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Volume 063-4 - October 2009 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin October 2009
Kinyon remembered a score of clerks in a store swarming with customers, and on one side a raised platform where
more clerks took telephone orders. He remembered a dozen
> deliverymen who drove wagons or, in winter, sleds. He concluded from the sight that Grass Valley wasn’t an ordinary
town.
Clinch’s partner in the original Clinch & Company was
William B. Bourn Jr., a young man roughly Clinch’s age,
and an owner of the Empire Mine. Like Clinch, Bourn was
born of pioneer stock and had to make his own way after
his father died. Unlike Clinch, Bourn was born into wealth,
educated abroad and inherited a gold mine. Through determination and tenacity, and while still in his twenties, Bourn
resuscitated Grass Valley’s Empire Mine.
Clinch and Bourn may have met at Emmanuel Episcopal
Church in Grass Valley. Bourn invested in Clinch’s enterprise, and Clinch invested in the Empire Mine. Building on
such connections, Clinch developed a range of business interests that included mining, real estate, insurance and a seat
on the board of Nevada County’s Citizens’ Bank.
Clinch’s interests led him into politics. In 1882 he was
elected county public administrator for two years. He served
two terms as mayor from 1899-1902, during the period
when the sewer system was installed. He served on Republican party committees through much of his life and was a
delegate at the 1904 convention that nominated Theodore
Roosevelt. He was prominent in state Republican circles,
and remained influential in local politics long after he gave
up elective office. Typical of successful and influential men
of his time, Clinch was a joiner. He could have attended a
lodge in Grass Valley any night of the week.
By the time the Depression came along, Clinch had seen
his share of hard times, including severe economic downturns in 1893 and 1920. While he didn’t share the new PresToday! -.-COLFAX
joins the many Western
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full pint bottles every
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ident’s politics, he certainly shared his desire for action.
After more than three years of Depression and the series
of banking crises, Clinch was convinced, like many others,
that the government now had a role to play in managing the
economy.
People who dealt with him in business or politics could
find Clinch steely. Fewer saw his warmer side that expressed
itself in boyish idealism and openhanded generosity. Yet
Clinch could display considerable charm and command attention as a persuasive speaker, and he deployed the full
range of his personality in the service of the NRA. Before
he had any official position he spoke at
NRA rallies, explaining the provisions of
the program and exhorting participation.
When George Creel, the NRA administrator for the West, needed an agent in
1 Nevada County, he naturally turned to a
Democrat and appointed Stanley Bavier of
Truckee. Bavier, a capable, well-admired
man in the county, was on the job less than
a month when he was killed in an automobile accident. Creel next appointed Clinch.
Clinch oversaw the NRA operations in
the three towns of the county, Nevada City,
Grass Valley and Truckee, and took the
program into the rural areas. He gave talks
and speeches in every corner, traveling to