572 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



act of the Legislature to unite them in one district; and I welcome the 

 people of Placer to this gathering, promising reciprocity whenever the time 

 may come for it. But the scenes around us can but bring to my mind the 

 old days of Nevada. How different, in all its aspects, was the Nevada of 

 the first ten years of its existence from that which it presents to-day. It is 

 thirty-five years, and a little more, since Nevada received its present name. 

 A meeting of residents on the Fourth of July, 1850, at Blackman's store, 

 that stood near the present junction of Main and Commercial Streets, 

 selected for the fast populating city the beautiful name it has since borne. 

 A State in the Union afterwards adopted that name. In September of 

 that year I first saw the rude shanties that lined its rudimentary streets; 

 the log cabins on all the hillsides; the busy town of Coyote ville, with its- 

 thousands of denizens in the environs, where scarcely a trace of habitation 

 is now to be found; the dense throng that filled these streets, hurrying, 

 jostling, yet good natured; the two thriving open-doored gambling saloons 

 at the foot of Main Street, where gambling ran high or low, according to the 

 temper of the customer; when a shovel cost an ounce, and meat, tough 

 enough for leather belting, cost half a dollar a pound, and soap was among 

 the luxuries, and nothing was plentiful but whisky, not even women, who 

 were scarcest of all. It was a town of men, and, on the whole, of orderly 

 men. Yet we had our exhibition of lynch law, but one such, I believe; 

 for there was comparatively little of the recklessness of the southern mines, 

 as portrayed by Bret Harte; and Nevada, with all its bustle and primitive- 

 ness, was far from being a Roaring Camp. 



How very few are left of the old pioneers ! They have scattered to every 

 part of the State; to every region of the globe. I have met them almost 

 everywhere; in this State, in the East, and in Europe. Many more have 

 passed the dark river, and the few who remain are old, or in mature man- 

 hood. Yet the memories of those former denizeris of these streets have not 

 all faded out. A crowd of them rise up to my mind's eye, and their names 

 are not unfamiliar to you. Among the lawyers who practiced at the bar 

 in the rude days, who can forget Stanton Buckner, most amiable if most 

 tedious of men; and James Churchman, a man of genius, with some of the 

 faults of genius; and John R. McConnell, with his uncouth pupil, W. M. 

 Stewart, both men of remarkable ability; and Ellis, who nobly bore a 

 manly part in the coming days; and Lorenzo Sawyer, since eminent as a 

 Judge, if not locally loved for his judgments; and bluff old Frank J. Dunn, 

 and unfortunate Henry Meredith, done to death in an Indian raid; and 

 Niles Searls, and Dave Belclen, and T. B. McFarland, who still live to do 

 the State service; and in the list of merchants there was royal Dick Oglesby, 

 since General, Senator, and Governor, then young, like California; and 

 among the miners who delved in the ravines was John P. Jones,' now serv- 

 ing his third term in the United States Senate; and here, also, was John 

 B. Hager, who also became a Senator. Four men serving together in the 

 United States Senate had been residents of Nevada City at the same time, 

 in the fifties. I could allude to J. N. Turner and his excellent family, who 

 were residents here in 1850, and kept the Nevada Hotel; to Womack and 

 Gregory, who entertained travelers; to the old Nevada Journal, and later 

 Nevada Democrat, the ghosts of expired journalism; and that reminds me 

 of W. B. Ewer and Tallman H. Rolfe, pioneer journalists; and worthy old 

 John Dunn comes to mind, with James Whartenby, Dr. Knox, and George 

 W. Kidd, who trained the water on these hills, and sold it almost as dear 

 as whisky, and fought long legal battles, to the betterment of lawyers, with 

 Amos T. Laird, for priority of water rights. Parson Warren's service of 



