In this grainy vintage photo we see Virginia Nevada’s brass band sitting on the back of a horse-drawn carriage.
The caption beneath the photograph (not reproduced) identifies the building and the men on the back of the cart.
The stone building was originally owned by Warmington Carpenter, and later a saloon operated by a man named Bowlan and later still a jewelry store run by the appropraitely named Mr. Goldsmith.
Whoever too the photograph placed numbers above the men and identified them as follows:
- Driver with hat: Chris Saurs
- George Lowman, brother of the late Dr. and Mal Pankey (not sure what that means).
- Fred Baher
- Con Hurlkey
- Frank Searl
- Bob Smallhausen
- Gus Rivers
- George Reif (Father of Harry Reif)
- Will Vanderbeck (Uncle of James H. Vanderbeck)
- The tenth man is numbered but not named on the photograph’s legend.
Here is an enlarged view of the men on the back of the cart, showing their uniforms and brass instruments. I find the practice of naming them in relation to their sons or nephews to be a quaint reminder of a bygone era.
Virginia City
Virginia City Nevada was a prosperous boom town that sprang up in 1859 after the discovery of the Comstock Load, the first major silver deposit ever discovered in the United States. Several mines and settlements were established and settlers and fortune-seekers flooded into the area. One of the men who came to seek his fortune was Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) who worked for a local newspaper from 1862 to 1864. It was here as well that Clemons adopted his famous pen name.
By the mid 1870s Virginia City had a population of 25,000, making it a significant urban center in the Old West. In 1875 a Great Fire ravaged the city. Interestingly, this Great Fire occurred approximately at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire, which has happened in 1871, and was part of many such fires that ravaged cities and towns in the United States during the 1870s.
By 1878 the silver output from the mine had started to decline, and Virginia City began to shrink. Today its population is only about 900 people. At the time this photo was taken, Virginia City was already in a state of decline but still sizeable and prosperous enough to have its own brass band.
And so now we must say goodbye to the brass musicians of Virginia City and leave them to play their tunes in this moment frozen in time.
