Charley Higgins story

Collection

Identifier: 99-72

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Copy of a 3-page short story by Charley Higgins, "Old Bill gets tangled up in wild cloudburst" from 1936, with a copy of an illustration of Old Bill drawn by Higgins' daughter Phoebe King Higgins, sometime after his death in 1943.

Dates

1936

Creator

Higgins, Charley (Person)

Restrictions

Collection is open for research. Materials must be used on-site; advance notice suggested. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Biographical Note

Charles Chapin ("Charley") Higgins was born in Newfield, New York in 1863, grew up in Missouri where he learned the printer's trade. He turned to publishing newspapers in 1883 and became editor of newspapers in Colorado and then in Missouri before moving to Utah, continuing his newspaper work there and marrying Blanche Brelsford. After purchasing a mine in Oregon, he came to southern Nevada in 1904 and settled in Goldfield. In 1906, his prospecting assisted with the discovery of the Wonder Mining District in Churchill County, Nevada. Higgins continued his active mining work until 1924, when he became the mining editor of Nevada's Reno Gazette Journal newspaper, a position he held for nineteen years. Some of the mining stories Higgins heard or incidents he saw were published in the Gazette with credit to "Old Bill," supposedly an old, impoverished prospector. With his personal knowledge and stories, he was an authority about Nevada's early mining history, assisting writers such as Carl Glasscock with their research.

Extent

0.4 Linear Feet (1 item)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Charley Higgins published newspapers and became an editor. Copy of a 3-page short story by Charley Higgins, "Old Bill gets tangled up in wild cloudburst" from 1936, with a copy of an illustration of Old Bill drawn by Higgins' daughter Phoebe King Higgins, sometime after his death in 1943.