March 20, 1974 (8 pages)

In this chapter we will go back to the beginning with George Hearst in Nevada City. We find Hearst with gold pan near his cabin at Chimney Rock — Town Talk. There. was no doubt that Nevada City was far richer than Jackass Gulch in Placer county, . from whence Hearst had been prospecting. In 1851 Hearst bought in with Hamlet Davis, and Hearst became part owner of the first theater in Nevada City and the finest theater in the Northern Mines. This was the Hearst & Davis general store at the corner of Broad and Pine. These gentlemen had a reading room on the second story of their building which was supplied by papers all over the world, uncalled for at the Sacramento post office. In order to make room for the theater, an addition was built at the end of the reading room. The joists were extended over Pine Street, and room was made for wings on the stage. The first actors were Mestayer and Tench S. Fairchild. Doctor Robinson was celebrated for his Yankee stories told in the name of Hezekiah Pickerill. The first play given was. Christopher Strap. Soon the Lady of the Lyons was on the boards, Mrs. Robinson taking the role of the lady, and a young man named Edwards, that of Charles Melnotte. Hearst was delighted to see enjoying professional. entertainers. There was great rivalry to see which could applaud his favorite most nosily. Later Hearst had some competition from the Jenny Lind Theater at the Plaza. The Jenny Lind had a short life and abefitting tragic dramatic end. During a storm on March 20, 1852 Deer Creek (Jack’s Deer Creek Plaza Restaurant) location was filled with logs and driftwood. Bridges were carried away. A heavy log struck the Main Street Bridge, ripped it from its foundation, sweeping away the props that sustained the theater. Practically all of Nevada City was Wed., March 20, 1974 The Nevails County Nugget 5 there that tragic afternoon to watch the whirling waters of Deer Creek. ‘‘There she goes!” cried Nevada City as the building swayed and toppled into the stream. This disaster left the George Hearst theater supreme. Among those that appeared in the Hearst theater were the Robinson family, Mr. Wallach, Edwin Booth, Julia Dean Hayne, Kate Hayes, the Alleghanians and Estelle Porter. Bayard Taylor lectured there. ~~ In this theater many times sat Lola Montez, the dancer, during the last years of the theater. Here too was Madame Moustache, the then beautiful bejeweled Elenore Dumont, who had her own gambling. tables nearby, where was played 21, fargo, keno, monte and poker. Gamblers waged as much as ten ‘thousand dollars at her tables. Others in the audience of this first Nevada City theater often sat a very distinguished group of men: Stephen J. Field, first a Nevada City State Assemblyman. and later a United he Hearst fortune States Supreme Court Shskiee, Aaron A. Sargent, publisher of the Nevada City Journal and later a United States Senator, Supreme Court Judges Niles Searles, T. B. McFarland, and Lorenzo Sawyer. In those days William Morris “Bill” Stewart was everywhere. He and Hearst became great friends. Stewart became a U. S. Senator from Nevada and was Hearst’s attorney in later State of Nevada mining litigation. When Hearst died in Washington D.C., it was Bill Stewart who paid his Nevada City friend one of the great tributes of Washington D.C. history. “George Hearst’s days” in Nevada City is from the personal family history by Mr. and Mrs. Fremont Older. Permission to use material from Older’s George Hearst history was made to the author of this re-telling by William Randolph Hearst, Jr., the grandson of the unsinkable George and his wife Phoebe. Grandfather Hearst crossed the plains by covered wagon 7 from his home in Missouri to the golden hills of Nevada City. When you read the San Francisco Examiner, visit San Simeon, know of the fortunes in gifts made to the University of California by the Hearst family, ponder a moment and know that George Hearst is in Nevada City’s Hall of Fame. From the good earth of Nevada City George Hearst got his start... George Hearst realized that there were no golden roofs, no golden temples, nor golden mountains in California, nor caves of gold where Queen Califa and her Amazons once lived. But he knew the earth. He followed the baffling mountains . and beyond these mountains were fortunes for men that were not afraid... Hearst became ‘“‘The ManThat The Earth Talked -To”’. His instincts for mineralology, together with his boyhood experience while mining for lead in Missouri, combined to aidhim when he located a ledge, The Merrimac, on the dividing line (Continued on Page 7) Don’t Miss A Single Issue! NEVADA (QUNTY NUGGET 3 Years $7.00 1 Year $3.00 “This Week Fifty Years Ago” 2 Years $5.00 ADDRESS . eeeeeeeeeseeeeeeseeseeeeeseswneerr 2e @®@e @ @ PHONE ccc. oc beac becuna sete os clave THE NUGGET, P.O. Box 828, Nevada City, Calif. 95959 “Rough & Ready News” READ and ENJOY s “Cam ptonville ‘News’ by Fay M. Dunbar 2 Eee “The Cook’s Corner” “Notes Off The Cuff™ by P. L. Smith eta Se ia te wy UR Re iE oe Fc cen alc eG

In this chapter we will go back to the beginning with George Hearst in Nevada City. We find Hearst with gold pan near his cabin at Chimney Rock — Town Talk. There. was no doubt that Nevada City was far richer than Jackass Gulch in Placer county, . from whence Hearst had been prospecting. In 1851 Hearst bought in with Hamlet Davis, and Hearst became part owner of the first theater in Nevada City and the finest theater in the Northern Mines. This was the Hearst & Davis general store at the corner of Broad and Pine. These gentlemen had a reading room on the second story of their building which was supplied by papers all over the world, uncalled for at the Sacramento post office. In order to make room for the theater, an addition was built at the end of the reading room. The joists were extended over Pine Street, and room was made for wings on the stage. The first actors were Mestayer and Tench S. Fairchild. Doctor Robinson was celebrated for his Yankee stories told in the name of Hezekiah Pickerill. The first play given was. Christopher Strap. Soon the Lady of the Lyons was on the boards, Mrs. Robinson taking the role of the lady, and a young man named Edwards, that of Charles Melnotte. Hearst was delighted to see enjoying professional. entertainers. There was great rivalry to see which could applaud his favorite most nosily. Later Hearst had some competition from the Jenny Lind Theater at the Plaza. The Jenny Lind had a short life and abefitting tragic dramatic end. During a storm on March 20, 1852 Deer Creek (Jack’s Deer Creek Plaza Restaurant) location was filled with logs and driftwood. Bridges were carried away. A heavy log struck the Main Street Bridge, ripped it from its foundation, sweeping away the props that sustained the theater. Practically all of Nevada City was Wed., March 20, 1974 The Nevails County Nugget 5 there that tragic afternoon to watch the whirling waters of Deer Creek. ‘‘There she goes!” cried Nevada City as the building swayed and toppled into the stream. This disaster left the George Hearst theater supreme. Among those that appeared in the Hearst theater were the Robinson family, Mr. Wallach, Edwin Booth, Julia Dean Hayne, Kate Hayes, the Alleghanians and Estelle Porter. Bayard Taylor lectured there. ~~ In this theater many times sat Lola Montez, the dancer, during the last years of the theater. Here too was Madame Moustache, the then beautiful bejeweled Elenore Dumont, who had her own gambling. tables nearby, where was played 21, fargo, keno, monte and poker. Gamblers waged as much as ten ‘thousand dollars at her tables. Others in the audience of this first Nevada City theater often

sat a very distinguished group of men: Stephen J. Field, first a Nevada City State Assemblyman. and later a United he Hearst fortune States Supreme Court Shskiee, Aaron A. Sargent, publisher of the Nevada City Journal and later a United States Senator, Supreme Court Judges Niles Searles, T. B. McFarland, and Lorenzo Sawyer. In those days William Morris “Bill” Stewart was everywhere. He and Hearst became great friends. Stewart became a U. S. Senator from Nevada and was Hearst’s attorney in later State of Nevada mining litigation. When Hearst died in Washington D.C., it was Bill Stewart who paid his Nevada City friend one of the great tributes of Washington D.C. history. “George Hearst’s days” in Nevada City is from the personal family history by Mr. and Mrs. Fremont Older. Permission to use material from Older’s George Hearst history was made to the author of this re-telling by William Randolph Hearst, Jr., the grandson of the unsinkable George and his wife Phoebe. Grandfather Hearst crossed the plains by covered wagon 7 from his home in Missouri to the golden hills of Nevada City. When you read the San Francisco Examiner, visit San Simeon, know of the fortunes in gifts made to the University of California by the Hearst family, ponder a moment and know that George Hearst is in Nevada City’s Hall of Fame. From the good earth of Nevada City George Hearst got his start..... George Hearst realized that there were no golden roofs, no golden temples, nor golden mountains in California, nor caves of gold where Queen Califa and her Amazons once lived. But he knew the earth. He followed the baffling mountains . and beyond these mountains were fortunes for men that were not afraid..... Hearst became ‘“‘The ManThat The Earth Talked -To”’. His instincts for mineralology, together with his boyhood experience while mining for lead in Missouri, combined to aidhim when he located a ledge, The Merrimac, on the dividing line (Continued on Page 7) Don’t Miss A Single Issue! NEVADA (QUNTY NUGGET 3 Years $7.00 1 Year $3.00 “This Week Fifty Years Ago” 2 Years $5.00 ADDRESS . eeeeeeeeeseeeeeeseeseeeeeseswneerr 2e @®@e @ @ PHONE ccc. oc beac becuna sete os clave THE NUGGET, P.O. Box 828, Nevada City, Calif. 95959 “Rough & Ready News” READ and ENJOY s “Cam ptonville ‘News’ by Fay M. Dunbar 2 Eee “The Cook’s Corner” “Notes Off The Cuff™ by P. L. Smith eta Se ia te wy UR Re iE oe Fc cen alc eG