NEVADA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PAPERS           183

FOUNDERS OF CARSON CITY

By JACOB KLEIN (1883)

            I was born in Alsace in France in 1831. I learnt my trade, baker there. When 17 years old I commenced to work as a journeyman baker. Worked in different places and cities in Alsace till I was 19. Then I went to America. I worked in New York and Philadelphia. In 1853 I arrived in San Francisco. I went to mining then in Placer County, California. I made a few thousand dollars in mining and lost it. Then I went into the business of bakery, lodging house and saloon business. Started in with a capital of $10 and made some money there. This was at Newtown between Marysville and Auburn. I stayed there till 1860. I also was in Yankee Jims in Placer County. On the 18th of April 1860 I came to Nevada. I came from Placerville right to Carson City and have lived here ever since. When I came here flour was worth $75 a hundred. We went through the snow for 7 days before we could get here from Placerville. Freight was a dollar a pound on some articles. I went into the brewery business where I am yet. The firm was Gerhauser, Klein and Wagner. I am running the business alone now. When I came here in 1860 the current rate of interest on money was about 10 per cent per month. There was nothing in Carson only a few houses, perhaps 30 or 40 houses. Mr. Curry, Major Ormsby, D. Perkins, Doctor Tjader, S. T. Swift, John Musser, Spear were living here. Musser was Territorial Delegate in Congress. Cradlebaugh was Judge of the District here. I was in Court when a German woman killed a Spaniard right in open Court. That was in the latter part of 1860, in December, I think.  The trouble grew out of jealousie on his part. He was living in her house. He slandered her. A lawsuit arose about it in which the woman was a witness. Then she shot him. The Spaniard jumped about 5 feet high and then fell down dead. She was indicted for the murder, tried and acquitted by the jury in the Court room where she had killed deceased. There was a pretty rough State of Society in Carson City at that time. Two or three men were killed here every six months. There were but few women here. Shooting affrays were of frequent occurrence. The town was infested with rough characters. Old Brown, the murderer, who was afterwards killed by Henry Vansickle in Genoa, was here. Another murderer McKee was killed here in 1862. Nobody knows who killed him. The quiet element among the population were at a great disadvantage. In 1862 one Carr was hung out on Phillips ranch. He killed a man and threw his body in a ditch up on Nevers ranch. He went to the man and asked him to come out and show him some cattle. The man went out with him in the field and he killed him. The body lay in the ditch about 8 days before it was found. Carr was captured in Nevada City, brought here by Sheriff Blackburn, tried and convicted and hung.

184      NEVADA HISTORICAL SOCIETY PAPERS

            In 1860 in June there was a great excitement here on account of the uprising of the Indians. Everybody that could get away went to California, particularly those who had families. Every day dispatches were coming in from the seat of war brought in by pony riders to the effect that the Indians were rising. The inhabitants here were greatly terrified. Many families were taken to California for safety. Major Ormsby formed a volunteer Company of 50 or 75 men and went down with them to Pyramid Lake, where he lost his life in battle.

            In those days there was plenty of money in circulation here. Women were dealing faro in the saloons.  There were 3 or 4 faro games running here when I arrived, and women were dealing in all these places.

            There was a small public school here in 1860. It was held in a little Stone house situated south-east of my brewery, about one block distant. The house now belongs to John G. Fox of this place: The first church built here was the Catholic Church. It was built on the present site of the Catholic Church on King Street, in 1860. It blowed down in 1862.

            Father Gallagher was the pastor of it. He established the Church with my help.

            Wm. M. Stewart, afterwards United States Senator from Nevada, resided here with his family and practiced law here and in Virginia City in 1860.

            It cost 50 cts to get a shirt washed here in 1860; the same price for shaving. Hair cutting was a dollar. There was no bath house here then. We used to go out to Curry's Warm Springs, the present State Prison, (now so notorious for its "prehistoric tracks") and take our baths. There was no house there then. It was all open. The water of the spring was running to waste. Nobody paid any attention to it. Curry located the Spring in 1860, but he did not do anything on it until long afterward.

            Board at the hotels in 1860 cost about $10 a week, but people hardly got anything to eat. Transient customers paid a dollar a meal.

            Next after the Catholic Church the Presbyterian Church was erected. After that the Methodist Church and lastly the Episcopal.