilobite to giant ichthyosaurs, who were more than 65 feet long. And, of course, there was the turtle.
Life was good in the prehistoric lake, which we now call Lake Lahontan. But one day there was a great upheaval of the earth's crust as the pacific plate collided with California and jammed its way into the Sierra Nevada, crunching and grinding and forcing the mountains even higher.
The great sea bed of Lake Lahontan was forced upward and the great waters poured off the land to the south.
It was as if someone had lifted up one end of a giant bowl of water and spilled it out. All the lake's waters rushed out, cutting a great canyon in the south, which we now call the Grand Canyon.
Soon the tiny trilobite, the giant ichthyosaur and all the other sea life disappeared, leaving only the turtle, who was fortunate enough to be able to live in the sea and on land.
What remained is the land we call the Great Basin, most of which is now desert. In the summer months, the sun would beat down on the land, drying out the once wet ground and heating up the rocks and boulders strewn about the former lake bed.
The turtle found he could survive the sun's rays but could not abide crawling over the hot rocks. The sunbaked stones would blister his tender underbelly.
So the turtles began to walk about on their tiptoes to avoid the hot rocks. As each generation of tiptoeing turtles passed, the reptiles' legs gradually
38 Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall
grew longer and longer.
After several millions of years of tiptoeing about, the Lahontan Valley turtles developed their unusually long legs, with most growing to be more than a foot tall. And the turtles were very proud of themselves for having outwitted the terrible hot rocks.
Their smug pride was short lived, however, when the cunning coyote discovered the delicious taste of the turtles' long legs.
So the Lahontan Valley turtle had to develop even longer legs in order to outrun the coyotes. In another million years or so, their legs had sprouted to more than two feet tall. These were turtles who could truly walk tall and proud.
In time, however, that, too, was to change. About 20,000 years ago, the two legged ones, who were our ancestors, arrived in the Lahontan Valley. They came in small bands, hunting and gathering as they went. Some of the wanderers discovered the fertile marshes below the Stillwater Mountains.
These ancient ones called themselves Newa, and their descendants are the Shoshone and Paiutes who still live in Nevada.
The Newa of the marshes soon found out about the delicious taste of the longlegged turtles. But the turtles proved to be a difficult quarry as they could outrun even the fleetest of the Newa and their hard shells could deflect the Newa arrows.
In honor of the long-legged turtles, the Newa decided to call them Tlehwoosh.' The Newa found the only way they could catch the swift creatures was right after they had hatched and were emerging from their
sandy nests.
It also turned out the Hehwoosh could be trained to be wonderful pets. The turtle could be taught tricks, just like a dog; to sit, roll over and fetch. Additionally, the turtles were excellent baby sitters who could stand watch
The turtle could be taught tricks, ... to sit, rollover and fetch.
over an infant, their
Long-Legged Turtle 39
large shells serving like umbrellas protecting a child from the hot sun.
Soon, the turtles were trained to be great watch dogs for the villages. The turtle couldn't bark like a dog but when a stranger approached, he could jump on top of the grass thatched lodges in which the Newa lived and shake the hell out of the roof until someone came out to see what the commotion was all about.
Changing times were to prove equally difficult for both the Newa and the Hehwoosh. In the 1840's, the first of the ruthless and arrogant white men came to the Newa territory. He chanced upon a beautiful blue lake in the Great Basin, a remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan.
To the amazement of the Newa, the white man proclaimed himself the discoverer of the beautiful desert lake and proceeded to give it a new name, Pyramid Lake. The Newa could not believe the audacity of the newcomer for they had called the lake Anaho, for many generations.
The white man who called himself Kit Carson also acquired a Newa name, `Kwitup.'
When gold was discovered in California a few years later, it forever changed the Newa way of life. Wagon train after wagon train crossed their territory carrying loads of gold hungry white people, who were soon followed by thousands of immigrants and settlers.
Conflicts then developed over the possession of the land and waters of the Great Basin. The Newa found themselves being forced from the choicest of their ancestral lands.
Not all of the white men were hostile to the Newa. Some accepted the Newa hospitality and camped among them, learning the ancient ways and joining in their feasts and celebrations. They were delighted to be served turtle meat, finding there was both dark and light meat.
And the turtle could be cooked in many different ways; it could be baked, boiled, fried, roasted and stewed. There was no need to make mock turtle soup when you had the real thing.
The white guests were also amazed to see the Newa had trained the turtles to do many things. They could be couriers. The Newa could draw messages on their shells (the white man would later call these petro-glyphs) and send them running off to the next village.
In this way, the Newa could invite nearby friends to a ceremony, feast or other special event. The turtles could also be used to send messages of warning when hostile white men were approaching.
And approach they did. Wave after wave of wagons. The Forty Mile
40 Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall
Desert became a mass of rutted trails that can still be seen more than a century later. The white settlers wanted more and more of the Newa territory, until even the patience of the peaceful Newa was exhausted.
It wasn't long before the Newa began protecting their lands, harassing the white settlers to make them leave.
The settlers responded by appealing to the Army, which in turn summoned Kit Carson. Carson boasted, 'Give me 80 good men and I will conquer the entire Newa nation.'
Eighty men were selected from crack cavalry units and placed under the command of Kit Carson. The arrogant frontiersman reasoned that the Newa seemed to be concentrating their attacks near the Forty Mile Desert, where weary and thirsty settlers were more easily assaulted.
Riding with his unit along the sand dunes adjacent to the marshes in the Lahontan Valley, Carson spotted a dozen Newa wading in the water, cutting tule reeds that could be used as covering for their lodges or as
A Newa sentinel, a keen sighted Hehwoosh, spotted the approaching cavalry and ran to the marshes to warn the Newa, who immediately ran to higher ground in the dunes. The cavalry sounded
the charge and the 80 men, all well armed, headed toward the twelve Newa warriors, who were by now
The hard shells of the turtles became like battering rams ...
accompanied by a pack of turtles.
The soldiers were supremely confident of a quick victory as they whooped and hollered during the charge at the Newa. But their confidence quickly faded as they saw the dozens of longlegged turtles charge down the sand dunes at them.
The hard shells of the turtles became like battering rams as they charged into the horses' knees, spilling the horrified riders into the sand, where they
Long-Legged Turtle 41
faced the free swinging clubs of the twelve Newa warriors.
Kit Carson watched in amazement as his complement of 80 men were rammed, battered and beaten by the Newa and their turtle allies. He rounded up the remains of his troop, all bloodied and bruised, and headed for a safe haven.
The place where this battle occurred is still noted on maps of Churchill County as 'The Battle Ground.'
Soon after reaching Fort Churchill with his men, Carson wrote to the President of the United States, Franklin Pierce, to ask for additional aid. In his letter, he explained the situation and noted, 'We cannot fight the Newa man to man. If we do, we will be defeated every time. If we are to subdue the Newa we must destroy his quartermaster, his messenger and his battering ram, the accursed long-legged turtle.'
President Pierce was no friend of the native American and hated turtles even more. For, one day, when he was a young man in New Hampshire, he was diving in his favorite pond. Unfortunately for him, the pond was also the home of a nearsighted snapping turtle, who mistook Pierce's rather large big toe for a pond delicacy. Without warning, he lunged for the protruding member as he would for a frog on a lily pad.
Pierce's screams attracted neighbors to the pond, who dragged the young man from the water. They chopped off the turtle's head but were unable to detach it from the boy's toe.
Now any man of the woods can tell you of the legendary tenacity of the snapping turtle and that even after cutting off its head, its jaws will not relax until the following day.
Pierce spent a long night in agony and fear and swore eternal revenge on the entire turtle race.
Needless to say, Carson's message provided him with an opportunity to at long last gain some measure of retribution against turtles. And, he realized, this would also give him a chance to remove some Indians that were blocking his dreams for western expansion.
The President immediately wrote back that Carson would have the full force and power of the United States government at his disposal to take care of both the Newa and the long-legged turtle.
Now Kit Carson was not only mean and arrogant, but he was also extremely clever. His years in the wild west had equipped him with the skills necessary to resolve almost any situation.
Carson reasoned that his cavalry troops were no match for the turtles in the sand dunes. The horses would flounder on the soft sand while the
42 Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall
turtles could run across the sand and hardly leave a track.
He needed to find an animal that was large and strong, could carry a rider and was at home in desert sand. Suddenly, the idea was there. Camels. He immediately sent for camels from Egypt.
Once the gangly creatures arrived, however, Carson discovered they weren't the entire answer. For one thing, his soldiers couldn't shoot straight because of the camel's rolling gait. They could also not maneuver the long barrels of their .54 caliber Springfields at such close range.
Then he remembered a game he watched as a boy on the east coast. The game was polo, performed by a visiting English team. He remembered marveling at the ability of the polo riders, who could at full gallop strike a small ball into a net.
Carson decided to engage a handful of English polo players to teach his soldiers how to play polo from the back of a camel.
After a few months, Carson had a thousand soldiers mounted on camels, who could swing their polo mallets with great dexterity.
On a cloudy fall morning before dawn, Carson led his men back to the Lahontan Valley. His plan was to surround a Newa village with his troop of camel jockeys, as he called them.
The faithful sentinel turtles spotted the approaching troops and began shaking the roofs of the tule covered lodges to arouse the sleeping Newa. Upon seeing the large company of troops, the Newa quickly prepared to defend themselves and sent out the messenger turtles to alert the other villages.
But Carson was ready. He sent a team of his crack polo soldiers after the messengers. A strange scene unfolded as the soldiers on camelback raced alongside the running turtles and began bashing their heads with the polo mallets.
It wasn't long before the desert floor was littered with the pulverized remains of the long-legged turtles. Since the soldiers did not know the delicious taste of the turtles, they left them to rot in the sun, taking only their shells as trophies.
Carson repeated his strategy in village after village until he wiped out every living Newa long-legged turtle. His troops conducted turtle drives throughout the Great Basin to collect the wild turtles. His camel riding soldiers, more than 1,000 strong, would form circles around vast areas of the desert, then close in on the hapless creatures.
In less than five years, Carson and his camel jockeys effectively
Long-Legged Turtle 43
eliminated the long-legged turtle from the Great Basin. In fact, in their zeal, the troops even entered wetlands and marshes to kill off harmless pond turtles to ensure they wouldn't someday grow long legs.
The Newa continued to fight courageously but without their ally and main food source, they too were powerless before Carson's forces. Eventually, the Newa were rounded up and placed on reservations throughout the Great Basin, such as Stillwater, Pyramid Lake, Schurz, Yomba and McDermitt, where they live to this day.
After Kit Carson's victory over the Newa and the long-legged turtles, he had no further use for the camels. History indicates he sold them to American and French entrepreneurs who used them as pack animals for hauling supplies to Virginia City's mines.
The victorious Carson departed Nevada for his next assignment, the conquering of the Navaho people. While the Navaho, who called themselves the Dene did not have turtles, they did have cultivated gardens and orchards.
Using a tactic similar to his Nevada campaign, Carson destroyed the Dene's crops, which starved them into submission.
An interesting side note is that following the campaign a couple of the soldiers returned to their homes in St. Joseph, Missouri, where they told friends of the incredible long-legged turtle messengers. While no one believed their story, it inspired a couple of local businessmen who copied the idea and organized the Pony Express, which linked St. Joseph with Sacramento, California."
"That's a ridiculous story," the ponytailed boy said. "There's no such thing as a long-legged turtle."
"Of course you are right," the old man said. "You children today are so much smarter and more sophisticated than in my day."
The two boys jumped up from the porch floor where they had been sitting and headed back into the house and the flickering television set.
"Yes, these children today learn so much from the television and know so much more than I did when I was their age," the old man said to no one. Then he smiled again and nodded in the direction of a small, brown-green turtle that had been lying in the flowers below the porch. The turtle solemnly winked his eye, stood to its full height of two feet and trod softly off into the sagebrush.
THE END
PIONEER PORTRAITS
Excerpts from the Oral History
Interview of Frank Woodliff, Jr.
Marian Lavoy, Interviewer
[Frank Wood Jr., is a distinguished and gracious gentleman who walks with dignity and possesses a delightful sense of humor. He has a remarkable memory and a great sense of family pride.
When I [Marion LaVoy] arrived for this interview Frank was surrounded with memorabilia, all of museum quality. He had photographs on canvas of the original Woodliff Block Building as well as 1903 photographs of Fallon, part of an ancient family Bible and certificates of appreciation from every civic and fraternal organization in Fallon as well as the state of Nevada. Frank and his wife, Elizabeth, live quietly in a lovely tree- surrounded home and they take great pride in their children and grand- children. Frank goes to his office every morning, returns home promptly at noon to have lunch with Elizabeth and is off again to look after business affairs.
His musical prowess is excellent, too, and after the interview Marion asked him to play the electric organ. He promptly sat down and played "September Song" and a number of other hits of the late 1930's and early 1940's. He still has a fine voice and could be vocalist for any musical group.]
FAMILY HISTORY:
My grandfather's name was Thomas Woodliff. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1837. My grandmother, Henrietta Morine Woodliff was born at St. Louis, Missouri, June 13, 1844 ... in years gone by, as the old saying goes, "Go West, young man, go West," and I presume for business purposes they figured that this was the place to come ... My grandfather, Thomas Woodliff, Sr., was a pharmacist. The first drugstore was in Aurora, Nevada, 1863, and then he moved to Gold Hill, then to Virginia City [there the drugstore was located on C street], and then to Fallon in 1907.
44
Woodliff 45
... [My father, Frank 1871-1944] lived in Virginia City and was a photographer ... That's where he met my mother [Jessie Mable Dick 1877-1964] ... They were married November 19, 1902 ... I think when my father asked for my mother's hand my mother's father [Thomas Dick] made mention, he says, "Well, Jess, do you think that you can make a living with that little pepper box?" In those days you can recall that the cameras were quite large. They were something like a square box, so I presume that that's the reason he made that comment. But I can remember them joking about that sort of thing.
... My mother's father was a teamster and I was told that he hauled all the rich ore for the mines in Virginia City and I can recall them saying that he was the only one that could drive twenty-four head of horses. Of course they remained in the teaming business, as I recall. My grandfather and grandmother had three sons. There was a Robert Dick and then there were twins, Thomas and Arthur Dick, and they all at one time participated in the teaming business ... They passed away in Virginia City and they are all buried in the Virginia City cemetery.
... My dad moved to Fallon in the early months of 1903 and I think the reason he moved to Fallon was on account of the Newlands Irrigation Project. They were working on the Lahontan Dam at that time and no doubt there were a lot of workmen and quite a little activity and he saw the opportunity to come to Fallon and open up a merchandising business
... my mother and my young sister [Jessie Irene Woodliff, born in 1903] came out to Fallon in, I believe, around February, 1904 ... At one time I know that they had a home on Stillwater Avenue and then in later years they had a home at 495 South Maine Street. There was a period of time when I was a young boy that we lived in back of the store due to the fact
Frank Woodla Sr. (1871-1944) Jessie Mable
Dick (1877-1964) (Churchill County Museum
& Archives Photo Collection)
46 Frank Woodliff, Jr.
that business was very hard in those days and it was a struggle.
... My uncle [Thomas Woodliff, Jr.] and grandfather came to Fallon in 1907. They joined together and the Woodliff Company Incorporated was founded ... My grandfather, being a pharmacist, why naturally he started a drugstore ... and [my father] continued with the novelty business.
I was born in Fallon [July 13, 1910].
EARLY MEMORIES OF FALLON:
... In the early days, you know, these five gallon, square kerosene cans came two in a wood carton. I don't know what happened to the kerosene, but my father got ahold of three or four of those boxes and built a cupboard. I can remember some sort of a drapery hanging over the front of them. I do remember Mr. Kolhoss who ran a store in Fallon at that time, groceries and so on, and I do remember [him] delivering groceries with a horse and buggy. My dad and Mr. Kolhoss became friends.
... In the early days when a carnival would come to town they'd set up right in the middle of Maine Street ... and they'd take up the whole street ... I can remember [riding] a merry-go-round right at where First Street is and in front of the present Western Hotel building [120 South Maine]. I believe it was either five cents or fifteen cents a ride. I can also remember a few tents in that particular area at which time they had different events inside the tents. I think they had maybe a dance floor in one of them ... I can remember one carnival came to town ... but this particular time they set up in back of Frazzini's furniture store [270 South Maine] and two or three of us kids volunteered to water the elephants for a free pass to the carnival. Well, whenever we'd get one of those elephants watered and our back was turned, why they'd switch elephants on us and I didn't think we'd ever get those elephants watered. (laughing) But those things happened in the early days.
... There were times when a circus would probably come every year. I can remember in the early days a circus would come to town by train. Everybody would go down to the old depot and stand around and wait for the circus train to come. I can remember as a small boy two or three of us would put our ears down to the rail to see if we could hear the train telegraph through the tracks, "Yes, it's coming, yes, it's coming" ... Then the train would arrive and was that a big event! Of course the first things off of the train were the elephants and then they put the elephants to work pulling all the equipment and carriages and things of that nature. I can
Woodliff 47
remember a lot of the circuses would set up just north of [what is now] the Churchill County Junior High School [650 South Maine] ... One time [April 1915] there was a circus that set up there and it so happened there was a very strong wind occurred and blew the tent down. There were ostriches and lions running all over town and that was excitement.
... I have a picture ... dated April 30, 1911. This was right in the middle of Maine Street and it's a very large pond and I think what happened was some of the business people along the street were trying to needle the city to fix the street. There was an old character in Fallon and he was called Hoppy Joe. Why he was called that name I don't know. They sat him next to this pond on a stool with a fishing pole in hand and he was making motions about catching fish in this mudhole right in the middle of Maine Street. I think that was the purpose of that picture.
...I can remember when I was a young boy some of us kids used to play a game called Hare and Hound. That game is a game where you cut up small pieces of paper and then two or three of the kids set out and threw this paper to sorta make a trail. Then fifteen, twenty minutes later, why two of the other three kids follow this trail and see if they can find you ... That took place in the early days when I was young, just north of the present Churchill County Junior High School. That was all vacant land in that time and I think it was called the Verplank addition. There was sagebrush there, well there was nothing. It was wild and we kids played those games in that area.
... Our first automobile, believe it or not, was a old 490 Chevrolet and my dad bought it from Coverston Garage and as I recall he paid five hundred dollars for it ... I think it was black, but, you know, those in the early days they didn't have a top to them. It was all cloth top ... I was thirteen years old and I was learning to drive that thing. I can remember one year going to Lake Tahoe, we loaded up that old 490 and we went up the hill. I couldn't [legally] drive ... so my sister drove and I sat in the front seat and I remember telling her, "Now shift into second, now shift into low, now do this," and we got there. On the way back one time, I think we came through Virginia City ... down through Silver City onto the highway ... We were going across this little road and a jackrabbit ran out in front of the car and my sister, "ah-h-h-." She threw her hands up and the car went off in the sagebrush.
... I spent a lot of my spare time in the band and in the orchestra. I can remember being in some of the high school plays and one thing and
48 Frank Woodliff, Jr.
another ... We played for the high school dances and of course we played on the stage. The old high school has a stage and we played there and were supposed to quit at midnight ... If you knew Mr. McCracken [the Principal], you quit at midnight! The fact of the matter is that at five minutes to twelve you'd find the lights blinking and at five minutes to twelve we'd go into our last tune, "Goodnight Sweetheart" or something like that, you know, and at midnight sharp it was over! ... This band that used to play for the first school dances, it was called The Junior Five ... Louise Witherspoon was the piano player and I played the banjo and guitar. Clarence Byrd was on saxophone; Gary Callahan was the drummer. I was the vocalist in the band. Believe it or not. (laughing)
... I graduated in 1928 ... I joined my father in business at that time [and took on] all the responsibilities of helping to run the store and things of that nature. When I was a little kid and my dad was in the merchandising business I can remember putting the toys together and stuff like that, but that's when I was little. After I graduated from high school why, of course, the responsibilities were different than putting toys together ... I sold appliances and musical instruments, phonograph records. I had some sporting goods, guns, tennis racquets, things of that nature ... Our merchandising business was at 145 Maine Street and then, I think we moved across the street and used the M and G [Maxwell and Gardner] property as a larger appliance store but that didn't work well because in those days ladies were fearful of walking down on the west side of Maine Street ... There were no doubt two or three saloons and
that wasn't appropriate for ladies. However that condition doesn't exist
today. So that ended that store. My sister and brother-in-law opened up an
Jessie Irene Woodliff Bunton (1903-1937)
Jessie Mable Dick Woodliff.
(Churchill County Museum & Archives
Photo Collection)
Woodliff 49
ice cream parlor and a sort of a restaurant in the hotel building and it was called the Lyric Ice Cream Parlor ... [Jessie] graduated from high school ... I didn't go to college and I suppose I could have, and my sister wanted to go to college but those weren't the things for girls to go to in those days. Anyway she got a job in the Churchill County Bank as secretary to Mr. [Ernest] Blair and my sister was quite efficient in everything that she did and she turned out to be an excellent, excellent secretary. [Then] George Bunton came to Fallon. He played trombone. Oh, you know how those things happen. He got to playing with us in the band, the trombone, and that apparently is how he met my sister and they got married. Then they opened up the Lyric Ice Cream Parlor.
... One pretty good band we were in was called The Stompers: The Dance Band With the Punch ... We'd go all over ... We played the Portuguese celebration in Lovelock a couple of times, we played in Yerington, we played in Hawthorne. Well, Elizabeth [Underhill] remembers that. We used to bundle her up and one of the other girls and went to Hawthorne and played at the Marine base there. And, of course, all of them wanted to dance with Elizabeth and the other girl, Helen [Osgood] Robinson. Monty [Robinson] was the drummer.
The biggest band I've played in was called the Fallon Serenaders. That was a pretty good band. We had eight in that band ... The trombonist was George Bunton, my sister's husband; and then there was Darrell Barry, the trumpet player; there was William Winder -- we called him Bill -- with the bass horn; Gary Callahan on the drums; myself on the banjo; Louise Witherspoon played piano and then there was Vernon Mills on the saxophones and clarinet; and Clarence Byrd, the saxophones.
The Fallon Serenaders in 1929. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
50 Frank Woodliff, Jr.
That composed the Fallon Serenaders which was one of the better bands that I played in ... We played for most of the dances around Fallon. [We played in] the Fallon Fraternal Hall Building [39 South Maine] which was built in 1926 and was dedicated I believe on February 4. We played a lot of dances in that building. Those were the things that people did in those days, dance, but they got other things to do today ... I can remember playing all night for five dollars.
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY:
[Frank and Elizabeth Belle Underhill were married August 24, 1932]
... When I was a young fellow we had a Buick that was pretty slick in those days ... It had a spare tire on each front fender and [yellow] all wire wheels. I had a radio in that car, in fact, I think it might be said that I had the first car radio in town ... that's how we got acquainted ... We were married by a minister by the name of Stephen C. Thomas and he married us in [his] house [658 West Williams Avenue].
... We took off in the Buick for Oakland [on our honeymoon] ... We stayed at the St. Mark's Hotel ... Of course, we were always fond of tamales and the first place we headed for was Bello's Tamale Parlor. The kind of amusing part of it, I (laughing) have to laugh at this, all I had at that particular time in my pocket was ninety dollars. Boy that took a lot of nerve.
... The first three months we lived with my parents at 495 South Maine Street. Then we decided to move to the Western Hotel -- we had an apartment there -- and I would take care of the merchandising business in the daytime and my folks would take care of the hotel in the daytime and then after the store was closed why we would take care of the hotel at night. We did that for three years as I recall. Then we had a home at 680 Douglas Street, one of our homes owned by the company. We lived in that for a number of years and we kept fixing it up, too. There's a little story about that house. The house had an old wood cook stove [and] had an old wooden [ice box] that used a cake of ice. [The house] had a small fireplace in the living room. We struggled along with those things for awhile. I was selling appliances at that time and finally we bought us an electric range, electric refrigerator and an oil heater and, of course, conditions being as they were in those days, I had to buy those luxuries on time ... Mr. Haworth was the head of the bank and so I put those on a contract and paid nine dollars (laughing) and thirty-two cents a month. And I'm telling
Woodliff 51
you, when we got that refrigerator and that electric range and that oil heater, we were living!
Our first child [Deanna Gail Knowles Diehl] was born December 16, 1938 [and our] son [Frank III] was born February 22, 1946, again in Reno. Both my children are involved in the business [Woodliff Holding Company]. We formed a family partnership. We're still operating the Western Hotel and Western Motel business; we have commercial rentals, [Fallon Nugget building]; then we own those little buildings on Center Street and we lease all those.
The first earthquake was in 1954 and we had just built the Western Motel in 1953 [125 S. Carson]. The old Rex Theater stood on the lot prior to building the motel. It was a wooden structure and in the early days they had movies in there and one thing or another.
We happened to be at Lake Tahoe when that first earthquake hit and Elizabeth's mother [Ada Belle Sutton] was taking care of the motel while we were up there. [We were] at King's Beach [our summer home at Lake Tahoe, California] and I can recall the telephone ringing at six o'clock in the morning telling us about the earthquake. Immediately we packed up and came home. The hotel building was damaged, the store across the street at 145 Maine Street was damaged and the M and G property was damaged, so we had our hands full restoring all that. On the hotel building [120 S. Maine] there was a sort of parapet on the top of the structure. That was all torn off. I estimate that about twenty ton of the weight was taken off of the building by changing that appearance. We did lose the name of the hotel building and so on but we felt that that had to be done. What we did by tearing off that top parapet of the hotel building we were able to run steel down through the cement blocks and pour them all full of concrete. Actually the building is probably stronger now than when it was originally built.
CIVIC LIFE:
In [April 16] 1946 Joe Jarvis was a councilman in ward three. [When he] passed away I was appointed to fill his place on the city council. Tom [L.T.] Kendrick was mayor at that time; Andy [A.L.] Haight was the city attorney. [When my term was up] I decided not to run. I was fearful (laughing) about getting elected, I guess. (laughing)
I joined the Churchill County [Masonic] Lodge number twenty-six in September 15, 1939. At that time I became good friends with Lem Allen,
52 Frank Woodliff, Jr.
and we have been staunch friends down through the years, hunting partners and all. I became involved in doing the work and, of course, it went from one thing to another. I finally wound up as Worshipful Master as we refer to it, in 1944. That so happened that that was the year that Lem Allen became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge for Free and Accepted Masons, State of Nevada. Lem and I traveled around the state together, which had a lot to do with our closeness of friendship. We also became duck hunting and hunting partners and we hunted together for over twenty-five years, probably never missed a weekend. We became very good friends. I think the world of that man.
I joined the Eastern Star, too, and became active ... I served Myrtle Chapter number twelve Order of Eastern Star in Fallon as the Worthy Patron along with Elizabeth who was Worthy Matron ... Then I was elected to the Grand Chapter and subsequently became the Worthy Grand Patron of the Grand Chapter of Eastern Star state of Nevada. In fact, at the present moment I am the dean of the past Grand Patrons. I worked along for years with the Order of Rainbow Girls and then I served fifteen, sixteen years helping the Order of DeMolay.
I [have been] a member of [Fallon] Rotary ... for forty-six continuous years [interview taken in 1991]. One of the honors that I received was the Paul Harris Award ... [for outstanding services rendered]. That was awarded to me by the president at that time, Don Carter.
I was appointed [to the Selective Service Board in 1968] ... About that time my son went into the service. Governor Paul Laxalt wrote me a letter asking if I would serve on the ... Board and I felt that if my son was going to be in the service I wanted to be of help ... [so] I accepted. I served on the Selective Service Board until 1975 at which time I had to retire because no one older than seventy-five could serve.
MUSEUM:
[In 1981 the Churchill County Museum acquired the old Woodliff store building.]
I think my dad told me that was his first store in Fallon. I can remember him saying that that little bay window, which is not much of a show window in today's business world, was the first show window in town ... We wanted to do a little improving back of the motel and so we agreed to move the building and put it on a foundation ... restore it, put the new roof on it and paint it. ... It's a kind of a memorial for the family.
Woodliff 53
I can recall my dad telling me that the mirror [we gave to the museum] came around the Horn [Cape Horn] ... It was moved in the early days from Virginia City ... I think the first location was in the Thomas Woodliff and Son clothing store ... in the south room of the hotel building. Then when the clothing business went out or we wanted to put something else in that location, the mirror, what would we do with it? The only place we could think of was putting it was in the hotel building. But the sad part of that is the mirror [had] a lot of filigree work on the very top which made it too tall to put in the place and, unfortunately, some of the filigree work had to be sawed off. Knowing what I know now I'd [have] tried to hang onto that piece that was cut off ... [in case anyone] could ever restore it ... One time, I believe it was Willie Capucci or some member of the board down at the Museum, wanted to have it down at the Museum. They thought that it is where it should be and we agreed to it. So we moved it down there. Not as a gift, but they could use it as long as we didn't want it, which may be forever. (laughing)
The 9'x 4' majestic Woodliff mirror, imported from France, regally reflects Museum activities. (Carol Cot6 photo)
FAMILY SNAPSHOTS
The "Berney y Connection"
Josiah Jordan Cushman
B. October 6, 1838 in Piscataquis County, Maine
Md. April 20, 1865 to Mary Ellen Adams (1843-1885)
Md. March 17, 1886 to Elizabeth McCulloch (1854-1933)
D. August 5, 1913 in St. Clair District, Nevada
Helen Elizabeth Madeline "Madge" Cushman
daughter of Josiah and Elizabeth McCulloch Cushman
B. August 1, 1890 in St. Clair District, Nevada
Md. November 30, 1908 to Ernest Samuel "Em" Berney, Sr.
D. January 26, 1981 in Fallon, Nevada
Madge Naomi Berney Kindig
daughter of Madge and Em Berney, Sr.
B. September 3, 1909 in Fallon, Nevada
Madge Kindig wrote The Way It Was, a story about the
remembrances of her mother, Madeline "Madge" Cushman Berney, telling
about her mother and father, Josiah and Elizabeth Cushman.
Ernest Samuel "Bud" Berney, Jr.
son of Madge and Em Berney, Sr.
father of Peter Berney
B. January 14, 1914 in Fallon, Nevada
D. March 25, 1993 in Fallon, Nevada
Bud was interviewed by the museum's Oral History program in 1991.
Peter Allen Berney
son of Bud Berney and Ruth Edwina Pierson Berney
B. November 1, 1944
Peter wrote the story about his grandfather, Em Berney, Sr.
Cushman-Berney Families Remembered:
"The Way It Was"
Madge Berney Kindig
There comes a time in our lives when we feel an urgency to share the memories of an elder generation, the story of years about to slip out of living memory. It is important to know about our past before we can truly know what we are.
Madge Berney, [August 1, 1890 - January 26, 1981], remembers for us the quality of that era when she was a child living on a ranch on the south branch of the Carson River [2400 Cushman Road].
Earliest historians were most often the old men of the family who kept a strong bond alive between the generations' inmost cultures. One of the signs of our times is that a woman, a great-grandmother, recalls the past for her family. This is the way it was, as my mother told
it to me.
"Our father, Josiah Jordan Cushman [1838-1913], was 22 years old when he arrived in Nevada by oxen team and settled on 1,700 acres on the Carson Sink. He had to grub brush and clear the land. He was always a
55
Helen Elizabeth Madeline Cushman. (Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
56 Madge Berney Kindig
hard worker, even when he was years older when I remember him. By the time we children came along more land had been taken up and there were other ranches like ours with good crops of hay and grain, and stock feeding along the river.
Pop liked an audience and had tall stories to tell us of his early days. One hair raising tale was of a night when he was alone asleep in his tent and was warned of danger by the growl of his small dog. He opened his eyes to an Indian standing over him with a knife in his hand. Leaping from his bed with wild whooping and yelling, he chased the surprised Indian until he disappeared in the dark.
The courtship of his first wife, another tale we heard in our childhood, was romantic and typical of him. In 1865 Mary Ellen Adams stopped with her immigrant family at the Cushman ranch to rest for a few days before making the trip over the Sierras. Our father, Joe, as he was called, spent his evenings at the Adams' campfire not only for the conversation with the men but the company of the young women. One morning while he was away from home the party packed up and left the ranch. When he returned home to find them gone he rode after them to ask Mary to be his wife. She agreed to a future marriage and he returned home. Then followed weeks of suspense when letters were intercepted and neither one knew if the other was serious before they were finally married.
Mary died after twenty years, [1843-1885], leaving two sons, Royal and Clement.
Our mother, Elizabeth McCulloch, his second wife, also received an unusual proposal. Pop was one to make up his mind and act. He heard about our mother from a friend and went to Carson City, where she lived with her parents, to meet her. When he asked her to marry him she didn't accept the first time, but later she decided to say yes if he would have her parents, [James and Mary McCulloch], and her young niece, Mary Irving [Mrs. Charles Wightman, mother of Lisle Wightman and Doris Drumm], live with her on his ranch. Pop agreed and they were married March 17,1886.
We had a happy home; the house always full of company. Everyone loved our mother. She was bright, interested in everything and kind to everyone. Our house was a large two story frame one with lawn and flowers planted and cared for by Grandpa McCulloch. There were fields of grain and alfalfa, a large orchard and pasture land.
There were seven of us, Louie, Bert, myself, Gertie [Mrs. Tom
"The Way it Was" 57
Kendrick], Frank, Irma [Mrs. Earl Allen] and Raymond, or "Pete", in that order. We walked two miles to our school house in Dave Wightman's field. We studied and we learned, but there were times when we had to teach the teacher. There were 12 or more students and we played together. How did I look? With my hair in braids, petticoat and dress to my shoetops, a corset from the time I was 12 under it all, I played ball with the rest of them. Eugene Roach and I would play against the rest of the school. I was pitcher and scout and if I didn't catch the ball and put the batter out he would throw tin cans at me. When our teacher lived with us she slept with one of us and took her turn in the weekly bath in a round tub set out on the kitchen floor.
We played hide and seek in alfalfa that grew three to four feet high. The soil was rich and produced two crops a year without replanting for as long as 35 years. It was cut by hand with a scythe, raked up with horse drawn rake and stacked. Barley, wheat and alfalfa sold for $50.00 a ton to the freighters who hauled it to the mining camps. The cattle that were raised brought $18.00 a head. As there was no bank in those days Pop kept his money in a sack in the cellar.
There was a lake then, Carson Lake, about 2 miles from the ranch. Small, about 12 miles across, 50 feet deep at most, its waters were alkaline, its shores irregular, low and flat. It connected Humboldt and Carson Sinks. The lake came and went with the seasons and by the end of summer it was dry and cracked. Our cattle pastured at the beach and drank from the sloughs that were left. The lake, the sloughs and swamps were in the path of the Pacific flyway from Canada. Birds rested and nested there in the spring; ducks, pelicans, swans, gulls and smaller birds.
The Carson River that ran into the lake was strong and swift in the spring. Many times when the river was so high it flooded the ranches. The men built bulkheads to control the water for irrigation of their gardens and crops. The river water was soft, a contrast to the well water at the house. It was hard with minerals, strong to the taste, and acted as a physic, to our inconvenience. We called the well an apothecary shop, but we liked the strange flavored water that others, not used to it, disliked. Dried beans were washed and cooked in the soft river water. In winter big blocks of ice were cut from the river and stored in straw in the ice house for use in summer. Then we made ice cream and lemonade. To cool the milk and cream we lowered it into the well in hot weather.
58 Madge Berney Kindig
When I was born, in 1890, fewer than 500 people lived in the valley and in mining camps to the east, in Churchill County. I remember when Fallon was named. It had been known as Jim's Town, named by the Paiute Indians for Jim Richards who had a store on the corner of Maine Street and Williams Avenue. All of us in our section of the valley were up in arms over the naming of the town for a newcomer, Mike Fallon.
Our ranch was a rest stop for the teamsters with their wagonloads of hay, grain and food for the mining camps. People liked to stop at our place because our father believed in eating well. The stage brought us barrels and boxes of food from Sacramento, including dried beef, codfish, smoked herring, ham and bacon, dried fruits, nuts, cookies, beans, flour, sugar, tea and coffee, and barrels of mixed pickles. And much more. We had mincemeat that Mom made, put down in a large covered crock, jellies she made from currants, apples and gooseberries. In late summer, with arms protected with long sleeves and hands with gloves, we made a picnic outing of gathering the small red berries from the thorny buckberry trees. They made a tart jelly. The trees that once grew along sandy washes have almost disappeared from the valley today. The Paiutes made a sugarless sauce from the berries and also dried them.
Annie and George Cushman.
(Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
"The Way it Was" 59
The white men encouraged the Indians to adopt names of the white men because they found the Indian names too hard to pronounce. One of the families that lived on our ranch took our name, Cushman. The parents, old Annie and George, named a son Joe for our father and a daughter Lizzie for our mother.
The Indians moved several times a year from one part of the ranch to another as their ancestors had moved about in search of food in season. They made shelters from willow branches and sagebrush. When it was cold they built small open fires in their wickiups. They slept on the ground, in winter kept warm by soft rabbit fur blankets.
Annie and others did the washing and ironing for our family for a sifter of flour or fifty cents. It was a daylong job. Winter or summer, every Monday, clothes were washed outdoors. The white clothes were boiled clean in soapy water in a big round tub over an open fire, where they were poked and stirred with a stick. Then everything was scrubbed on a washboard and rinsed. We used lye made from ashes as a bleach, blueing to rinse the white things to make them appear whiter, and starch made from flour. Clothes would often freeze dry on the line in winter. If there was a lightning storm everything red was snatched off the line and brought in the house as it was believed by the squaws that red drew the lightning. All of the Indian family came to eat the midday meal, food piled on one large platter from which they all ate.
We played with the Paiute babies like dolls. They never cried. The mothers hung them from trees in papoose baskets. The baskets were made from willow and beaded buckskin and held the baby firmly laced in with buckskin laces and braced on a footstrap.
After wash day came ironing day. The squaws ironed all day with those heavy flatirons, heated on the cook stove.
They tried to teach us Paiute. Annie would scold me when I wouldn't be serious about it. As we played with the children we picked up many words, but I'm sorry I didn't try to learn more than I did.
The women made their dresses by hand, copied from the white women's dresses, of calico with neat small stitches. Their moccasins they made from rabbit skins. The men wore the overalls like the white men and handmade shirts of calico.
Sitting on the ground, the men generally on their heels, the women with legs stretched out in front of them, they spent a lot of time gambling. One game they played with sticks, and they played with cards.
60 Madge Berney Kindig
Everywhere they went they walked, of course.
Then, they still ate foods their ancestors did. We liked one, the peeled crisp white shoots of the cattail. They ate ground squirrels. They drowned them out by pouring water down their holes. One year we helped them gather large worms that had infested the alfalfa. They squeezed out the insides and cooked the rest. In the fall they had rabbit drives for meat and the fur that was in its prime.
After the first frost Annie and George and other Indians of the valley moved to the Stillwater Mountains to gather pinenuts. The men beat the trees with poles, and women and children gathered the nuts from the ground. They separated them from pine needles and twigs in the flat winnowing baskets they made from willows. They ate the nuts raw, roasted or ground and made into soup. Mom gave them a 50 pound sack of flour when they left, and weeks later they would bring the sack back full of pinenuts.
From rabbit brush they took a pitch like gum that they chewed. It took hours of chewing for the gum to reach the right consistency. One day I traded an old Indian buck a pan of biscuits for his well chewed hunk of gum.
Parties at the schoolhouse and in homes, and picnics in summer brought neighbors together. We went to picnics in our big spring wagon loaded with children and food. We had fried chicken, sandwiches, pickled eggs, and a potato salad that we made with a cooked dressing mixed with whipped cream. Before we learned to make that dressing the only salad we had was lettuce tossed with vinegar and sugar. We had a pie and cake. Not many kinds of cake; a plain cake frosted with whipped whites of eggs and sugar, jelly or whipped cream. Mom made fruit cake with dried fruit and nuts.
We ate our meals in the kitchen which was separate from the house. On winter mornings it was so cold that water and milk were frozen and had to be thawed before Mom could make breakfast. The main house wasn't well heated and Mom warmed stones to put in our beds on cold winter nights.
Pop was an Adventist and Mom joined his church when she married him. Saturday, when we went to church, Gertie, Irma and I would go to the field and bring in the horses. One pair I remember, a big black mare and a white saddle horse. We hitched them to the buggy and then while we all dressed Pop would sit in the buggy and shout for us to hurry.
"The Way it Was" 61
He was an intelligent, opinionated man and liked to carry on political and other discussions with friends and family, or tell of his experiences. I shrank from what seemed to me like arguments or bragging. I wish now I had listened to more of the stories from his past. He was affectionate and loved Mom very much. He always called her Sweetie, which puzzled me for years as I couldn't understand why he would call his Scottish wife "Swedie."
Because I would rather work outdoors than do housework I helped milk some of the cows. We walked a quarter of a mile to the corral where we milked. Then I climbed the haystack to throw down hay for the cows before carrying two five gallon cans of milk back to the house. We had some geese that stayed with the cows, especially one cow, and one day when the men were gone and Mom and I tried to milk the cows, the geese drove us away.
It is easier to recall the happy times than it is to remember the sad or hard times. Now we don't often think of the nuisance the flies once were, having to be driven from the house with tree branches on summer days and burned from under the eaves where they clustered in cool early mornings. Or the mosquitoes that plagued us and caused the horses to run all night on summer nights.
I can remember chopping wood at four o'clock in the morning for the breakfast fire, the cold outhouse in winter, the winds of spring, driving dust and sand and the tumbleweeds that were a threat to us in case of fire.
There was the humiliation of finding in my hair lice that I had gotten from playing with the Indian children, and the awful process of ridding my head of them with a fine tooth comb and coal oil.
Twice I had scary rides on a runaway horse, once a colt not yet broken, another, a race horse. And once while riding, my horse was caught in quicksand. From my horse's back I could touch my feet on the wet mud, but some way I got him out.
There were good times still clear to me. On election day families from the whole community gathered to vote and have a big picnic. There were dances. Whole families, including the babies, attended.
We had an adobe milkhouse where we stored butter and wide shallow pans of milk. I used to skim thick yellow cream from them onto a biscuit. It was so good! And the apple bins nearby in the cellar held all the apples from fall to spring. There was the blacksmith shop where we watched Pop mend and make farm tools and knives for the house and a barn where
62 Madge Berney Kindig
grain was stored and where we played on the loft floor that was smooth as a dance floor. Below were warm stalls for the horses.
Winters were colder then, it seems to me. On very cold days the men stayed indoors by the fire reading. In the evenings we gathered around the dining room table and a lamp or around the organ to sing. Inside the house windows were frosted, pictures we said Jack Frost had painted, and outside icicles hung from the eaves.
Christmas Eve we hung our stockings on chair backs. In the morning we found them filled with oranges, nuts and candy. We never had a Christmas tree. Our gifts were things we needed and not many of those.
We made ice cream from snow, cream and sugar, flavored with vanilla. We liked to have taffy pulls, because everyone could join in the fun. We made taffy candy from sugar and vinegar and each of us would take a hunk of soft candy and pull it and stretch it until it was the right consistency. Delicious!
Life wasn't easy on a ranch in those days, but we didn't realize that. We had good times that we made for ourselves, and that was the way for everyone there then."
"Memories of Grandfather Em"
Peter Berney
[The following essay was written by Peter Berney as a student at Churchill County High School in the early 1960's. Peter now teaches math at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona.]
PREFACE
My reasons for writing this essay on my grandfather stem back to many years ago when my father told me of my grandfather's adventures, life and general history. Not only did this interest me, but I also liked the idea of spreading his story to the people, not just of the immediate family, but to others as well, in order that he be remembered for what he succeeded in doing.
CHAPTER 1
On the night of October 6, 1878, a son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Louis C. Berney in a log cabin six miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee.The father was a blacksmith of no great wealth. Both the father and mother had come from Switzerland and spoke French in their home.The boy, named Ernest Samuel, did not learn to speak English until he started to school. Ernest had an older sister, Emma and three younger brothers, Bill, Hector and Louis, and one younger sister, Bertha.
Ernest went to public school at Smithwood, a small town outside of Knoxville, until he reached the eighth grade.He was then thirteen years old and still not very well educated. Although he had to work, he still attended classes at Holbrook Normal College, a business college. He had learned something about the blacksmith trade from his father, but he learned it in earnest as an apprentice to a blacksmith at Smithwood. He worked there
63
64 Peter Berney
until he was twenty five years old. He then set out to see the growing United States.
Riding on brake rods, cow catchers, and on top of passenger coaches, and sometimes walking when the bulls kicked him off the trains, he went to Birmingham, Alabama. He quickly found a job as a blacksmith and worked six months before the workers went on strike. The reason that they struck was that they didn't want Negroes working as blacksmiths. He worked on the picket line for six weeks, at the end of which he was broke. He went to the edge of town one night and jumped aboard a freight train, whose destination he did not know.
The train upon which he was riding was bound for Memphis, Tennessee. He found work there as a blacksmith until the Fourth of July. On the Fourth an excursion steamer from St. Louis was in Memphis. He bought a ticket aboard it and the next day was on his way up the Mississippi River. On the trip he met many people, some with whom he stayed at St. Louis. He remained there a week, but found no job.
On his next trip he bought his passage on the railroad for a short distance. When the conductor called out the station to which his ticket was good, he feigned sleep and rode on. When the conductor finally confronted him, he tried to humor him, but the conductor pulled the cord to stop the train and he was walking again.
When he got to Kansas City he met some friends from his hometown with whom he had gone to school. They were in the machinery business. He stayed with them for a few days.
He set out for Denver, Colorado next. On the way he met up with some bums at a railway station. When the train stopped here, the brakeman offered the group of bums a ride for $1.50. Ernest was among those who gave him the money and rode to Denver. The brakeman had them get off at the outskirts of the city. The total distance was 160 miles, all for $1.50.
At Denver he found a job as a blacksmith with a railroad company building Moffat Road. While working there he met a man from Knoxville, Weller Tillery, who was going to Santa Fe to look for a homestead. He persuaded Ernest to go with him. Shortly after this decision was made, they set out by train for Santa Fe, New Mexico, traveling with only the clothes on their backs and hope in their hearts.
Arriving at Santa Fe, they looked around the area for a homestead. Shortly thereafter Weller received a letter from his sweetheart, Elsie Buffat, saying that she was ill and asking him to come home. He caught
"Memories of Grandfather Ern" 65
the first train back to Knoxville. Ernest, although he had only two dollars and a quarter to his name, did not want to stay there alone, so he bought a ticket to the main railroad line. Here he met a man who was waiting to jump on one of the trains that would come through there. He said that he knew the superintendent of the Albermarie mine and that Ernest could get a job there.
They rode on the main line and then jumped off at Thornton, a point from where they walked five miles to Pina Blanca on the way to the mine. Here a Mexican let them sleep at his house. The next day they walked the remaining twenty miles to the mine. Disappointment awaited their arrival there. There was no activity at the mine and a man called Sweede Charlie told them that it was not going to be reopened. To earn some money they cut wood for two dollars and a quarter a cord for Charlie who was great company. He had a family in Chicago, but being unable to leave the bottle alone, he was out there by himself.
Ernest's friend suggested that they go to Albuquerque for he had friends there. They went by rail and stagecoach, paying their way, for they had earned enough chopping wood to do so. They stayed with friends of Ernest's friend. However, finding no work Ernest got disgusted and told his friend, "I'm going to leave. I can't just stay here all the time sponging off these people." He had only fifteen cents, so to get a meal he went into a gambling house and bet on the colors of the roulette wheel. He was lucky and won ninety cents, so was able to buy himself a breakfast before leaving.
Then he set out walking down the railroad tracks. For three days he went without food and water, sleeping in fields at night and walking down railroad tracks during the day. After having one woman set her dogs on him when he stopped to ask for work, he was afraid to stop again.
After three days he reached Belin, New Mexico. There was a sort of hobo jungle there consisting of twenty-five to thirty bums. After he had been there for a time two bums came in with their shirts stuffed full of food. They had been around town scrounging food. It was Ernest's first meal in three days and revived his spirits as well as his body. He sat around. the fire that night and the next morning went out to look for a job.
He found a job feeding and taking care of mules for a company that was constructing roads and ditches. While working there he went every morning into town by stage to pick up the mail. Each morning that he rode the stage he became better acquainted with a young Mexican boy and his
66 Peter Berney
sister. He went to social events with them. Their whole family would go to these affairs, which were both educational and amusing.
Next to the corral where the mules were kept, was a large pile of hay which had to be moved, for they were constructing a ditch that would run where it was. When he was asked to move it, Ernest explained to his boss that he was very busy during the day and did not have time to move it. He suggested that the night watch move it. He didn't have anything to do and it would keep him awake. The boss agreed, but the night watch never moved it. One day the boss, noticing the hay still there, told Ernest that he must not like his work, so why not pick up his pay. This he did, and it was the only job from which he has been fired.
From Belin his next stop was Los Angeles, California. When he got there the city was full of people looking for work. Many people came to Los Angeles to take in the beautiful weather, for it was always warm and sunshiny there. With so many people out of work he couldn't get a job, and after seeing his hostess mix the pancakes in the basin they had all just washed in, he decided it was time to move on. He bought boat passage to San Francisco. This was his first ocean trip and he was seasick all the way to San Francisco as the boat rolled and pitched. This is the only time he was ever seasick.
When he got to San Francisco he wired his cousin, Sam Truaan for thirty dollars, because he was broke. While searching for a job he met a walking delegate who said that he had a position that he could put him in, but when he came to get the job the delegate said it had been filled. This happened six times with the same person and each time it was filled by a relative or friend of the man. Ernest finally got work and this was a contract with a wagon maker to put brakes on the wagons. This job lasted only four or five days, and it was the only job he had while in San Francisco.
However, he had a little good fortune. One day he was walking down Kearney Street and saw a familiar face. He accosted the man, who did not readily recognize him and told him who he was. The man's name was Tom. He lived in a rooming house with his four friends and his sister. They were from a town near Knoxville called Marysville. They invited Ernie to stay with them. He found out that Tom had worked in the area around Ft. Bragg and had then come to San Francisco to spend the winter.
While in San Francisco Ernie met a man named Hord who told of the beautiful weather of Nevada, offered him a job, and told him that when he
"Memories of Grandfather Ern" 67
would arrive there he would have a man waiting for him. He also stated that if he would take care of the horses he would receive an extra sixty dollars a month above normal. This tempted Ernie, so he set out for Nevada.
CHAPTER 2
He had a little good luck on his way to Nevada, for when he was coming to Hazen on the train the passengers coming in and out of the cars would leave the door open. It was bitterly cold and the doors left open made it worse. He went to close the door and on the platform he found a five dollar gold piece, which he kept.
When he reached Hazen, Nevada, it was raining cats and dogs, and there was no one to meet him. He finally found a man in a boxcar who gave him directions to get to the W. P. Fuller camp. He had to walk through the rain for a mile or so and upon reaching the camp was completely soaked and thoroughly discouraged. When
he reported to Fuller he wasn't
very sure about taking the job, but decided to stay after he was offered his
passage fare to Hazen refunded if he stayed sixty days.
The job was the building of the Derby canal. He knew little about the Newlands project except that it was the first government sponsored irrigation project. He took care of two hundred horses and mules and he did the blacksmithing work for those building the canals. The rest of the
Helen Elizabeth Madeline Cushman Berney and
Ernest Samuel Berney, Sr. (Churchill County
Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
68 Peter Berney
work, including the building of the irrigation ditches was done with Fresno Scrapers and slips, or as they were sometimes called "spigs." These were steel scoops with a bale which the horses pulled. When they were full of dirt the horse would pull it over the side of the ditches and the driver would trip a lever that would turn the bucket over and empty it. He worked in Nevada until the job was finished.
He then returned to San Francisco with the intention of going to the World's Fair in St. Louis. His plans were spoiled, however, when he caught typhoid fever and was hospitalized in San Francisco for six weeks.
He went back to Fallon instead of the World's Fair. Fuller had sent word that he wanted Ernie to come to Fallon to work for him. When he came to Fallon he built a rock crushing plant at Rattlesnake Hill for Fuller. While in Fallon he met a man named George Bentz with whom he went into partnership and bought a blacksmith shop. Ernie ran the shop and George continued to work for the contracting company.
When he came to Fallon there were nineteen saloons. The main street was so sandy that every day one would see several wagons mired down in it. There were two main hotels, the Sanford and the Churchill. The Sanford [67 E. Center] is the building that is across from the Ford garage now, but was originally where the Fallon Theater is now. The Churchill was across from where Rigg's upholstery shop [98 S. Carson] is now.
His blacksmith shop was where Cye Cox is now [265 West Center]. It was thirty feet long and twenty feet wide. It had double-doors in the front so large wagons could be brought in and worked on. At the back was a large lean-to where they did their woodwork. He had a fan to work his forge. As for himself, he had developed into a handsome person with large strong shoulders.
In 1907 they sold the blacksmith shop and built a planing mill. It was on Williams Avenue. It was very modern for its time with all the latest equipment. They had lathes and boring machines and other necessary equipment. They made window frames, poker tables, saloon bars, porch columns, stair columns, and most other wooden necessities. The business flourished as the mining towns brought their business to them, but the towns dwindled as the mines closed down, and their business dropped off. The towns that brought the business were Rawhide, Wonder, Fairview, and Fallon, to mention a few.
In the meantime they bought two teams of eight horses to carry freight to the mining towns. The average trip to these mining camps was three
"Memories of Grandfather Ern" 69
days' time, at fifteen miles a day. In the winter the wagons got bogged down, and even disappeared from sight.
As the freight business declined with the mining camps, Ernie looked elsewhere for work for his teams. He got a contract from the Western Pacific to build two miles of railroad in the Feather River Canyon.
While he had his blacksmith shop, one significant thing happened that I think should be mentioned. A prospector named Riley came to him and asked him to grubstake him. He decided to and took him out to Frenchmans and left him. Once a week a hired hand named John Daw, who had hurt one arm once and could only use one efficiently, would take supplies out to Riley. After five weeks Riley had found no ore so wanted to be moved over to where Rawhide would be in a couple of years. They moved him over to the next range. While they moved him it was raining and snowing and their clothes froze like boards. John was supposed to have come a different route and did not arrive. They thought he must be lost, but after they finally got a fire going he saw the smoke and found them. Sometime later when John came to bring Riley supplies, Riley was missing. There were beans cooking on his fire and his clothes and even his tobacco were in his camp. They searched for him, calling in other help, but could not find him. He has never been heard from again nor his bones found.
After the Feather River project Ernie built the Bluestone mine railroad. It was two miles long and was done in the coldest winter ever recorded; the winter of 1916-17. The railroad ran to Mason to carry ore to the smelter. If he did it in more than the required sixty-two days he would be penalized one hundred dollars a day. As it was, he did it in sixty days and received a bonus of a hundred dollars a day.
CHAPTER 3
In 1920 the Nevada Contracting Company, Inc. was formed. This was after the break in partnership with George Bentz in 1913. The members were Sam Rosenburg, Frank Gibbs, I. H. Kent, and George Ernst. Mr. Berney was the president and general manager. He roamed over the states bidding on jobs and checking over the work done on the jobs. The company was valued at half a million dollars at one time.
70 Peter Berney
The contracts in Nevada ranged over a large area. His first job was the first job let in Nevada. This was twenty miles of gravel road from Tonopah to McKinney tanks.
The next contract was the building of a highway through the Wilson Canyon. He built the road around the western part of Walker Lake from barges on the lake. The next job was the building of the highway from Pancake Summit to the Morman Ranch. Next he built thirteen miles of gravel highway from the Hay Ranch to Eureka. Then he did the road between Keystone and Ely.Next was the highway from Schurz to eighteen miles south of Fallon. Next was the road from Fernley to the Pershing Churchill county line. He then redid the Keystone to Ely road. His next job was from Glendale to two miles south of Alamo.
Other jobs in Nevada included the roadbed, which was as far as they got, of the Fallon Electric Railroad to Sands Springs. They built the reservoir on top of Rattlesnake Hill, a pipeline from the Rice ranch to Fallon. Another pipeline they built was one that would carry water to Lovelock from Oreana. They had trenching machines to build the ditches for the pipes and electric welded the pipes together. Their last job before selling out the company piece by piece was an excavating job at Virginia City for a mill. This was in 1935.
His out of state contracts were larger and some were very outstanding. In 1920 they built a road by Mono Lake, California. The next year it was extended over Conway Summit.
His next out-of-state job was Bishop to Big Pine, California. The next at Three Rivers, California. That was southeast of Fresno. The next was north of Redding, which was extended ten miles the next year. Here he did something he had never tried before. The state of California let him close the road twelve hours a day and open it twelve hours a day. This road is now covered by the waters of the lake created by the Shasta Dam.
In 1927 the Nevada Contracting Company did the largest job in its history. This was the mile long tunnel at Zion Park. It was worth $600,000. Today that would amount to $6,000,000. The tunnel was the longest highway tunnel in the world at the time. No road led to the site of the tunnel. They had to build their own tramway and electric line to the construction site. To get to the tunnel one had to climb there hand by hand with a rope. When the approach road was built to the tunnel it ran seven miles to gain one mile in height. They also built the Mt. Carmel highway at the east end of the tunnel. Mt. Carmel highway was the crookedest
"Memories of Grandfather Ern" 71
improved road in the world.
In 1926 and 1927 Mr. Berney was the president of the General Associated Contractors. In 1926 he built the road from Floristan, California to the state line.
The next large job was the Denny Hill job at Seattle, Washington. This was the largest earth moving job in the world up to that time. He moved Denny Hill in Seattle, which covered thirty-two city blocks, and dumped the dirt out in the bay. The hill was moved to make room for buildings. Four and one half million cubic yards of earth were moved. For the Denny Hill job Mr. Berney gave the largest order for equipment on the West Coast up to that time. They ordered six electric shovels at $20,000 apiece. These had two cubic yard buckets on them. One new innovation was the use of conveyor belts to carry the earth over the top of the city to automatic dumping barges. There were two miles of belts, each section one hundred and twenty five feet long.
His next job was at beautiful Sequoia National Park between General Grant and Sequoia where the trees had to be wrapped so they would not be damaged by the blasting; and should they get hurt, a tree surgeon had to be called to remedy it.
Some dams he built were unique. The one at Weed, California was the only dam filled by hydraulic means. They would get above the area to be filled and wash down the dirt with high pressure hoses. There was a pipe that would drain off the water only. Once a man fell into it and came out a hundred feet lower, dead.
At Lakeview, Oregon, he built a dam where he built his own sawmill and sawed a million and a half feet of lumber to be used in building a flume. This flume was large enough to put two cars in side by side. He also built the irrigation ditches for this area.
He built one dam at Elsinor, California, and a dam and irrigation ditches at Mesa, near San Diego. His last dam was at Capitan, New Mexico, and was built for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
72 Peter Berney
CHAPTER 4
On Thanksgiving day, November 26, 1908, E. S. Berney and Helen Elizabeth Madeline "Madge" Cushman were married at the Cushman
ranch south of Fallon. Five children were born into this family, Madge Naomi, Lois, E.S. Jr. (known as "Bud"), Maxine Marie, and Richard Cushman.
In the field of politics Mr. Berney was very active. In 1915, by a vote of 233, he became Mayor of Fallon. In 1914 he served one term as
Assemblyman from Churchill County. In 1926 he served one term as State Senator. It was during this term that he was publicized for his legislation. There was a bill up to legalize gambling in Nevada. The vote had eight for
it and eight against it. His vote killed the bill. He was given a banquet in honor of this and was the guest speaker.
In 1943 he was elected to the Assembly again. He served on the local school board for eight terms. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention four different times, and often a member of the local committee.
A gold hunting trip that he made with Sam Rosenburg has always proved interesting and amusing to him. He and Sam went out one year to hunt for gold. They found an old tunnel in which they thought they had struck it rich. It was a large vein, a vein of fool's gold.
During World War I he raised wheat to help the nation. He farmed one hundred and sixty acres on a ranch south of the present Navy base.
After having lived in the town of Fallon in the home that was built for them when they were married and was enlarged as the family
Ernest Samuel Berney, Sr. (Churchill County
Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
"Memories of Grandfather Ern" 73
grew [Dr. G.T. Woodward's, 596 S.Taylor], they moved out in the country into a lovely brick home the day after Roosevelt's election. E.S. Berney, Jr. lives in it [2025 Berney Road] now, and Mr. Berney and his wife have moved back into town into a home they built in 1955 [380 W. Fairview].
In 1940 E.S. Berney and his son, Bud, went into partnership. They fed cattle, raised crops and did general farming. In 1948 they changed to a corporation of which he is now president [3500 Cushman Road].
Mr. Berney has been through his ups and downs, through poverty and riches, and through an era that was one of the most colorful in the halls of history. He has had his hand in many enterprises that have not been mentioned in this short biography. He has travelled extensively throughout the United States. His friends circle the globe.
His life has had more adventures than most six people put together. Today at Fallon he is still well respected and one of my favorite people.
[Editors note: Ernest Samuel Berney died on April 1, 1965, at Fallon, Nevada, and is buried in the Fallon Cemetery.]
Excerpts From the Oral History Interview of
ES. "Bud" Berney, Jr.
Bill Davis, Interviewer
[During the evolution of the Berney In Focus articles, Ernest Samuel "Bud" Berney, Jr., passed away on March 25, 1993. The eldest son of Ern and Madge Cushman Berney, he exemplified the stoicism and courage to challenge the unknown that had guided his progenitors. The following excerpts were taken from the eulogy compiled by his cousin, Bunny Corkin.]
Bud was proud of his heritage! The tracing of his "roots" parallels the exciting history of America ... its founding and movement westward.
Robert Cushman, one of the Leyden Pilgrims, was chosen to be the captain of the Speedwell, sister ship of the Mayflower. His dream was to sail this little ship to America in 1620, but after several futile attempts, he was forced to abandon the vessel and stay in England to act as agent for the Pilgrims. With his son, Thomas, he arrived in the new world aboard the Fortune on November 11, 1621. He is credited with delivering the first American sermon published anywhere. His wisdom is as applicable today as it was nearly 372 years ago, "Here you are by God's providence under difficulties; be thankful to God it is no worse! ... Comfort and cheer one another, laboring to make each others's burden lighter."
Finding conditions so grave in the Plymouth colony, he returned to England a month later. He left his son Thomas with Governor Bradford, who adopted the boy following Robert's death from the plague in 1625.
Thomas Cushman married Mary Allerton, who was the last survivor of the Mayflower Company. He was the ruling elder of the Plymouth colony for 42 years.
The next three generations of Cushman men, Elkanah, Josiah and Josiah, Jr., married daughters of other Mayflower families: Cooke, Standish and Ring.
74
Berney 75
By 1800 Andrew had moved into the state of Maine. Here Bud's great-grandfather, Clement and his grandfather, Josiah Jordan, were born. Clement began the Cushman's migration westward when in 1840 he moved his family to Lorain County, Ohio. 1846 found them in Henry County, Illinois. The next stop was Iowa and then a final return to Illinois.
Josiah Jordan had been put out of the family to work as a chore boy. With the arrival of 1860, he had received the call of the frontier and found himself crossing the continent with an oxen team. A year was spent in California and then he returned to St. Clair, Churchill County, Utah Territory, where he took up a 1700 acre homestead on the south branch of the Carson River.
Following the death of J.J.'s first wife, Mary Adams, he was married to Elizabeth McCulloch, who with her Scottish parents had immigrated to California and later to Carson City, Nevada, from New Brunswick, Canada. They would become the parents of seven children.
The destiny of their first daughter, Madge, would be determined when at age fourteen she was introduced to a newcomer to Churchill County ... a Tennessee Republican, no less. She would marry Em Berney four years later on Thanksgiving Day 1908. Their children would be named, Madge, Lois, Bud, Maxine and Richard.
Bud's earliest days were spent traveling to construction sites with his family. He graduated from Churchill County High School in 1931, and always admitted he was not a serious student until he reached college age and attended Oakland Polytechnic College where he took engineering. He, too, followed construction work for a number of years.
In 1938 Mr. and Mrs. I.N. Pierson moved to Fallon from California. Their daughter, Ruth Edwina, came to visit them in early June and found employment helping Madge Berney cook for a "first crop" hay crew. One day she was in the front yard washing her dog when Bud and one of his friends arrived upon the scene. They introduced themselves to Ruth and all decided to go for a ride. The friend said, "Why don't you two get married?" Bud laughingly replied that he did not have enough money for a marriage license. Luckily, the friend did have the necessary cash and on the third day of their acquaintance Bud and Ruth were married! They chose to hold the ceremony at the home of Justice of the Peace, Harold Bellinger. Upon their arrival they were told that the Justice was ill in bed. Not easily daunted, the sweethearts were married in Bellinger's bedroom with John Sanford, Ned Kendrick and Alfred Dangberg as witnesses.
76 E.S. "Bud" Berney, Jr.
Their 37 year marriage produced five children: Margot, Sam, Peter, Michael and Peggy. Always active in community affairs, Ruth served as president of the Churchill County PTA, was a 4-H and Girl Scout leader, a member of the Methodist Church, Rebekah Lodge, an avid bridge player and was engaged as a real estate salesperson. She passed away May 18, 1976.
One day a miracle happened. A lady walked into Berney Realty and asked for a job. The lady's name was Imogene "Amy" Bess Baxter Liby. She would become Amy Berney on July 8, 1979. She encouraged Bud in his gourmet cooking, growing of roses and became an ideal travel companion. Her devotion to the family during Bud's illness was inspirational.
The Berney family traditions and legacy now pass to the next generations. Bud was monumentally proud of his children, his grandchildren: Dennis and Ronald Mills; Ernest, Sam and Joshua Cushman Berney; Caroline Mills Barger and Marian Lakey and his great-grandchildren: Benjamin, Rachel, Melissa, Michael and Danille Mills; and Tori Lynn Barger!
Hopefully his family, friends and community will never forget nor cover over the tracks he has made in these Lahontan Valley desert sands!
EARLY YEARS:
I was born on Center Street here in Fallon. The house is still there next to what is now Cye Cox Garage. My dad had a blacksmith shop there when I was born, right next to it. It was later torn down when Cye Cox had it and later we moved to a house that my father built on South Taylor Street that Doc Woodward has lived in for years and years. And outside of working around on construction work here and there around the country in my youth I've spent all my life right here in Fallon, ranching mostly.
I went to school in what they called the "old high school" years ago. It's down where the Cottage Schools are now. It was a big two-story building. I went to the first and second grades there and then over to the West End [School]. They had a building which was similar [in architectural design] to the one where I'd been.
I really don't have very many memories of real early childhood. And growing up ... on the [south] edge of town, there was nobody between us and the Kendrick's. That was an alfalfa field with a big sand hill in the middle of it between us and from there to the edge of town was another
Berney 77
alfalfa field. It was the Williams' estate, old W.W. Williams. And then across the street from us between there and Maine Street, that was Cheapy Verplank's ranch ... Everybody called him Cheapy. I don't know what his name was. He was an old gentleman with a long white beard, lived by himself, kind of a hermit type. He had a big orchard. He had some alfalfa and some pasture. Well, all of us kids on that end of town, we all learned to swim in the irrigation ditch that carried the water to his fields ... Where the football field and track and everything is now clear up to Virginia Street that was all part of his alfalfa fields when I was a kid. That went clear over to Maine Street, that ranch. In World War II Kents bought a part of it. Well, Verplank had divided part of it. It's called the Verplank Addition anyway.
I don't know whether he did it or somebody bought it.
... Along in the twenties [Dad had construction] jobs all over. We'd spend summers on these jobs up in northern California ... two summers up
on the Sacramento River. He was building highways up there and I
worked for him a little bit. The Cave Rock Tunnel, he built that. I worked on that job the first year I got out of high school ... I did
everything. When I worked on construction work, I skinned cat and drove
truck, ran the shovel, oiled on the shovel, ran gravel plant, timekeeper. You name it, I did it ... I probably didn't do any of it very good, but kind
of a jack of all trades. But he did a lot of pretty good-sized jobs. He built several dams and he moved Denny Hill in Seattle which was the largest earth-moving operation up to that time in history. It covered thirty-two city blocks and in one place was 165 feet deep ... He had these big electric
"Bud" Berney as a high school graduate in 1931.
(Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo
Collection)
78 E.S. "Bud" Berney, Jr.
shovels that they'd just come out with in those days. They loaded the excavation onto conveyor belts [that] ran to a certain central part where they dumped on another big conveyor belt. [The belt] ran over the city streets of Seattle down to the docks and there [the dirt] was loaded on self-tilting barges. They were towed out into the bay, the Sound there, and tipped and then come back and loaded again. That's the way he moved it. He built Capitan Dam in Mexico ... Dad [also] built the water system for the city of Fallon here, put down wells out there in the Rice Ranch and the pipeline from there to Rattlesnake Hill and he built the reservoir on Rattlesnake Hill.
ON THE DEPRESSION YEARS:
They weren't bad. There was a lot of complaining going on as there was everywhere else but, actually, there wasn't any manufacturing or any payrolls to amount to anything here. The Kent Company hired more people than anybody else. And the ranches, 'course we all had plenty of help. They didn't make much. You got thirty dollars a month and your board at the most, if you got that much. But they didn't feel the Depression very much here in Fallon that I could tell. Down in the San Joaquin Valley when I was working for Bechtel and Kaiser, down there why you'd go down the wine district there, the grape district, and there'd be great big signs out along the highway, come in and pick all the grapes you want for nothing. Anything to get rid of them, they couldn't sell them. Things were tough, but these people here didn't know it. They probably made less money. Their cattle didn't bring as much ... there wasn't much sold out of the valley. It was all consumed here ... My Dad went broke along with the rest of the contractors (laughing) here too. They all went broke ... finally just got [to be] too much. But he did a lot of other things too. He was one of the instigators [1926] in taking over the sugar beet factory out here on Rattlesnake Hill. It was built by the Utah-Nevada Sugar Company and they ran it one year, something like that, and then gave it up ... Dad and I.H. Kent and Andy Haight, George Kenney, oh, there were several [other] people [involved]. Dad was the president of it. And they took it over and renovated the whole thing. They spent a lot of money on it and they ran it for, I think, two years. But the beets got curly top [disease] and something else and they all died and they couldn't harvest enough to run the thing so they just shut it down and junked it. But he was into anything that'd make a buck ...
Berney 79
RANCHING:
[Dad] had a couple of ranches that he'd bought when he was in the construction business ... One of them was right at the intersection of Harrigan Road and Berney Road ... on the north of Berney Road and on the east of Harrigan Road. I think [Donald R.] Travis owns that ranch now. It was 160 acres. And he owned another 160 down where he eventually built ... that two-story brick home ... [2025 Berney Road] ... And then the ranch where we built the feed yard [3500 Cushman Road], that was originally the old [Hade] Dillard place years and years ago ... When Dad bought it, it was called the Sam Frank Ranch ... Frank bought it from Dillard. Dad bought it from the Bank of America. They had foreclosed on it.
Dad said, "Well, I'll give you five thousand cash for it." So they took
it ... then we moved down to the ranch ... And we built that feed yard
several years later. We fed cattle ... the cattle feeding industry had just
started big in California. A lot of the people down there had feed yards and were just feeding the cattle for the manure. They'd furnish the feed and they got the manure and they'd sell it to the big ranches [that were converting the desert into farmland]. Anyway, it looked like a good deal so instead of feeding our own [cattle] we were [custom] feeding about five or six hundred of other people's a year ... I went down to California and looked all of the feed yards over ... to see how ... and what they did and then I went on to Los Angeles and made a deal with a firm [that designed and built feed mills].
Paulson was the fellow that I made the first deal with. He built the first mill, but we were unhappy with it and a year or two later why we hired this Williamson outfit which was famous all over the
"Bud" poses with his "One million dollars in
listings" Award in 1978. (Churchill County
Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
80 E.S. "Bud" Berney, Jr.
West. They even made the machines themselves, big hammer mills for hay, and we had them redesign it and rebuild it
When we sold the feed lot and the ranches we didn't end up with very much and I had to get a job to support my family ... I put in some applications at different feed yards and with banks [looking for] a job as a farm appraiser. So they told me, "Well, if you'll get a little real estate experience we'd be interested in hiring you as an appraiser." I went to real estate school and went into real estate with my sister-in-law, Barbara Ponte, for a year, then started my own real estate ... It was in the early sixties. It was real good to me. I made a lot of money, had a lot of fun, made a lot of friends, and I took part in everything going on ... here in the valley.
CIVIC LIFE:
I put in four years, two years as president on the board of directors for the T.C.I.D. [Truckee Carson Irrigation District] ... That last year I moved from the feed yard up to the brick house where my dad had lived so I was in a different district and I couldn't run for my seat again. The rest of the directors offered to redistrict the district if I would run again but I wouldn't do it. (laughing) I didn't think that was quite kosher. So that was the end of my tour there.
I was the chairman of the committee that started the museum. In fact, Bob Kent was the president of the Chamber of Commerce that year and I was on the board of directors. He called me up one day and he said, "I'm assigning committee jobs to all of you directors and ... I've got two left. You can have either one you want. There's the museum," and then I forget what the other one was. I'd known they'd never done anything about a museum before. That was the safest place to be, so I said, "I'll take the museum." Well, he fouled me up. He appointed Grace Kendrick and Sam Beeghly and Willie Capucci to serve on this committee with me. So I called a meeting here at home and had them all in and by the time that they left they were just all fired up. "We're going to have a museum. That's all there is to it." ... We doubted whether we could do anything ... or what [we] should do. So we looked for a building. We thought we'd found one and about that time why ... I don't remember what the building was, but we looked into every big building in town even if it was just a shed. And this fellow, [Alex] Oser, had bought the old Safeway building on South Maine Street and Hammie Kent called me up one night and he
Berney 81
said, "Say, this friend of mine, Oser, said that he would donate that building that he bought down there, the old Safeway building, to the County for a museum if they wanted it. So," he said, "that should solve your problem." Grace and I went to the Commissioners and told them what we thought about it and that we had to have "X" number of dollars spent there. And they said fine and dandy, they'd go along with it. So [Oser] did give them the building ... Well, he was a junkman down in California, made millions of dollars in the junk business. And he came up here and duck hunted and goose hunted with Hammie Kent all the time so he had friends here. And he bought quite a bit of property around Fallon just as investment. So we started in and Grace and I sent away through [interlibrary loan for books] from all over the United States on how to operate a museum and start a museum. She took half of them and I took half of them and after a few days we decided that it wasn't for us. They weren't talking about the kind of museum we were interested in at all.
... The first thing they told you to do in these books was that you had to have, I forget, how many times more storage space than you had exhibition space to begin with which was out of the question with us, of course. So we decided we'd just do it ourselves. We went down and looked the building over and got the furnace repaired and the roof fixed and there was a carpenter here in Fallon named Moore who was a recovering alcoholic. He had kind of a bad reputation for drinking and was having a hard time getting work. So I knew him and I hired him and we took him down there and showed him what we wanted him to do. We had him build all of those cabinets that are on the north side of the building in there with the glass doors. He built those and at night why my wife [Ruth] and I'd go down there and we painted them all and she wallpapered them inside. We got Doris Drumm interested and Doris talked the telephone company into giving us some of those great big spools that their cable comes on and we had [Moore] build platforms. We put those on and, out of her own pocket, Doris went to Reno and bought all this expensive velvet cloth and covered the top of them for display tables. We got donations from here and there of different cases ... Of course, Willie Capucci was out everyday scrounging around (laughing) trying to talk anybody out of anything they had that you could use as a shelf. And we decided right off the bat after we started on this thing that we weren't going to have a museum like most of these local museums where they'll have a glass-fronted case with maybe fifty revolvers in there
82 E.S. "Bud" Berney, Jr.
on three or four shelves piled on top of each other. We said no way. If we're going to show anything we're going to show one of it and we're going to show it so the people can take their time and look at it and see what it is and enjoy it. So we did.
The Fish and Wildlife got interested and said, "Well, we have an exhibit of stuffed birds that we take around the state and exhibit them in different towns for a few months every year and if you'd like, why we'll loan that to you for a year." So we said fine and they loaned it to us and never came and got it. Far as I know it's still there. So we picked up all kind of stuff like that. Grace was very good at it. 'Course she's quite artistic and she got some of the Indians enthused and brought them in. We had this carpenter build big areas in the front there out of wood and then [Andrew] Drumm hauled in sand for us. We filled them full of sand and on there they built an Indian [wickiup made] out of tules ... I think it was about the second year after we had opened, we won some kind of a national award ... people flew out here from New York. I was president of the association at that time so I remember having our picture taken but I never did know what it was all about. We were quite proud of it. (laughing) [For] dummies that didn't know anything about a museum we had people from Bishop and Redding, California, that had heard about the museum ... come and look at our museum and take pictures and ask us how we did it.
... I served on the library board at the time we designed and built the new library here in Fallon ... Dora [Witt] was the librarian and, of course, the library at that time was up in the old brick building there on Maine Street, the Fraternal Hall ...It was pretty dark and crowded and cramped and there wasn't room for the books at all ... So we had this one designed and built and we applied to the Fleischmann Foundation [for a grant]. They put up part of the money, the state put up part, the county put up some... a beautiful job. In fact, again, we got an award the first year for that building. The person who was in charge of giving the award told me, he [couldn't] begin to believe the difference between our library and the one over in, I think it was Minden. They were both built at the same time and he said, "All they've got over there is a big barn and you've got a beautiful building here."(laughing) Of course, I didn't have anything to do with it. I just happened to be on the board at the time. We had a lot of good people that were serving in those days. Lots of imagination and getup and go.
Berney 83
FALLON NAVAL AIR STATION:
I don't know who instigated [the Naval Auxiliary Air Station], the Navy themselves ... or whether some of our politicians tried to get the government to build here in Fallon. They were building air bases and such all over everywhere else and you know how politicians are ... I remember Carl Dodge was very instrumental in getting the original Navy air base built here. After the War [World War II] they dismantled the biggest part of it. They gave alot of the buildings to the Indians and carted them away to the various reservations around the state. There wasn't an awful lot left.
When they built the air base we had a feed lot and ranches just south of it ... and I got the [mess hall] garbage contract. I bid on it and got it for the whole time that the Navy was here and we built a lot of pens and fed hundreds of hogs on this garbage.
The main runway was north and south to begin with and the planes, when they'd take off, would turn to their left and they would come out over our corrals. When they came in to land after they'd done their mission, why they'd come over our house and our corrals and make a left-hand turn to land. In those days they were all piston-powered planes with propellers. So I got a good friend who was executive officer over at the base and I complained to him about this left turning bit and he said, "Well, we can't help it because the propeller pulls the plane to the left and the throttle is on your left." And he said, "It's just natural, you don't really have to do anything to turn the plane left." So he said, "I don't think it's going to do you any good. You're just going to have to live with it." (laughing) And the [noise] did bother the cattle some to begin with but they finally got used to it. I couldn't see where it hurt them any. There [were other] inconveniences. There [were] times when planes were taking off or coming in to land that no way you could get me on the telephone. If I was trying to call long distance, might just as well drive there. (laughing) It'd be an hour or two when you couldn't hear anything and it was kind of annoying and sometimes at night it'd bother you when you were trying to listen to the radio or television.
Somewhere along [about 1946] I threw my hat in the ring and ran for county commissioner and the Navy gave what was left of the air base back to the county. So one night, George Coverston called me up -- he owned the Chevrolet garage here in Fallon -- and he said, "I understand you're
84 E.S. "Bud" Berney, Jr.
running for county commissioner." And I said, "Yes." He said, "Is it all right if I come out tonight? I want to talk to you." And I said, "Sure." So he came out and he told me that he wanted to lease the air base from the county and his son, Marshall, was going to start a flight school ... and he wanted to know if I was elected how I would look at it. I told him as far as I know why I'd be all for it. Anything except just having it sit there going to waste. Well, anyway, I didn't get elected but he did lease what remained of the air base in between World War II and when the Navy started up again [1951].
When they decided to reactivate it, at first there was a little opposition from some of the people here in the valley but most of the people that I knew were all for it because they knew it was going to create a lot of jobs. [At the start of the Korean Conflict] I think that the Navy just ran out of anywhere to train pilots. They had to have someplace where it was close enough to the coast [Alameda, California] so that the airplane carriers could put into port down there and the pilots could fly the planes up here for refresher courses in gunnery and bombing.
I was appointed to and served as the chairman of the [first] zoning committee in charge of [keeping the buffer zone] around the Navy base. Anytime anybody wanted to build anything they had to come to our [four or five member] zoning committee and ask for permission. We'd have a hearing to see whether it interfered with the rules and regulations.
[Original residents living near the base] would complain that the planes were bothering their chickens and the hens wouldn't lay eggs and so forth. Then they would complain to the Navy. [As a result], the Navy didn't want any new installations built [within the buffer zone]. If anybody did build there why they had to sign a deal saying they wouldn't complain about the noise of the planes. One fellow started a subdivision right next to the Raffetto Ranch off of Harrigan Road. He just went ahead and did it without asking anybody about it. He'd never heard of this ordinance. He didn't know he was breaking the law. Well, he'd already sold five or six lots before we ever heard about it so, of course, we let it go. But I think of all the people who asked for a variance from our board, there was only one that we ever turned down. A guy wanted to drill for oil about a quarter of a mile below the end of the runway on the south end of the base. (laughing) Then they did away with that ordinance and I lost my job. Didn't pay anything anyway. (laughing) [The Navy base has] been a good thing for the town of Fallon, I think.
Berney 85
ON HIS FATHER, E.S. BERNEY, SR.:
... Around 1910, or maybe 1912, Libby Owens Glass Company bought the Sand Mountain out here and they were going to build a factory to make glass. My Dad organized a Fallon Electric Railroad Company and they bought up right-of-way and started building a railroad from Fallon out there. Some of the old grade is still in existence and the State Highway Department took over part of it when they enlarged Harrigan Road a number of years ago. He built eight or ten miles of the grade ... before the people that were going to build the glass company folded up or decided not to go ahead with it. Dad paid off all the debts out of his own pocket. It was quite a loss to him at that time but anyway, like I said, he was always willing to try anything. (laughing)
Dad came to me one time when we were at the feed lot and he said, "You know it's going to be the big thing around here in the next few years ... this natural gas." He said, "What do you think about forming a company and see if we can't get an exclusive franchise from the state of Nevada to deliver natural gas in the state of Nevada?" So I said, "Fine." We got on the horn and we got together a group that included us and Felix Beamed, Walt Whitaker, George Swallow from Ely, bigwig over there, Newt Crumley from Elko and we formed Nevada Pipelines. Judge Ross from Reno was our attorney and so we went to the state and we tried to get this exclusive franchise. At first they talked like they would and then they said, "Well, you don't have any gas supply so I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll consider it if you get a gas distribution system." In other words, somebody's distributing gas in the state here now like Tedford here in Fallon. We went to Reno and we tried to make a deal with the biggest outfit up there that had a gas distributorship. They're still in business, by the way. And he wouldn't sell out.
One day Dad came out to the office where I was working and he said, "Well, doesn't look like we're going to get anywhere that way." He said, "Why don't we go to the Navy and see if we can't get the Navy to finance a pipeline from the district up here and we can furnish the gasoline and jet fuel to the air base. We'd have natural gas alongside [the fuel pipeline] once we get the right-of-way." So we got together all our partners and they said well, that's fine. Dad went back to Washington, D.C. and the Navy got really excited about it because they were hauling all [their fuel] in by tank trucks, and when they came in with these tank trucks if the storage tanks they had wouldn't hold the whole thing, they'd just pull it
86 E.S. "Bud" Berney, Jr.
out in the desert and dump the rest of it because you can't drive one of those things over a mountain road when they're not full. Those tank trucks get to sloshing and throw you right off the road. So they ran with a terrible waste there. So they were all hot for it but they didn't want to put up any money.
Dad was very good friends with Steve Bechtel of the Bechtel Corporation which was the largest construction firm in the United States. So we went down and talked to Steve and they did some preliminary engineering work for us that Dad paid for and decided it was going to cost, I forget what, twelve million dollars or something like that. Through some contact we got a hold of a guy in Los Angeles that looked like [he] might finance it but he backed out on the deal and so one day Steve Bechtel called Dad up and he said, "I think I've got somebody to finance that pipeline for you." So he said, "If you can come down next week why we'll meet with them." Steve was on the board of directors of the Southern Pacific Railroad, amongst many other things, so when Dad went down there he told him it's the Southern Pacific Railroad. He said, "They're building a fuel line now from Los Angeles to somewhere in Texas" -- I forget where -- "going through Arizona and Nevada." He said, "It never occurred to them to build one here, but," he said, "I sounded them out the other day at a board meeting and I think they'd like to go in partnership with you." We said, "Fine and dandy," because, hell, they already had the railroad right-of-way. You didn't have to buy any right-of-way ... Dad met with the representatives of the railroad two or three times and then one day somebody called him -- I don't know whether somebody from the Bechtel Corporation or whether it was from the railroad company, but, anyway, they said that they decided they were going to build the pipeline themselves and they didn't need us.
There wasn't very much we could do about it; [we were] not going to fight the Southern Pacific Railroad. You could take them to court and tie them up for years if you had a lot of money. Steve Bechtel felt real bad about it so he told Dad, "I just feel real bad. I think it's my fault, of course, for even mentioning it to them. So I'll tell you what I want to do. I'm going to put you on our payroll, the Bechtel Corporation, as a consultant for the rest of your life at twelve thousand dollars a year." And Dad wouldn't do it, but anyway that's how bad they felt. (laughing) So a little later on he got a hold of Dad again and he said, "I've just been talking to somebody in Southern Pacific and they said what they'd like to do, they
Berney 87
would like to keep the pipeline but give you the distribution system. If you want to build a tank farm up there why they'd say that's fine and dandy. They'll let you have that." So we said, "All right. We'd be satisfied with that."
We got all the specifications from the Navy of what they needed and Bechtel drew up all the plans for us. In fact it just so happened we got a hell of a good buy on tanks. There was six tanks in Chicago that had been built for some refinery somewhere and the people'd gone broke and the steel company still had these tanks. They were un-assembled but ready to put up. We could get them for about ten cents on the dollar. We put in a bid to the Navy and as I remember now why we'd a made a fortune out of the God damn thing, but, anyhow, to make a long story short, the fellow who was in charge of the letting of the bids -- his headquarters were in Missouri -- was an attorney and he called me up one day and said that the Nevada Pipelines had put in the low bid for the storage facilities for the Navy fuel up here and there'll be a representative to meet with us on such and such a day. And so a couple of days later he called back again and he said well, "I'm sorry to tell you that we've rejected all the bids and the Navy is going to build their own storage system." (laughing) And so, you know, these things happen and this is the story of my Dad's life. He made millions, he lost millions. He was always coming up with some new idea. He was always looking into the future. Pretty smart man.
A Black-necked Stilt at Stillwater March.
(Churchill County Museum & Archives, Laura E. Mills Collection)
88
CREATIVE FOCUS
The Shades of Lahontan
Grandmother...
lines of antiquity upon your face from where your once deep
waters have long since receded.
your life giving milk, but a vision now.
Fathered by winter's hand, the marsh conceived.
delivered unto you by great, rushing rivers.
now, but a trickle succumbs to you.
Phantoms seen from the Rainbow.
tombs of tule eaters... their conquerors also conquered.
though their ghosts dance on and on.
Of the beasts... the swan, the goose, the eagle?
their journey long past due.
from the Nutgrass perhaps a glimpse above of what once was.
their ancient rituals echo.
Cursed old woman! You. Provider of life and dreams. You shed
not a tear in passing. Your waters dry. The fields brown.
The land, only yours to reclaim.
Old Grandmother's arms unfold of stories yet untold.
and we... but a vision now.
--- Marie Sundquist
89
90 Gene Doughty
Child of Lahontan
Quick and agile child of this Oasis Valley
I can see the future in your small hands
The air is filled with the laughter of youth
As you chase the geese across the wetlands
Running after that allusive promise of a dream
In a place where the hopes can still flourish
To find safety in a modern refuge
Where your plans that you've planned can be nourished
Funny, how the memory is triggered
By nothing more than a little nose pressed to the window sill
Or from watching in early evening silhouette
Of a kid on a bike by a cross on a hill
Sure and nimble child of this fertile valley
You've shown me how to view the desert's painted skies
For I can feel your feelings within my heart
And can see the reflection of my own life within your eyes
--- Gene Doughty
My Lahontan 91
My Lahontan
Hot desert winds blow Indian Ricegrass
As Tall Sagebrush waves to the sun.
Desert Tortoises now roam where Ichthyosaur once played
Now only their fossils remain.
Beautiful Mountain Bluebirds nest in Pinion Trees
As Desert Bighorn Sheep climb about.
Lahontan Cutthroat Trout swim and wonder where
The waters they call home have all gone.
Black Fine Opals, Turquoise, and Silver
Hide in the mountains all around.
Here in this Lahontan Valley alfalfa waves
And beckons me to peacefully abide.
---Teresa Moon
92 Stan Lehman
Cowboy Hell
I had a dream the other night
That I' d died an' gone to hell
And why they sent me down there
I found pretty hard to tell
But it must have been that angel
They had sortin' at the gate
He should have sent me heaven bound
But he made the cut too late
So I found myself in Hades
An' boy was I surprised
There was trees and grass an' water
An' clear blue sunny skies
Now how the hell can this be Hell
I wondered in my mind
When fire an' smoke an' sulfur smell
Is what I that I' d find
When up jumps the devil's helper An' he straightened me right out 'Cause he then proceeds to tell me What a cowboy's hell's about
It seems there was some cowboys
That made the devil mad
They sawed his horns an' tied his tail
An' made him look real bad
So he swore that he'd get even And that buckaroos would pay And he's kept that evil promise Until this very day
Cowboy Hell 93
He had this place built special
For cowboys just like you
An you're about to learn the hard way
How the devil gets his due
'Cause you're headed for the mountain
With a herd of Holstein cows
A little bunch of Jersey bulls
and four old spotted sows
As for your saddle savvy
He's picked you out six head
Of Appaloosa Arabs,
But they're all damn sure well bred
Since he figured you'd need cowdogs
When you made your cowboy rounds
He ordered up a dozen
Of them purebred Basset hounds
An' when you' ve finished ridin'
An' your cowboy work in thru
Just dig a bunch of postholes
In case he needs a few
This demon keeps on talkin'
'Bout the miseries I'll find
And it put the fear clean thru me
And it fogged my worried mind
Right then I woke up screamin'
Cold sweat poured from my head
I quivered and I trembled
As I sat there in my bed
94 Stan Lehman
Was that dream I had an omen
Could that cowboy hell be real
Is that the hand that I'll be dealt
When they pass the final deal
'Cause if it is I'll change my ways
Do all the good the law allows
' Cause I' d rather herd St. Peter's sheep
Than punch the devil's magpie cows
1992 by STAN LEHMAN. "Rhymes For The Times Cowboy Poetry."
Reprinted by permission of the author.
[Stan Lehman was born in 1945 and raised in the St. Clair district of Churchill County. His father was in charge of "outside" cattle for the Bass Ranch. Stan's love of poetry began when he read poetry in old magazines in his Dad's line shack. He began writing as a child, but only began reciting about 5 years ago. He has been featured as a Nevada State Poet at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering since 1989. He also enjoys performing at local civic organizations, N.A.S. Fallon, schools and the Cantaloupe festival in Fallon. His first book is in progress.]
SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE
Lahontan City Overview
William C. Davis
Lahontan City during its heyday.
(Churchill County Museum & Archive Photo Collection)
History
The construction of the Lahontan Dam was a pivotal event in the history of Churchill County, Nevada. This was due to the fact that stored water could be evenly distributed to farming operations over the course of a full summer's growing season. Thus, the area would be far more amenable to various farming programs and farm goods production. Another plus for the area was in the realm of flood control. Before the dam was built the area was inundated from time to time by disastrous floods such as the "Great Lahontan Valley Flood" of 1907. (see Townley: 1977)
The Federal Reclamation Act of 1902 supplied the necessary impetus for undertaking of construction of the dam. Francis G. Newlands (1848-1917) was an United States Senator who played a major role both in the instigation of the Reclamation Act and in the provision of the land upon which the dam was to eventually be constructed.
In 1911 the U.S. Reclamation Service decided to go ahead with the construction of the dam. Designs had been drawn up in 1910 in pre-
95
96 William C. Davis
paration for construction and the land had already been bought from Newlands in 1903.
The Lahontan Dam was completed in 1914 at a cost of slightly over one million dollars. Water in the amount of 300,000 acre feet was to be available annually to Lahontan Valley consumers. With the dam in operation, "This allowed for a reopening to 'land entry' of the Newlands Project with sufficient water for full irrigation purposes." (see Townley)
The construction of the Lahontan Dam required the efforts of "hundreds of men and teams." (Townley, 1977)
The living area for these men, teams and families was the settlement (townsite) of what was variously called "Lahontan City" and/or "Bohunkville." This site is located adjacent to the dam and in a northerly direction from the dam headgate. The research and recordation of this historic townsite is the focus of this proposal.
Chimney features at Lahontan City.
(William C. Davis)
Lahontan City Overview 97
Site Description
It is assured (pending research) that most of those who worked on the construction of Lahontan Dam lived in this "village" immediately north of the construction area. This settlement, from what can be roughly ascertained, covered a minimum of 30+ acres. The site's core area is probably about equally divided by the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. Approximately half of the site lies north of the tracks and half south of the tracks.
Between Highway 50 and the SPRR tracks are two fireplace fireboxes with chimneys. These features are situated within a few yards of each other and the south chimney has fallen down. There are some stone/masonry and cement foundations in this area also. Extensive scatters of metal cans and other debris are noted here. Holes and various pits have been dug, over time, across the area.
Just north of the tracks is another 15 acres or so of diverse wood, stone and pit type foundations remaining from early day structures and habitations. Here, too, one finds rich scatters of glass shards, metal cans (including 'hole in cap', sanitary, etc.) and all manner of iron bolts, nuts, insulators and wire nails. There appear to be a large number of ceramic and bottle fragments on the site. Noted at times are small items which were in common use in that era and thus offer another tool for substantiating site chronology. Middens (garbage dumps!) are in evidence and these features are quite useful in site evaluation for the archaeologist. The site topography is gently undulating and tends from sandy to rocky with sparse, woody Halophytes as cover. There are numerous "washes" in the area.
Purpose of Survey
It would seem that the Western Great Basin (and Churchill County in particular) is fast approaching the end of an era, as it were. By this I refer to our historical/archaeological heritage which has experienced a tremendous loss of sites and materials to time and the elements, vandals, artifact hunters and profiteers.
In another sense we are now just beginning to see the great void that is quickly approaching via the demise of our pool of oral history informants and/or those older persons who still remember early day events and conditions which have helped the historian to restructure and inject that vital human element into the recordation of historical events.
98 William C. Davis
Hence, I think that it behooves all historians and archaeologists to gather histories, materials for site recordation and any archival data available which somehow depict and explain our past. This will vastly facilitate the future work of students and researchers plus build a base from which to teach local histories and archaeology.
I suspect then that the recording of the Lahontan City historic site may help the above be realized.
One previous error noticed as research progressed on the Lahontan City project must now be corrected! Lahontan City was located north of present Highway 50 in the "fireplace" area. "Bohunkville" was a separate camp to the south and across the dam headgate in the area of the present cottonwood trees. (Churchill Beach?) This was the campsite where the construction workers of "Eastern Slav" descent lived.
Lahontan City was purported to be a "model camp" experiencing very little trouble or violence as did other camps of the day. Lahontan City even boasted of a "reading room" and a "billiard hall" for use by the construction workers. (see Townley)
Upon closer inspection the Lahontan City site exhibits quite a complex nature and, over time, was used by more than one crew of workers and others. Hence, its past is checkered and I am forced to offer a somewhat speculative picture of its history in view of the paucity of documented information.
A search of the 1910 Churchill County census data offered nothing substantial in regards to Lahontan City proper.
The Joseph and Jenny Carrico Cooke home, Lahonton City, 1913.
(Churchill County Museum & Archives Photo Collection)
Lahontan City Overview 99
100 William C. Davis
Some of the "oral informants" contacted were well along in years and many recollections had faded or had been lost completely. Other informants had lived at the site but were then in the age categories of one to three years old. These folks, of course, had little knowledge of circumstances as they existed at Lahontan City at that point.
Mr. George Frey (Frey Ranch/Pioneer Way) said that he moved a bridge from the site to his ranch in 1933. The bridge had been condemned. He also stated that he has one of the buildings from the site and it is used as a sort of guest house. Otherwise he said that he could not be of much help as to any details concerning the site. Walter Mulcahy, local historian, thought that the round masonry "Feature 'A" at the site was probably a water tower but could not be certain.
Local resident, Ruth Coleman (1914-1992), was only one and a half years old when she and her parents lived at Lahontan City.
Cousie (Coverston) Nelson lived at Lahontan City as a member of her family at the age of 18 months, she stated. She said that it was her understanding that initially the camp consisted of mostly tents. Later on, tar paper shacks and wooden houses were built. Two of the houses with the fireplaces belonged to the Supervisor of the dam and the Supervisor over the powerhouse, (where the electricity was generated) respectively. Upon inspection I found that the date "1911" is inscribed up near the top and at the rear of the old powerhouse still located below the dam.
Informant Firmin Bruner (born in Spain/arrived in local area in 1903) related to me how he "came in from the mines and mills at Ione in 1917" (to Fallon). He said, "In 1912 I worked for Charlie Howard on the County Road Department. While working at putting gravel in the sand traps on the road which then followed the river up to the dam, we were allowed to stay in the old bunkhouse on the Lahontan City site. When we were staying at the bunkhouse there were some Bureau of Reclamation men there too, who were doing some repair work on the dam." Mr. Bruner said that there were no families at the site at that time (1921-1922).
Undocumentated information tells me that a CCC Camp (Civilian Conservation Corps) was located at the site in the time interval between 1935 and 1939. A large portion of a CCC built rock wall still stands at River Camp just below the dam. There is quite a bit more of this rock wall located above the river at the Park Rangers' housing area. There is a plaque located on this wall inscribed "CCC 1939." According to Park personnel, two of the wooden houses now being used as Ranger quarters
Lahontan City Overview 101
were moved there from the Lahontan City site in the 1920's.
Harold Fitz, local resident, stated that, "I was the foreman on the CCC crew (1938) that riprapped (covered with stones) the Truckee Canal spillway where it discharged into Lahontan Dam." Fitz said, "At that time there were no buildings there. We commuted from the camp in Fallon."
Personal communication with several other early day Fallon residents produced little other concrete information on the physical aspects or activities at Lahontan City during that era.
Some photocopies of the original Lahontan City site were obtained from the Churchill County Museum as valuable information and "leads." This was due entirely to the priceless help and generosity of Bunny Corkill. As a matter of fact, Corkill's grandparents, Edward T. and Mary K. Morgan, played a most active role in the workaday world of Lahontan City. Mr. Morgan rented his team and wagon plus himself to the construction job at Lahontan Dam for the sum of $6.00 per day. At the same time, Mrs. Morgan would deliver and sell fresh vegetables to the inhabitants of .Lahontan City. (personal communication Corkill)
The workers who built the dam (or others who came later?) literally must have smoked bales of Prince Albert smoking tobacco. Even today, the Prince Albert tins are noted everywhere on the site. Also seen are the old square 5 lb. tobacco tins with the hinged lid and the wire clip to close the lid. Other interesting relics found on the site are pieces of early century, tightly woven/coiled bedsprings that are mounted on a wooden frame with carriage bolts. As I personally remember, these frames were home to literally millions of bedbugs, under certain conditions. Powders or kerosene would not kill them. One's only alternative was to burn the whole unit!
Quadrant 4 is a veritable maze of can scatters and dumps. Also noted are many rock alignments, nails, tarpaper tacks, (both wire and the new style) and large wood debris scatters. Dwellings were apparently located all across the west end of this quadrant (near the dirt road). This area covers about 3+ acres and contains stove pipe fragments, breakfast cocoa tins, buttons, charcoal, melted glass and all color glass shards as well as ceramic shards from the turn of the century and more recently. Barrel hoops, hose fragments, belting and leather, cable and electrical insulators, among other items, are also noted.
In quadrant 2, in a random 6 ft. diameter area, 107 tin cans were
102 William C. Davis
counted.
Quadrant 3 contains a large dump, burn areas and pits as well as a possible water well site (timber and pipe in bottom of pit). Window screen fragments, wire cloth type hose, leather, bone, ceramic and crockery shards, fruit, meat and sardine cans, kerosene cans, among other things, are located here. Grease/lard and syrup cans abound.
Some of the artifacts and features at the Lahontan City Site. (William C. Davis)
Lahontan City Overview 103
It is recognized that many if not most of the holes and depressions on site were made by bottle/artifact hunters over time. The area has been heavily dug since the 1950's. Artifact collecting on the site continues today but perhaps on a smaller scale than in previous times. Even considering the extent and the richness of this site, time, the elements and collectors continue to take their toll and shortly nothing will remain of Lahontan City to be studied by posterity!!
Summary
During the years 1911 to 1914 while the Lahontan Dam was under construction Lahontan City certainly had to have been a bustling community. As Townley states, "The job utilized hundreds of men and teams of horses." There was a cookhouse, billiard hall and bunkhouse. It is pure speculation, but going by supposed foundations and other acknowledged arcane data, it is within the realm of the possible that perhaps two hundred people (men, women, children and those occupying the bunkhouse) may have inhabited the site at any given time between 1911 and 1914, when the project was completed. Many farmers also worked at the site of the construction, renting themselves, their teams and wagons and commuting from the surrounding area.
Some of the rock alignments were quite large, measuring about 50 feet by 75 feet. Their function, of course, is not known at this time.
It would only be reasonable to assume that the population of the site would fluctuate over time (1911-1914) and so perhaps the number of persons living on the site would drop well below the speculated number of two hundred at various times. My figures derive from hypothetical calculations of 3+ persons per living area/dwelling and 65 possible dwelling sites over the 35/40 acre site proper. Most of all subsistence goods were probably hauled in by team and wagon.
All of the above is subject to revision and reinterpretation should further study lead to more data and new perceptions of the extent and mode of life and activities which existed at Lahontan City almost a century ago!
Bibliography
Townley, John M., Turn This Water Into Gold: The Story of the Newlands Project, Publishers Press/Nevada Historical Society (Salt Lake City, 1977)
MUSEUM PORTRAIT
Jane Pieplow, new Director/ Curator, arrived in Fallon at the end of October and began work at the Churchill County Museum on November 2, 1992. She was greeted by an
enthusiastic staff, helpful
volunteers and received many friendly greetings from County employees and community residents. "Moving into such a welcoming city makes leaving friends in another state just that much easier," says the new Director.
Jane grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, getting her first degree in Commercial Art from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1976. For eight
Jane at work on the new children's Discovery years she worked as an Art
Exhibit. Director in a small advertising
agency in Milwaukee. In
searching for a new direction in her life, Jane decided she wanted to combine her love for art and history and museum work seemed the right choice. In 1988 she graduated from the same university with a Masters Degree in Public History.
Her first museum job was as Director of the High Plains Museum in
Goodland, Kansas, where she worked for three years. Exhibit renovation, improved artifact storage and working to increase public visibility were some of the improvements Jane concentrated on during that time. With her greatest challenges in Goodland accomplished, she began to search for other museum employment that would advance her career. "I really
104
Portrait 105
enjoyed my job interview in Fallon - not something anyone could say very often! I was very relaxed and responded to the congenial atmosphere of the interview panel. I was also very happy when I was informed that I had been selected for this job."
Jane is enjoying outside activities as well. She is looking forward to exploring the many historic sites in our area. Her musical interests are being fulfilled by singing in the Lahontan Valley Concert Choir and the Lahontan Valley Singers and she has also taken a course at the Western Nevada Community College in building construction.
IN MEMORY
By Members of The Museum Staff
The end of 1991 and the beginning and end of 1992 were sad times for everyone at the museum. During those periods, we lost some very important contributors and volunteers. Jean Jensen died on Christmas Day 1991. Then the Chairman of our Board of Trustees, Harold Rogers, died on January 31, 1992 and on December 8, 1992, we lost Al Glaubitz, one of our strong supporters and former member of the museum's Board of Trustees.
Jean Jensen began serving
as a museum Hostess on De-
cember 1, 1983, and for just
over nine years she greeted
visitors with a calm and
friendly manner and with a
charming sense of humor.
She always was willing to un-
dertake any task or assign-
ment and, according to her
children, she truly loved the
museum. She not only
served as hostess, but also
was a volunteer in the muse-
um, lending her talents wher-
ever they were needed. For
many years she was the un-
official registrar of all
items that were accepted
into the museum's collec-
tion. She performed her
job well. Although we
were terribly saddened to
lose her, we are grateful to
know that she was with her
family when she died. We
miss you, Jean.
106
107 Museum Staff
Harold Rogers began serving on the Board of Trustees in 1986. In 1991, he was elected as Chairman. Harold not only served the museum as a Museum Association Board of Trustee member, but also was a volunteer for many of the museum's various activities. During his last four years, Harold's major contribution was the hours he spent in sorting and itemizing the hundreds of historical papers, pictures, booklets, etc. that are part of the Capucci Collection.
In Memory 108
Most recently, our good friend and former Museum Association Board of Trustee member, Al Glaubitz, passed away. He began serving as a Trustee in 1988. Although he had not been a member of the board since 1990, he continued to serve on the Association's Accession Committee, which is primarily responsible for recommending the acceptance or nonacceptance of items of
historical significance to
Churchill County. In addition,
Al was generous in sharing his personal collections with the museum and its visitors. At various times he loaned his collections of cranberry glass,
custard glass, Christmas ornaments and, lastly, paper weights as special
short-term exhibits. He was instrumental in bringing to the museum his clock collection and the antique clock collection of the Sierra Nevada
Chapter 65 of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. Al was a charter member of the organization. His willingness to share his treasures and his sincere interest in contributing toward the museum's progress will be sorely missed.
CONTRIBUTORS
Firmin Ascargorta Bruner was born September 25, 1899, in the Basque Region of Spain. His book, Some Remembered, Some Forgot, relates his experiences in the mining town of Berlin. The "Sage of Central Nevada" happily shares his enthusiasm for life with all.
Peter Berney, a Fallon native, is a math teacher at Yavapai Community College in Prescott, Arizona.
Bunny Corkill is a Research Assistant at the Churchill County Museum.
Carol Cote is the Photography Curator at the Churchill County Museum and has indexed over 64,000 negatives, photos and prints.
Bill Davis was born and raised in Fallon. He has won many awards for his art work and is an interviewer with the Museum's Oral History program.
Gene Doughty is a student at Western Nevada Community College and won second place in the college's 1993 poetry contest.
Adam Fortunate Eagle is a member of the Minnesota Red Lake band of Chippewa. He owns the Roundhouse Gallery and is known for his skill as an artist and for his teaching of Native American traditions.
Madge Berney Kindig is a Fallon native who has pursued a hobby of writing stories at her home in Paradise, California.
Marian Hennon LaVoy is an Elko native. Chosen as the AAUW 1991 Woman of the Year, she is an active participant in the Museum's Oral History Program.
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110 Contributors
Stan Lehman was born in 1945 and raised in the St. Clair district of Churchill County. His father was in charge of "outside" cattle for the Bass Ranch. Stan's love of poetry began when he read poetry in old magazines in his Dad's line shack. He began writing as a child, but only began reciting about 5 years ago. He has been featured as a State Poet at the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering since 1989. His first book is in progress.
Michon Mackedon is an English Instructor at Western Nevada Community College. She holds a B.A. in history and a Master's Degree in English, both from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the Editor of In Focus.
Teresa Moon is a student at Western Nevada Community College and was third place winner in the college's 1993 poetry contest.
Joseph R. Nardone, a resident of Laguna Hills, California, has devoted his full time to the pursuit of the history of the Pony Express.
Jane Pieplow has been the Director/Curator of the Churchill County Museum since November of 1992.
Marie Sundquist is a student at Western Nevada Community College and was the first place winner in the college's 1993 poetry contest. She is a volunteer for Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge.
CHURCHILL COUNTY
MUSEUM & ARCHIVES
1050 South Maine Street
Fallon, NV 89406
(702) 423-3677
MUSEUM STAFF
Jane Pieplow, Director/Curator
Diane Miller, Registrar
Carol Cote, Curator of Photographs
Bunny Corkill, Research Assistant
Laurada Hannifan, Senior Hostess
Paulie Alles, Attendant/Hostess
Felice De Los Reyes, Attendant/Hostess
Clydene Mickelson, Attendant/Hostess.
Bob Walker, Attendant/Host
Ces Jacobsen, Tour Guide
William A. Landman, Computer Consultant
IN FOCUS STAFF
Michon Mackedon, Editor
Loree Branby, Volunteer
William A. Landman, Typesetter
PRODUCTION CREDITS 1992-1993 ISSUE
Production Photography: Carol Cote
Typesetting: Amiga 2500/40 with a NEC LC 890 Postscript
Laser Printer and Professional Page v4.0a software
Production: Reno Printing, Reno, Nevada
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 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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