Nevada County:100 years ago

By Brad Prowse - Sat, Dec 2, 2000

December 1900

Mrs. Oliver, who resides on South Auburn Street, is suffering from a brain hemorrhage.

Temporary layoff at the Empire while improvements are made.

Fine weather the first part of December until a heavy storm mid-month, more rain on the 20th, then fair.

In Laporte, Ind., the husband of Mary Albertson was charged with selling her to William Dennis for $2 - after considerable haggling. Since then she has had to do the housework for her new lord and master.

Someone tried to break into the postmaster's office Wednesday night but was scared off by an entering patron.

Several youngsters were seen intoxicated in Nevada City. Boys can be found in saloons nightly. It's time the authorities took some action.

Thirty-two people killed in San Francisco while viewing a football game when the roof of the building they were sitting on collapsed.

A small fire in the home of P.G. Gillette on Bennett Street was quickly extinguished.

A baseball game between the miners and the professional men's team will be held.

Nicaragua will not allow the U.S. to fortify the proposed canal.

A demented man in the Alta Hill area has been appearing nude except for an old hat. Investigations will be made.

Nevada City trustees discussed the problem of bawdy houses impinging into the more sedate parts of town, one being built only 30 feet from the National Hotel where families often take dinners.

After a mass meeting of the citizens there, Japanese in Wheatland have been ordered to leave the area by tomorrow. Japanese are employed on ranches and by the railroad. The railroad vowed to protect its laborers.

A 6-pound turnip is on exhibition at the National Hotel.

Chicken dinners for 25 cents Sunday at the Empire restaurant.

The many friends of actor Sam T. Shaw will be pained to learn he has been confined to an asylum, hopelessly insane.

The funeral of the child of John H. Pascoe of Pikes Flat will be held this afternoon.

The House passed the oleomargarine bill that forbids its fraudulent sale as butter.

The grand jury indicts Peter Smith of Truckee for presenting false claims and Bruce Provine of Grass Valley for cattle stealing.

Considerable excitement at the depot when a group of delivery wagons, parked on the track, were almost run over by a work train that was backing up.

In Germany, executions are still carried out by beheading.

Albert Cornelius was killed in a cave-in at the Victor mine in Browns Valley.

In Sacramento, a group of older boys gave a black youth named George King a pipe filled with powder topped by a thin layer of tobacco. This resultant blast may have blinded the boy.

Joseph P. Jones, a bartender at Kellerman's saloon in Nevada City, left his wife and daughter. His wife tracked him to Marysville and found the other woman at the courthouse where the two got into a real donnybrook.

The prevalence of smallpox in Grass Valley should impress Nevada City into the necessity of vaccinations.

The Boxers are again making problems near Peking.

Donation Day approaches - don't forget your stick of wood, potato, old clothing or other offering for the needy.

There will be a Christmas concert at the Congregational church.

In South Africa, Kitchner is holding the Boers in check.

Indians in Utah are up in arms over being restrained from removing their children, ill at the agency school, to their own homes.

In Truckee, a white railroad employee got into a fight with a black man. During the fight, the gentleman of color was severely cut with a razor.

The transport Hancock is expected to arrive in San Francisco from the Philippines with the bodies of 2,000 American soldiers.

The old Indian woman seen on the streets from time to time has died. She was said to be 105. The old tribe is dwindling fast away. Soon the Diggers will be a race of the past.

In Silver Creek, Ariz., cowboys got into a shootout with some saloon owners and general trouble is expected as large numbers of cowboys head for that town.

Sheriff Getchell discovered an unconscious man on Hills Flat, John Ames of Sweetland. His horses had run off, throwing him from the wagon. The sheriff helped the man up and sent him on.

It has been pretty well established that malaria is a disease carried by the mosquito and passed on to humans.

In Idaho, James Sheenhan wounded a man who was stealing gold from his sluice boxes. It turned out to be his daughter, dressed as a man, who was trying to get enough money to run away with her lover, a man her folks disapproved of.

Six more cases of smallpox in town - quarantine signs are going up.

Dr. C.W. Jones, the much-respected physician who opened practice here in 1874, died from a stroke.

The Native Daughters are making lively preparations for a New Year's ball.

This is the last issue of The Union in the 19th century.

"What are those roses worth?"

"They are $2.50 a dozen, sir."

"Is that your regular price or did you mark them up because I'm a plumber?"

Courtesy of "The Union", Grass Valley, CA

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Drunken saloon brawls, raving mad brides and diphtheria outbreaks.  

Death at the mine cave-in, local orphan arraigned in San Francisco.

By The Union Staff - Sat, Oct 2, 1999

October 1899

Members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers arrived here yesterday to a warm welcome from local mine owners.

Dry until mid-month, then after several days of rain dry again until the 26th.

Stage robbers in Colorado overlooked $12,000 that was on the coach.

Hoyt's comedy, "A Midnight Bell," plays in the big tent tonight.

The Pascoe child of Gold Flat is recovering from diphtheria. Health officials removed the contagion flag and fumigated the premises.

Bruce Gatewood got 150 days in jail for obtaining money falsely. He sold photographic portraits but didn't deliver.

A drunken fight yesterday afternoon on the corner of Pine and Broad between T.J. Torpie and a man named Schneider. They were separated and sent on their way.

British troops crossed the frontier in South Africa. Women and children are fleeing the area. The Boers claim British subjects who fail to leave will be forcibly marched out along railroad tracks. The State Department says America will not take sides.

The U-Bet, Mrs. T.P. Blut's dress caught fire from her stove. She was badly burned on one arm.

The telephone line has reached Downieville.

A band of horses driven through town the other day endangered the lives of women and children on the narrow streets.

In Downieville, Joe Arbucco placed a stick of giant powder in his mouth and lit it. No reason for his suicide is evident.

American troops in a hot skirmish four miles from Manila.

Small boys playing with tops are a menace in the business area. Plate glass windows are being broken. An ordinance should be passed to remedy this evil.

Eagle Hose Company No. 3 will give a dance to aid an injured member.

James Coughlin was fined $20 for taking a lighted lantern from an open trench on Mill Street.

Pearl Hart, the female stage robber, escaped from the Tucson jail. She said she would not be subjected to laws that neither she nor her sex had a hand in making. She was recaptured in Deming, New Mexico.

Henry Barton of North San Juan, who worked for the Yuba Power Company, had his right leg amputated after a premature blast.

Violence threatens between colored troops and Apaches in Arizona. Indians object to the attention the soldiers show the Apache women.

A delivery wagon took a short run yesterday but was stopped by Will Green before any damage was done.

Frank Bawden was killed in a cave-in at the WYOD mine yesterday.

The stage for Marysville will begin leaving at 5 a.m. to meet the train there at 2 p.m.

The estate of the late Sheriff Pascoe is worth $1,400 and consists of two houses on Washington Street.

Construction of the Yuba power line has led to fights in French Corral between workers sipping deep from the flowing bowl. In one case, Ah Sing entered a saloon where a man name House started picking on him. The Celestial showed spunk and glassware began to fly, inflicting a cut on House from a beer mug. At last report, the two were laying for each other with guns.

The four-year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Smith passed away of diphtheria. The parents are grief-stricken over her loss. School has closed for a week due to the epidemic of contagious disease.

Charles McCauley and John Williams, drunk and spouting foul language, drove a buggy up and down Mill and Main Streets at a rapid rate. Officers took the two in charge.

Truckee streets are clear of snow but the mud is quite deep.

In Denver, on her wedding day, Miss Esther Burns became a raving maniac and a danger to herself and friends. Taken to the police matron's quarters, she has continued to rave incessantly about her marriage. It is thought the altitude may have affected her mind.

Many people feel the 20th century begins on Jan. 1, 1900 but it actually begins on Jan. 1, 1901.

The Navy will begin tests on the new wireless telegraphy in their battleships.

Miss Fletcher, the lady barber, has left the city. She leaves many to mourn her departure.

Three cases of diphtheria in one day - a record.

As the bus was driving to Nevada City from Grass Valley, one of the horses lay down and died.

Hallowe'en - watch out for your gates, doors, windows, etc. tonight.

Henry Hansen, a Nevada County Indian, is accused of killing a Placer County Indian named Dave Porter. Hansen is in the Auburn jail.

White dishwasher wanted at the New York Hotel.

Marysville Business College offers a shorthand and typing course, 6 months in length, for $60.

An exceptionally pretty young girl, about 16, whose beauty turned every head in the courtroom, was arraigned in San Francisco for living with a man. She claimed to have come from an orphanage here.

Joseph Knight answered the summons of death. A consumptive, he worked in the New York Saloon on Broad.

Courtesy of "The Union", Grass Valley, CA