December 23, 1949 (12 pages)

’ ————— 12—Nevada City Nugget, Friday, December 23, 1949 STEP ESS ne ne eR ae Tales of Nevada Cases From Long Ago to Now . H. P. DAVIS THE NAMING OF “NEVADA” ROBERT H. and DONALD W. WRAY, Publishers In March, 1850, the aggregation of tents, brush and shake shanties and log cabins in the flat and scattered KENNETH W. WRAY, Editor and Advertising Manager Member California Newspaper Publishers Association Published every Friday at Nevada City, California, and eatered as as matter of the second class in the postoffice at Nevada City under Act of Congress, March 3, 1879. over the surrounding hills housed not less than a thou ; sand gold’seekers. The settlement was growing rapidly and the need for organized government was increasingly Qne year outside county (in advance) $3 apparent. Four months (in advance) iy 2. One month (in advance) In the latter part of March some two hundred fifty men met and, in conformity with procedure enjoined by the U. S. military authorities, elected an alcalde, a judicial officer under the Mexican law. Mr. Stamps, perhaps because of his status as a family man, was chosen for this office. Having achieved the dignity of an orga A NEW CHRISTMAS CAROL nized community a more appropriate name than Deer In 1843 a young reporter on a London newspaper wrote a series of articles themed on the victory of Chrismas spirit over . the evil motifs of life. One of them has become great as “The Christmas Carol,” a story of the meanness and miserliness of Scrooge: the hopeless anticipation of Tiny Tim and the Cratchett family: and the happiness brought by the Christmas Spirit ‘ to the soul of Scrooge and the Cratchetts. The following letter clipped from the Nevada Gazette is not exactly a.Christmas story, but its emotional appeal is so very much like Dickens’ classic that we are using it in place of a ; ‘’ Christmas editorial. Mrs. Conner, in her adjoining column, Just Wonderin’ pens Creek Dry Diggings, or Caldwell’s Upper Store was de termined upon. For this purpose a meeting was held in the new hotel of Wormack and Kenzie. At this meet ing, attended by the principal merchants, miners and a number of gamblers who were in the early days conspicuously active in political affairs, champagne was freely circulated and the discussion waxed hot. Fearing that the meeting would end in a riot, O. P. .a far better Christmas message than it is in our power to write. Blackman, a merchant of Main Street, proposed that the Her words bespeak our thoughts of this present Christmas. Incidentally, the letter below had a happy ending. — Apparently, the thief, like the remorse stricken Scrooge, took his ill gotten gains to the Reno police station, and by means of this letter. _ the police were able to return the suitcase with its contents ~ Just Wonderin’ "intact. ] Wonder if all we are thinking Editor, The Gazette: ’ To the person who took the brown checked suitcase from a tan Plymouth sedan by the Southern Pacific sta And doing while, Christmas is near, Will give us a permanent standard For life in the coming New Year. It is here of interest to note that Nevada county, when the year to come. We are at our best at Christmas time; we love our friends and our relatives more dearly, we created in May, 1851, took its name from the town Ne_ . hope you weren't disappointed in its contents. By forgive our enemies and feel kindly emotions swaying vada and that Nevada Territory, in the creation of which that I mean I hope you have a little girl about four years us through all the hours of each passing day. a number of ex-residents of this county were prominently old who can wear the clothes and play with the toys. We Are we really so changed when the Christmas Spirit identified, was organized . . years after this town had don't live in Reno, so feel free to use them. The bride christened ‘Nevada.’ It is a matter of record. that doll was a present from her mother and there's a lot of histakes over, or are we inherently “gentle people who at been the people of Nevada City vigorously protested the namtory and sentiment attached to the bits of satin and lace times forget ourselves and act like naughty children?” ing of ‘the “Washoe country after their beautiful and in‘that were used by my wife in making her outfit. HowIt does seem that at times each one of us is a split percreasingly populous city.”’ ever, you're not interested in that, I'm sure. But, please sonality; like the little girl with the “curl in the middle of Coyote Diggings—Coyoteville. In May (1850) came tell your little girl to treat it gently and enjoy it. Bobbie her forehead,”” we are very good or simply horrid with all the first indication of the existence of the auriferous anwon't mind too much even though she was saving it shades between the two, but it is to be hoped that the lessons of yuletide may not be soon forgotten and that cient river channels, discovery of which was to give a vast ‘special’ for her visit to her aunt in New York. we may keep our naughtiness in abeyance and let the impetus to the growth and importance of Nevada county. And the little yellow sun suit with the ruffles in back Miners working up the ravines which debouch into us shine forth at all times and in all seasons. —our little girl looked so sweet in it my wife kept letting good within Deer creek near the present Broad and Main street bridges I wonder if you have wished all your good wishes, it out, so if your girl outgrows it, please give it to somediscovered, greatly to their mystification, that the “‘pay written all the cards and letters which you intended to, one as it won't stand another alteration. dirt’ which they were working did not peter out as they The white eyelet dress looks best when the neck string given to others of the cheer and kindliness which you dug into the banks, but persisted even under heavy overfeel in the presence of this great anniversary and feel is drawn up tight. Bobbie had just learned to tie the that you are now ready for the final ceremonies and for burden upon which great trees were growing. Few of these men had knowledge of mining other than that those which will herald the*coming of a New Year. . dresses, colored dainty those washes wife When your Just now, I would\like to wish for everyone who will gained in a few weeks or months in the California digtell her please not to hang them in the sun where they'll . pause to read these lines, a Merry, Merry Christmas, with gings. They had here encountered a condition hitherto fade. Her brother, Dennis, who is staying at home with . genial friends about you and festive boards before you. unknown in mining and had no inkling of the significance me, has a sun suit to match the blue and white seersucker . Be convivial, but not too convivial, have fun in moderaof their discovery. To them, however, gold was where one you'll find in the suitcase. They looked awfully . tion, be joyous and above all keep for yourself the tender you found it, and as this gravel was of unusual richness sweet together. He also has.a Trudy suit that matches. warmth and beauty of the day with all its beautiful memthey lost no time in futile speculation but proceeded to . ories and its lessons of love and understanding fellowgopher out the pay dirt by such primitive means as were the yellow one. within their ken. As these men drove into the banks it The pinafore is half of a mother-daughter outfit. Bob. ship. became increasingly evident that the ravines, were not, bie’s little heart is going to break when mother wears hers, . I hope that the little reckless sprite which we call the but . The pajamas were a present from me for her . New Year, who is even now sliding down the banisters as they believed water courses in which gold had gradutrip to her Aunt Jessie’s and she'll have none to wear on . of time, will bring you a plenitude of blessings, health, ally accumulated as in the flowing streams to which they the train as they left. on Sunday and the stores were. happiness and success; may all your ships come home had been accustomed. It dawned upon them that the closed. . from sea, heavily laden with your heart's fondest desires, little streamlets which had formed the ravines had not The other toys were to be presents to her two nephews . and may the Spirit of this wonderful season be with you only carved their way through overburden, but had cut to bedrock a strata of auriferous gravel. in New York whom she has never seen. She'll hate to for every day of the twelve months ahead. As more. and more men swarmed to this new camp, greet them empty handed. She bought them with “her Poor old Forty-Nine; as he passes by, take a godd and the area of operations extended, deeper shafts were very own money”’ from her clock bank.’ look at him. He is what we have made him, you know, And, last of all, the ballet slippers—truly, mister, I’m so it ill behooves us to berate him, or charge him with the sunk in ground further up the slopes and rather than athappy that you and . won't have to be there when Bobbie many things in our lives and in our nation which have tempt to strip off the non-productive overlying soil, these more. pioneers of ancient river channel mining enlarged their shafts at the bottom and even drove tunnels or drifts on gone awry. “They're gone, punkin, a man took them.” “But, they were mine—my very own.” It would not surprise me if little 1950, would take a the bedrock, extracting the rich gravel and leaving the long appraising look at 1949 as they pass each other on overburden undisturbed. This, until the art of timbering a night soon to be, and then go scrambling back up the became better understood, was dangerous mining but so “I know, Bobbie, I’m very sorry. Maybe we can buy stairway of time, saying: another pair.”’ highly profitable that despite many serious accidents hun“Carry on, old timer, I'm going to get back in the files dreds of men spent their working hours delving for gold “But I wore those in my first recital. Can't you get and keep myself intact."” Oh dear, . do hope that won't many feet below the surface of the earth. them back, Mother, please?” happen, but truly Forty-Nine is a bit battered and disQuartz mining had not yet been inaugurated and the arranged and it is we who are to blame. miners’ regulations for this district limited claims to 30x30 Then with tears streaming down her cheeks and her No, the New Year will not slip back into the files of feet, and as each man was confined to the limits of his chin quivering, she lets out another stream of questions. time, he will come as per schedule, with the usual prelocation, the ravines, slopes and little flats from Coyote ‘Why did he take them? Does he have a little girl? cious gift of three hundred sixty-five days for us to grace Ravine to and beyond Oregon Ravine soon became dotted How did he know they would fit>”’ or mar. What shall we do with them, how shall we spend She was so very proud of them. We wanted to have them> How will each one of them look at its close? with innumerable little dumps. The novel picture presented by this new and unusual camp bore such fancied them bronzed later on. Such a precious gift of days, what must we do to make resemblance to the burrows of a coyote village that this In closing, may I leave you with this tought. .We can them shine? ! new type of mining became known as “‘coyote digging.” afford this loss; but, truly, mister, you cannot afford to “No, sweetheart.” steal! The price is much too high. Stealing is a sin and sin deprives us of our inheritance as children of God. May God bless you. : BILL CLAYTON, Greenville, Calif. Peace upon Earth, Good Will to Men! The song rings out across the years, Make one person happy each day and in forty years you have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little . time at least. No matter how good an idea is. it will never “work” unless you do also. : ADELINE MERRIAM CONNER. stantial sums. It has been estimated that from the coyote diggings and subsequent ground sluicing, drift mining and hydraulickIf the speaker doesn’t strike oil in his first two mining, the slopes north of this town and drifts under Harlarg Ridge have yielded more than 240,000 ounces in utes, he might as well stop boring. gold. Of Coyoteville, now incorparated in Nevada City, no remains. The site of the town and dumps of the A glad hander is a character with one hand on your evidence shoulder and the other hand in your pocket. There’s too much yearning for security nowadays. and too little spirit of adventure. Some of the pits and shafts failed to encounter pay dirt but many of them struck it rich. From one 30x30 foot Putting our anxious doubts to flight, calming and comclaim $40,000 was produced in less than a month, and in fortitg our fears. the fall of 1850 hundreds. of men who’ had come to Cal. A merry Christmas, dear, dear people, and a glad New ifornia to “make their pile” left for their homes with sub Year. innumerable coyote workings have long since been washed away by ground sluicing or covered with the debris of People who step high . . . usually fall quite a way. later hydraulic operations. Moen tnmenniasrer a sal estate nro fas sons aorta soceitrs t t name be selected by ballot, and this being agreed upon each man present deposited in a hat a slip of paper upon which was written the name for which he had been contending. After the elimination of such names as Aurora, Sierra,. Deer Creek, and Gold Run the count showed a majority of votes for Nevada, the name first proposed by Mr. Blackman. Although ‘“‘The City of Nevada” was incorporated in tion Sunday afternoon: I Wonder if the upsurge of warmth and kindly senti1851, this town was, for many years, generally known ~ Please don’t consider -yourself a thief as of now. . . give you the suitcase and its contents. Now go, and in ment which marks the Yuletide season, will remain in as ‘“‘Nevada”’ and was so designated on maps and in earl your own way make your peace with God, and steal no our hearts as a permanent possession to guide us through histories and newspapers. asks, ‘‘Mother, were are my ballet slippers?” eo One year in county (in advance) . Wi \» Ly “ ——= SUBSCRIPTION RATES Beas 3 gs 3 305 Broad Street, Nevada City—Telephone 36 A legal newspaper, as defined by statute

’ ————— 12—Nevada City Nugget, Friday, December 23, 1949 STEP ESS ne ne eR ae Tales of Nevada Cases From Long Ago to Now . H. P. DAVIS THE NAMING OF “NEVADA” ROBERT H. and DONALD W. WRAY, Publishers In March, 1850, the aggregation of tents, brush and shake shanties and log cabins in the flat and scattered KENNETH W. WRAY, Editor and Advertising Manager Member California Newspaper Publishers Association Published every Friday at Nevada City, California, and eatered as as matter of the second class in the postoffice at Nevada City under Act of Congress, March 3, 1879. over the surrounding hills housed not less than a thou ; sand gold’seekers. The settlement was growing rapidly and the need for organized government was increasingly Qne year outside county (in advance) $3 apparent. Four months (in advance) iy 2. One month (in advance) In the latter part of March some two hundred fifty men met and, in conformity with procedure enjoined by the U. S. military authorities, elected an alcalde, a judicial officer under the Mexican law. Mr. Stamps, perhaps because of his status as a family man, was chosen for this office. Having achieved the dignity of an orga A NEW CHRISTMAS CAROL nized community a more appropriate name than Deer In 1843 a young reporter on a London newspaper wrote a series of articles themed on the victory of Chrismas spirit over . the evil motifs of life. One of them has become great as “The Christmas Carol,” a story of the meanness and miserliness of Scrooge: the hopeless anticipation of Tiny Tim and the Cratchett family: and the happiness brought by the Christmas Spirit ‘ to the soul of Scrooge and the Cratchetts. The following letter clipped from the Nevada Gazette is not exactly a.Christmas story, but its emotional appeal is so very much like Dickens’ classic that we are using it in place of a ; ‘’ Christmas editorial. Mrs. Conner, in her adjoining column, Just Wonderin’ pens Creek Dry Diggings, or Caldwell’s Upper Store was de termined upon. For this purpose a meeting was held in the new hotel of Wormack and Kenzie. At this meet ing, attended by the principal merchants, miners and a number of gamblers who were in the early days conspicuously active in political affairs, champagne was freely circulated and the discussion waxed hot. Fearing that the meeting would end in a riot, O. P. .a far better Christmas message than it is in our power to write. Blackman, a merchant of Main Street, proposed that the Her words bespeak our thoughts of this present Christmas. Incidentally, the letter below had a happy ending. — Apparently, the thief, like the remorse stricken Scrooge, took his ill gotten gains to the Reno police station, and by means of this letter. _ the police were able to return the suitcase with its contents ~ Just Wonderin’ "intact. ] Wonder if all we are thinking Editor, The Gazette: ’ To the person who took the brown checked suitcase from a tan Plymouth sedan by the Southern Pacific sta And doing while, Christmas is near, Will give us a permanent standard For life in the coming New Year. It is here of interest to note that Nevada county, when the year to come. We are at our best at Christmas time; we love our friends and our relatives more dearly, we created in May, 1851, took its name from the town Ne_ . hope you weren't disappointed in its contents. By forgive our enemies and feel kindly emotions swaying vada and that Nevada Territory, in the creation of which that I mean I hope you have a little girl about four years us through all the hours of each passing day. a number of ex-residents of this county were prominently old who can wear the clothes and play with the toys. We Are we really so changed when the Christmas Spirit identified, was organized . . years after this town had don't live in Reno, so feel free to use them. The bride christened ‘Nevada.’ It is a matter of record. that doll was a present from her mother and there's a lot of histakes over, or are we inherently “gentle people who at been the people of Nevada City vigorously protested the namtory and sentiment attached to the bits of satin and lace times forget ourselves and act like naughty children?” ing of ‘the “Washoe country after their beautiful and in‘that were used by my wife in making her outfit. HowIt does seem that at times each one of us is a split percreasingly populous city.”’ ever, you're not interested in that, I'm sure. But, please sonality; like the little girl with the “curl in the middle of Coyote Diggings—Coyoteville. In May (1850) came tell your little girl to treat it gently and enjoy it. Bobbie her forehead,”” we are very good or simply horrid with all the first indication of the existence of the auriferous anwon't mind too much even though she was saving it shades between the two, but it is to be hoped that the lessons of yuletide may not be soon forgotten and that cient river channels, discovery of which was to give a vast ‘special’ for her visit to her aunt in New York. we may keep our naughtiness in abeyance and let the impetus to the growth and importance of Nevada county. And the little yellow sun suit with the ruffles in back Miners working up the ravines which debouch into us shine forth at all times and in all seasons. —our little girl looked so sweet in it my wife kept letting good within Deer creek near the present Broad and Main street bridges I wonder if you have wished all your good wishes, it out, so if your girl outgrows it, please give it to somediscovered, greatly to their mystification, that the “‘pay written all the cards and letters which you intended to, one as it won't stand another alteration. dirt’ which they were working did not peter out as they The white eyelet dress looks best when the neck string given to others of the cheer and kindliness which you dug into the banks, but persisted even under heavy overfeel in the presence of this great anniversary and feel is drawn up tight. Bobbie had just learned to tie the that you are now ready for the final ceremonies and for burden upon which great trees were growing. Few of these men had knowledge of mining other than that those which will herald the*coming of a New Year. . dresses, colored dainty those washes wife When your Just now, I would\like to wish for everyone who will gained in a few weeks or months in the California digtell her please not to hang them in the sun where they'll . pause to read these lines, a Merry, Merry Christmas, with gings. They had here encountered a condition hitherto fade. Her brother, Dennis, who is staying at home with . genial friends about you and festive boards before you. unknown in mining and had no inkling of the significance me, has a sun suit to match the blue and white seersucker . Be convivial, but not too convivial, have fun in moderaof their discovery. To them, however, gold was where one you'll find in the suitcase. They looked awfully . tion, be joyous and above all keep for yourself the tender you found it, and as this gravel was of unusual richness sweet together. He also has.a Trudy suit that matches. warmth and beauty of the day with all its beautiful memthey lost no time in futile speculation but proceeded to . ories and its lessons of love and understanding fellowgopher out the pay dirt by such primitive means as were the yellow one. within their ken. As these men drove into the banks it The pinafore is half of a mother-daughter outfit. Bob. ship. became increasingly evident that the ravines, were not, bie’s little heart is going to break when mother wears hers, . I hope that the little reckless sprite which we call the but .. The pajamas were a present from me for her . New Year, who is even now sliding down the banisters as they believed water courses in which gold had gradutrip to her Aunt Jessie’s and she'll have none to wear on . of time, will bring you a plenitude of blessings, health, ally accumulated as in the flowing streams to which they the train as they left. on Sunday and the stores were. happiness and success; may all your ships come home had been accustomed. It dawned upon them that the closed. . from sea, heavily laden with your heart's fondest desires, little streamlets which had formed the ravines had not The other toys were to be presents to her two nephews . and may the Spirit of this wonderful season be with you only carved their way through overburden, but had cut to bedrock a strata of auriferous gravel. in New York whom she has never seen. She'll hate to for every day of the twelve months ahead. As more. and more men swarmed to this new camp, greet them empty handed. She bought them with “her Poor old Forty-Nine; as he passes by, take a godd and the area of operations extended, deeper shafts were very own money”’ from her clock bank.’ look at him. He is what we have made him, you know, And, last of all, the ballet slippers—truly, mister, I’m so it ill behooves us to berate him, or charge him with the sunk in ground further up the slopes and rather than athappy that you and . won't have to be there when Bobbie many things in our lives and in our nation which have tempt to strip off the non-productive overlying soil, these more.

pioneers of ancient river channel mining enlarged their shafts at the bottom and even drove tunnels or drifts on gone awry. “They're gone, punkin, a man took them.” “But, they were mine—my very own.” It would not surprise me if little 1950, would take a the bedrock, extracting the rich gravel and leaving the long appraising look at 1949 as they pass each other on overburden undisturbed. This, until the art of timbering a night soon to be, and then go scrambling back up the became better understood, was dangerous mining but so “I know, Bobbie, I’m very sorry. Maybe we can buy stairway of time, saying: another pair.”’ highly profitable that despite many serious accidents hun“Carry on, old timer, I'm going to get back in the files dreds of men spent their working hours delving for gold “But I wore those in my first recital. Can't you get and keep myself intact."” Oh dear, . do hope that won't many feet below the surface of the earth. them back, Mother, please?” happen, but truly Forty-Nine is a bit battered and disQuartz mining had not yet been inaugurated and the arranged and it is we who are to blame. miners’ regulations for this district limited claims to 30x30 Then with tears streaming down her cheeks and her No, the New Year will not slip back into the files of feet, and as each man was confined to the limits of his chin quivering, she lets out another stream of questions. time, he will come as per schedule, with the usual prelocation, the ravines, slopes and little flats from Coyote ‘Why did he take them? Does he have a little girl? cious gift of three hundred sixty-five days for us to grace Ravine to and beyond Oregon Ravine soon became dotted How did he know they would fit>”’ or mar. What shall we do with them, how shall we spend She was so very proud of them. We wanted to have them> How will each one of them look at its close? with innumerable little dumps. The novel picture presented by this new and unusual camp bore such fancied them bronzed later on. Such a precious gift of days, what must we do to make resemblance to the burrows of a coyote village that this In closing, may I leave you with this tought. .We can them shine? ! new type of mining became known as “‘coyote digging.” afford this loss; but, truly, mister, you cannot afford to “No, sweetheart.” steal! The price is much too high. Stealing is a sin and sin deprives us of our inheritance as children of God. May God bless you. : BILL CLAYTON, Greenville, Calif. Peace upon Earth, Good Will to Men! The song rings out across the years, Make one person happy each day and in forty years you have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little . time at least. No matter how good an idea is.. it will never “work” unless you do also. : ADELINE MERRIAM CONNER. stantial sums. It has been estimated that from the coyote diggings and subsequent ground sluicing, drift mining and hydraulickIf the speaker doesn’t strike oil in his first two mining, the slopes north of this town and drifts under Harlarg Ridge have yielded more than 240,000 ounces in utes, he might as well stop boring. gold. Of Coyoteville, now incorparated in Nevada City, no remains. The site of the town and dumps of the A glad hander is a character with one hand on your evidence shoulder and the other hand in your pocket. There’s too much yearning for security nowadays.. and too little spirit of adventure. Some of the pits and shafts failed to encounter pay dirt but many of them struck it rich. From one 30x30 foot Putting our anxious doubts to flight, calming and comclaim $40,000 was produced in less than a month, and in fortitg our fears. the fall of 1850 hundreds. of men who’ had come to Cal. A merry Christmas, dear, dear people, and a glad New ifornia to “make their pile” left for their homes with sub Year. innumerable coyote workings have long since been washed away by ground sluicing or covered with the debris of People who step high . . . usually fall quite a way. later hydraulic operations. Moen tnmenniasrer a sal estate nro fas sons aorta soceitrs t t name be selected by ballot, and this being agreed upon each man present deposited in a hat a slip of paper upon which was written the name for which he had been contending. After the elimination of such names as Aurora, Sierra,. Deer Creek, and Gold Run the count showed a majority of votes for Nevada, the name first proposed by Mr. Blackman. Although ‘“‘The City of Nevada” was incorporated in tion Sunday afternoon: I Wonder if the upsurge of warmth and kindly senti1851, this town was, for many years, generally known ~ Please don’t consider -yourself a thief as of now. . . give you the suitcase and its contents. Now go, and in ment which marks the Yuletide season, will remain in as ‘“‘Nevada”’ and was so designated on maps and in earl your own way make your peace with God, and steal no our hearts as a permanent possession to guide us through histories and newspapers. asks, ‘‘Mother, were are my ballet slippers?” eo One year in county (in advance) . Wi \» Ly “ ——= SUBSCRIPTION RATES Beas 3 gs 3 305 Broad Street, Nevada City—Telephone 36 A legal newspaper, as defined by statute