Devils Will Reign: How Nevada Began

Chapter 5: James Crane Explains It All, 1857

[66] n June 1858 the Mountain Democrat in Placerville, California , opined that the creation of a new territory on the eastern slope would “open a fine field for broken down politicians, land grabbers, and o∞ce hunters.” In fact, the influx had started earlier, and one of the newcomers that many earlier settlers believed fitted this description was Major William Ormsby, Pennsylvania born, then about forty-three, and acquiring his title as major from the state militia. He soon saw possibilities in the West. In 1844 at age thirty, he married sixteen -year-old Margaret Trumbo in Sharpsburg, Kentucky, where he ran a distillery and a gristmill and sold dry goods. Then came the lifetransforming event—the California gold rush. In 1849 Ormsby left for California with two brothers and two brothers-in-law, packing overland with mules. Joining his older brother John in California, he pursued a variety of occupations: a private mint in Sacramento, a horse market, a stage line from Sacramento to Coloma, and another to Marysville on the Feather River north of Sacramento. (Once such a man was called a “jack-of-all-trades,” but now the preferred terminology is a “flexible frontier capitalist.”) When he brought his wife and daughter, Lizzie, to California from Kentucky in 1852, he had obviously decided that their future lay in the West—if not in Central America.1 Ormsby’s later investments suggest that he had done fairly well, but, like so many forty-niners, he had not gained the fortune of his imagining. In 1856 he reportedly joined the Walker expedition to NiJames Crane Explains It All, 1857 5 j J I caragua. The vainglorious William Walker, mad with ambition and attracting many like-minded men, intended to make himself an emperor , seize lands in Nicaragua, sell them to his followers, and ultimately admit several South American countries to the Union as slave states. This adventure (or misadventure) brought Ormsby in contact with another Walker follower, the son of an important Virginia politician , William Smith, who would later play a preliminary role in creating the territory of Nevada.2 After Walker’s fantastical expedition fizzled, Ormsby sought greener pastures for his ambitions and moved to Genoa in the spring of 1857. His most significant and lasting act there was one that he would scarcely have noticed amid the political maneuverings and land acquisitions that engaged his attention. He took two Paiute girls, daughters of Chief Winnemucca, into his home, probably to learn English in exchange for help with household tasks. It was during a few months at the Ormsbys, under the supervision of Margaret Ormsby, that Sarah Winnemucca acquired the fluency in English and the knowledge of the white world that would one day make her the spokeswoman of the Paiutes and the most influential woman Indian leader of her day, far eclipsing the ambitious man she served. Sarah’s presence in the household signified a temporary rapprochement between Ormsby and the Paiutes. She looked on in shock when Ormsby called upon the Paiutes to bring in Washo blamed (evidently in error) for murders in the Sierra Nevada of two pack train operators, John McMarlin and James Williams.3 Another notable 1857 arrival was James M. Crane, a friend of Ormsby . Crane was born about 1819 in Richmond, Virginia, which may have been the most significant fact about him. He became a printer of the Whig persuasion, hitching his wagon to a political party soon to disappear and from 1846 to 1848 edited a Virginia newspaper titled the Southerner. Although commonly called “Judge Crane,” no evidence has emerged that he was ever a judge (he may have simply appropriated the title). His proud claim to be an “old pioneer” was, however, entirely James Crane Explains It All, 1857 [67] devils will reign [68] true and remained a source of great satisfaction to him. Already in 1848 the tax assessor found him in San Francisco with two printing presses. Apparently, he made a brief visit to the East, returning to San Francisco by ship from Panama in 1852. Here he coedited the California Courier, a Whig newspaper that died along with the Whigs, hastened on its way by four fires in its o∞ces and the loss of government printing contracts.4 After the demise of the Courier, Crane supported himself as an occasional correspondent for other newspapers and a lecturer. He...