Washoe County, Nevada - The whole text, 1888 (part 3 of 3)

There is a great empire on the shores of Salt Lake which considered itself powerful enough in 1857 to undertake to dictate to the United States Government Comparatively young, the marvelous growth and improvement of Mormondom is unprecedented, especially in this age of common sense, reason, civilization and progress, when we take into consideration the doctrines of the polygamists, their uses and abuses of the laws of nature, and their opposition to refined sentiment and feeling. The query of the why and wherefore of the richness and prosperity of the Mormon people naturally follows, and we answer: The Mormon laborer and the Mormon rancher gives his trade and custom to the home merchant, The merchants and butchers, as far as lies in their power, take the products of the home ranches. The Mormon takes the money he earns at home and circulates it at home among his friends. No Gentile or Jew can obtain a ten-cent piece of Mormon money in exchange for goods or other com- modity if it can be helped. Rock by rock they build an arch, with a keystone of "home support' ' and the more outside pressure brought to bear it down only serves to make it stronger. Now, friends, these facts contain "food for thought" for business men and others. When you learn to take this lesson to heart and to practice it in all its phases, associations and relations, to make its sentiments your own, we will all prosper together and build an empire on the banks of the Truckee*

Summary

Reno, a place of 5,000 inhabitants and the county-seat of Washoe, is charmingly situated at the base of the snowy ranges, on the Truckee River, in the beautiful Truckee Meadows, at an altitude ol 4,507 feet above the tide-water. It is a terminus of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, of the Nevada & California Railroad, and an important station on the Central Pacific Railroad, being the base of supplies and the shipping point for the largest agricultural region in the State, and the principal forwarding point for Carson, Empire, Silver City, Gold Hill and Virginia; and, since, the town site was established twenty years ago, the march has been onward and rapid. She has outgrown her limits once, and bids fair to do so again. Where but two decades ago were a few miserable shanties, there are to-day blocks of costly and substantial brick houses, rows of neat cottages, pleasant dwellings, with modern improvements, and many superb residences. Her public men are honest, energetic and enterprising; her people are well-to-do, pleasant, sociable and temperate; her children are precocious and the pictures of health; her driveways are good, and her resorts (Laughton's and Steamboat Springs) are sanitariums unexcelled. Furnished with an abundance oi water, gas and a splendid electric light, she shines by night as well as by day. Private and public schools of all grades, churches of prominent religions, the best appointed and prettiest inland theater on the coast, substantial iron and wooden bridges, established and growing manufactories, railroads draining rich tributary districts and extensive stock ranges, a valuable water power at the door, the seat of justice of a rich and prosperous county, blessed with an unequaled climate, State and county buildings, set in the Truckee Meadows, a place of beauty and joy forever, surrounded by manifold natural advantages, it offers every requirement necessary to the growth, advancement and maintenance ot a large city. Slowly, steadily, surely, does she move towards her destined end, and she wants neither boom nor pressure.

A Fairyland

Truckee Meadows on the banks of the Truckee river, and surrounding Reno, were known to the earliest emigrants who followed the winding course of the beautiful stream, when on their way to the land of Gold. With what greedy longing eyes they gazed upon the marvelous landscape in all its splendid wealth and beauty as it came from God, with its virginity yet unmarred by the hand of man. The cool, sparkling water of the river, dashing and dancing through the canyon, and guarded by frowning mountain in forest armor, there playing among the boulders, and here flowing in peaceful security through green borderland, must have won sincere praise and heartfelt admiration from these weary travelers. There the tall and stately pine reared his regal head, and here the generous Cottonwood dispensed her grateful shade. Attracted by this wildness and wealth came the following pioneers, who took up most of the natural grass lands: William Steele, Sol. Gehler, Daniel Harl, Jess Brothers, J. E. Chapman, Pete Young, Jerry Gance, Ike Gance, Lem. Savage, N. C. Haslund, Stone & Gates, E. C. Sessions, Cormack & Gulling, Charles Chase, Jim Holbrook, Jim Ferguson, Laughton Bros., Theo. Lewis, J. A. Blasdell, Owens & Ing, John George, A. J. Clark.

For health, wealth, vegetables, hay, grain, fruit and other products, Truckee Meadows cannot be equaled. Mr. James Sullivan produced on his ranch the sack of wheat and the bale of hay that took the first premium for the world at the New Orleans Exposition.

'Twenty years ago there were no good houses abroad in Truckee Meadows; and no trees, save a fringe of willows and cottonwoods along the Truckee. Now handsome residences and groves and orchards loom up all over the valley, and thousands of cattle and horses are grazing where once existed only rocks and sagebrush. What a marvelous change greets our eyes, as we stand on this eminence ( the University grounds), and behold what wonders have been wrought in this section in the last ten rears ! As, at that date, we came from Long Valley to the brow of the hills overlooking the Truckee Meadows, we saw little else than apparent barrenness and desolation brooding over this region. We repeat, what a change breaks upon our vision ! Rocks and sagebrush chaotically disseminated, now transtormed into rock-walled and flowery verdant fields of golden grain and luxuriant vegetation, with trees crowning the eminences and lining the highways and lawns, with sleek cattle browsing upon the rich pasturage, the busy hum of machinery in manufactories, the minareted and turret-crowned public edifices, the flourishing public schools, college, seminary, and university here located, throwing a halo of prospective literary glory over the locality, and all this interspersed with picturesque scenery and flowing fountains and singing birds, are some of the triumphs of a single decade of years; while all beyond is a mental vista of beauty and gladness/'

In the matter of agriculture, its chief interest and resource, Washoe is the leading county in the State. Its surface area is 1, 195 square miles, or 764,800 acres, divided as follows:

Washoe County lies on the western boundary of the State, and partly on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and is particularly favored by nature in its geographical position and manifold resources. Its numerous valleys afford a rich, prolific soil, which produces all the varieties of cereals, vegetables, fruits, etc., and that in quantity and quality unexcelled, according to the premiums held by Ross Lewers, Jim Sullivan and others. The mountains afford timber, lumber and fuel, as well as an abundance of water to moisten the soil and afford a cheap and durable water power. While it may be classed as an agricultural county, many minerals peculiar to the State may be found within its borders. Again, her great wealth does not lie in her valleys and mountains of mineral veins, for her almost barren and utter deserts furnish salt, borax and nitre, while in her hills are found gypsum, asbestos, silica, cinnabar, plumbago, bituminous shale, coal, etc.

Truckee River

Rising in the overflow of the beautiful Lake Tahoe, the Truckee River is nearly wholly within the confines of Washoe County. By far die most beautiful and picturesque river which Nevada possesses, its cold, crystal waters, teeming with mountain trout, thunder down the woody gorges of the eastern Sierra, and at length empty themselves into Pyramid and Winnemucca Lakes. Having a considerable fall, a rapid current, a large volume of water, and many eligible sites for the erection of machinery, it has been, is, and will be, used for manufacturing purposes; while as an easily available means of irrigating a large area of country, it is bound to attract attention and capital and-through you to the enterprising agriculturists of the Silver State, my appreciation of your excellent display of fruit, grains, vegetables and grasses made at our exposition. The fruit, chiefly apples, was superior in size, beauty and flavor, being wholly free from worms or insects of any kind. The fact that it was grown wholly by irrigation gave it an added beauty in our eyes, 'fhe apples stood up well in this trying climate without help from cold storage. Some of your varieties were the finest here; in the number of varieties exhibited your display was surpassed only by that from Arkansas, while in the quality it was firstclass throughout As for a fruit display, it was wholly unexpected, and a surprise to us all. Your vegetables, especially the potatoes, were remarkable for their size; uniformity of shape, and compactness of texture. The flavor and general table qualities I did not test personally. I was particularly interested in your fine specimens of "snowflake," a superior variety originated by an old friend and neighbor in Vermont, and I very much regret that I did not sample their quality, as they were superior in appearance to any I ever saw among the Green Mountains - another instance of race improvement by emigration. Of your grain, I was chiefly attracted by your wheat and oats; the plumpness, hardness and weight of the grain commanded immediate attention. Your wheat was especially noteworthy; the indicated yield of 60 bushels per acre and 68 pounds to the bushel was quite beyond my ideas of wheat crops. The average wheat yield in this country is about 14 bushels, and of Great Britain about 29 bushels per acre, but you exhibited wheat with a record of 60 bushels per acre. Surely your young commonwealth has something of which to be proud, besides her mountains and her mines, and I shall watch with interest the agricultural development of your State, etc.

Home

Love of home is a strong attribute of the human mind, and it is a mean man who will not put his best foot forward when discussing his Own county. The writer was recently questioned by a party of boom-seekers about Reno as a place to live, and promptly said: "It is the best place in die world." A bright-looking man suggested, "You mean the best in Nevada/' but was answered, " No; I mean the best in the world," and being put upon his mettle, the next thing was to prove it As all error contains a grain of truth, there is much reason even in this extreme statement. Reno, in common with the rest of Nevada, has no floods, no tornadoes and no epidemics. Its high altitude and dry air secure it from the possibility of those dreadful scourges that periodically paralyze so many less favored lands. No portion of America has suffered less from earthquakes, while malaria, hydrophobia and sunstroke are unknown. Although every one remarks the absence of- the beautitul forests and bright verdure with which a heavier rainfall clothes nature east of the mountains, yet Washoe provides as well for the limited number who live on her resources as any land beneath the sun. If people here practiced a tithe of the economy of China, where they farm the land with a spoon; or of France, where they farm it with a spade; or even of the Eastern States, everybody would be rich. But our farmers would rather live rich than die rich, although many of them do both ; so they indulge their taste for travel and dress, church or theater, while many play billiards and smoke cigars; and they can afford to do so, when they get two hundred dollar land for forty. So long as the markets are as they are now, the farmwife can keep help, the farmer can hire even his buggy team hitched up, and they can be the lady and gentleman of the ranch, instead of the plodding farmer and his wife as seen in older countries,

But the pressure of population is forcing people in upon us, and the landowner who has not the energy or prudence to use the resources at his hand will be displaced soon, and the method of the pioneer will give way to the closer calculations of the scientific agriculturist and arborist. Those who cannot see any undeveloped resources in this county must indeed be blind. The most careless observer who has visited both places must know that, compared with the Los Angeles country, Washoe County has ten times as much water and five times as much good land. It is no further from Reno to the brown hills east than it is from

Los Angeles to the Sierra Madre, and this valley is only a fraction of the land within reach of the Truckee's waters. The valleys to the north and east of Reno would support as many people as Washoe County now has, if irrigated and farmed, and we can afford to exchange the oranges of Los Angeles for the firm and luscious apples of the eastern foothills, the fig for the Washoe potato, the best in the world, her murky fogs for our sunny skies, and her negative calms for the healthful breath of the pine and the fir.

It is the simple truth that only a fraction of Washoe County's resources have been brought into service. She has beyond all question many valuable mines, but they are in the prospecting stage still. Vast deposits of iron lie within sight of Reno. Potter's clay makes mountains in several corners of the county. Limestone, salt, gypsum, sulphur and other common minerals are to be found in addition to gold, silver and copper. Great forests of pine and fir still abound, although equally great ones have been cut off and made into lumber and mining timbers. The enormous water power of the Truckee River, which crosses the county, has hardly been measured, much less used. It fells from ten to forty, and even sixty, feet per mile, and in many places can be carried up so as to give a head oi fourteen or fifteen feet by 1,000 feet oi canal, thus furnishing a water power of from 100 to 200 horse power at a trifling expense. That its banks will some day be lined with quartz mills, woolen factories, wood-working machines, paper mills, and similar enterprises, goes without saying.

But the surest source of wealth has not been mentioned. The capacity of the mountains surrounding our fine valleys for artificial lakes, is enormous, and while the wasteful use of water will be succeeded by an economy which will spread the present supply over double the surface now irrigated, it will be supplemented by an equally large amount when all the reservoir sites are used. Dozens of dams, of various sizes, can be constructed at reasonable cost, and then the Spring floods which now tear their way down the mountain sides and through the valleys will be stored up to be drawn upon in July and August, when they are needed. These additions to the meadows and grain fields already cultivated will influence the climate and increase the natural moisture sufficiently to make grain growing profitable without artificial irrigation. This is possible now in many favorable spots, and is quite common in the large country lying between the Overland railroad and the Oregon line, and it will be universal on land lying within twenty miles of the Sierra Nevadas within a score oi years. With Summer fallowing and Fall sowing Washoe County sagebrush lands are surer of a crop than Colusa County, or the west side of the San Joaquin. The markets will always be the highest in the country, because wheat cannot be shipped in without a big freight rate, and the domestic market cannot be overstocked. Home mills grind up all the native wheat, besides shipping in from California constantly, so there is no danger from overproduction.

Neither are the brown hills and dry plains of Washoe County without their value. Even while waiting for a better water supply they furnish subsistence lor thousands of cattle and hundreds of thousands oi sheep, which by the ease with which they are maintained, and the trifling cost of marketing them, rapidly enrich their owners. It is as a place of residence, however, that Washoe County towns, particularly Reno, appeal to those seeking a change. No place in the world has more sunshine or can record a greater number oi clear days every year. The Winters are as lovely as the Summers, not in the sense that there is no irost, but in the absolute freedom from intense cold, and slushy storms of sleet or hail. December and January are as bright as August, and are usually free from snow. The nights are cold, and the frost sparkles crisp and lively in the mornings, but withal, the days are beautiful, and a buggy ride or a walk is always enjoyable. As a sanitarium it is doubtful if it can be excelled. Mineral springs, well-fitted up for steam or hot water baths, are found in several parts of the county, and the air is a specific for asthma. No case of ague or consumption was ever known to originate here, and the health of the inhabitants is the best proof of the excellence of the climate. As a mirth-loving lady one day remarked: "It is so healthy here that it is positively vulgar. " the world as it is in climate. The berries, apricots and peaches of Newcasde and Sacramento are loaded on the cars at 8 or 9 at night, and delivered at Reno at daylight next morning. Their first crop is soon gone, and then the Washoe County crop comes in, with plenty for home use, but none for California or the East, so that for nearly the whole Summer the people of Washoe enjoy luxuries which are only had at short seasons elsewhere. In the substantial no county has such quantity and quality at anything like the price. Washoe apples, potatoes and wheat took prizes at New Orleans from the whole earth. The English claim that roast beef conquered the world; the Irish claim that they built the railroads and canals ot Christendom, and got their support from a potato diet! If we raise the best beef and the best potatoes in the world, what more need be said.

Election Precincts County Officers

The first were appointed by Jas. W. Nye, then Governor of the Territory of Nevada. - Sheriff, Chas. C. Smith; Clerk, P. E. Shannon; Recorder, Isaac Mears and R. F. Riddle; Treasurer, H. H. Luce; Surveyor, D. B. Scott; Commissioners, H.

Elected in September. 1862 (for 1864). - Sheriff, T. A. Reed ; Clerk, C. C. Conger; Recorder, P, E. Shannon; Treasurer, Fred. A. Ent; Tax Collector, Wm. Gregory; Assessor, S.C. Jolly; Commissioners, Samuel McFarland, D. J. Gloyd and

Elected in September, 1863 (Territory). - Sheriff, T. A. Reed; Clerk, C. C. Conger (resigned), W. P. L. Winham (appointed); Recorder, P. E. Shannon; Treasurer, F. A. Ent; Assessor, S. C. Jolly ; Tax Collector, Wm. Gregory; District Attorney, J. F. Lewis; Superintendent of Schools, G. A. Weed; Commissioners, S. McFarland, D. J. Gloyd, H. H. Beck (resigned), G. W. Folsom (appointed).

Elected November, 1864 (for 1865-66). - District Judge, C. N. Harris (four years); Sheriff, W. N. Thurman; Clerk, M. L. Yager; Recorder, H. L. Fish; Treasurer, Jno. P. McFarland; Assessor, T. A. Reed ; District Attorney, Wm. Webster; Superintendent of Schools, A. F. Hitchcock ; Public Administrator, Nat. Holmes ; Surveyor, Orvis Ring ; Commissioners, J. H. Snodgrass, H. M. Frost and A. C. Cleevland.

Treasurer, R. A. Frazer; Assessor, Wm. Thompson; District Attorney, Wm. M. Boardman; Superintendent of Schools, A. F. Hitchcock ; Surveyor, E. L. Bridges; Commissioners, T. K. Hymers, T G. Herman and Geo. Robinson.

Elected 1872. - Sheriff, Jos. E. Jones; Clerk, Jno. S. Shoemaker; Recorder, Chas. A. Richardson; Treasurer, R. A. Frazer; Assessor, D. B. Boyd; District Attorney, Wm. M. Boardman; Superintendent of Schools, Orvis Ring; Surveyor, A. J. {latch ; Public Administrator, Wm. Stopher; Commissioners, T. K. Hymers, E. B. Towl and Peleg Brown.

Elected 1876. - Sheriff, A. K. Lamb; Clerk, P. B. Comstock; Recorder, John B. Williams; Treasurer, B. B. Norton; Assessor, H. L. Fish; District Attorney, Wm. Cain; Superintendent of Schools, Orvis Ring; Surveyor, A. J. Hatch; Public Administrator, N. C Haslund; Commissioners, O. C. Ross, T. K. Hymers, and W. H. Joy.

Elected 1878 (for 1879-80). - District Judge, Samuel D. King; Sheriff, W. A. Walker; Clerk, Mark Parish; Recorder, J. B. Williams; Treasurer, D. B. Boyd; Assessor, W. F. Everett; Superintendent of Schools, A. Dawson; Public Administrator, C. W. Jones; District Attorney, John Bowman; Commissioners, T. K. Hymers, R. H. Kinney and E Olinghouse.

Elected 1880 (for 1881-82). - Sheriff, W. A. Walker; Clerk, R. S. Osburn; Recorder, J. B. Williams; Treasurer, D. B. Boyd; Assessor, J. M. Flannagan; District Attorney. Geo. A. Rankin ; Superintendent of Schools, M. D. Bowen ; Surveyor, W. W. Skinner; Public Administrator, W. H. Dickens; Commissioners, R. H. Kinney, Jos. Frey and D. H. Lodge.

Elected 1884 (for 1885-86). - Sheriff, J. F. Emmitt; Clerk, T. V. Julien; Recorder, J. B. Williams; Treasurer, D. B. Boyd; Assessor, C. H. Stoddard; District Attorney, J. F. Alexander; Superintendent of Schools, Jno. A. Lewis (resigned), N. W. Roff (appointed); Public Administrator, H. P. Brown; Surveyor, E. L. Bridges; Commissioners, S. G. Fogus, T. K. Hymers and C. A. Lee.

Ad Ver Tisements

The State University, located at Reno, offers excellent opportunities to young men and young women who desire to obtain a good education at a reasonable cost. This institution is a part of the Public School system of the State, and and is free to all residents of Nevada.

Cor. Sierra And Third Streets, Reno, Nevada

Orders solicited from every section of the sagebrush country. The saloon connected with the establishment is one of the best appointed in the State, and always cool and pleasant

Reno, Nevada

Bedroom Suite*, Parlor Suite, Lounges, Mattresses, All kinds cf Chairs and Tables, Kitchen Safes and Wardrobes, Chair Bottoms, Picture Frames, Mirrors and window Poles, also the 17 Improved Household-Treasure Kitchen Table, Children's Carriages, etc.