Dan De Quille, Comstock Reporter and Humorist

Abstract

FOR FORTY YEARS William Wright, who wrote under name Dan De Quille, was leading recorder of life in sagebrushland. From 1859, when Californians rushed eastward to Washoe, until defeat of Bryan and free silver, De Quille lived in bonanza camps of western Nevada. The major portion of this time he spent in Virginia City, 6,200 feet above sea level and perched on steep, barren Flowery Range, part way up Mount Davidson. The Comstock Lode beneath city gave contemporary fame to prospectors and capitalists, politicians and engineers, and among representative Comstockers is Dan De Quille. A patient Quaker, Ohio born and Iowa raised, he stayed on Virginia City Daily Territorial Enterprise for thirty-one years, far longer than any other individual.1 Meanwhile he wrote two books and important sections of Myron Angel's History of Nevada and contributed to Cedar Falls (Iowa) Gazette, Nevada Monthly, and San Francisco publications-the Bulletin, Argonaut, San Franciscan, Examiner, Chronicle, Overland Monthly, and Californian Illustrated Magazine. Between November 18, 186o, and September 4, 1864, alone, more than sixty-five items of his, special articles and exchanges from Enterprise, appeared in Golden Era. His contemporaries admired him for his character, his news reporting, and his humor. Wells Drury, one of later editors of Enterprise, expressed opinion that De Quille was the most thoroughly characteristic [man] of camp and its inhabitants; in fact, presiding genius of Enterprise .... In his regular work Dan was model of method and accuracy.2 Joseph Goodman, who invited De Quille to join Enterprise staff in 1862, praised Dan's mild disposition and his placid temper, and stated that he was as Sir Ector said of Launcelot, 'the meekest man and gentlest that ever ate in hall among ladies.' Arthur McEwen, one-time editor of Virginia City Evening Chronicle, said De Quille was a bright-minded, sweet-tempered, loyal and