Past Pages for Friday, May 23, 2014

140 Years Ago

Death of S. D. King. “Father,” as he was affectionately called, died at his residence in this city. A more useful or faithful public officer and honest man, we cannot call to mind. No one in the Recorder’s office in Ormsby County has had a system and painstaking constant habit of performing his duties. He was born Oct. 3, 1802 in Washington, D.C. He entered the Land Office as a clerk. He was engaged in land-business when he was selected by the government during the Fillmore administration to organize the California Land District, receiving the appointment of Surveyor General. He came to this place March 1860 (when it was Utah Territory). He leaves five children, three sons and two daughters. Funeral will take place at Episcopal Church.

130 Years Ago

Never throw away the boy’s old trousers. Use them for decoration. One idea (borrowed from “The House Beautiful”) is to sew up the legs at the ankles and nail the trousers by the waistband to the wall in the front entry. This makes a charming convenient cane and umbrella pocket/holder (Foot-Hill Tidings).

110 Years Ago

(Floto circus continued.) There is a wee baby elephant and a six week old camel, many baby kangaroos, 100 pretty little people, 100 handsome horses, many educated to perform tricks. There are acts presented by the famous St. Leon family of acrobats, the Eflet group of aerial gymnast direct from Europe, La Bella Leona, the only woman bare back rider in the world; HerrLatzen’s funny Dutch elephants, the monkey circus, the Prisorn Brothers in an extraordinary bicycle act, Mille Vallacita, the fearless Jungle Queen. (Continued on Saturday.)

70 Years Ago

Advertisement: “Carson Theater — ‘Around the World’ — The joy ride of your movie life — with Kay Kyser and his orchestra, Joan Davis and Mischa Auer.”

50 Years Ago

Jim Owens and Bob Meyers are proposing to lease land or trade a 17 acre parcel of private land near Stewart in order to establish an automobile race track. It would be a three-eighth mile track, 50 feet wide with a 20 percent grade in the turns ... seating capacity would be 3,000.

30 Years Ago

It has been a year since Slide Mountain slid into Washoe Valley north of Carson City, killing one man and destroying four homes. According to District Ranger Bruce Fox of the Toiyabe National Forest, it’s just a matter of time before another mudslide occurs ...

Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.