Press Church School

Small Town Detours

IN NEVADA, as elsewhere, the three great institutions forming public opinion—the press, the church, and the school—have been supplemented in recent years by two others, the movies and the radio. Numerous small towns have at least one movie show a week, attended by audiences largely composed of people from widely scattered ranches. The radio is probably more influential, however, for it can be heard seven days a week without the inconvenience of a long trip to town and ninety-five per cent of the ranches have radios. Nevada has certain reception difficulties; there are a few small areas where no radio will operate, and in the western parts of the State it is sometimes difficult to get any station but Reno's KOH and in the northeastern part Salt Lake's KSL—at least during the day. In the evening it is usually possible to tune in stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Denver, and occasionally stations much farther away. KOH, which is the only Nevada station and operates on 630 kilocycles, was set up in 1931 as part of the Columbia network, but in 1940 it joined the red and blue NBC net.

While the publication of newspapers has had its difficulties, the building of churches and schools in Nevada has been a particularly heroic business. Clergymen and teachers would labor to organize churches and schools, promote the building of structures apparently justified by the size of the population and its prosperity—and wake up some morning to find that most of the citizens and their families had disappeared in a rush to some new mining discovery. The State is dotted with deserted public buildings, their windowpanes broken, the paint peeling from their doors—all monuments to public-spirited people whose zeal survived the wrecking of their plans. Though unable to take their plants with them, as the State's pioneer editors did, they themselves could and did move on to the new camps and start their work over again.

the first to reach a large part of the population. Interest in news was so great that even the little peripatetic camps at the southern end of the Virginia Range had hand-written news sheets in circulation. These were the Scorpion and the Gold Canyon Switch of 1854. Nevada's first printed newspaper was the Territorial Enterprise, which Alfred James and W. L. Jernegan began to puhlish at Genoa on December 18, 1858, when the population of the whole region that was to be Nevada was less than a thousand.

The Enterprise was also first of the many presses that moved from center to center, shifting with the population when mining excitement developed in a new zone. The Enterprise, unlike some other papers, took its name as well as its equipment, when it moved. The files of the Enterprise, which in the beginning was brought out with a hand-press, provide the most complete record of Nevada's early years* In the beginning the contents consisted largely of dry little items on the outside world that had been collected from passing travelers. Then, as Nevada came to life with the great strike in Washoe, the tone of the writing was adapted to the tempo of the day. Before long there were fiery editorials filled with tart, intemperate statements, chiefly personal, and such matter as would lead to the belief that the editor must have written them while balancing his pen against a six-shooter. Between accounts of rich new discoveries and predictions of more wonderful ones to come were articles that trace the political opinions and events of the period culminating in statehood at the end of October, 1864.

The Enterprise, in November, 1859, was moved from Genoa to Carson City, seat of the reorganized Carson County of Utah Territory. A year later it was purchased by Jonathan Williams and L B. Wollard and moved to Virginia City, which almost overnight, after the discovery of rich silver ore, had become the center of Western Utah. On March 2, 1861, Joseph T. Goodman and D. E. McCarthy bought out Wollard's interests in the publication and in a short time Williams sold out to D. DriscolL The publication became a daily on September 24, 1861, and steam power was installed on July 31, 1863. In October of that year Goodman and McCarthy became the owners, but two years later on September 15, McCarthy sold out to Goodman, who remained the owner until early in February, 1874.

Some of the journalists of the early Virginia City period were brilliant men and the genius of Mark Twain was fostered and developed by his association with them. Notable were JL H. Daggett, who on occasioa could prove himself a happy, lovable liar, able to smooth

troubled waters with a preposterous story; Joseph T. Goodman, who employed him; and Dan DeQuille (William Wright), who wrote stories on any subject, and whose vocabulary was truly remarkable. In fact, the expert use of forcible words was characteristic of the Enterprise office; there were typesetters who could hurl anathemas at bad copy that would have frightened a Bengal tiger, and the news editor could damn a mutilated dispatch in twenty-four languages.

Dan DeQuille, usually the most painstaking and accurate of reporters, could, when faced with lack of news and empty columns, invent an item that would take the country by storm. An example of this is his story of the "solar armor". The contraption, DeQuille wrote, consisted of a suit of India rubber equipped with a compact air compressor operated by a pocket battery. According to DeQuille, when the wearer found himself uncomfortably warm he had but to touch a button to get air-conditioning, and when sufficiently cooled he could touch another button to turn ofi the power. The inventor, according to the story, undertook to test the suit one afternoon when the thermometer was registering 117 degrees in the shade. Putting on the outfit he started across Death Valley. After he had failed to return a party started to search for him. Four or five miles out on the desert lay his body. He had apparently started the compressor, but, unable to $top it, had frozen to death. The machine was still running and an icicle eighteen inches long hung from the dead man's nose.

The London newspapers accepted this tale as fact and heartily tn- dorsed the invention.

To "Semblins" (W. J. Forbes) of tie Enterprise is attributed the remark: "I know Governor Nye has a dam by a mill site but no mill by a dam site," when the State spent a $75,ooo appropriation on an inadequate dam, leaving no funds for the proposed mill

That Mark Twain was not merely an unknown cub-reporter when working for the Enterprise is evidenced in the pages of rival papers, which took a continuous series of potshots at him. In 1863 he seems to have been a pet subject of abuse for the Virginia Evening Bulletin, which, among other disparaging remarks, said: "At the solicitation of about 1500 of our subscribers we will refrain from again entering into a controversy with that beef-eating, blear-eyed, hollow-headed, slab- sided ignoramus, that pilfering reporter, Mark Twain." The Bulletin had apparently come off second best on some point of reporting against the man whose remarkable imagination was even then working at full speed.

In 1874 the Enterprise went under control of the Enterprise Publishing Company, of which R.M. Daggett was the brains, and William Sharon the financier. Sharon (See Tour 8) wanted to go to the United States Senate, and bought the newspaper to further his ambitions. In 1872, when he had returned from California to push the matter, Goodman had published a "Welcome":

" . . . . Your expected return, Mr. Sharon, has offered no opportunity for public preparation, and you will consequently accept these simple remarks as an unworthy but earnest expression of the sentiments of a people who feel that they would be lacking in duty of self respect if they failed upon such occasion to make a deserved recognition of your acts and character. You are probably aware that you have returned to a community where you are feared, hated, and despised ..."

". . . . Your character in Nevada for the past nine years has been one of merciless rapacity. You fastened yourself upon the vitals of the state like a hyena, and woe to him who disputed with you a single coveted morsel of your prey . . . you cast honor, honesty, and the commonest civilities aside. You broke faith with men, whenever you could subserve your purpose by so doing .. . . "

When Sharon failed of appointment by the legislature he organized the company to buy Goodman out. Under the new owner the paper changed its tune:

"Mr. Sharon has lived in Nevada for ten years. By his sagacity, energy, and nerve, he has amassed a fortune. This is his crime. He has done what he has without once breaking his plighted word, without once violating one principle of business honor. While doing this he has carried with his own, the fortunes of hundreds, and never once betrayed a trust or confidence .... The present prosperity of Western Nevada is more due to him than to any other ten men, and should his work here be stricken out, with it would go at once two-thirds of our people, improvements and wealth."

In November, 1875, after Sharon had been elected to the Senate, Daggett severed his connection with the paper and Judge Charles C. Goodwin became the editor. Daggett resumed the editorship on December I, 1877, and in the following year was himself elected to Congress. His mantle again fell on Goodwin's shoulders, who remained as editor-in-chief until 1880, when Fred Hart succeeded him; Hart in turn gave way to Colonel Henry G. Shaw in 1881. The Enterprise continued independent publication until 1919, when it was merged with the Virainia Chronicle, only other survivor of the bonanza period.

Under a series of editors ending with Dennis E. McCarthy, who had been with Goodman on the early Enterprise and took it over on May 24, 1874, this paper also attained great influence until the decline of Comstock mining. The combined papers survived under different owners until 1927. Now the Virginia City News, printed on a hand-press, is the only paper published in Virginia City,

Over the Divide on the Comstock, in Gold Hill, Alf Doten started the Daily News on October 12, 1863. According to Wells Drury, who worked with Doten on the News, it expired in a manner that was typical of the period:

"Alf Doten was just placing the neck of the ginger-ale bottle across his thumb, as was his custom when called on to do his own pouring, when all at once his attention was attracted by a sign behind Charley Price's bar. The sign read: 'At midnight all drinks in this saloon reduced to ten cents' .... 'Thus passeth the glory of the world,' exclaimed Doten, forgetting to imbibe the tempting fluid which mantled the goblet.

" 'It doesn't seem to me that I can endure this humiliation/ said Alf, addressing a faithful companion who was always willing to stand by in such trying times.

"The clock showed the time to be n 155. In a few minutes the brag of Gold Hill that it was able to support at least one first-class drinking place would be wiped out.

" 1 want to have the honor of buying the last two-bit drink in the old town/ said Alf . . .

"The clock made that premonitory w-h-r-r-ing sound to indicate that the hour was about to be struck.

" 'Here's to the departure of Gold Hill's glory and pride/ was the toast they proposed, and they drank in silence.

" 'Not much use trying to run a nonpareil paper in a long-primer town any longer/ said Doten. *I was willing to stick it out as long as there was a living chance, but now that there is nothing but ten-cent shebangs, the old News might as well suspend.' "

A notable instance of the peripatetic and transitory character of early publishing plants in Nevada is found in the perigrinations of the Silver •Age> which succeeded the Territorial Enterprise when the pioneer paper left Carson City for the Comstock in 1859. The Silver Age, a weekly published by John C. Lewis and a partner named Sewall, was Union in politics and was favored by the legislature with the first public printing. In November, 1862, the plant was sold to John Church, S.

A. Glessner, and J. L. Laird, who moved it to Virginia City and changed the paper's name to the Daily Union. W. J. Forbes became its next owner, in the autumn of 1868, and promptly changed its name to the Trespass. Then John L Ginn and Robert E. Lowry took over the stock and for a few months the Trespass was the Safeguard. But not for long. J. J. Ayres and C. A V. Putnum bought the press, moved it to White Pine County to publish the Inland Empire—until Governor L. R. Bradley purchased the plant, only to sell it shortly afterward to Holmes C. Patrick, who took it back to California, where it originally came.

The Evening Crescent, which was moved in 1868 from Washoe City, where it had been the Eastern Slope, was the first paper in Reno. Although Carson City newspapers predicted an unfavorable existence for Reno, which had sprung to life as a freighting and distribution point on the Central Pacific Railroad, the town prospered and its newspapers have shown the same progression as its other business. Numerous publications beside the Crescent have come and gone. The daily Nevada State Journal, which started in 1870 has had a long list of editors and owners, including such persons as the former Governors Emmet D. Boyle and James G. Scrugham. The Reno Evening Gazette began publication in 1876 as a daily under John Alexander, then passed to the Fulton interests. The Sanford brothers published the Gazette from 1915 until 1939. It is now included among the Speidel interests, but Graham Sanford is still editor and publisher (1940). Other Reno publications are the Bolletino del Nevada, an Italian weekly and the sole foreign language publication of Nevada; the weekly U. of N. Sagebrush, published by the Associated Students of the University of Nevada during the school year; and the bi-weekly Nevada Mining Press. The adjacent town of Sparks has its semi-weekly Tribune.

Among the notable mining camp papers was the Esmeralda Union, published in Aurora from 1864 to 1868, It was obliged to cease publication when mining petered out. Belmont, in Nye County, had a one- day paper, the Silver Age Extra, which printed Civil War news on July 4, 1862, and also had the Silver Bend Weekly Reporter in 1867, the Mountain Champion in 1868, and the Belmont Courier in 1874.

Austin's Reese River Reveille, which first appeared in 1863 during territorial days, has followed the variable fortunes of that famous old mining camp. Now a weekly, it features reprinted articles from the first files, recalling the town's colorful past. The name of the paper, which is published in Lander County, it perpetuated in the Reveille

Mining District of central Nye County, discovered in 1866, and the Reveille Range, which includes the district The Reveille is the oldest continuously published paper in the state.

Eureka, the cradle of lead-smelting industry in the United States, i» unique in the Nevada newspaper field; its Eureka Sentinel, which has been brought out continuously since 1870, has, with the exception of six years during the 1870% been controlled by men and women of the Archibald Skillman family. The Sentinel has faithfully recorded all central State news, including all the ups-and-downs of Eureka mining history, since the day when the husky oriental, "Chinaman Mike/' began to turn the crank of the old hand press. It even appeared on the day in 1879 when, though the Sentinel building withstood a fire that swept a large part of the town, the paper's crew set up "hot" copy with wet blankets draped over their heads to ward off the heat Another notable incident in its career occurred when one of its reporters narrowly escaped with his life after making disparaging statements concerning a citizen's legs.

In Eureka, too, was the Cupel, which printed its best until a cloudburst sent a flood through the canyon town in 1784, drowning the editor and sweeping the printing-plant away. This paper's name was of especial significance to everyone in the mining town of Eureka; all the camp's ores required smelting and assayers in testing them had to use a cupel, a receptacle of bone ash. Half a dozen other papers in the Eureka section, including the Ruby Hill Mining News, whose editor died in a gun fight, printed their last edition before 1890.

The White Pine News, started in Treasure City in 1868, moved to near-by Hamilton in 1870, thence to Cherry Creek, then to Taylor, and last to Ely in 1890, when Denver S. Dickerson, later acting-governor, became its publisher. In 1923, by merger and purchase, the News and the Expositor of Ely were united into the present Ely Daily Times, of which Vail Pittman is editor and publisher (1940). Ely also has a weekly newspaper, the Record. Papers were published at Ward and Schellbourne, in the Ely vicinity, but their careers were brief.

When the Pioche mines were first worked on a large scale and a town was formed, the Ely Record was Johnny-on-the-spot with the news in 1870, followed by several others. The Pi^che Record is a weekly at present The neighboring town of Caliente still publishes the weekly Herald. During the years when Delamar led the State in gold production, the Delamar Lode served its population.

tions of the State were customary in the early days, particularly if a paper unwittingly gave its rivals a chance to exercise their caustic sense of humor. When in 1874 tne &**<> Journal advised that, "a newspaper warmed and placed inside the waistcoat will keep out the cold better than a large amount of clothing; now is the time to subscribe," the Piocke Record commented, "We have often wondered as to what the object was of publishing the Reno Journal; the above paragraph informs us it is to supply underclothing." Carson City's Daily Nevada Tribune gleefully reprinted the jibe.

Las Vegas, which did not become a town until 1905, has had several newspapers, the most persistent of which has been the Age, now a weekly, and the Review-Journal, the present daily, which also publishes a weekly Review-Journal for neighboring Boulder City.

In 1863, when the mining town of Unionville was the seat of Hum- boldt County, the Humboldt Register appeared, and it continued until 1869, when it moved to Winnemucca with the county courthouse but survived only briefly. Its plant was taken to Elko and used for the Independent of E. D. Kelly and Company. The daily Star of Winnemucca represents a merger of the old Silver State, which started in 1869 and was once owned by George S. Nixon, and the old Star, which began publication in 1906. Neighboring Paradise has had its Paradise Reporter and its Local Messenger: National had its Miner. Battle Mountain publishes a weekly Scout and has had several intermittent publications. Lovelock has its weekly Review-Miner, a merger of the old Seven Troughs Miner and the Lovelock Review. Former papers of surrounding areas are the Rochester Weekly, the Seven Troughs District News, and the Vernon Review.

In the northeastern part of the State is the Elko Free Press, which has progressed through weekly and tri-weekly stages to its present daily status. The Elko Independent has been a weekly, daily, triweekly, and again a weekly publication. The wanderings of newspapers in this area are exemplified by the adventures of the Gold Creek News, which moved to Elko as the Daily Argonaut, and ended up in Golconda as the Golconda News. The trade town of Wells has intermittently had a weekly paper, as typified by the late Progress. Before 1903 the gold camp of Tuscarora had a procession of newspapers. Most recent publication in Elko County is the weekly Messenger, printed in Mountain City since that town became a copper-producing center in 1935.

Similar to the many papers that mining towns have had was at least one oaoer of the ranching district—the Metropolis Chronicle, a short-

lived Elko County weekly published during an ill advised campaign in 1911-13 to bring farmers into the district.

In Carson City, the State capital, where political feuds are not unknown, the rivalry that existed between the newspapers of early days was exceptionally bitter. Personal opinions, which today are couched in polite language, were formerly expressed with extreme truculence and were treated with a seriousness that can well be referred to as deadly: back in 1874 a reporter of the New Daily Appeal and a member of the Daily Tribune shot out their differences with the result that both men were wounded and one of them was crippled for life.

Some Carson papers were purely political campaign sheets, such as the Daily State Democrat, published for three months in 1864, and the Independent, which Adolph Sutro established in 1875 while seeking a seat in the United States Senate. At the time Sutro was digging his tunnel to tap the Comstock Lode and the paper was first printed in the settlement near the tunnel mouth. No less than twelve papers have been printed in Carson, the most persistent of which has been the daily Appeal. The present Chronicle is a weekly. Politics have probably had more than a little to do with the closing down or change of title and policy of other sheets in all the more important towns of the State.

At one time the Democratic Carson News, an afternoon paper, came under the management of Anne Martin, a little spinster untrained in journalism who struggled heroically to edit the paper. Daily, a tall courtly gentleman, the editor of the Tribune, Republican rival of the News, came down the street, entered the office, bowed low to Miss Martin, walked quietly to her desk, and wrote a vituperative editorial in answer to the abusive attack that had appeared in his own sheet that morning.

Editing in the early days was an adventurous undertaking at best During that period, and for years afterwards, Sierra storms or other transportation difficulties sometimes caused a shortage of paper, much to the editors' distress. This is well illustrated by the feud between Sam P. Davis, editor of the Carson Daily Appeal, and Miss Martin, who, whenever they met, engaged in heated arguments on circulation. Davis claimed a preposterous figure and scoffed at Miss Martin's contentions. But one day San Francisco failed to make delivery of paper because of a freight embargo. The News had received the last large order. Davis was frantic. He asked to borrow enough to run off an issue. Miss Martin consented to make the loan if he would take only

enough for true circulation needs. Triumph was sweet; Davis required far less paper than she.

In Douglas County, where the Territorial Enterprise was established, various papers followed, among them the Nevada Prohibitionist, which lasted only a few months in 1888. When much of the population of Genoa shifted to Gardnerville, a merger of the Genoa Weekly Courier, and the Gardnerville Record created the Gardnerville Record-Courier, which still appears weekly. Fallon in Churchill County has two weeklies, the Eagle and die Standard, both of which are more than thirty years old.

The Coma Sentinel (1864), after bringing out thirteen issues in Como, moved with the county seat to Dayton and became the Lyon County Sentinel. When county seat and population later shifted to Yerington, the weekly Mason Galley Newt became the only paper in Lyon County.

The Mineral County Independent and Hawthorne News, a weekly, now supplies the news to Mineral County, where several other papers have given service in the past.

With the discovery of silver at Tonopah and gold at Goldfield in the first years of the century, the journalistic story of the Comstock was repeated. New papers appeared overnight. A survivor of the dozen or more established is the Daily Times and Bonanza of Tonopah; the Goldfield weekly News and Weekly Tribune have now suffered the fate of the Daily Tribune, which represented a merger of several papers in 1909, but disappeared in 1929.

Beatty, Rhyolite, Bullfrog, Manhattan, Tybo, Searchlight, Can- daleria, lone, Columbus, and Grantsville all had their journals, not on* of which lives. The cause of the demise of these papers and of the others was best expressed in the swan song of the Nevada Workman: "The editorial pork chop is becoming more and more elusive. The unprincipled but necessary advertiser is becoming more unprincipled and less willing. The enthusiastic subscriber grows more enthusiastic and beautifully less . . . All these circumstances render it improbable that the Workman will continue to be the weekly delight of its numerous intelligent and busted constituency. Vene, Vidi, Vici; which being interpreted in this case, means, We came, we saw, we got it in the neck.'"

Nevada now has more than thirty newspapers, eight of them published daily, the remainder weekly or bi-weekly. All the dailies have wire-service and are illustrated j the weeklies present little outside news

and give emphasis to local happenings. Both dailies and weeklies use national feature services.

Nevada's first little settlements, made under religious leadership, had a brief existence. In the early 1850*5 Mormons were sent out to trade during the summer with travelers of the overland trail through Carson Valley, and their reports of the valley's fertility led Brigham Young to order several families to take up farms there. The colony was in 1855 placed under the leadership of his right-hand man, Orson Hyde, spiritually as well as politically. Other colonists were sent to the Las Vegas area. But in 1857 the Saints were ordered back to Utah to help resist the troops being sent out to establish Federal rule. The Mormon settlers held religious services regularly during their brief stay. Today the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church, is again becoming a strong unit. Two large churches were erected in 1940, one in Reno and one in Sparks, and there arc smaller churches in many parts of the State,

After the Southwest became part of the United States the Roman Catholic Church in California was reorganized. Although uninhabited except by scattered Indian tribes, what was to become Nevada had been included in the diocese of Sonora and later m the dioceses of the two California^. Then a new diocese, that of Monterey, was created but by 1853 the population of California had increased to such extent that the diocese of Monterey was divided and Nevada came under the direction of Archbishop Alemany of San Francisco. With a further increase in population the archdiocese of San Francisco was again divided, with Nevada north of the thirty-ninth parallel becoming part of the vfcariate apostolic of Marysville; the territory south of the parallel remained under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of San Francisco. In all, Catholic Nevada had been in the archdiocese of San Francisco, the Vicariate of Marysville, the diocese of Grass Valley, the diocese of Sacramento, the vicariatc of Utah, and the diocese of Salt Lake, before I93i> when the diocese of Nevada was created. Owing to the division of the territory, the first two priests coming into it, in 1858 and 1860, were sent out by Archbishop Alemany, and Father Manogue, real founder of the church in Nevada, was sent out, IH 1862, by Bishop O'Connell of Marysville,

The first Catholic church in Nevada was built after the arrival of Father H. P. Gallagher at Geaoa, ki the summer of 1860. Before

this masses had occasionally been celebrated, confessions heard, sermons preached, and other rites of the church administered, but in uncon- secrated structures. Father Manogue, first pastor of Virginia City, built three of its four successive Catholic edifices and much of the early prestige of the Church in the community was the result of the respect and affection he aroused. In addition to the churches he established, he erected an academy, an orphan asylum, and a hospital. Catholic congregations were established in many of the early mining camps of the State soon after they appeared, but only a few have survived. Some of the parishes had their own pastors, others had inter- mittant care. All of the large towns have their own pastors today.

Because of the scattered population, priests at times still say mass under difficult conditions. As late as 1909 mass was said in Rawhide in a saloon. After the usual Saturday night dance, which continued until dawn, the bar and pictures would be shrouded and a packing case turned into an altar, with beer bottles as candle holders.

The California Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was the first to send a spiritual leader into the new mining camps of Nevada; in 1859 it appointed Jesse L. Bennett as circuit rider among the settlements east of the Sierra Nevada. It is told that he preached his first sermon in Virginia City on C street in 1861 and that when he passed a hat for contributions it was filled with coin, nuggets, and dust. Soon Methodist churches were built in Dayton, Washoe, and Gold Hill.

By 1861 both the Baptists and Presbyterians were beginning systematic work. The Reverend Cyrus William Rees, a Baptist clergyman, established headquarters in Dayton and preached also at FortChurchill, Carson City, and Virginia City. Rees remained for a number of years in the area. Aurora also had the services of a Baptist missionary, the Reverend Y. B. Saxon, who early erected a neat chapel. Under the Baptists the first negro congregation of the State was organized in Virginia City, in 1863; it built a church but had a brief existence because of a division of the congregation over the question of a minister. Later, congregations of Baptists were organized in many parts of the State.

The first Presbyterian congregation was actually an interdenominational organization. Other congregations were so widely scattered that one of the early Presbyterian clergymen had a parish half the size of Pennsylvania—as large as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con-

dred miles and one night he stayed with a family that had never before seen a clergyman of any denomination. It is told that in one camp he preached in a hall owned by a saloon-keeper, who obligingly closed his place of business during the church hour and appointed himself to take up the collection; anyone failing to contribute was commanded in a loud voice, "Shell out." In the remote Lamoille Valley chance visitors are surprised by the charm of a church erected many years ago by the Presbyterians under James McCombs.

In 1859 the Protestant Episcopal Church placed the Territory of Nevada in its Northwest missionary field. The first services were held in the United States district court house in Carson City and the Parish of St. Paul's was founded on September i. On April 5, 1862, the parish was allowed a rector and church appointments. The Reverend Franklin S. Rising arrived ten days later and a small frame church was soon erected. In April, 1867, the Reverend O. W.-Whitaker of Englewood, New Jersey, an educational as well as religious leader, replaced Rising, who had resigned because of failing health. After the first church had been swept away in the fire of 1875, a finer building was erected. The Virginia City parish, which soon became important, was proud of its record of support. It is told that when in 1900 the parish was in dire straits the communicants called to mind how Jim Fair had thrown handsful of gold pieces to help the church in the past, how in the early days the vestry had collected four hundred dollars on the street for Bishop Kip's expenses from the coast and back, and how when production and membership declined the congregation had valiantly refused to decrease the salary of their minister to the low figure of two hundred dollars a month.. With this tradition the members refused to lower! the rector's salary at the later date. Several sturdy Episcopal churches have been erected, including St. Peter's in Carson, Stu George's in Austin, St. Luke's in Hamilton, and St. James' in Eureka.

The First Congregational Church of Reno was organized in 1871 and services were inaugurated in a little school house on the south side. The congregation of this church, which in later years became the Federated, originated the first anti-gambling bill, and also fostered the Young Men's Christian Association movement in the State. The church has one of the most active Young People's Leagues of Nevada.

Lutherans appeared in Gardnerville in 1877 but no church was built until 1895. Because the congregation consisted of German and English speaking people, services were conducted alternately in each

language, but in general the English language has prevailed. The next community in which Lutherans settled was Reno; three-fourths of the services were in English and only one-fourth in German.

The first group of Christian Scientists to assemble in Nevada held its first meeting at Elko in the spring of 1903 in a private home. Scientists organized in Goldfield in 1905, in Reno in 1907, Ely in 1907, and Carson City in 1911. A beautiful church was completed in Reno in 1939.

Reno Negroes organized the Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church *& *939« Its choir, which is exceptionally good, has appeared on many concert platforms.

Unity and the Seven Day Adventists have strong followings in Nevada. Temple Emanu-el in Reno ministers to an orthodox Jewish congregation, from which a group is breaking away (1940) to form a new congregation.

Religious organizations of Nevada have had to contend with the problem of large, thinly populated areas, few towns of size, and rapidly shifting centers of population. The results of the United States Religious Census are therefore not surprising. This census is taken by the Government every ten years, with the cooperation of all local and national denominations. The denominations vary somewhat in turning in figures on membership, some giving only actual memberships, others including all children belonging to members of the congregations, and all people considered in the denomination's "sphere of influence"—that is, inactive members and non-members who attend or contribute occasionally. In 1926, the last year for which figures are available, the total church membership of the United States was reported as being 54,576,346, out of a total population of approximately 120,000,000. In Nevada, with a population that was probably dose to the total of 91,000 found in 1930, the church population was 19,769. Of this number the Roman Catholics reported 8,447, the Latter-day Saints 4,889, Protestant Episcopalians 2,933, the Methodists 1,084, the Baptists 674, the Lutherans 497, the Presbyterians 417, the Christian Scientists 180, Jewish congregations 164, the Seventh Day Adventists 125, and the Salvation Army 68. In the total membership reported for the United States, 8,320,785 were under thirteen years of age; in the total Nevada church membership 5,046 were under thirteen years of age, 4,720 in this category being reported by the Latter-day Saints, the Roman Catholics, and the Protestant Episcopalians

Thinly scattered, tending to shift rapidly from place to place, the population of Nevada has confronted educators with problems similar to those with which religious groups have had to contend. But interest in public education has always been great, and provision for a school system supported by county taxation was made when the Territory of Nevada was organized in 1861.

The State constitution in 1864 enlarged the provisions and in 1865 school districts were set up throughout the State and county taxation for schools became compulsory. Later, district taxation was occasionally resorted to. Additional support was in time derived from the investment of permanent school funds made possible by donations of public lands, and a State tax not to exceed twenty cents on a hundred dollars assessed valuation. County superintendents were appointed and their traveling expenses were to be paid by the counties. Although these superintendents were to supervise all schools in their counties, no qualifications for the office were set up, and the amount of their salaries was left to the discretion of the county commissioners.

Good schools were soon established in the larger towns, but the rural districts fared badly. Taxes often being insufficient, they operated with deficits, if at all. But in the main, the people heartily supported education. The Buel Shoe Fund is an outstanding example of the good will shown by the people. In the fall of 1863, when the maintenance of schools was still a rather personal affair, trustees were elected in Austin, and a committee was appointed to raise funds for the first school. A collection of nine hundred and thirty dollars was made. In the following spring the Buel Shoe Fund was added. Colonel Dave Buel, a prominent and successful resident, was a man of prodigious stature; his feet were proportionately large, and he liked his shoes so loose that they always excited surprise and admiration. On May 26, 1864, the citizens, inspired by the spectacular success of the Gridley sack of flour (see Tour 7), brought out a pair of the colonel's shoes and put them up for auction for the benefit of the town schooL Tom Wade, auctioneer, sold and re-sold them until more than one hundred dollars was realized.

Two years earlier the Carson Rowdy Fund had come into existence. Two would-be bad men swaggered down the main aisle of a Carson theatre, armed with bowie knives and six-shooters, and ordered the curtain dropped. When their command was not obeyed at once, they

rushed for the stage. The actors fled in dismay, the curtain fell, and the conquerors proceeded to reduce it to ribbons with their knives. For their fun they cheerfully paid one thousand dollars, which was deposited in the town's school fund.

Teachers long received very low salaries, frequently not more than fifty-eight dollars a month, and the county superintendent did not undertake systematic work. Moreover, these superintendents were often political appointees without knowledge of pedagogy. Although there were some well-qualified and earnest teachers, and the communities where they worked had good schools, this was far from being the general rule, for no system had been devised to assist rural schools to find competent teachers. About 1887 county superintendents were dispensed with as an economy measure and their duties were turned over to the district attorneys, who became ex-officio county superintendents. As not even a legal education was required for the district attorneys, and they also were poorly paid, in most places the school situation became very bad.

Some efforts were made to correct the early deficiencies by establishing private schools, such as the Sierra Seminary at Carson, a coeducational .institution where the usual elementary courses were taught and older students could do advanced work. This institution, started in 1861, was maintained for many years. The Prisk Seminary in Austin, opened in 1863, served eastern Nevada in the same way as the Sierra served the western part of the State. Both, in addition to academic studies, taught vocal and instrumental music. There were also two well attended church schools, St. Mary's School for Girls and St. Vincent's School for Boys, established by Father Manogue at Virginia City. In 1873 Bishop C W. Whitaker of the Protestant Episcopal Church founded the Diocesan School for Girls at Reno, which became the outstanding institution for the higher education of young women. Bishop Whitaker's School, as it was usually called, was dosed in 1885 just before the University of Nevada, with its greater educational facilities, was transferred to Reno.

The University of Nevada had been opened eleven years before at Elko but had been little more than a high school. After its transfer to Reno in March, 1886, it steadily improved in academic standing and influence. That a large part of this influence is owing to its School of Mines is widely conceded; this department sends its graduates to jobs in many parts of the world.

1907, when a law was passed sanctioning the appointment of a superintendent of public instruction, with authority to supervise the deputies in charge of five big school districts then erected. Deputies, who were required to visit every school under their jurisdiction twice a year, often found it a trying experience. The travel allowance permitted them was fifteen cents a mile, and, as roads were poor, many visits had to be made on horseback. When automobiles were first available, gasoline cost from forty-four to fifty-five cents a gallon. One deputy reporting in 1917 said he had to travel 5,744 miles by automobile, stage, train, and teams and had had to pay twenty-five cents a mile for a car he had chartered; as his salary was $2,000 a year, he served notice that he would make fewer inspections. Another deputy reported visiting 63 schools in a district covering 18,165 square miles and of traveling 4,772 miles "over steep and dangerous grades." Supervision is still difficult. For example, in Elko county, covering 16,608 square miles, there are sixty-one scattered schools to be visited. Thus the costs remain high, which is one of the reasons why Nevada spends more per capita than any other State on its schools. School facilities of the State range from modern, well equipped structures in the cities and towns down to adobe huts, and even old log buildings in outlying regions. Total attendance in 1933 was 21,512 with 909 teachers employed. The number of grade schools of all types is 328.

Some of these schools have as few as five pupils, for the law makes it mandatory that a school be established if this minimum number of potential pupils with no educational facilities reside within a reasonable distance of one another. The average attendance for such a group must be three to insure its continuance. When a school is opened in a remote rural district for so small a group the classes may be held in a ranchhouse room—set aside for the purpose—or in a rudimentary structure especially provided. The State superintendent of schools, as well as the deputies, are sometimes hard pressed to find accommodations that come up to existing requirements and it is not uncommon for schoolhouses—public property—to be moved from one place to the other, as needs change (see Silver Peak, Tour 5).

The State has worked hard to raise the standards of teacher qualifications and to establish a reasonable scale of salaries. On the other hand it has occasionally had to curb ambitious communities that wanted to pay too much and provide facilities that were clearly beyond their means.

quarter or more Indian blood have attended the public schools when this was desirable. The Federal government at first paid fifteen cents a day for each child, but later increased the payment to thirty-five cents a day.

The State maintains a teachers' employment bureau, also a teachers' retirement pension system. The State Department of Vocational Education has three divisions, supervising vocational rehabilitation, vocational home economics, and agricultural education.