Julia C Bulette Chapter 1864

Submitted by Travis Stransky

In a forgotten corner between the cities of Reno and Sparks lies a piece of land incased in a wrought iron fence along 21st street. Within the fence there stands an eight foot obelisk comprising of four plaques on each side, listing the names of 767 patients who were buried at one time in unmarked graves at the Nevada State Asylum Cemetery. Why? Between 1882-1949 the state asylum buried its deceased patients in shallow, unmarked graves within its own cemetery. Over the years, urban development has taken place and caused horrifying desecrations on the cemetery’s grounds. It wasn’t until very recently the attitudes of society within the State of Nevada and the City of Sparks, started to show any kind of interest for the proper respect and recognition of its deceased patients buried within the cemetery.

For many years disrespectful burial conditions took place at the Nevada State Asylum Cemetery due to negative and insensitive attitudes toward the mentally ill. As a child living on Hymer Street in the 1940s, across from the cemetery, Dennis Cassinelli saw how deceased patients were dropped into shallow graves in makeshift coffins made out of cardboard boxes. “They then covered the grave over with dirt, leaving only a mound to mark the spot” (Cassinelli). Grave sites often became neglected with no records of where each individual patient was buried (“Friends of Northern Nevada”). Patients at the asylum were seen as unfavorable in death as well as life. Mentally ill people were not valued as worthy of a proper funeral alongside sane people within a regular cemetery.

The following text will be etched onto a plaque and sometime in 2018 will be placed in the Eldorado Canyon pine nut wood ranch where Fannie Gore Hazlett lived during the Comstock era. –Metric

In 1862 Fannie Gore, age 24, a single woman, camped where the Dayton Depot now stands, on her way West. She traveled 16 weeks by mule team along the Emigrant Trail to reach her destination. She was joined in this camp by 30 miners and 200 local indigenous people (Paiute). She wrote about the experience, “This is mining country and the society is rough, with frequent shooting affrays. There is drinking and gambling at every door and there are about 20 men to one woman.”
In 1864 Fannie married Dr. John Clark Hazlett. She went on to write the Historical Sketch of Dayton, published in the 1921-22 Nevada Historical Society Papers. She supported women’s suffrage, and served as a postmaster in Dayton where she organized a library. She met Brigham Young and Mark Twain and socialized with many Nevada governors and legislators.
At age 84 Fannie Gore Hazlett made national news as the oldest woman to ever fly in an aeroplane. From a true pioneer to aeroplane passenger, Fannie lived to 95.

Julia’s Grave: History Or Myth?

By Johnny Gunn

When one works toward enlarging an historical record, the word provenance is the key. What it means is proof. You say the such and such happened at this particular place at this particular time, and then you produce your source that cannot be questioned. Regarding Julia’s grave, too often over the years the sources provided must be questioned.

In the 1950s, Virginia City was emerging from a run-down, almost ghost town to a glamorous tourist mecca and one of the driving forces was Lucius Beebe, and New York raconteur with connections to major newspapers across the country, particularly San Francisco.

He bought property here including the defunct Territorial Enterprise and saw to it that every major newspaper and credible tourist writer in the country was on the mailing list, and he started a campaign to make Virginia City the “Livest Ghost Town” in the west, his description.

Legitimate history was enlarged, mythologized, and Julia C. Bulette played one of the major roles. Her history is grand by itself, it doesn’t need expansion, but that didn’t stop Beebe. His writing should never be used a provenance. It’s been discredited too often by too many legitimate historians.

Presented by Gene “Dickhead” Duncker, PXP

In 1858, Abraham Curry bought Eagle Valley Station Ranch and names it Carson City. He began to lay-out the plans for development, setting aside a four acre plaza in the center for the anticipated State Capitol. It was pretty farsighted of him, considering we weren’t even a territory in our own right yet, still part of the Utah territory.
Six years later, we were granted statehood, and the fight was on for the determination of the location of our capital; Virginia City had the greatest population. Dayton claimed a convenient location on the Carson River. Genoa claimed to be the first white settlement. All this contention kept us in limbo until 1869. During this time, the Legislature met at the Hot Springs Hotel in Carson City, which happened to be owned by Abe Curry.

As an organization dedicated to the preservation of mining history in the west, we couldn’t be in a better place. The history of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode could

Philip Deidesheimer

keep an historian busy writing for ten years or more. Mining engineers around the world are taught techniques that were developed here because of the complexity of the ore, the size of the lode itself, and the geology of the Virginia Range.

S L Y

Clamper year 6022

Brought to you by
Julia C. Bulette Chapter 1864, E Clampus Vitus

Envisioned by 
Noble Grand Humbug Reid Slayden

 Researched and interpreted by 
Jeffrey D. Johnson XNGH, Clamphistorian at Chapter 1864

Dedicated to
Rod Stock XSNGH, Jess Davis XNGH

2017 c.e.

Churchill County

Churchill County was established in 1861 and named after Fort Churchill (which is now in Lyon County), which was named after General Sylvester Churchill, a Mexican-American War hero who was Inspector General of the U.S. Army in 1861. Churchill County was not organized until 1864, and its county seats were Bucklands (1861–64) which is now in Lyon County, La Plata (1864–68), Stillwater (1868–1904) and Fallon (1904–present). In the 19th century there were several attempts to eliminate Churchill County because of its small population, but Assemblyman Lemuel Allen was able to stop it on all occasions including convincing the Governor to veto the bill after it had been passed by both houses in 1875.

William Morris Stewart had a lengthy and remarkable career. Extraordinarily capable and articulate, he was the most visible of nineteenth century Nevada senators. He was a skilled politician. Never beloved, he was respected for his intelligence and mastery of detail, and feared for his often ruthless determination and occasional lack of scruples in attaining his desired ends. His interests focused on national as well as local issues, and he fit in quite comfortably with the venal culture of his times.

Read More: 

http://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/william-stewart

Nevada Historical Society Quarterly

An ECV history pamphlet from 1966. h/t Jim Cirner

then_and_now_1966

Thanks to the good folks at The Historical Marker Database, we have a nice list of 785 ECV markers throughout the United States, including 28 markers attributed to chapter #1864. The database is searchable with a mapping function as well. Take a look through, and if you think one is missing, we’ll see about adding it.

There is also a mobile phone friendly website, which uses your location to show markers near you, and the Field Trip app from Google includes information from HMDB as well.

h/t Michael McClain

Thanks to Jeff Johnson. This is a great article.

“With the outbreak of the Civil War the mountain of silver under Virginia City became critical to national security. Nevada became a Territory by Act of Congress on March 2, 1861….

“It is interesting to note that longitude is not referenced to Greenwich, but to Washington, D.C….

“Nevada Territory’s land description set the stage for a minor civil war even though it acknowledged that the overlap would continue to belong to California until and unless she ceded it to Nevada Territory. These qualifying words did not stop Plumas County, California, and Roop County, Nevada Territory (now in Washoe County, Nevada) from exercising jurisdiction over the same ground in the vicinity of Honey Lake Valley. The powder keg exploded when the Roop County judge arrested the Plumas County justice of the peace. This outrage prompted the Plumas County sheriff to arrest the Roop County judge. Before long shots were fired and blood was shed. Fortunately, a truce was declared before things got completely out of hand and each side resolved to petition their governor for an equitable solution. Clearly it was time to put state line monuments on the ground.”

Read on…