Virginia Daily Union

August, 1863 - September, 1864
After moving to the very small mining town of Como, Nevada, in the summer of 1863, Alf Doten signed on with the Virginia Daily Union newspaper as a correspondent, writing a regular column in the form of letters to the newspaper. As a leading figure in the town, he was in a good position to chronicle the boom times of Como. As an officer in several mining companies and the superintendent of a small mine, Doten used his journalism to to promote the emerging mining industry in his new community. This series of articles provide a personalized insider’s view of history of an important settlement in Nevada Territory. When the mines didn’t live up to their promise and the local economy began to fall apart, Doten accepted a job as a reporter for the Virginia Daily Union and moved to Virginia City where he had been making new friends, including Mark Twain.

DU11 THE DAILY UNION. LETTER FROM COMO [Correspondence of the Virginia Daily Union.] COMO, November 20th, 1863. THE FIRST MILL HAS STARTED. "Blow ye the trumpet, blow!" for the accepted time has come at las, and the big steam whistle has sounded forth with a most joyful sound, the like of which was never heard before since the creation. At ten o'clock yesterday morning, Mrs. Mette, the wife of the Superintendent, with her own hands, caused the whistle to sound, and started the engine; therefore to her belongs the honor of having started the first mill in this district. Everything worked splendidly...
DU12 LETTER FROM COMO. [Correspondence of the Virginia Daily Union.] COMO, November 30th, 1863 WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO TURN UP. Micawber was the man, you recollect, that was always waiting for something to "turn up." No, there are a great many of the genus Micawber here in this district, who are eternally waiting and watching in ever anxious expectancy of something new to "turn up," and these last few days they have been gratified quite often, for stirring events are casting their shadows before, and "every day brings something new" in the shape of onward progression and improvement. Shooting. A...
DU13 LETTER FROM COMO. [Correspondence of the Virginia Daily Union.] COMO, December 7th, 1863 New and Rich Strikes. For the past week, the usual equanimity of our flourishing community has become somewhat disturbed by the excitement consequent upon the discovery of another rich quartz load some two or three miles from town, near the head of Star Canon, just within the borders of Indian Springs District. The ledge shows heavy croppings of a soft, chalky, porous rock, with purple spots and streaks running through it, and of a nature entirely different from the rest of the ledges of the District. It...
DU14 PALMYRA CORRESPONDENCE. COMO, December 26, 1863. Christmas in Como. VIRGINIA DAILY UNION: A pleasanter day than was yesterday, here in Como, is rarely to be seen, and was just such a day as Christmas day always should be. The town being situated on a warm sunny slope, our cheerful streets presented a genial contrast to the cold, snow covered slopes and hillsides, whose faces are inclined to the north. Several gay cavaliers, with their fair ladies by their side, seated in fine buggies, on a Christmas visit to the place, dashed up and down the streets, visiting the mill and other points of...
DU15 PALMYRA CORRESPONDENCE. COMO, January 7, 1864. Our Towns and Other Towns. VIRGINIA DAILY UNION:--Having but just returned from your portion of Silverland, I could not help comparing the resources of this district with those of the older localities, and Palmyra suffered none in the comparison. To be sure, our mines are not developed at all compared with those of Virginia and Gold Hill, and our houses are not so close together; but we will soon prove to you that our mines are noways inferior, and Como will soon be a powerful rival of even Virginia. The little town of Palmyra, too, must also...
DU16 PALMYRA CORRESPONDENCE. COMO, January 16, 1864. Our Mills and the Mines. VIRGINIA DAILY UNION:--All goes well in Como. Our mill is now running steadily, regularly, and well, both night and day, and will soon be producing those glistening "bricks" of which I have so often written in anticipation. It is running at present on Monte Cristo rock, which yielded in the little prospecting battery attached to the mill, sixty dollars to the ton. When they clean up I will tell you how the big batteries make it turn out. It is, most undoubtedly, a rich claim, but we have many others in the district which...
DU17 LETTER FROM COMO. COMO, February 11th, 1864. The Mines. VIRGINIA DAILY UNION:--There is no longer a doubt, but it is a matter of fact, that the mines of Palmyra and Indian Spring Districts, are A No. 1. Many are the difficulties which we have undergone to prove the stability of our wealth. During 1860, (at the time of our first excitement,) the barbarous red-skins over-powered our feeble band of miners, and until a little more than a year ago these places were nearly abandoned. But since that time, some few, who felt sanguine that the mines here were good, have returned. They failed however...
DU18 PALMYRA CORRESPONDENCE. COMO, Feb. 12, 1864. The Como Mill, and why it Stopped. VIRGINIA DAILY UNION:--Como still continues rolling on, and takes the rest of the world along with it; but things have not gone exactly to suit us of late. We had indulged in great expectations of being able to tell you lots in regard to the big yield of our ledges here, under the stamps of the new mill; but just about the time we got ready to toot our horn, the aforesaid mill stopped running—just naturally and surreptitiously "dried up"—and it still continues in that same unhappy condition up to the present date...
DU19 PALMYRA CORRESPONDENCE. COMO, February 20, 1864. Our Mills and the Mines. VIRGINIA DAILY UNION:--Our new mill, after a nice little rest of a few days, is about to take a fresh start, and this next week will commence crushing rock from the Whitman Ledge. Fine quartz is now being hauled from there, and from it great results are anticipated, for the Whitman is rich beyond a doubt, large quantities of the rock having been thoroughly tested in other mills, enough to convince any one that it must pay the biggest kind. The management of the mill has passed into entirely new hands, J. B. Winters, Esq...
DU20 PALMYRA CORRESPONDENCE Como, March 18, 1864. The Weather. VIRGINIA DAILY UNION:--We are having a storm here to-day, by way of variety, and we have needed it, for it has been one unvarying round of naught but sunny skies, and spring breezes, which in the course of a few years might become, perhaps, monotonous. For days and weeks together, the fresh spicy breezes have gently wafted themselves to us from the purple distance of the lovely valley of Walker river, loitering, ever and anon, in their winding way along the mountain sides, to play among the evergreen boughs of the groves of waving...

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