[From the Second Biennial Report of the Nevada Historical Society 1909-1910 (1911)]

 

EXPERIENCES OF A NEVADA PIONEER[a]

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Aaron D. Campton, Esquire, Page and Messenger Boy in Constitutional Convention of 1863 and Page in First State Legislative Assembly.

(Written by the Secretary of the Society)

Coming of Aaron to Nevada, 1859

            Traveling with one of the many caravans which crossed the plains in the 50's en route for the Golden West was the eleven-year-old boy, Aaron D. Campton. He was not without friends, for accompanying him were his mother, brother and two sisters, one of the latter a delicate girl of eight summers, who weighed but twenty-six pounds. It was with the hope of saving the life of this daughter and that of Aaron that the widowed mother had left her home in the East. They traveled by way of the route north of Salt Lake City[b] and arrived in Carson City on the twenty-fifth of August, 1859. The present capital of Nevada was then a hamlet of four houses.[c] Prices were high,[d] and the winter gave promise of length and severity. So after a six weeks' sojourn they journeyed on to California, going first to the Honeut in Butte County and later to Oroville. But already the news of the discovery of the Comstock Lode had reached California, causing excitement such as is known only in a mining country. The rush to Washoe began in the summer of '59; many remained on the desert and braved the winter cold. In the spring of 1860 a long waiting list was drawn up on the western side of the Sierras tarrying for the melting of the snow and the opening of a passage into the enchanted Country. Merchants, eager to transport their wares, reached Western Utah by leading the pack mules for miles over blankets spread upon the snow to prevent the breaking of the crust.[e] Saddle trains carried the passengers long before the roads permitted of the passage of vehicles.[f]

Home in Carson City: Question of Education

            Among the eager tourists of the spring of 1860 were Mrs. Campton and

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[a] This story was told to the secretary of the society at Pasadena, Cal., August 1, 1910. Any points added by her have been submitted to Mr. Campton for approval.

[b] This was the "cut-off" leaving the main route a short distance east of Fort Hall.

[c] The village site of Carson City was laid out by Abraham Curry in September. 1858. Angel. 59. Most of the people lived in tents.

[d] Flour sold for $60 a hundred; beef from 16 to 25 cents per pound: potatoes, 25 cents: hay. $100 a ton; lumber, S400 a thousand. Angel, 67.

[e] Angel, 66.

[f] Dan de Quille, 117.

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her children. They entered Carson City for the second time in April, 1860. Like all eastern mothers, Mrs. Campton was anxious that her children should receive a good education. The Carson school had just been called into existence.[a] It was held in a little room made of rough boards and was located off the northeast corner of the Plaza. Just north of it was the Frisbie House and bakery, also Luidaur's store, an arrangement which, it would appear, was not conducive to quietness or to study. Eleven pupils were in attendance at the school. Here Aaron studied for one year. When Miss Clapp started her private school with an enrollment of about thirty pupils. Aaron longed to attend, but his mother could not afford to send him. Moreover, provision must first be made for his delicate sister's education. Finally the mother agreed that if he could make ten dollars a month[b] his sister and he should be permitted to enroll in Sierra Seminary.[c] Ten dollars a month was not much in Carson those days, but how was a twelve-year-old boy to earn so much out of school hours during the winter months?

How a Small Boy Earned Tuition Money

            Down at the old brewery[d] Aaron found that the owner was buying old bottles. Now old bottles were plentiful in Carson, as they ever have been in pioneer camps. Aaron forthwith bought up the bottles at all the saloons on Saturday and carrying them to the brewery sold them at a handsome profit. For the small bottles he paid twenty-five cents a dozen and sold them for fifty. The large ones cost thirty-seven and a half cents a dozen, but sold for seventy-five cents. The first means of transportation was a basket. Soon a carpenter took pity on the lad and made him a little four-wheeled wagon with solid Mexican wheels. Another means of earning the precious school money was by gathering the old tin cans from the restaurants and melting the solder off, which latter product sold for sixty-five cents a pound. Thus were this little boy and his sister given entrance into Nevada's first private school and into all that heritage of precious memories which still bind together as with a golden chain the ex-students of Sierra Seminary.[e]

The Race-Track

            Still another employment was offered to Aaron in 1861. Soon after his arrival in 1S60 a kind-hearted man had tendered him the use of a mule and saddle, and had advised him to "ride" in the hope of increasing his scant weight of forty-odd pounds. Now to "ride" in Washoe in those days meant the race-track, and thus, when only thirteen years old, Aaron, because of his light weight and knack of riding, found opportu-

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[a] No statistics are available for 1959 and 1860, but in 1862 there were but five primary classes in Nevada Territory; in 1863, six primary, two intermediate, and one grammar school. Angel, 219.

[b] The tuition was $5 a month.

[c] Sierra Seminary was located three or four blocks west of the old Corbett House.

[d] The brewery was a short distance south of the Ormsby House and opposite the southwest corner of the Plaza.

[e] Miss Clapp said prayers daily, and Aaron testifies that this helped to make a good boy of him.

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tiny to earn many a dollar for himself and mother.[a] In this capacity he was present at all the important meets at Carson, Genoa, Dayton, Washoe and Truckee Meadows, and later at the first races on the old Reno track north of the depot.[b] Always when he planned to ride he must obtain Miss Clapp's permission, and very tender is his recollection of her oft-repeated caution to be a good boy and save money for his mother. Then she would kiss him and send him off. Always she was waiting at the door to kiss and greet him on his return, to ask if he had been a good boy, and if he had saved the money for his mother.

Protected from Vice

            Thus for a period of seven years Aaron was exposed to all the temptations of the Capital City and of the race-track, as well. Only once in that time did he bet upon the horses and then for the paltry sum of five dollars.[c] Nevada was noted for its "rough characters" in those days, but it is said to their credit that good and bad alike protected the young Aaron, kept him from saloons and gambling houses, while, on the other hand, they escorted him to the theaters and often purchased clothing for him.[d]

Messenger Boy in Constitutional Convention, 1863

            Pursuant to an Act of the Territorial Legislature of 1862 providing for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention and the convening of such convention, provided the plebiscite of the same date returned a majority vote in its favor, the first convention for the drafting of a State Constitution met in Carson in the county buildings[e] on the 2d day of November, 1863. Although the instrument there framed was destined to fall short of adoption because of political enmities in the Territory, yet it formed the basis of Nevada's present Constitution. These herculean efforts covered but little over a month of days. Yet the period was fraught with significance to Nevada and to the young Aaron who served as messenger boy through the "dull November days." No happier boy than he was to be found in all the Territory when at the close of the session he presented his mother with one thousand dollars earned in this way and by riding horses.

First Steady Employment

            His first steady job was in a cigar store located in a corner of the Ormsby House; his next at Gold Hill where he carried tools for one winter in the Kentuck mine, and the next in the Yellow Jacket.

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[a] Tim G. Smith, afterwards Sheriff of Ormsby County, and later killed in discharge of his duty, December 17, l867, was the man who urged him to ride.

[b] This track was located just south of the present University grounds.

[c] This was with his mother's permission.

[d] The names of some of these Nevada pioneers are recalled by Mr. Campton as follows: John and Wes George: Charlie Brooks, Bill Mayfield, Jack Harris, Bill H. Bethards (later killed when a convict in the State Prison by another convict).

[e] See Angel, 541.

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White Pine Excitement: Life in Hamilton

            In 1869 the White Pine excitement began and Aaron determined to be one of the first into the new district. In company with Matthew Pixley,[a] who was a hotel keeper near the prison, he started for White Pine. Although the Central Pacific Railroad was already completed as far as Elko, it was thought desirable to leave the railroad at Battle Mountain and proceed by stage to Hamilton. But for a period of three weeks no seat could be obtained on the Hamilton stage, and finally in despair these Carson prospectors hired out to an immigrant to go along, drive team, and do the cooking.[b] They arrived at Hamilton in the evening. Aaron was given five dollars by the owner of the team to purchase hay for the horses, and by ten o'clock that night not a wisp of hay remained where the hungry animals had fed. Perhaps the meal was not so generous a one after all, for hay sold in Hamilton for twenty-five cents a pound and barley for thirty-three and a third cents.[c] Hamilton was a rough-and-tumble camp, though never as tough as Pioche.[d] Just below the main street was a big feed yard. Here one night Mr. Campton and three or four other men stood talking when cries of "Stop him ! stop him!" were heard, and a man on horseback dashed by, having just slashed another man to death. The murderer of John H. Traylor escaped into the darkness and was never brought to judgment.

Trouble with Indians

            In White Pine Aaron remained until December, 1869. After a visit to his brother who was living in Antelope Valley, California, on the Walker River, he helped to move the dairy and horse herd belonging to his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Luse, from Hamilton to Steptoe Valley, White Pine County.[e] Here Mr. Luse homesteaded a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, now known as the Campbell Ranch. It is situated twenty-five miles north of the modern town of Ely.[f] Meanwhile Aaron during the summer of 1870 was herding horses on the bunch grass about the mining camp of Hamilton, forty-five miles distant.  In the fall, however, he came back to the Steptoe Ranch. It was destined to become a lively place in 1871 because of the big teaming from Toano on the railroad to Pioche, the new mining camp to the south of White Pine. But before the excitement began there was other excitement with the Goshute Indians, who thought to rob the lonely ranchers

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[a] Uncle Abe Curry put up a hotel at the hot springs near the prison yard as it was then, and Mr. Pixley had a lease on the hotel: Mr. Campton. Pixley was killed at the prison on September 17, 1871, while assisting in the suppression of a revolt among the prisoners: Angel, 518. A shot fired from one of the windows by a convict killed him: Mr. Campton.

[b] See account of difficulties by way of Elko: Gracey, "Early Days in Lincoln County," in First Biennial Report, 103-5.

[c] Board was $14 a week in Hamilton and wages $5 a day for any kind of work. Anything except a horse was salable in Hamilton.

[d] See Gracey's account of Pioche in " Early Days in Lincoln County ": First Biennial Report, 111 ff. This brother-in-law had been raising hay and selling it in Carson for $125 a ton.

[e] In 1872 Mr. Luse sold the ranch and stock to D. W. Perley of Pioche.

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in their cabin ten miles from the nearest neighbor. The test was made one day after dinner at the camp-fire some fifty feet from the cabin where the mid-day meal had been prepared. Along happened six savage-looking Indians asking for something to eat. A white weasel skin was deposited in payment of the anticipated meal. When the food was brought out, however, they turned it over with their fingers and, saying it leas fit only for the dogs, they threw it aside and asked for more. Failing to obtain it they became ugly and made for the cooking tent, but were stopped by Aaron and his companions at the point of a gun. They slunk away, apparently satisfied that it was useless to attempt to rob the white man.

A Period of Varying Successes

            From the time that Aaron left the Steptoe ranch in the fall of 1872 until he made his stake in Ely in 1905, his life was characteristic of many a Nevada young man. One season we find him bringing a band of five hundred head of cattle from Idaho and delivering them to his employer, John N. Hicks.[a] Anon he is teaming from Toano to Mineral City, now Upper Lane City, where his mother and step-father, John Ragsdale, were then living; next working for the Martin White Company at Ward; then with Mr. McGill contracting to haul coal from Willow Creek, three miles south of Ward to the smelters at Ward. After eight months on the team, he became the receiver of coal for the company, and this latter work not being arduous enough for so active a youth, he won the permission of the superintendent of the smelter, Mr. Thomas, to study assaying, with the result that he became assayer for the company. Again, in company with Mr. McGill he contracted for the hauling of the quartz from the mine to the smelter, but in the spring of '79 sold out to McGill and for eight months prospected in Arizona, crossing into the southern territory by way of the Muddy and Bonnelli's Ferry. Disappointed in prospecting, we find him back in White Pine driving night stage, then in Cherry Creek and other places in assay offices; then assisting in the surveying of a railroad to Eureka[b]; in 1882 with Mr. McGill in the Monitor mine at Taylor where he took charge of the bookkeeping, assaying, retorting, melting, and errand boy work. The latter duty was not satisfactory, for before he ever "got a show to go to town" he had twenty-three bars of silver bullion weighing from twenty-two hundred to twenty-four hundred ounces each on his hands.

County Clerk and Recorder

            From "errand boy" he became County Clerk, but hired a deputy and became bookkeeper for Matthewson Brothers in Hamilton.[c] This

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[a] Many head of cattle were being imported into Idaho from Oregon and Texas. Dairy cattle brought $10 a head: Texas steers, $30. In White Pine cattle just off the trail sold for $23 a head.

[b] Supposed to be an extension of the Denver and Rio Grande.

[c] Mr. Campton later married a daughter of Mr. J. B. Matthewson.

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arrangement seems to have been eminently satisfactory to all persons concerned, for in 1884 he was elected to the office of County Recorder, and with the burning of the Hamilton court-house on January 1, 1885,[a] and the removal of the county-seat to Ely in 1887,[b] Mr. Campton cast his lot with the town where he was to reap his reward after years of futile prospecting.

Competency Gained in Ely, 1905

            For it was in the spring of 1891 that he purchased the Ely town site, and later installed the telephone system in the same town. When the boom came, the lots and the telephone system both sold for fabulous prices. Then there was more money changing hands in Ely than there had been in Hamilton, even in those fabulously rich days when from morning till night a stream of men could be seen going up and coming down Treasure Hill. In Ely in the days of 1905, Aaron Campton gained his competency, and the poor, frail, little page of Nevada's first Constitutional Convention reaped the reward of his perseverance in the deserts of the Sagebrush State.

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[a] Mr. Campton carried a book out of the Sheriff's office in the burning court-house. This was the only book saved. The building was two story and of brick.

[b] The Legislature which convened soon after the fire authorized the moving of the county-seat to Ely, which town had given sixteen acres of ground for that purpose. The offices were moved to Ely in August, 1887. At that time there were only four or five other buildings in Ely, among them the old stage station and Sol Hilp's store.