After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, everyone pitched in to help

'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' series: Before the village of Las Vegas was founded, the town of Searchlight made its mark. As with every new town, it wouldn't be long for the first paper to be published.

Quintus Hopper of Nevada, published in January 2022, is a historical novel that follows the epic and peculiar life of a frontier newspaper typesetter. As part of my research I made extensive use of newspaper archives and, in this series, I’ll share some of my often surprising findings. Here are history, commentaries and contemporary newspaper articles as they relate to the novel. This time a look at the announcement of the The Searchlight, Searchlight’s first newspaper - and how, just a few years later, the townspeople came together to help after disaster had struck San Francisco.

In the novel, Quintus Hopper is a typesetter by trade. Over the course of his life, he works for most of the frontier newspapers across Nevada. When he traveled south in 1994, however, he came to a region that was devoid of towns, and therefore also of newspapers. He is overjoyed when Searchlight gets its very own paper in 1903. He offers his services and begins working there immediately.

On a sidenote: Most such papers started as weeklies. The publication of a daily was a massive undertaking and papers only went from weeklies to dailies once towns had sufficiently grown to generate an adequate number of subscribers. As The Searchlight, later renamed Searchlight Bulletin, was a weekly, Quintus had plenty of time on his hands for other things beyond typesetting. The following article is a simple notice of the paper, advertising itself in the hopes of generating more subscribers.

June 26, 1903

The Searchlight, Searchlight

Subscribe for The Searchlight

No glaring inducements are offered to subscribers. We have no premium list – no government bonds or automobiles to give away. THE SEARCHLIGHT stands on merit alone. An honest endeavor is made to give value for value received. THE SEARCHLIGHT is devoted first of all to mines and mining. The growth and development, not only of this district but of the great Southwest generally, are faithfully chronicled.

If you are interested along the above lines, you cannot afford to be without THE SEARCHLIGHT.

While Quintus’ life is lived in Nevada, he retains fond memories of his childhood with his surrogate family in San Francisco. From the moment he enters Nevada at the age of seventeen, he never leaves it again. Still, he keeps in touch by sending and receiving the occasional letter. Quintus had left San Francisco in 1858 – and by the time of the devastating 1906 earthquake, the population of the city had grown tenfold to nearly half a million citizens.

The disaster left three hundred thousand citizens homeless, with eighty percent of the city destroyed by the earthquake and the subsequent fires. Most of the devastation was caused, over the course of the following four days, by the more than thirty fires. Caused by ruptured gas mains, one hellish blaze after another tore through the city. Desperate firefighters dynamited buildings in the hopes of creating gaps large enough to stop the fires from spreading, but many of the resulting explosions helped to further accelerate the monstrous destruction of the city. As thousands were buried, reconstruction of the city began immediately. Less than ten years later, San Francisco would celebrate its rebirth, rebuilt, improved and populated greater than ever before, with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

The earthquake took place far from Quintus’ whereabouts, but the shocks are felt even in the south of Nevada. In the novel, the San Francisco earthquake is marked in a peculiar way – with a special gift by Owl Woman that allows Quintus to spend time with his loved ones in San Francisco the day before the disaster. Below article in The Searchlight gives a sense of what happened everywhere across the country. Everyone was shocked by what had occurred, and everyone wanted to help. Searchlight raised over one thousand dollars, to be sent to the San Francisco Relief Committee.

April 27, 1906

The Searchlight, Searchlight

SEARCHLIGHT DONATES GENEROUSLY TO FRISCO

People are Quick to Respond and a Liberal Sum is Raised for Aid of Sufferers

With a liberality, which exceeded all expectations, the people of Searchlight have contributed towards a relief fund for the San Francisco sufferers. In proportion, the amount sent is greater per capita than any other place so far reported. In less than 48 hours $1085.50 were actually collected and wired to the Relief Committee.

Searchlight responded to the first call for aid, and many plans for raising money were proposed. There was talk of all miners donating a day’s wages, also of the mine owners giving a bar of gold and sending it into Los Angeles to be sold at auction. However, it was finally decided to circulate subscription lists and also to give a ball. In this way, as stated, over a thousand dollars were raised and dispatched, and there yet remains a considerable sum to be collected.

Everything in connection with the dance was contributed, and credit should be given to the Bullfrog Club for the use of its new building, and also to Brown’s orchestra, the members of which furnished the best music ever heard in Searchlight. The orchestra comprises the following members: Allan Brown, J. V. Allison, R. H. Rice, H. C. Eichmier, J. Kruger, Harry Fox and F. J. Nutting.

In compliance with the request of the Relief Committee of the stricken city, that all cash contributions be sent in actual currency, it was arranged with the Searchlight Bank & Trust company to have its Los Angeles correspondent send the money by express to that city. A telegram was also sent to San Francisco, which read as follows:

Searchlight, Nevada, April 24, 1906.

General Relief Committee,

Care of Mayor E. E. Schmitz,

San Francisco, California:

Searchlight, “the camp without a failure,” is expressing you today via the Broadway Bank & Trust Co., of Los Angeles, a cash contribution of $1085.50. Kindly acknowledge receipt.

It should be stated that many companies, having offices in other cities, do not appear on the attached list for the reason that they have previously contributed directly to other funds. And in this connection it should be added that the same applies to many individuals, particularly those who were sufferers from the disaster.