Volume 041-1 - January 1987 (10 pages)

That month the oratorio “Queen Esther” was being staged at Van’s Opera House in Grass Valley to benefit the auxiliary of Chatanooga Post, Grand Army of the Republic, When a woman sent her husband “ “to buy the book about Queen Esther, he was unsuccessful. Then their child told them the story was in the Bible. When Professor McKanlass’ Colored Jubilee played the Opera House in March, Emma Montell, a soprano and native of Grass Valley, was with the troupe. Laurel Parlor No. 5 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West was being organized in Nevada City in April. By the 9th there were 50 names on the charter list. Another parlor was established in Camptonville that month. The Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock, Civil War hero Major R.H. Hendershot, appeared in Grass Valley under the auspices of Chattanooga Post GAR in May. Advance publicity was glowing. Then the major put on a drunken performance. He later apologized for disgracing himself and shaming his comrades. When the Nevada City Methodist ladies gave an English Tea Party at the Nevada Theatre in honor of Queen Victoria’s 68th birthday, an anti-British faction in the congregation protested. Robinson’s Circus in July drew a good crowd at Grass Valley, although the absence of the elephant, which had broken its leg in a train derailment five days earlier, disappointed the children. When Emma Nevada Palmer and family left Paris that autumn for a Portugal-Spain tour, 800 trunks were sent in advance and 20 more were traveling with them. TRUCKEE AREA The Boca Brewing Company imported its hops from Bohemia. In May business was booming because of strikes at San Francisco breweries. When a January Transcript announced that, of the three prisoners in the county jail, two were from Truckee, the Republican protested the wild image given their town by the outside press. However, in September the Truckee paper called for the reorganization of the 601”, a vigilante group active in the early days, because the town was full of “pimps, tramps, jail birds and toughs.” That month Truckee furnished nine of the 1l prisoners in the county jail. People of Truckee were sending laundry to Reno and Sacramento because Chinese launf@™ drymen had been expelled from town the previous year. Efforts to start a white laundry had failed. In November a Los Angeles Laundryman settled in town and rented a defunct steam laundry. He stayed long enough to collect $500 worth of clothing, then vamoosed, leaving Truckee ‘“‘shirtless and shiftless.” CLINCH AND CO, Clinch and Company rented the vacant Empire Hall on Mill Street for their grocery store in February. The following month the building was being renovated and concrete walks laid in front. In April the National Bank of Grass Valley opened. in the Holbrooke Block with Ellen E. Holbrooke, its first customer, depositing 10 cents. Among directors were Empire Mine owner W.B. Bourn and Charles Clinch of Clinch and Company. In May the Empire Meat Market on Main Street came under the wing of Clinch and Company, although butcher Theodore H. Wilhelm denied it. The plot began to thicken when John C. Coleman of the Idaho Mine reportedly withdrew his patronage of the market because it had joined the Clinch monopoly. The Transcript began a vicious attack against Clinch and Company, claiming that Grass Valley miners were forced to cash their checks and run tabs with the stores between paydays, or risk being fired. The Union hotly denied these allegations, while the Grass Valley Tidings rode the fence. In May Clinch and Company moved into their new quarters and by June was running a twocolumn front-page ad in the Union. The Transcript declared that a system that dictated where employees had to trade was the next thing to slavery. It also insisted there were no company stores in Nevada City. As May ended the Tidings suggested that Grass Valley miners should form a union to protect their rights to buy anywhere. Efforts to carry out the suggestion failed. Less than 100 miners gathered at Lord’s Hall to form a protective association. All men nominated for permanent chairman declined and, when: leaders of the movement left the hall in disgust, the meeting adjourned. It was known a number of hired spies for mine owners were taking notes and the miners’ feared for their jobs. In a card in the Union in June, 18 miners swore that they were not compelled to trade with Clinch and Company. Bourne stated that since the employers provided the jobs, the workers should support their other ventures. The war between the Transcript and Union escalated in June when the Transcript published all of the testimony from a murder trail after the judge ordered closed sessions. The Union fumed that the Nevada City paper should be charged with contempt. A Nevada City clothing war was raging in June via the Transcript advertising. L. Hyman had announced he was moving to Jackson. When his new stock was delivered before his new store was available, he offered it for sale locally. The Hyman Brothers and K. Caspar, his local competitors, ran ads claiming L. Hyman never intended to leave Nevada City and was just selling “Cheap John Auction Trash.” In July L. Hyman stoutly declared he would not be run out of town by his competition and purchased a home in Nevada City. ACCIDENTS Among the many accidents reported in local papers, the most common were connected with mining or runaway horses. While Billy Cole’s stage was enroute to North Bloomfield in February, the axle broke near Edward’s Crossing. Cole was thrown out onto the edge of a precipice. He was dragged until he stopped the horses. As he had no passengers, he tied the mail and express to three horses ‘and delivered them to North Bloomfield. In April Terrence Smith was working in the Mabel Drift Mine at North Bloomfield when he was warned to move out of the path of a boulder being pried from the breast of a drift. His failure to heed the warning cost him his life. That month Edward Overmeyer, a Marysville peddler, was driving down from the Derbec Mine to North Bloomfield when the horses ran away, upsetting the wagon. Overmeyer was dragged some distance and killed. John D. McCormack was assisting two other carpenters in putting new bracing on the trestle work of the 95-foot-high Bear River NCNG bridge in May. While lowering timbers he slipped and fell to his death. William Abrams (Abraham) was killed in the North Star Mine on June 30. He was struck by a loaded car at the 400-foot level. Joseph Brockington was carrying an empty water keg under his arm through the hoisting works of the North Star in July when the keg caught and threw him against a flywheel. He died of severe injuries received when his head struck a rail. G.A. Johnson of You Bet was bringing a load of shakes to town at the end of that month when the Greenhorn Bridge gave way. Wagon, horses and driver dropped 25 feet into the creek. One horse was killed, two hurt and Johnson broke his leg. The bridge had been declared unsafe years before. It was replaced by the end of the year. Tom Henry, a patient at the county hospital, was a bit luckier. He fell 40-50 feet down a well in early August. A watchman found him clinging to a rope and rescued him unhurt. 5

That month the oratorio “Queen Esther” was being staged at Van’s Opera House in Grass Valley to benefit the auxiliary of Chatanooga Post, Grand Army of the Republic, When a woman sent her husband “ “to buy the book about Queen Esther, he was unsuccessful. Then their child told them the story was in the Bible. When Professor McKanlass’ Colored Jubilee played the Opera House in March, Emma Montell, a soprano and native of Grass Valley, was with the troupe. Laurel Parlor No. 5 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West was being organized in Nevada City in April. By the 9th there were 50 names on the charter list. Another parlor was established in Camptonville that month. The Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock, Civil War hero Major R.H. Hendershot, appeared in Grass Valley under the auspices of Chattanooga Post GAR in May. Advance publicity was glowing. Then the major put on a drunken performance. He later apologized for disgracing himself and shaming his comrades. When the Nevada City Methodist ladies gave an English Tea Party at the Nevada Theatre in honor of Queen Victoria’s 68th birthday, an anti-British faction in the congregation protested. Robinson’s Circus in July drew a good crowd at Grass Valley, although the absence of the elephant, which had broken its leg in a train derailment five days earlier, disappointed the children. When Emma Nevada Palmer and family left Paris that autumn for a Portugal-Spain tour, 800 trunks were sent in advance and 20 more were traveling with them. TRUCKEE AREA The Boca Brewing Company imported its hops from Bohemia. In May business was booming because of strikes at San Francisco breweries. When a January Transcript announced that, of the three prisoners in the county jail, two were from Truckee, the Republican protested the wild image given their town by the outside press. However, in September the Truckee paper called for the reorganization of the 601”, a vigilante group active in the early days, because the town was full of “pimps, tramps, jail birds and toughs.” That month Truckee furnished nine of the 1l prisoners in the county jail. People of Truckee were sending laundry to Reno and Sacramento because Chinese launf@™ drymen had been expelled from town the previous year. Efforts to start a white laundry had failed. In November a Los Angeles Laundryman settled in town and rented a defunct steam laundry. He stayed long enough to collect $500 worth of clothing, then vamoosed, leaving Truckee ‘“‘shirtless and shiftless.” CLINCH AND CO, Clinch and Company rented the vacant Empire Hall on Mill Street for their grocery store in February. The following month the building was being renovated and concrete walks laid in front. In April the National Bank of Grass Valley opened. in the Holbrooke Block with Ellen E. Holbrooke, its first customer, depositing 10 cents. Among directors were Empire Mine owner W.B. Bourn and Charles Clinch of Clinch and Company. In May the Empire Meat Market on Main Street came under the wing of Clinch and Company, although butcher Theodore H. Wilhelm denied it. The plot began to thicken when John C. Coleman of the Idaho Mine reportedly withdrew his patronage of the market because it had joined the Clinch monopoly. The Transcript began a vicious attack against Clinch and Company, claiming that Grass Valley miners were forced to cash their checks and run tabs with the stores between paydays, or risk being fired. The Union hotly denied these allegations, while the Grass Valley Tidings rode the fence. In May Clinch and Company moved into their

new quarters and by June was running a twocolumn front-page ad in the Union. The Transcript declared that a system that dictated where employees had to trade was the next thing to slavery. It also insisted there were no company stores in Nevada City. As May ended the Tidings suggested that Grass Valley miners should form a union to protect their rights to buy anywhere. Efforts to carry out the suggestion failed. Less than 100 miners gathered at Lord’s Hall to form a protective association. All men nominated for permanent chairman declined and, when: leaders of the movement left the hall in disgust, the meeting adjourned. It was known a number of hired spies for mine owners were taking notes and the miners’ feared for their jobs. In a card in the Union in June, 18 miners swore that they were not compelled to trade with Clinch and Company. Bourne stated that since the employers provided the jobs, the workers should support their other ventures. The war between the Transcript and Union escalated in June when the Transcript published all of the testimony from a murder trail after the judge ordered closed sessions. The Union fumed that the Nevada City paper should be charged with contempt. A Nevada City clothing war was raging in June via the Transcript advertising. L. Hyman had announced he was moving to Jackson. When his new stock was delivered before his new store was available, he offered it for sale locally. The Hyman Brothers and K. Caspar, his local competitors, ran ads claiming L. Hyman never intended to leave Nevada City and was just selling “Cheap John Auction Trash.” In July L. Hyman stoutly declared he would not be run out of town by his competition and purchased a home in Nevada City. ACCIDENTS Among the many accidents reported in local papers, the most common were connected with mining or runaway horses. While Billy Cole’s stage was enroute to North Bloomfield in February, the axle broke near Edward’s Crossing. Cole was thrown out onto the edge of a precipice. He was dragged until he stopped the horses. As he had no passengers, he tied the mail and express to three horses ‘and delivered them to North Bloomfield. In April Terrence Smith was working in the Mabel Drift Mine at North Bloomfield when he was warned to move out of the path of a boulder being pried from the breast of a drift. His failure to heed the warning cost him his life. That month Edward Overmeyer, a Marysville peddler, was driving down from the Derbec Mine to North Bloomfield when the horses ran away, upsetting the wagon. Overmeyer was dragged some distance and killed. John D. McCormack was assisting two other carpenters in putting new bracing on the trestle work of the 95-foot-high Bear River NCNG bridge in May. While lowering timbers he slipped and fell to his death. William Abrams (Abraham) was killed in the North Star Mine on June 30. He was struck by a loaded car at the 400-foot level. Joseph Brockington was carrying an empty water keg under his arm through the hoisting works of the North Star in July when the keg caught and threw him against a flywheel. He died of severe injuries received when his head struck a rail. G.A. Johnson of You Bet was bringing a load of shakes to town at the end of that month when the Greenhorn Bridge gave way. Wagon, horses and driver dropped 25 feet into the creek. One horse was killed, two hurt and Johnson broke his leg. The bridge had been declared unsafe years before. It was replaced by the end of the year. Tom Henry, a patient at the county hospital, was a bit luckier. He fell 40-50 feet down a well in early August. A watchman found him clinging to a rope and rescued him unhurt. 5