Carson City looking north from the top of the Capitol building in 1871.
Saturday
150 Years Ago
Mrs. Lincoln’s prayer for a pension: The widow of our martyred president is not disposed to suffer by reason of any undue backwardness. Her modesty will never be the cause of her dying of inhibition. Her parade and offer for sale of the rich presents which she received while the mistress of the White House was not the most admirable display of good taste ever made. On the 25th the following communication was presented to the Senate to the Committee on Pensions: “To the Vice-President of the United States – Sir: I herewith most respectfully present to the honorable Senate… an application for a pension. I am the widow of a President of the United States, whose life was sacrificed in his country’s service… I respectfully submit to your honorable body this petition, so that I may have less pecuniary care. I remain, most respectfully. Mrs. A. Lincoln. Frankfort, Germany”. (A soldiers’ widows’ pension is rated at $8 a month, in greenbacks. Wonder what her ladyship considers herself entitled to?)
140 Years Ago
Ghosts: It is asserted as a positive fact that the Court House is haunted. An occupant of one of the rooms in the building was astonished to see through the key hole a light in his room, and a male and female apparition in close communion with each other. He tried to open the door but it was locked on the inside. He procured assistance but the ghosts had escaped through the window, and their tracks were plainly visible in the fresh snow outside. (Silver State – Winnemucca)
130 Years Ago
The Catholic Lottery:
A lottery for a Ladies Gold Watch for the benefit of St. Theresa’s Church, Carson City is being held. Tickets are $1 and benefit St. Theresa’s Church. The tickets were printed at a regular newspaper office and are printed in blue ink. The money goes to help spread the Gospel and help save the souls of the sinners in other lands.
100 Years Ago
War recipes: “War Muffins by Harvard Club Chef”
In it are as follows: One-pound graham flour; four ounces sugar, three-fourths pound white flour; four ounces lard; three-fourths of a pint of molasses; one teaspoon baking powder; three-fourths pint of milk; two eggs; salt to taste. Makes three dozen muffins.
50 Years Ago
Advertisement: Mayfair—Cake, 99 cents; cookies-one dozen 49 cents; Campbells soup, 10 for $1.00; Chunk Tuna 4 for $1.00; Pillsbury cake mix, 4 for $1.00; round steak, 89 cents per pound plus 100 free blue-chip stamps…
20 Years Ago
1999 Legislature: The Legislature opened, installing leaders and introducing 149 bills. Joe Dini, D-Yerington, took the podium as speaker of the Assembly for an eighth time.
Sunday
150 years ago
White Pine Lies. It puzzles us to know whence the lies come, says a moralist with the Reese River Reveille. In this region they seem to come with the wind. One Saturday there was a rumor — a lie — that a bloody row happened in one of the towns in White Pine in which three men were killed. The circumstances of the lie varied and grew with its repetition.
130 years ago
The Appeal has printed two articles to-day advertising the little lotteries run by Assemblyman Thaxter and the Catholic Church, to show how dead the laws are in Nevada against games of chance. Mr. Thaxter, the Editor of the Appeal, and the ladies who are managing the church fair would all be in jail if any one was desirous of enforcing the law.
100 years ago
Grant Merrill, mayor of Woodfords, is spending a few days in this city.
70 years ago
Giocomo Tessadro, 73, resident of Virginia City since 1906, died yesterday at the home of his daughter in the historic mining community. Tessadro was a worker in the Comstock mills, having been retired for the past few years.
50 years ago
You don’t need a racket to play…just some old photos, documents, or reminiscences about the former Carson City Mint. Many of them will be included in a book about the Mint how being written by Howard Hickson, curator of exhibits at the Nevada State Museum.
30 years ago
Senators Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both D-Nev., voted Thursday night to reject a 51 percent pay raise for members of Congress and top government officials.
Tuesday
150 years ago
A fire within the Capitol Building. At one o’clock a fire was discovered in the Attorney General’s Office. The attaches of the Senate got the first water on, and before the distinguished legislators knew what was going on, the fire was put out. It was caused by a White Piner that dropped a cigar in the wood box. The loss is half a dozen law books, one wood box, and a day’s job for the porter to clean up.
130 years ago
Troubles in Antelope Valley. News was received last evening that two Indians had killed two Italians near Tom Rickey’s ranch in Mono County, Cal., and had been jailed. The Indians were coming in from all over the country to fight, and rescue them. Gov. Waterman has been telegraphed for troops.
100 years ago
One week from tonight the ladies of Custer Relief Corps will give their annual dance at the Armory hall. The dances given by this group in the past have drawn a large crowd.
70 years ago
Assembly Bill 16 — the measure which prohibits joy-riding in state owned vehicles — passed the lower house unanimously this morning. Terms of the bill are to the effect that all state cars will have a seat of the state stamped clearly on the sides of vehicles.
50 years ago
(Photo Caption) Rep. Walter S. Baring prepares to attach his 91st Congressional tag to his Nevada license plate (MC1) in Washington. Baring, beginning his ninth term, ironically received the tag number “104” this year after he had set a new record of over 104,000 votes in Nevada during the 1968 general election. It is the same year Nevada turned 104 years old.
30 years ago
Carson City’s Board of Supervisors now will begin its meetings with an invocation as do both chambers of the state Legislature each day. The intent of the invocation will be set a solemn tone for meetings, according to the board, which approved the proposal on Thursday.
Trent Dolan is the son of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006, and Sue Ballew is Bill Dolan’s daughter.
