View from the Past

100 Years Ago

Speaking this afternoon and tonight, Miss Maud Younger, “The Millionaire Waitress” of California will address the ladies and citizens in general of Fallon and vicinity at the Rex Theatre, Saturday, October 7, on the political issues of the present campaign and its bearing on the suffrage question. Everybody cordially invited!

Churchill County Eagle, Saturday, October 2, 1916

Passing her conclusions upon the election returns of 1912 and 1914 and upon the returns of organizers, Miss Mabel Vernon, Secretary of the National Women’s Party, states there is every reason to believe that President Wilson and the Democratic candidates for Congress will be defeated in Nevada in November. The Women’s Party, Miss Vernon believes, will be the determining factor in the next election and the members of this party will vote against President Wilson and the Democrats because of the hostility of the Democratic Party to the national suffrage amendment. She predicts that not only Nevada but all the equal suffrage states with the possible exception of Arizona and Colorado will go against the Democrats.

Churchill County Eagle, Saturday, October 2, 1916

75 Years Ago

Long ago, in 1860, a driver of a stage between Virginia City and the Reese river mines saw an ugly red glow in the sky as he swung around the mud bluffs toward Bisby near Lahontan. He wondered if the house or stables were burning. He muttered something about freight teamsters thinking they were whiskey kegs. He could see now it was the stables. Probably somebody went to sleep in the hay with a pipe in his mouth…Mrs. Wendell Wheat, in her explorations of historical spots found what is left of this old time station in Bixby just below Lahontan Dam. She guessed this may have happened at the two large adobe stables and three bedroom adobe house. The stables were made of brick. Who were these people? Do you know?

The Fallon Standard, Wednesday, October 1, 1941

50 Years Ago

Richard Harmon, who was blown out of the cabin he occupied on E. Stillwater St. last Saturday morning, is improving at Churchill Public Hospital despite extensive burns covering his body. Both the fire truck and the ambulance were called to the scene at 9:15 am after Harmon was blown through the window of the cabin, his clothes on fire. According to Lloyd Whalen, fire chief, as nearly as could be determined, Harmon mistakenly thought the oven in a propane stove had been lit, and when he later lit a cigarette the propane fumes caused the explosion. Churchill County has never adopted any code regulations concerning gas, electric and plumbing installations in the county, and of a consequence there is no control over inefficient or inadequate installations. Jim Wood, county executive secretary, said he intended to bring the matter to the attention of the county commissioners. Fallon Eagle-Standard, Tuesday, October 4, 1966

A View From The Past…stories from the Churchill County Museum & Archives, researched and compiled by Margo Weldy, Churchill County Museum Assistant.