Collection: Directories and Documents > Historical Clippings

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Title: Historical Clippings Book (HC-11) Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Historical Clippings Catalog #: HC-11 # of Pages: 314 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Printed or handwritten: Mixed printed/handwritten Date Scanned: 2025-01-07 15:12:13 Scanned By: Erik Caruso Scanning Equipment: CZUR Book Scanner OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.5.0 Item Sourced From: JPGs First Created: 2025-03-17 03:19:14 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:19:14

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 314  

2 @ By JUDY MOOERS Union Staff Reporter The 25-year-old French Corral School — site of mass patriotic meetings during the Civil War and onetime home of a bell cast from 200 silver dollars — may be saved from ruin. Backed by Gene Covert, Fifth District Supervisor and a resident of French Corral, a group of San Juan Ridge residents have undertaken an ambitious project: purchase, restore and return the old school to public use as a Community hall. Built in 1855 as a hotel, the building became a schoolhouse in 1876. It came out of retirement in 1950 to Serve as a community hall for French Corral people after the county decided it had outlived its usefulness and sold the Structure to high bidder, Reno Thatcher of Reno, Nev. A former French Corral school girl, the late Mrs. Thatcher told people there the school was theirs to use as a community hall and gave them the key. But, sagging floors, dropping ceilings ~and other creeping infirmities of age . caused the structure to be declared unsafe for public use. This edict ended the traditional French Corral Annual Homecoming and Reunion which was held on the first Sundays of May from 1951 until the warning was sounded after the 1965 celebration. The proud bell — which tolled the death of President Abraham Lincoln — was cast in 1876 in Troy N.Y. with dollars collected by French Corral’ residents. It summoned several generations of children to their studies, It is said that when the county put the building out to bid the historic bell mysteriously disappeared — and just as mysteriously reappeare.) when Mrs. Thatcher was the high bidder. Ridge dwellers have watched sadly over the years as the old structure . . slipped into disrepair, Recently, an out: « . Of-county real estate agent began’ Historic school may be saved from ruin St. Columncille’s Catholic Church, a poking around the site and revealed to aera saa hy tendencies concerned neighbors his interest in 4 g0, Seek ites buying the land and tearing down the former Union Guard Ha school. reat wp. board to become _ an in Diggins Historic State Park. sent the would-be buyer to FrenchCorral. After a letter from the county ‘. attorney — advising the historical © Structure could not be destroyed without environmental review — there has been no more contact from theman. ; The first thing to be done now is : formation of a non-profit organization, :Covert said this week. Next the yet-to-be-formed group will talk to state . historical officials about funding and-. then an offer will be made to the owner. = French Corral was once a wealthy = gold town. The area near the hamlet — was said to be so rich in gold, it was ~practically inexhaustible. 3 But one thing went wrong — French Corral depended upon hydraulic mining — With hard work, determination and financial help, the old schoolhouse may be as lucky. . to wash the gold from gravel deposits, * The 1880 anti-debris act was the deathknell of hydraulic > Jnining and a severe ~ blow to the community. Se When miners pulled out, their= buildings were left behind including the= once-bustling brick Wells Fargo and Company office with its iron-shuttered doors, Perhaps the most famous of all was a building housing the terminus of the world’s first long distance telephone line. This disappeared into a heap of rubble on a deserted lot. The only Teminder is an historical landmark Proclaiming the site of the “World’s First Long Distance Telephone Line,” . beeame a church was moved board by . F-53.