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Volume 050-2 - April 1996 (16 pages)
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Page: of 16
Nevada County Historical Society
Bulletin
Volume 50, No. 2 April 1996
Charles Marsh: Our Neglected Pioneer-Genius
by David Allan Comstock
ii
The reservoir Charles Marsh built in 1861 to provide water for Nevada City’s residents and fire
department now is a quiet pond in the county’s new park on Wet Hill. (Author’s photo.)
For 140 YEARS THE RESIDENTS of Nevada County
have owed an enormous debt to a man whose achievements
were phenomenal, yet whose name is a well-kept secret.
Unless you are one of the few western Nevada County
families who still rely on a well or spring, you should thank
Charles Marsh each time you turn a faucet and are rewarded
with an ample supply of water. When you turn on an electrical switch and lights or motors or appliances begin to operate,
unless you generate your own electricity, you are indebted to
Charles Marsh for your source of low-cost power.
Whenever you drive between western Nevada County and
Reno, or ride through the Sierra Nevada range on Amtrak,
you should salute Charles Marsh for selecting your route and
making these roads and rails available. When you borrow a
book from a local library, thank Charles Marsh and his
conviction that libraries must be kept alive and well, even in
the worst of times. If you live in Nevada City, light a candle
for Charles Marsh, who built (and paid for) a water system
that could furnish a plentiful and free supply of pressurized
water for fire fighting purposes—and while doing so,
completely rebuilt the domestic piped water system at his
own expense.
You would think someone like this, who had been Nevada
City’s earliest resident, before it was a mining camp and
before Dr. A. B. Caldwell’s trading post was built, would be
as well known today as Lola Montez, Lyman Gilmore, Lester
Pelton, or John Kidder—or any of the other celebrities and
notables whose names appear regularly in historical articles.
But the name of Charles Marsh has all but vanished from
public view.