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ISAAC N. BALL ----Was born at Leesburg,
Virginia, on the twenty-sixth of September, 1835. When quite
young he removed to Kendall County, Illinois, where he passed
his youthful days.
In the year 1854, being about nineteen years of
age, he started for California, where he arrived in due time
by way of the Isthmus of Panama. He remained in the
latter State ten years, following the occupation of mining for
seven years at Weaverville, Trinity County, then for two years
was Second Lieutenant of Company H, Fourth Regiment,
California Volunteer's. His record as an officer stands
without a blemish, and the many acts of kindness shown his men
during the two years of his army experience, leaves a lasting
impression.
He spent one year at Mud Springs,
California. We next find the subject of this sketch settled on
Walker River, in Nevada, where he lived one year and then
settled permanently in Pleasant Valley, in 1865, where he has
since made his home. His business at this time is ranching.
July 28, 1873, he was married to Miss Harriot A. Griner, and
they have two children.
W. R. CHAMBERLAIN ----Many a man can plead a
case successfully in the Supreme Court who cannot keep a
hotel. It is difficult to determine precisely the qualities
which enables a man to entertain the public, though it is not
at all difficult to determine, when we enter a hotel, whether
the landlord is in his right place. If he is to the "manor
born," we shall feel a sense of home pervading the atmosphere;
of comfort crawling over our tired limbs. The boot-jack is
just where we want it to draw off our muddy boots; the towels
are clean and fresh; the beds invite to comfort and repose:
the food on the table looks toothsome and wholesome; the
necessary services are rendered kindly without ostentation or
undue servility; and then the face of the popular landlord is
cheerful; a reflex of his own comforts; a certificate of the
genuine character of the house as a home for the traveler.
Such a man is our landlord of the Depot Hotel at
Reno, known and esteemed by all the traveling public. He
naturally takes to hotel-keeping as a duck takes to
water. His first
house was built in 1868, and was burned down in 1878; rebuilt
and again burned March 2, 1879, the last fire consuming
everything. The present house was built during the summer
following the fire, and is a commodious structure, 170 feet
long by 32 feet wide, three stories in height, with platform
on the Central Pacific Railroad twenty-eight feet wide, and on
the Virginia and Truckee Railroad fifteen feet wide, with
forty-seven large and airy lodging rooms, besides offices,
family sitting-rooms, parlors and bathrooms. In the same
building are the offices for the sale of railroad tickets and
the forwarding of passengers and baggage, so that the traveler
is able to make all arrangements for his journey without delay
or vexation.
Mr. Chamberlain was born in Rensselaer County,
New York, in 1842, from which place he moved to Wayne County
of the same State, coming to the Pacific Coast in 1864. He
mined six years in Sierra County, California, before coming to
Reno. He kept several public houses before engaging in his
present operation. He kept the Cold Spring House in Sierra,
California, the Plum Valley House in the same county, and also
the Little Truckee House, the Carlin Eating House at Elko, in
this State, and the Elko Eating House at the same place. He
was married in 1864 to Miss Margaret A. Peer, of Newark, Wayne
County, New York. They are not blessed with
children.
ERVIN CRANE ----Is a native of Vermont, and was
born in Addison County, June 25, 1812. His boyhood was spent
at Bridgeport, where he received his education. In 1832 he
left the Green Mountain State and went to New York, where he
remained about two years, and from there to Brooklyn,
Michigan, where he resided during the next thirteen years,
generally engaged in farming. In 1847 he moves to Wisconsin,
locating at Baraboo, in Sauk County, where he conducted a
livery and sale stable until 1850, when he crossed the plains
to California.
His first year on the coast was spent in mining
in Plumas County; the second he passed in Oregon, and
Washington Territory, and came to Nevada in 1864, and settled
permanently, near his present location in Steamboat Valley,
near the famous Steamboat Springs. His occupation since coming
to Nevada, has been ranching and stock raising. Mr. Crane is given the
credit of being the first to demonstrate to the people of
Nevada, that alfalfa and shade trees might successfully be
grown upon the sage-brush land. His first attempt at sowing
alfalfa and setting out trees, was looked upon as a crazy
scheme, but the beautiful green fields upon his own ranch, and
upon those of his neighbors, and the fine cottonwood groves,
are the only proof necessary that his judgment was
sound.
Mr. Crane was first married to Miss Mary
Tiffany, of New York (now deceased), and on the twenty first
of September, 1864, was united to Mrs. Mary E. Stiles. Their union has been blessed with three
children, all of whom are living.
 HENRY LYMAN FISH ----Was born at Sandwich,
Barnstable County, Massachusetts, on the twenty-second of
July, 1834. After receiving a liberal education he determined
to visit the Pacific Coast, and, accordingly, took passage on
the ship Eliza Warwick, at Boston, bound to Honolulu October
5, 1852.
On the eighth of February, 1853, he reached
Honolulu, and, on the twenty-seventh of the same month, he
shipped on the brigantine, William Wallace, and arrived at San
Francisco, California, on the tenth of the following
March. He at once
started for the southern mines, and reached Jamestown,
Tuolumne County, April 7, and engaged in mining. July 1, 1861,
Mr. Fish removed to San Francisco, where he remained until
September, 1862, at which time he came to Virginia City,
Nevada, and soon after settled in Ophir, Washoe
County.
At the general election of 1863, he was elected
Justice of the Peace at Ophir, and, in 1864, was elected
County Assessor of Washoe County, but was deprived of office
by trickery in the Constitutional Convention. In 1866 he was
elected County Recorder, after serving as minute Clerk in the
Assembly of that year. He was re elected to the office of
Recorder, in 1868 and 1870. In 1872 he came to Reno, with the
Washoe County records, and has since been a resident of that
place. In 1876 he was elected County
Assessor.
Mr. Fish has been connected with the First
National Bank of Reno since its organization, and was elected
a Director of that institution, April 6, 1881. He has been an
active member of the Masonic fraternity for many years, and
was elected Most Worshipful Grand Master of the State of
Nevada, at the annual convention of
1878.
He
was married at Virginia City, November 1, 1863, to Miss Emily
C, third daughter of Ansel Tobey, Esq., of Sandwich,
Massachusetts. They have one child living, named Emily Alice,
born at Ophir, Nevada, January 20, 1866.
 JOSEPH FREY ------Was born in Alsace, France, on
the ninth of February, 1834, where he remained until he
reached his fifteenth year, when he came to the United States,
and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where for seven months he
worked as a gardener. He then went to New Orleans, Louisiana,
where he learned the butcher's trade. Being of a roving
disposition, and possessing a desire to see the United States
in the fullest possible manner, he traveled most of the time
during the succeeding five years, spending a few months in a
place in many of the Southern and Western States.
His first experience on the Pacific Coast was in
California, in the year 1854, where he remained only six
months, going over the mountains to Nevada, where he passed
one year and returned to California. In 1859 he again came to
Nevada, and the next year bought his present ranch, near
Franktown, and since then lie has followed farming and
butchering at his present location. In 1879 he purchased a
fine farm near Reno with a view of making it his future
residence in order to give his children better school
privileges, having already erected fine improvements on his
place.
 Mr. Frey was married to Miss Louisa
Schaffer on the seventeenth of November, 1862. They have eight
children, five boys and three girls.
 JAMES C. HAGERMAN -----Is a native of the State of
Virginia, having been born at Malden, Kanawha County, August
22, 1837. Mr. Hagerman traces his parentage, with laudable
pride, to a long line of ancestors prominent in the history of
his country, and bears relationship with many of the
distinguished personages of the present day. Those who are
familiar with the history of Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, will
well remember the ancestral name. His father was a
native of the State of Maryland, removing into Virginia when
quite young. Upon his mother's side he springs from the
distinguished family of Thurman, one of the oldest and best
known of the Old Dominion, and now of world-wide fame through
the veteran statesman of Ohio.
The gentleman of whom we write enjoyed the usual
advantages of the youth of the prominent families of Virginia
in acquiring an education, which advantages were well
improved, giving him an education fitting him for any rank in
life.
Among his earliest steps upon entering the arena
of life, and perhaps his wisest one, was in taking a partner
for his toils and triumphs, a sharer in his joys and sorrows,
from among the fair maidens of his native place. In 1860 he
was married to Miss Catherine Walker, daughter of Frederick
Walker, Esq., one of the oldest families and prominent
merchants of Malden.
Thus prepared and supported for life's contest,
the young couple sought new homes amid new scenes on the
shores of the Pacific. It is a bold move at any time to leave
friends, the customs and associations of the past, and to cast
one's lot with strangers, but it is that class who settle and
create new countries and keep the ball of civilization rolling
onward.
Mr. and Mrs. Hagerman moved to California in
1860, making their home in Marysville, Yuba County, where Mr.
Hagerman entered upon the business of a merchant. This he
continued until the fall of 1867, when he came to Nevada. Soon
after, following the excitement of the time, he went to White
Pine, and there engaged for a short period in business, but,
after one year's experience in that region, retraced his steps
westward, and settled for a permanent home at Reno, where he
now resides, one of Reno's most respected citizens and
prosperous merchants.
Mr. Hagerman, like all citizens of active life,
intelligence and patriotic impulses, takes a prominent part in
the political questions of the day. He was on the Presidential
Electoral Ticket of 1876, and was a delegate to the National
Convention at Cincinnati in 1880. Though he has never been a
candidate for any office of profit, he has borne his share
through the political contests, and has twice made the canvass
of the State through two Presidential campaigns, giving
trenchant blows for the support of his
party.
W. D. HARDEN ----The subject of the following
sketch, is a native of the State of Ohio; was born June 23,
1840, in Hocking County. At the age of twelve years he went
with his parents to Van Buren County, Iowa, where he lived
with them on a farm until he reached his twenty-third year.
On the twenty-sixth of March. 1863, he was married
to Miss Eliza T. Fisher, and two weeks later started with his
bride for California.
Their bridal tour was a long one, their mode of
conveyance being by ox-teams. On reaching the Sierra Nevada
Mountains he altered his course, and, in place of going to
California, concluded to settle in Virginia City, Nevada,
where he arrived on the sixteenth of September, 1863.
Upon reaching the silver land, he followed the
wood business for two years, in Virginia City, and the third
year found him in the same business in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. In 1866 he purchased the place where he now lives,
in Steamboat Valley, near the noted springs by that name, and
has since resided there, engaged in farming. His early
training on a farm has proven a decided benefit to him, and
enables him to follow the business successfully. Six children
have been born to him, all of whom are living.
 HON. ANDREW J. HATCH
----Was born April 15, 1827, at Lanesboro, Susquehanna County,
Pennsylvania and resided at Lanesboro and Great Bend, in that
county, until 1838 when his father moved to Chenango County,
New York. In this beautiful and romantic country the young
Andrew Jackson grew to manhood. Those were great Jackson days
when the Surveyor was born, and like many another scion of
Democratic lineage born in the period when "Old Hickory "was a
power in the land, carries the initials of the hero of New
Orleans and the " Sage of the Hermitage." In the excellent
academies of Oxford and Norwich, where gathered the ambitious
youth of Chenango, Broome and Otsego, he acquired that
first-class training which enabled him in later years to
become the skillful surveyor and engineer.
Grown to manhood he sought the exciting scenes
of the Pacific Coast, and in September, 1852, he went to
Tuolumne County, California, where he was engaged in mining
and teaching school until 1857, when he entered the Government
surveying service under Col. A. W. Von Schmidt. In 1858 he was
appointed United States Deputy Surveyor, by Surveyor General
Mandeville. The
decade of '49 to '59 had passed, and quietness and stagnation
appeared to be settling upon California as it had rested upon
the old countries of the East, but the fates ruled otherwise.
Upon the bleak hills of the eastern slope discoveries were
made which again aroused the world, and set the energetic
people of California again upon the go in search of mineral
wealth. General Hatch was early in the field, crossing the
Sierra Nevada in April, 1860. Then, the State constituted a
portion of Utah Territory, and was almost without a government
or a name. The whole region was Washoe; but in Washoe
particular he set his stake. His earliest enterprise was
mining in connection with his brother, R, S. Hatch, on Galena Hill,
west of Steamboat Springs. This did not continue for a lengthy
period, as he was soon called to the exercise of his
profession. Gen. S.
H. Marlette was then County Surveyor of Carson County,
Utah, and called upon our subject to be his Deputy. From that
date A. J. Hatch has been, with scarcely an intermission,
surveying the lands of Nevada, being County Surveyor or Deputy
United States Surveyor most of time, and has in person
surveyed a large portion of the public lands in the
State.
Other offices, however, have called for his
services, he having the honor of being the first Justice of
the Peace in Washoe County, holding his court in Galena and
Washoe City. In 1870 he was elected to the Legislature,
serving in the session of 1871, when he was appointed Chairman
of the Committee on Public Lands, and to him principally may
be accorded the honor of having framed the present State Land
Law.
General Hatch was married October 4, 1870, at
Wellsville, New York, to Mrs. Helen F. Thorpe, widow of
Senator S. M. Thorpe, of Lawrence, Kansas who was assassinated
by the notorious Quantrell and his murderous band in the
memorable raid of 1863. He has reclaimed from a wilderness of
rocks and sage brush a beautiful little farm in the suburbs of
Reno, where he has resided with his family since coming to the
State. His varied experience in his profession and in public
life generally, eminently qualifies him for the position of
Surveyor General of Nevada, to which office he was elected in
1878 He has taken an active part in many of the public
enterprises of Washoe County, among which was the Nevada and
Oregon Railroad, of which company he was the first President
of the permanent organization. This enterprise, connecting
Reno with the line of valleys along the great plateau of the
Sierra Nevada through eastern California and Oregon, bids fair
to become one of the most important of the minor roads of the
Pacific Coast, and is the pride of Nevada's Surveyor
General.
T. G. HERMAN -----The
subject of the following sketch, is a native of the State of
Pennsylvania, having been born
in Lycoming County, on the thirty first day of October
1830. He passed
his early life and grew to manhood in his native county. His
education was received in the common schools, and was of an
ordinary kind. In 1850, having reached his twentieth year, he
removed to Jefferson County, where he remained about four
years.
Like thousands of others, he had a desire to
behold the wonders of the Pacific Coast, and bidding adieu to
his Eastern home came to California. Upon his arrival in the
land of gold, he sought the mines in Plumas County as his
quickest and surest avenue to wealth, and for the succeeding
three years followed the fortunes of the miners of those days.
In 1857 he quit the mines and engaged in
ranching in Lassen County, where he remained until 1860, at
which time he crossed the mountains and anchored in what is
now the State of Nevada. His first stopping place was at
Truckee Meadows, then called the Lower Crossing of the
Truckee, and, in connection with Joseph Fellnagle, became a
settler.
There were no white men in that section of
the country at the time. Mr. Herman and his partner located
the ranch in January, 1861, which now contains 800 acres. In
1872 he became sole owner, and has at this time one of the
finest places on the Meadows. He raises vast amounts of hay,
having 125 acres devoted to that branch of agriculture, 90
acres being in alfalfa, which yields three good crops each
year.
GRANVILLE W. HUFFAKER ----Was born in
Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky, on the seventh of May
1831. The first eight years of his life were passed at that
place, when he removed to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he
received his education. In 1847 he went to St. Louis,
Missouri. During
the succeeding six years he was rambling about on the
frontier, subject to many curious
adventures.
In the year 1853 he emigrated to Salt
Lake City, Utah, engaging in the mercantile business until
1858, when he came to Nevada Territory, and settled where he
now resides, at the head of Truckee Meadows. Very few of the
Nevada pioneers are able to date back as far as Mr. Huffuker,
and his early experience has enabled him to accomplish many
things impossible for those who arrived later in the
Territory. He owns one of the finest ranches in the State,
near the renowned Steamboat Springs, and bids fair to live
many years to enjoy the fruits of his
labors.
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