Brevities from Wadsworth, Nevada
But reading them it didn’t take me long to have that feeling that the “past is a foreign country.” I have to look up references to things that were totally unknown to me. Like Murphy Clubs - what were those? What was the Keeley Institute? Mush and milk parties? Mother Hubbard dresses?
Then there are things I know about, but I’ll check with friends and see if they have the same background knowledge. What do they know about the poorhouses, the homes for the friendless, or why parents left children in orphanages when they weren’t orphaned? Or there are the lyceums, singing schools and Chautauquas that every American knew about, and the popularity of tableaux performances. Most people have heard of the Cherokee Trail of Tears, for example, but not the Potawatomie Trail of Death, or other forced marches of different Indian tribes, such as the military driving the Myaamia (Miami) out of Indiana.
What I realized was that these “gleanings” or “local items” or “brevities” deserve a serious study. They have in common a reflection of the popular culture and beliefs of the time – often quite disturbing in the open, casual, accepted racism and misogyny, or a harsh assessment of the poor and women who crossed any of the accepted rules of “proper” female behavior. I believe it is important to share and remember this, though it is uncomfortable, and I sometimes feel reluctant to include these upsetting items.
It is also interesting to note what is different about each place. Recently researching an ancestor who settled in Wadsworth, Nevada for the last thirty years of his life, for example, there are references to the celebration of Chinese New Year, not found in the Coffeyville and Fort Wayne newspapers as local items.
The first Chinese were brought from California to Nevada - which was then Utah Territory - in 1856 to build a water ditch along the Carson River to bring water to nearby Gold Canyon for mining and other purposes. This is 31 miles from Wadsworth.
The Chinese were extremely limited in what they were allowed to do. They could not join in mining work without permission from whites. Mostly, they were relegated to service work such as cooks, launderers, servants and itinerant laborers. Few women were included in this history, and the virtuous were expected to stay home in China. The Chinese did not easily “blend,” with mainstream American society with their different dress, language and customs. Strong anti-Chinese attitudes were widespread.
As Chinese immigration became a political issue in California in the 1870s and 1880s, Nevada followed. Congress passed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese being the first ethnic group barred from entering the U.S. In 1892 Congress followed with the Geary Act which required all Chinese to carry a resident permit at all times, under penalty of a year of hard labor followed by deportation if they did not. It also barred them from testifying as a witness in court or being able to make bail in certain court cases. First generation resident aliens of Chinese descent were barred from seeking citizenship until 1943.
In Wadsworth in 1870 there were 36 Chinese men and no women enumerated out of a population of 225, about 16 percent of the population. (There were also only 51 white women in town.)
The Wadsworth newspaper is available digitally only from 1892 to 1904 (and probably began only in 1892), whereas the Coffeyville papers began in 1874. The Fort Wayne papers are available digitally from 1859. Population numbers and types, and of course local economics and cultures influence newspaper content. Wadsworth did not reflect the interest in temperance or editorial urgings that people attend Sunday school and church that were so common in the Indiana and Kansas papers. Unlike Fort Wayne and Coffeyville, in Wadsworth there were regular ads for saloons, Pabst beer, cocktails and champagne.
They printed news of home gatherings with people entertaining each other with wholesome singing and games, but there were no references to carpet rag parties, quilting bees, and the like that were so common in the other communities. These could have been taking place, but may not have been considered worthy of notice. There was a Ladies Aid Society that met regularly in Wadsworth.
I decided to share some Wadsworth “Brevities,” as they were known in the Wadsworth paper, highlighting these similarities and differences. From the Wadsworth Dispatch:
5 Jan 1895
School opens Monday.
There are still a number of scarlet fever cases.
As the days are getting longer, the woodpile is getting shorter.
The continued rain and snow assure plenty of range feed in the summer.
Miss Annie Thelan, who spent her vacation with her parents…has returned and entered high school in Reno. [Most counties at this time had only one public high school, located at the county seat. To attend high school out-of-town folk had to pay to board. Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, where Wadsworth is located.]
Miss Taylor of Rochester, N.Y. is here on her way to the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation where she will engage in missionary work.
The ice crop has been harvested and is very satisfactory, the ice being clear and solid and about nine inches thick. Every available team in town was employed and on the dead jump on account of the weather moderating. Wadsworth will be well supplied next summer. [In my Coffeyville January gleanings I wrote about how important the ice industry was in the U.S. Everywhere that ice could be harvested, it was. It was stored in huge blocks in ice houses with straw or wood chips as insulation. It was also a huge export industry.]
A New Year’s Eve masquerade ball was held as a fundraiser for the Wadsworth fire department, but with expenses including paying the Peach Orchestra $20, the event just broke even. A ball in Lovelook, Nevada, about 57 miles away, was reported on, with a list of attendees and what they came dressed as. There were fairies and clowns, a U.S. Navy officer and sailor, a sunflower and a schoolgirl. There were more abstract ideas such as starlight, Jack Frost or summer, the Golden State and good luck. But here was the casual racism - several costumed in blackface, using the “N” word, as in “n–” baby or “n–” clown, and one young woman as “Negro girl.”
A social was given for a group of young adults, and it is always interesting to me to see how people entertained each other. Seven guests sang or played, with two leading a chorus in “old college songs.” Prizes were given for guessing the amount of beans in a jar - a bottle of cologne and a scarf pin. Games were played, and a dinner given. The girls’ names were so typical of the time (the boys were given by initial): Maude, Daisy, two Belles, two Pearls, two Nellies, Clara, Edith, Mary, Emma, Bessie, and Gertie, 34 in all. The number of people attending events in small homes always surprises me.
15 Feb 1896
The weather is much like spring, too much so.
The Indians have been holding a powwow for a week, many strangers being present from all over the state.
Constable Lathrop says he has informed every merchant in town that it is against the law to sell or give any lemon extract to Indians.
School opened in the new school house Monday with large attendance. The scholars as well as the teachers appreciated the change.
Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year is here and gives evidence of the seasons by explosions of firecrackers and bombs, burning of punks, drinking of gin, generous distribution of candy, cooking of pork and chicken, and various other ways.
A great many people are visiting Chinatown to see the sights and the Chinese entertain them very hospitably. It is quite a curiosity to see the celestials and the decoration of their residences and downtown businesses.
Quo Chung, who is the man of wealth and influence here…called at this office and left us a holiday gift. Quo Chung has lived in Wadsworth some twenty years…and is a solid man, generally.
Mr. Sam Sing, another well-known merchant, who signs his name in English so it looks so much better than in Chinese, also sent us the compliments of the season. We wished them the happy returns of the day.
By Mr. Wah Lee, who has been doing business here many years, we were presented with a very elegant embroidered piece of silk work and a box of cigars.
Do You Know…
That the boys have enjoyed the recent dark night strolls with sweethearts under protection of seeing the lights of the Chinese New Year?
Hotel Nevada – Stagecoach – leaves hotel for Stillwater, Churchill Co., every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. [Eight trains a day also came into town.]
Newspapers not infrequently listed all the wedding gifts a couple received. This is interesting in terms of the contrast with today. In this issue, at Clara Marker’s wedding at her parents’ home, as was the norm, she and Charles Stoker received such big-item gifts as a 50 pound bag of flour, a 100-pound bag of flour, a ton of hay, a bedroom set from her parents and a carpet from his, a rocking chair and dining room table. Then there were many smaller gifts - a silver button hook, a berry spoon, a sugar spoon, half a dozen dessert plates, a comforter and many table covers and a dresser scarf. This was in an era when young adults predominantly lived at home until they married, or lived in boarding houses, and needed everything when they “went to housekeeping.” (What was considered necessary, with all sorts of special tableware, is interesting.)
Sources:
Strekel, Edan. “The Rise and Fall of Reno’s ChinaTown,” Nevada Magazine, January-February 2018, https://nevadamagazine.com/issue/january-february-2018/5008/
Chan, Loren B. “The Chinese in Nevada: An Historical Survey,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly,” Vol XXV, No. 4 (Winter 1982), pp. 226-314, http://epubs.nsla.nv.gov/statepubs/epubs/210777-1982-4Winter.pdf
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