Territorial Enterprise

February, 1883 - January, 1885
Alf Doten wrote for the Territorial Enterprise, the largest and most successful newspaper in Virginia City, sporadically from the time he moved to the Comstock in 1864 until the end of his life, as a freelancer and briefly as a “local reporter.” He also filled in for Dan De Quille at times when De Quille was detoxing from alcohol. After a great deal of financial and professional success as the publisher of the Gold Hill News, Doten’s fortunes took a very bad turn in late 1882, resulting in his family’s move in 1883 to Austin, Nevada, a more prosperous town where he might have more opportunities. They stayed for less than two years, but during that time Doten wrote 73 columns, “From Eastern Nevada” that were published in the Enterprise. It was his only steady work, and he gave it his best writing about daily life in Austin, a much smaller and quieter place than Virginia City. If nothing interesting was happening, he fantasized a bit, using fictional characters that typified (but exaggerated) the types of citizens of his new home. This series provides a wealth of information about Austin during the early 1880s

TE21 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Tuesday……….July 17, 1883 Entered at the Postoffice at Virginia City, Nevada, as second-class matter. FROM EASTERN NEVADA The Hot Wave—Austin Timber Resources—Veins Without a Mother—Some Outside Mines and Ore Working—The Leaching of Silver—A Sad Episode—Journalistic Improvements—A Bad Break and Disgraceful Tumble. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., July 13, 1883. The sun’s great hot eye still continues to glower scorchingly down upon the numerous sinners of Eastern Nevada, and what few saints there are of us are losing patience, and getting heated into a...
TE22 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Sunday……….July 22, 1883 FROM EASTERN NEVADA Outraged Austinites in Nye County Jail—Some Interesting Items Concerning Ore Working by the Stedefeldt Process—Chlorination and Chloride—Pans and Quicksilver—Silver Bricks—Boilers and Steam Tubes—Model Workshops—A Very Complete Sort of an Establishment for Eastern Nevada. [Correspondence of the Enterprise] AUSTIN, Nev., July 20, 1883. A ponderous bit of sensational news comes from the headwaters of Reese river. Three of Austin’s best-known citizens have been caught out, bounced and outrageously dealt with. No blood has been...
TE23 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Sunday……….July 29, 1883. FROM EASTERN NEVADA. Impending Cloud Burst—Fire-proof Precautions—Good Milling—Five Thousand Dollar Ore—Reese River Millions— Judicious Management and Consequent Prosperity—Sensible and Squarely Practical Mining—Judicious Dead Work—The Telegraph Strike—Indian Troubles—Democratic Strategy. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., July 27, 1883. For several days past ponderous clouds and deep muttering thunder, raging angrily across the timid blue sky, have given ominous portent of the coming cloud burst, but as yet the aforesaid cometh...
TE24 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Sunday……….August 5, 1883. FROM EASTERN NEVADA. Frozen Pioneer Truths—The Indian Troubles—Doom of the Howling Doctor—A Dog-Gone Conclusion—Bandaged Bangs—Rich Ore in Narrow Streaks—Detrimental Dust—Austin and Comstock Dump Pickers—Four Knights Templar. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., August 3, 1883. One of the chief characteristics of the genuine Reese River Pioneer is his truthfulness. He looks upon a lie as a rotten egg. George Washington might be able to hatch it out with his little hatchet, but he would disdain to even make the attempt. The Pioneer...
TE25 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Tuesday……….August 21, 1883. FROM EASTERN NEVADA. Early Austin—The Mecca of Fortune Hunting Pilgrims—The Camels—Architectural and Statistical—Family Additions—Austin Comstockers—Autographic Album Atrocities—Choice Brook Trout—Old Sports—A Rich Strike and Waterbury Wind-up—Suggestive Statistics—Patience. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., August 17, 1883. Like a properly constituted and well wound-up Waterbury watch, Austin continues to tick, roll and wag along with the rest of the world, and recent immigrant, especially those who [do] not believe in the...
TE26 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Sunday……….August 26, 1883. FROM EASTERN NEVADA. A Sage-Hen Deduction, and a Gold Hill Aquatic Proposition—A True Fish Story—The Grand Conclave at San Francisco—Austin’s Subclavian Portion of it—Some Explosive Beer—Impending Calamity—Nevada Beef—Butchers, Charity and True Benevolence. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., August 24, 1883. "Now see here," said Mr. Dadd, last evening, "here's a proposition I want explained. It’s a well-known and established fact that a sagehen hain’t got no gizzard, like other birds—nothing but a sort of maw; no gizzard at all...
TE27 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Tuesday……….September 4, 1883 FROM EASTERN NEVADA. Cloudburst Hopes and Prospects—Waterspouts Analysis—The "Washoe Seeress" Slandered—Detrimental Deafness—Red-hot Fallacies—Piute Reservations, Theology and Providence—A Chinese Fighting Proposition—A Man licked by a Dog—Some Select Society Siftings. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., August 31, 1883. Yesterday sullen thunder growled ominously along the Toiyabe range, and great kidney-shaped clouds wrestled with each other till they were black in the face, trying to produce a big rain, but their constipated...
TE28 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Sunday..........September 9, 1883 FROM EASTERN NEVADA. The Humboldt Duck Harvest—Specimen Sports—Good Shooting and Good Boating—Political Duck Shooting—Senatorial Propositions—"Last Spike" Humbuggery—Sweetly Blissful Dreams—Pine-Nut Aristocracy—Select Society Samplings. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., September 7, 1883. The game law restrictions being removed on the first of this month, the chief sport of this section at the present is duck shooting. All along the Humboldt, hunters live in clover, and the wild ducks and geese are being slaughtered by...
TE29 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Wednesday..........September 19, 1883 FROM EASTERN NEVADA. Another Odious Stamp Act—Legislative Propositions—Comstock Miners in Eastern Nevada—The Fragrant Sanitary Bug— Barberous Treatment—Society Notes, Etc. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev. September 14, 1883 The new postage stamp law goes into effect on the 1st of next month, substituting two cent stamps, letter postage, for the regular three centers, so long in vogue. This practically disfranchises and nullifies the three cent stamps after that date, as by some strange oversight, when the new stamp...
TE30 TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE Sunday..........September 23, 1883 FROM EASTERN NEVADA. Passed Trouble—Reese River Flour and Wheat—Barley—A Chapter on Potatoes—Incipient Talent Developing—Piute Tribal Relations and Relatives—Where George Washington Should Have Been Born and Brought Up—Society Notes and Comments. [Correspondence of the Enterprise.] AUSTIN, Nev., September 21, 1883. The regular annual cloudburst having failed to put in its appearance, as usual, and the period of feverish expectancy having passed completely without even a slight demonstration in that respect, our citizens are cooling...

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