[Dan De Quille, Nevada Newspapers, Daily Alta California, 26 April 1885:1]

 

NEVADA NEWSPAPERS.

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Journalism in Early Days on the Comstock.

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THE GOODMAN-FITCH DUEL.

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History and Vicissitudes of the " Territorial Enterprise " and Other Literary Ventures — Gossip About the Editors, Etc.

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[WRITTEN FOR THE ALTA BY DAN DE QUILLE.]

            Many newspapers of Nevada that were apparently born under silver-lined skies are now numbered with the dead. The proprietors of all these doubtless saw or thought they saw good reasons for their sheets coming into existence. They were firmly of the opinion that they were about to supply a want, or at least a growing want. It would seem in most cases that the "wish was father to the thought*' as regards this "want,'' and the publishers of papers came forward to supply not a " long felt " or a present want, but a want that it was thought would presently be felt. In most cases, the buds of promise of this seeming want failed to fructify. The " cloud of the size of a man's hand " on the horizon above the sea receded in the perspective of time, instead of advancing.

THE PIONEER NEWSPAPER.

            The pioneer newspaper of what is now Nevada was the Territorial Enterprise, which first saw the light in Genoa, Douglas county, in 1858. It would appear that the publication of the paper was commenced to supply a want that was beginning to be felt. What is now the State of Nevada was then known as Western Utah, and the people were commencing to agitate the matter of the organization of a separate Territorial Government. This was the great question then before the people. The Comstock silver mines had not yet been discovered and the great enterprise then occupying the minds of the people was the organization of a new Territory in Western Utah. Therefore the paper which was to advocate this movement was very naturally called the Territorial Enterprise. I have before me the prospectus of this paper, issued in the Summer of 1858 by W. L. Jernegan and Alfred James, brother of I. E. James, the well-known civil and mining engineer, now Superintendent of the Contention mine, Tombstone, Arizona. It is as follows:

PROSPECTUS OF THE TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE— A JOURNAL FOR THE EASTERN SLOPE.

                The undersigned very respectfully announce that they will commence, on the first week of November next, 1858, at Carson City, Eagle Valley, the publication of a weekly independent newspaper, entitled the Territorial Enterprise. It will be industriously and earnestly devoted to the advancement of every interest pertaining to the beautiful country bounded on the West by the Sierra Nevadas, and extending into and forming the great basin of the continent. It will not confine its efforts to the building up of favorite localities, but embrace all the communities of the slope in its best endeavors. The necessity of the organization of a Territorial Government will be strenuously set forth, and a record regularly given of local, California and more distant occurrences ; the arrivals and departures of the great overland mail, with the incidents connected therewith, will be carefully noted, and it will be the aim and pride of the undersigned to print a journal which will be popular with and advantageous to every resident of the Utah Valleys. They, therefore, confidently rely upon the encouragement and liberality of their fellow residents.

W. L. Jernegan,

Alfred James.

THE FIRST NUMBER

Of the paper was issued at Genoa, instead of at Carson City, as had been announced, and on Saturday, December 18, 1858, instead of in the first week in November. It would seem that upon a resurvey of the field the inducements at Genoa were thought to be superior to those at Carson. The last number was issued at Genoa, October 29, 1859, when the office of publication was removed to Carson City, where the first number was published November 12, 1859. The Comstock silver mines had then been discovered and the paper was moving toward them. The paper was published at Carson till September 29, 1860, when the office was removed to Virginia City, where the first number was issued November 3 of the same year.

            During this time there were some changes in the proprietorship of the paper. August 20, 1859, Alfred James sold his interest to Jonathan Williams and Jernegan & Co. then became the firm name. On Saturday, August 4, 1860, the paper appeared with the names of Williams & Degroot as editors and proprietors; September 29, 1860, Williams was sole proprietor; November 3, 1860, the names of Williams & Wollard appear as editors and proprietors ; and March, 23, 1861, the names of J. Williams, J. T. Goodman and D. E. McCarthy appear as editors and proprietors. In a short time the paper became a daily and Williams sold his interest to Goodman and McCarthy. In two or three years D. ("Jerry") Driscoll—now dead—bought in with Goodman & McCarthy, making three shares of the property. At length Driscoll sold his interest to Goodman and went into business in Virginia City as a stock broker, and some time after Mr. Goodman purchased the interest of Mr. McCarthy, and was thenceforward sole proprietor until the paper passed into the hands of the Enterprise Publishing Company, its present owners. The principal members of this company are John W. Mackay, William Sharon and D. O. Mills.

A FAMILY ARRANGEMENT.

            The office in which the Enterprise was first published in Virginia City was situated at the corner of A street and Sutton avenue. It was a rough frame structure with a lean-to or shed on the north side. The building was unplastered and in Winter was bitterly cold. The principal building was composition-room, press-room and all else. The table of the editors was shoved closed to the stove in Winter and the printers moved their cases as near the fire as they could get them, and even then worked with their feet wrapped in old barley-sacks, in order to prevent them from freezing. The shed part was fitted up with sleeping " bunks, " one above another as on shipboard, and in it slept all hands. In it was also a cooking stove on which meals were cooked by a Chinaman — " Old Joe " — for all connected with the establishment ; a long table being set as at a boarding-house. At this table the great game was to start some disgusting story that would drive away all the weak-stomached. It was made very " rough " for all new men, who for some days knew not what to think when the old hands began among themselves to discuss their favorite dishes and describe feasts of which they had partaken in various pans of the world.

            " Old Joe,'' the Chinaman, was long thought to be a " pearl of great price" among cooks. This was principally because he was able to mold the butter into the form of lions, tigers, elephants, dragons and the like. However, when mouse-hairs had been found in the biscuits and pie-crust for about a week, and an investigation showed that there were three or four dead mice in the lard keg, into which he was in the habit of pouring melted fat and other odds and ends of grease that his economical habits prompted him to save, his cleanliness begun to be mistrusted. A watch was set upon him, and so many filthy habits discovered that he was discharged and the boarding house system broken up. A story or two illustrative of " Old Joe's " favorite methods of preparing food then produced more startling results among the old settlers than ever had any of their invented yarns done among new arrivals.  

THE " WASHOE TIMES "

Was a paper published at Silver City early in 1860, before any paper was printed at Virginia City. The Times was published by Wm. L. Card, backed by Stephen Card, then owner of a tug-boat or two at San Francisco. As Silver City had the first mill on the Comstock — the Pioneer, built under the supervision of Almarin B. Paul — and the first newspaper, its people thought it would become the seat of Government and the leading town of the Territory, but when Virginia City took a start she soon left behind all other places in the country. Soon after the publication of the Enterprise was commenced at Virginia City, " war " broke out between Williams of that paper and Card of the Washoe Times. Personalities were indulged in on both sides and it was thought there would be bloodshed. One day when Card had been more than usually virulent, Williams mounted his horse and started for Silver City. It was then expected that the flow of blood would begin. It was said that previous to setting out for the stronghold of the enemy Williams had been seen to strap upon his person a breast-plate of boiler iron which he had worn during the Piute war ; but, to the disappointment of an awaiting world, no result followed adequate to the grand preparation.  

ANOTHER " WASHOE TIMES"

Was published at Washoe City, Washoe county, in 1862, by G. W. Derickson. It was a weekly and lived but a short time. It was raised from its ashes by General Allen, under the name of the Old Pah-Ute, but did not long remain in existence. In 1863 the material was purchased by J. K. Lovejoy, who took it to Virginia City, where he began the publication of the Old Piute, dropping the old spelling.  At this time there was being published in Virginia City the Daily Union, Laird, Glessner and Church, proprietors. In 1863 there was also published in Virginia City, by Dick James and Charley Parker, the Evening Bulletin, and about the same time Philip Lynch began the publication of the Evening News at Gold Hill. The News prospered for many years, while the Bulletin was soon numbered with the dead. Had James and Parker started their paper at Gold Hill instead of at Virginia City, they would have been all right for many years — ten at least.

OLD-TIME CARSON PAPERS.

            In 1860 Carson had a paper called the Silver Age, published by an "Association;" with John C. Lewis as editor and manager. Between this paper and the Enterprise there was war for a long time, as the Silver Age constantly asserted that Carson was the only town in the Territory ; that sufficient level ground on which to build a town could not be found at Virginia City, and that eventually all the houses at the latter place would be moved down into the valley at Carson. In 1863 was published in Carson the Independent, Israel Crawford and W. W. Moore proprietors, and in 1864 was started the Evening Post by H. W. Johnson. This paper lived about eighteen months, and was succeeded by the Appeal, Harry Mighels proprietor, which still lives and flourishes. In 1872 a paper called the Herald was started by Wells Drury, at present Deputy Secretary of State, which enjoyed a short season of life and prosperity.

THE GOODMAN-FITCH DUEL.

            In 1864 Bennett & Fitch— Tom Fitch, the silver-tongued — published in Virginia City the Washoe Herald. The Herald and Enterprise were soon at war and this war did not end until a duel was fought between Fitch and J. T. Goodman of the Enterprise ; Goodman coming off unscathed and Fitch receiving a ballet in his leg just below the knee. The duel was fought in California, at Dog Valley, just over the Nevada line. The parties, with quite a number of friends on both sides, left Virginia City the previous day and camped on the ground. The fight took place early in the morning, alongside the Henness Pass road. As the principals were about to be placed in position by their seconds, the stage from California came up, when the driver very considerately halted and treated his passengers to a sight of the affair. The duel seems to have had the desired effect, as Messrs. Goodman and Fitch have ever since been good friends, though the latter still has a slight limp to remind him of the occasion. About this time a paper in the German language was published in Virginia City, and lived nearly a year. Tom Fitch also started a weekly literary paper called the Occidental, which died at birth, but one number ever seeing the light. At this time, too, came the jocular Forbes, and in the midst of the other papers of various kinds began the publication of a newspaper which he called the Trespass, acknowledging, in the very name, that he came into a field already pretty thoroughly occupied. Some of the sayings of Forbes — now on the " other shore " — are remembered and quoted to this day. One of these was in regard to the saw-mill that Governor Nye undertook to build in the early days at the Pyramid Lake, Indian Reservation, and of which about all that was ever completed was the dam. In mentioning this effort for the amelioration of the forlorn condition of the red man, Forbes said it was "a dam by a mill site, but no mill by a dam site.''

OLD COMO.

            In the early days, even Como had its newspaper, the Como Sentinel, published by Webster & Abraham. Como, situated about ten miles southeast of Dayton, in an elevated range of mountains, is now probably the most utterly deserted and obliterated town on the Pacific Coast. At one time it had its stores, hotels, saloons, schoolhouse, brewery and all kinds of business houses usually seen in a flourishing mining town. A few buried friends and relatives in the little graveyard of the place, but in the shafts seen in every direction on the slopes of the hills, all the people buried hopes that once were bright, and with them a large share of their worldly possessions, the obituaries of which latter the Sentinel did not live to publish. The paper was revived at Dayton under the name of the Lyon County Sentinel ; but the new life was not of long duration. Silver City has had several newspapers since the first was started by W. L. Card, of which the Times, published by T. E. Picotte, now of the Hailey Times, Wood river, enjoyed the longest lease of life. Picotte and Cosgrove also for a time ran the Independent, at Sutro, a paper that was first started in Virginia City (and edited by Charley Summer) at the time William Sharon was making his fight for the United States Senatorship, the paper being in the interest of Adolph Sutro and opposed to Sharon.

IN EASTERN NEVADA.

            Almost every mining town that has had a name has also had its newspaper. At the time of the White Pine boom a paper called the Inland Empire was started at Hamilton by James Ayers, now State Printer of California, and C. V. A. Putnam, afterwards State Printer of Nevada. The publication of the paper was commenced in a large canvas tent, and printers and all hands suffered much from cold during the " pogonips '' of that elevated region. A gallant fight was made, but " pogonips " and financial frosts nipped the Inland Empire before it had been long in bloom. Pat Holland, who at one time published a small advertising sheet in Virginia City, made quite a success of a paper called the Record, which he published at Pioche, but the paper finally went down with the mines, and Pat is now Coroner at Tombstone, Arizona. John Booth, who was the publisher of the Austin Reveille at the time of his death, at one time had a paper at the little town of Columbus, and was active in the work of starting newspapers wherever an opening appeared. W. W. Barnes also started papers in several places in Eastern Nevada, but never published any of them for any great length of time. He contributed many a corpse to the Nevada newspaper graveyard. Forbes, mentioned above as publisher of the Trespass, in Virginia City, went out into Eastern Nevada and did a good deal in the way of launching newspapers. He had a penchant for odd names. His last paper was called Measure for Measure, and had he lived would probably have found in Shakespeare quite a bonanza in his line, " Much Ado About Nothing," " As You Like It," and several other names had already been suggested by neighborly contemporaries.