EARLY
BIOGRAPHIES FROM WHITE PINE
Contributed
by Mike Bunker 2003
For White Pine history enthusiasts who are
not fortunate enough to have access to the “History of Nevada,
1881” edited by Myron Angel, the following biographical
material has been compiled by Mike Bunker. This 680-page book
(in small type) was first published by Thompson & West of
Oakland, California, and reprinted in 1958 by Howell-North Books
of Berkeley, California.
Entries appearing inside [brackets] were
added by Mike when this document was re-typed. Biographical
information appears in alphabetical order for these individuals
who were prominent in White Pine County, and also were patrons
who helped sponsor printing of this first Nevada history. This
is the first of many Nevada books that came to be known as
“mug histories,” since they featured pictures and
biographies of many prominent (and sometimes not so prominent)
people of the era. Many “patrons” sponsored the printing of
this valuable history, and we should all be thankful for their
contributions!
Was editor of the Reese River Reveille during
the most exciting and prosperous period of its history, and
after severing his connection with it was for a number of years,
first, editor, then San Francisco correspondent and agent of the
White Pine News and
other Nevada papers. This gentleman is a native of the State of
New York, born in Oneonta, Otsego County, December 1, 1827, a
descendant of the first Puritan pilgrims who landed on Plymouth
Rock. His father, William Angel, desiring to advance the
prosperity of Oneonta, established a newspaper in the village,
and in this office the subject of this sketch often assisted in
the mechanical and editorial departments, although then very
young. In 1835 his mother died, and in 1842 his father, leaving
him an orphan in his fifteenth year. The boy, inheriting a fair
property, was enabled to acquire a fine education; from district
school to Hartwick Seminary, thence, in 1846, to the Military
Academy at West Point, from which institution he resigned to
join the excited throng bound for the gold mines in the newly
acquired regions of California. At the date of the discovery of
gold his elder brother, Eugene Angel, was practicing law in
Peoria, Illinois, having recently been admitted to the bar, and
was anxious to join the Peoria Pioneers in the journey overland.
Urging the cadet to join him in Peoria, Mr. Angel, in January,
1849, started on his journey, crossing Pennsylvania to
Pittsburgh by stage, that being the only conveyance at the time,
the New York and Erie Railroad only reaching to Port Jervis, on
the Delaware River, and from Pittsburgh to St. Louis by
steamboat, thence a short distance up the Illinois River by
boat, and a toilsome journey in mud-wagons to Peoria. In April
the Pioneers left that city, destined for St. Jo., on the
Missouri, on the “utterly utter” verge of civilization. The
treachery of the Captain of the steamboat on which was that part
of the company in which was Angel's party changed the fate of
the young emigrants by landing at Weston and refusing to proceed
to St. Joseph, this deciding the party to take the Arkansas and
Gila route, instead of the direct route to the gold mines via
the South Pass. On the steamer was Captain William Kirker, an
old mountaineer, who had been guide to Colonel Doniphan in his
march through New Mexico a few years previously. He told of gold
mines in the Rocky Mountains, far richer than those of
California, and a large sum was paid him by a collection of
Illinois and Missouri people who then made up a company. Late in
May the journey was undertaken, and in July prospecting parties
entered the Rocky Mountains, on the Rio Sangre de Christo and
other localities, which have since become famous for their
mineral wealth, but, being entirely ignorant of the occurrence
of gold or how to obtain it, found nothing. The mines of the
Pike's Peak region were then condemned and the route taken again
for California, or somewhere, the travelers hardly knew where.
Captain Kirker, the guide, said he knew of mines on the Gila
River, and he would take them there. The Captain was only
playing his party, as he had a family at Albuquerque and he only
wished to have an escort to take him safely there. The long
journey was pursued many hundred miles south along the Rio
Grande, then westward into Sonora to the head of the Rio Santa
Cruz, then northerly through Tucson to the Pima villages on the
Gila River. From this point, the two brothers Angel, becoming
impatient to reach their destination—it being then
October—went in advance of the train, each taking a small pack
of clothing and food, and after a journey of severe fatigue,
reached San Diego about the middle of November, ragged and
famished. The train which had been left behind dragged its weary
way along, and in the spring of 1850 reached the mining region
in Mariposa County.
At San Diego was a small hermaphrodite brig
about to sail for San Francisco, and would take passengers at
$100 each, the passenger to furnish his own subsistence. As a
great favor, the owner of the brig accepted $150 as passage
money for the two, that being the size of their pile after
buying some provisions for the voyage. About half a dozen
others, who had reached San Diego with sufficient means, also
went as passengers, leaving near one hundred destitute emigrants
bewailing their hard fate. A few days afterwards the steamer Oregon
called in on her way from Panama, and took all remaining, free
of charge.
On the eighth of December, 1849, the two
brothers landed in San Francisco in the rain and mud of a severe
winter, in a condition that can better be imagined than
described. A few days thereafter an incident occurred that
helped much to relieve them of want when employment was
unattainable. They had left in the wagon a trunk well filled
with valuable books, some clothing, etc. To lighten the load
this was thrown out at the crossing of the Colorado. At that
time Lieut. Cave J. Coutts was in command of some soldiers
stationed there, since called Fort Yuma, and seeing the trunk as
jetsam, on the sand, examined it, and finding the books, papers
and clothing of a cadet, quickly put it on an ambulance and
hastened after the departed train. Finding that the object of
his search had gone before, he pushed through to San Diego, but
was still too late to overtake the owner of the things he had
rescued at so much trouble. The kind officer then put the trunk
in charge of a gentleman going to San Francisco, with
instructions to hunt up the owner and restore him his property,
with the warm regard of a brother soldier. The trunk thus
reached its destination, and the valuable books it contained
sold for such prices as aided to pass the hardships of a winter
which proved the last to many young and homesick pioneers.
The summer of 1850 was spent in mining at
Bidwell's Bar, on Feather River, with rather poor success, and
in 1851, the two brothers settled on a ranch at a place since
called Angel's Slough, near the Sacramento River, south of
Chico. In 1856 they purchased a mining claim at North San Juan,
Nevada County, and joining with others commenced opening it by
tunnel. In this enterprise about $40,000 was expended and lost.
The brothers had continued inseparable, until in 1860 the elder,
Eugene Angel, went to the eastern slope in the Washoe
excitement, and was killed at the massacre at Pyramid Lake, May
12, 1860. Myron Angel, in the meantime had become editor of the Placerville
Semi-Weekly Observer, in which situation he continued until
the spring of 1860, when he returned to San Juan to take charge
of his mining interests there. Upon the breaking out of the war
he offered his services to the Governor of California and
received the appointment of Captain of Infantry. Upon this being
announced, the San Juan Press
of October 5, 1861, said:—
We are pleased to learn that our friend and
fellow-townsmen, Mr. Myron Angel, is raising a company of
infantry in obedience to the call of the General Government,
having received official authority from Governor Downey so to
do. This furnishes an additional opportunity to all who are
willing to serve their country in the hour of her need, to
enroll their names.
Mr. Angel received a thorough military
education as a student at West Point, and knows well the duties
belonging to an officer. He is a gentleman, too, in whom
recruits can repose implicit confidence. Their necessities under
his care will be promptly attended to, and their rights strictly
guarded.
No fund had been supplied for maintaining and
forwarding recruits, and this Mr. Angel did until his own funds
were exhausted. Then came the pressing demand for his time to
attend to the business of a failing mining enterprise, in which
his all was invested, and although appealed to by Colonel Judah,
a West Point friend, who then had command of the Fourth
California Volunteers, he was compelled to withdraw from the
service, hoping for another opportunity when his business would
be better arranged. That time, however, did not offer. After
writing for various papers, in 1863 he became editor of the Reese
River Reveille, which is told in the sketch of that paper.
While in that position he wrote several reports on the mines of
eastern Nevada, assisting Mr. J. Ross Browne in his “Report on
the Mineral Resources west of the Rocky Mountain.” A little
book he wrote about this time on his favorite theme of the
resources of eastern Nevada had the distinction of being
published in French, in Paris, and in German, in Leipsic, the
translator into French being Emil de Girardin, who paid the
author the compliment of saying it was the best English he had
ever translated. Mr. Angel was editor-in-chief of the Reveille
until 1868, when he left and became editor of the Oakland Daily News, in California; then of the State Capitol Reporter, of Sacramento; then of the White
Pine News, of which paper he continued as San Francisco
correspondent and agent until 1875, when he again became editor
of the Oakland News.
While acting as newspaper correspondent in San Francisco he also
wrote for other publications, the principal being a “Pacific
Coast Business Directory and Gazeteer,” of which two editions
were published, one in 1871, and the other in 1876; also the
historical and miscellaneous matter for the San Francisco annual
Directory. The Pacific Coast Directory comprised all the region
west of Dakota and Wyoming, and contained the most complete
account of the history, geography, and resources yet published.
While performing these labors he was engaged in a mammoth mining
enterprise, in company with Mr. M. D. [Mahlon Dickenson]
Fairchild and Hon. John Daggett, in making a canal, and opening
a large hydraulic mine in El Dorado County. After an expenditure
of over $100,000 the enterprise came to a halt for want of
funds. Mr. Angel, when asked his employment said, “I mine for
a fortune, but I write for a living.” In 1879 he formed a
happy matrimonial alliance with Charlotte Paddock Livingston, an
accomplished lady whose acquaintance extended from the days of
their youth.
[from
page 662, Chapter on “HISTORY OF WHITE PINE COUNTY”:]
Was
born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, August 31, 1845. When nine
years of age his parents removed to Clark County, Iowa, where he
remained until July, 1863. Enlisting then in the Eighth Iowa
Cavalry, he soon found himself in Tennessee, and during the two
years he was in the army he saw some hard service and was
constantly in active duty. At the end of two years he returned
to Iowa, and
applied himself to farming in that State and in
Missouri until the year 1868. In that year he migrated to the
State of Nevada, and became interested in mining in White Pine
County. Seeing in that occupation great possibilities of
success, he has faithfully continued to give his time and
energies to the development of the mining interests in that
county, meeting with the changing success which usually attends
that business. Mr. Blair resides in Osceola, and is the
proprietor of the Osceola Mine, from which the district takes
its name. In 1880 he was elected a member of the Assembly, to
represent in that body the Democratic Party, and to aid in
advancing the general welfare of the State in which he is so
truly interested. Mr. Blair is a descendant of a staunch old
family so long and favorably known throughout the middle and
western counties of that famous old Commonwealth, that his name
will sound familiar to most of the large number hailing from the
Keystone State who have settled in this western country.
.
. .In Osceola there is one five-stamp mill. The town was first
settled by George G. Blair, who now keeps the mining records.
[Facing
page 189, from Chapter on “TRANSPORTATION OF LUMBER BY
WATER”:]
A.
C. CLEVELAND
[Abner
Coburn Cleveland]
The subject of the following sketch is a
native of the State of Maine, and was born at Skowhegan,
Somerset County. He remained in his native State until he
reached the age of seventeen. During his life there he acquired
a fair education, and in January, 1858, started for California
on the steamer Star of the
West, the boat that was the first fired upon by the rebels
during the war of the Rebellion. Upon reaching the Pacific
Coast, Mr. Cleveland engaged in mining in Tuolumne and Calavaras
Counties, until 1862 when he went to Plumas County and engaged
in the stock business. In May, 1863, he crossed the mountains to
Nevada, and located in Virginia City. His business at that place
was principally mining. In 1865 he went to Washoe County and
engaged in the lumber trade. He was one of the first to build a
V flume for the purpose of conducting wood and timber down from
the mountains, having had one in operation as early as 1868, at
Simonds' place on Simonds Creek, at the head of Little Valley,
near Lakeview Station. This flume was two and one-quarter miles
in length.
In 1866, Mr. Cleveland was elected a
Commissioner for Washoe County, and was a delegate to the State
Convention that year, and during a contest before that body,
between the Winters and the Blaisdel delegations from Storey
County, Mr. Cleveland was a member of the committee that decided
the matter, and held the deciding vote. This he cast for
Blaisdel, in strict conjunction with his instructions by the
County Convention, he having pledged himself to do so, although
Winters was his special friend and employer, and pecuniary
benefits, as well as threats, were used to deter him from doing
so. It was threatened that the patronage of the Kentuck Mining
Company would be taken away from him unless he disobeyed his
instructions, but he stood firm, and consequently lost their
patronage. General Clark says of him: “His word is of more
value to him than money.”
In 1868, Mr. Cleveland was elected to the
Assembly of the State Legislature from Washoe County. In the
fall of 1868, he went to Hamilton, and has since been a resident
of White Pine County. During the winter of 1868-69, he built the
toll-road running north from Hamilton. In 1879, he was elected
to the State Senate from White Pine County, and in 1871, he was
appointed to prosecute the claims of the State at Washington,
District of Columbia, and succeeded in getting an appropriation
for the State of $60,000. In 1873, he moved to his present
ranch, in Spring Valley, where he is engaged very extensively in
stock-raising.
In the pursuit of this business he has taken
great pains to improve the breeds of his cattle, and has
imported a number of very valuable thoroughbred animals. The
enterprise displayed in this, and the success attending it, has
set the example to the graziers of the State that will result in
great public good. Having an extensive and valuable range, and
great faith in the adaptability of the country and climate to
the rearing of superior stock, he has entered upon the business
with confidence and judgement supplemented by his usual energy.
He was married January 19, 1868, to Miss Kate
M. Peters, of Carson City, Nevada. He has seen much of life, and
it is universally admitted that he is “true as steel.”
[from
page 659, Chapter on “HISTORY OF WHITE PINE COUNTY”:]
HON.
HENRY A. [ADONIRAM] COMINS,
The
subject of this sketch, was born in East Eddington, Penobscot
County, Maine, in the year 1836. His ancestors were among the
early settlers of New England, suffering the privations incident
to those
early days, and often called to defend their homes
against the attacks of the Indians. Serving with credit in the
Indian wars, they engaged with patriotic devotion in the
struggle for independence during the Revolution, and again
fought heroically in the war of 1812, and never with dishonor.
He became a student at the Westbrook Seminary, near Portland,
Maine, but left the school before graduating. In 1858 he removed
from Maine, and coming to California, by way of the Isthmus,
engaged in placer mining for several years with varied success.
In 1863 he settled in Nevada, at Empire City, in Ormsby County,
when he engaged successfully in the lumber business. In 1869 he
removed to White Pine, carrying on the lumber trade at Hamilton,
Ward and Cherry Creek. He has also engaged in farming and
mining. Accumulating quite a fortune in his various enterprises,
he has lived to see his “riches take wings,” but leaving him
energy, integrity, and perseverance to acquire another fortune.
He has held several local offices, and has
represented his county in both Houses of the Nevada Legislature.
While in the Senate, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means, he was largely instrumental in relieving the State of
debt, reducing the rate of taxation, and increasing the
permanent Public School Fund.
Mr. Comins was married in Carson City to Miss
Minnie M. Stauts, in 1867, by whom he has two children.
The increased interest manifested in the
building of narrow-gauge railroads proves the wisdom of the
policy he so strongly advocated while a member of the
Legislature.
[from
page 347 in the Chapter on “HOMICIDE, AND SOME OF ITS
CAUSES” is the following account:]
Tim
G. Smith, Sheriff of Ormsby County, was shot and killed by
Thomas Riley. Smith was attempting to arrest Riley. The murderer
at the time escaped, but on the second of June, 1868, Asa L.
Kenyon recognized him as he was traveling along the overland
road near Dayton. Kenyon raised a posse
and started after him. Riley, upon being overtaken, began to
shoot and severely wounded one of his pursuers, H. A. Comins. .
.
[from
pages 302 and 303, Chapter on “HISTORY OF JOURNALISM IN
NEVADA,” section on “THE PRESS OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY”:]
WILLIAM
J. FORBES,
The
pioneer journalist of Humboldt County, was a native of Ohio, and
was a thorough practical printer, acquiring his trade and
profession under the teaching of Hon. Sam. Medary, the
distinguished journalist of Columbus. He removed from his native
State to California in 1852, and became connected with various
papers in that State prior to his advent in Nevada, among which
were the Coloma Argus, Marysville Herald,
and Sierra Democrat,
at Downieville. After selling the Humboldt
Register he purchased the Virginia City Daily
Union, and change its name to The
Trespass, and this paper suspended under his management.
From there he went to White Pine, a disgusted journalist, and
started a saloon, saying “That of twenty men, nineteen
patronized the saloon and one the newspaper, and he was going
for the crowd.”
His associations with the press in the years
gone before had taken too strong a hold of him to permit of his
long continuance in such a business, and again we find him at
the editorial helm, this time of the White
Pine News. In 1873, with a portion of material of the
office, he went to Salt Lake and started the New
Endowment, an enterprise that proved an utter financial
failure, his valedictory saying “We cease the publication
because we did not bring enough money with us.” He then
returned to Nevada and the Measure
for Measure became one of the journals of that State,
published by him at Battle Mountain, where he was found dead,
lying across his bed, on the morning of the thirtieth of
October, 1875. It was a lonely and silent end of a life that had
failed to achieve its legitimate results; alone by himself,
“Semblins” had lain down in the darkness and died in
poverty, and of such a dreary ending to the course of one in his
position, he had written years before:—
“Semblins” says death cannot be a matter
of much moment to an editor—no thirty days notice required by
law—it is the local incident of a moment, a few days as
advertised on the fourth page, a few calls by subscribers not in
arrears. A short, quick breath—then the subscription paper for burial expenses.”
A prophetic conclusion.
No member of the Nevada press was better or
more widely known in his time. Some of his witty paragraphs
under the nom de plume of “Semblins” became standard quotations
in the United States, and were repeated until their origin was
lost. One of them, that has since been credited to various
sources, was a bitter political thrust at Governor Nye, who had
procured the appropriation of $75,000 to be spent for building a
dam and mill with which to saw lumber and irrigate land for the
Pah-Ute Indians, all of which had been expended. For this there
was only a miserable excuse for a dam, with no mill to show for
the outlay, all of which could have been accomplished by Indian
labor, with the proper outlay of $1,000. Forbes sent absurdity
floating over the world where the English language was read, in
the following brief paragraphs:—
“Semblins” knows that Governor Nye has a
dam by a mill-site, but has no mill by a d——n sight.
He made the following cutting thrust at the
expressed opinion, that the Southern soldiers, having the blood
of chivalry running in their veins, were consequently braver men
than their Northern adversaries:—
“Semblins” has been watching the record
of the “superior race” which Bragg's army has made from
Kentucky to Georgia, and he thinks that some noble blood must run
in the veins of those soldiers.”
And again:—
“Semblins” has no faith in the effort to
raise the ship Aquila
by means of a coffer-dam. It reminds him of a cow in Illinois
which he saw swallow a thistle and coffer dam head off.
Forbes' final resting-place on earth is at
Coloma, El Dorado County, California. His remains were brought
there, and entombed by the side of those of his wife, who had
preceded him in death about two years. An orphan child,
Sheridan, named after Forbes' favorite General, whom, in
feature, he much resembled, now attends school in San Francisco.
[Forbes'
first newspaper venture in Nevada was the Humboldt
Register, published at Unionville from May 2, 1863 to
February 2, 1867. Also not mentioned in Forbes' biography is
that he and his partner, W. H. Pitchford published the Schell
Creek Prospect during the brief mining boom at this locale
from July 1872 to January 1873. Refer to the “Early Newspapers
of White Pine County” web section for more about this
newspaper.]
[from
page 658, Chapter on “HISTORY OF WHITE PINE COUNTY”:]
HON. O. H. GREY, the subject of the present
sketch, was born in the city of New York, in the year 1836, and
grew to manhood among the Highlands of the Hudson. Receiving a
common school and academical education he removed to Illinois,
and for five years engaged alternately in teaching and farming.
He removed to California in 1859, where he engaged in
merchandising and mining until 1863, at which time he became a
resident of Storey County, Nevada, where for seven years he was
engaged in the mining and lumber business. Leaving Storey
County, he moved to Cherry Creek, White Pine County, in 1869,
since which time he has constantly been engaged in
merchandising.
During his residence in Storey County he was
thrice elected to represent that county in the Legislature of
the State, serving first in the Assembly, and subsequently in
the Senate. In 1873 the people of White Pine County evidenced
their appreciation of his ability and integrity by electing him
to the Lower House of the Legislature, and by re-electing him in
1875. In 1880 he became one of the standard bearers of the
Republican party, and canvassed his county as Presidential
Elector with credit to himself and acceptably to his party.
[from
page 658 and 659, Chapter on “HISTORY OF WHITE PINE
COUNTY”:]
HON. GEORGE F. PARKER was born in St.
Charles, Kane County, Illinois, November 20, 1850, his parents
being among the first settlers of that county. At the age of
eight years his parents removed to Chicago, when his father
enlisted in the Union army, and was killed at the battle of
Fredericksburg in 1863. Leaving his mother in Chicago, he went
to Nauvoo, Hancock County, and afterward entered the Industrial
University, in Urbana, Champaign County, where he remained till
1871, when he returned to Chicago and worked at the carpenter's
trade till 1876. Leaving Chicago in the spring of that year, he
turned his face westward and traveled overland, arriving in
Nevada, locating in Cherry Creek, White Pine County, where he
still resides. Since settling in that place he has been engaged
in the restaurant business, and at his trade of carpenter and
builder.
He was married at Cherry Creek on the
seventeenth day of February, A. D. 1879, to Miss Mary E. Jakes,
of Steptoe Valley, Nevada, by whom he has one child. In 1880,
having become interested in the politics of the country, was
nominated and elected to the Assembly, discharging his duties
faithfully and satisfactorily.
R. W. Simpson,
Although
young in years, is one of the pioneers of Nevada, having
commenced his work on the Reese
River Reveille in 1863, then a stalwart lad fresh from
Missouri. In 1868, in company with W. H. Pitchford, he
established the White Pine
News, and in 1871, he became part owner of the Pioche Record,
in which paper he remained until moving to Ward, in 1877. As a
pioneer of the State so is he a pioneer in journalism, filling
every position in the routine of newspaper-making faithfully and
well. From his advent into the "Snowy State" until the
present he has not crossed its boundaries, and with the
exception of a few brief intervals when some mining speculation
made him a millionaire, or attracted by bright prospects to
develop some promising claim he has kept his nasal organ in
close proximity to the space-box. As a faithful friend,
honorable gentleman and deserving journalist, he has no
superior.
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