Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln County

Lincoln County is the third largest of Nevada's seventeen counties, covering 10,634 square miles. Named for President Abraham Lincoln, the Nevada legislature established the county in 1867. It originally embraced a much larger southeastern portion of the state, including all of Clark County, which was detached from Lincoln in 1909.

John Wesley North

Nevada territorial Supreme Court Justice John Wesley North played an important role in the pivotal single ledge case. Born in Sand Lake, New York in 1815, North began teaching school at age fifteen. In 1833, he became a licensed lay preacher. While continuing to teach, he attended the Cazenovia Theological Seminary in New York. In 1838, North entered Wesleyan University and began lecturing against slavery.

James Warren Nye

Nevada's only territorial governor, James Warren Nye, was born in New York on June 10, 1814 or 1815, the seventh of ten children. Nye was educated at home and attended Hamilton Seminary for one term. He worked as a stagecoach driver for four years before studying law. Nye passed the New York Bar exam in 1839. He married Elsie Benson that same year, and the couple had two children.

Artemus Ward

Artemus Ward, often called the first standup comic, played a pivotal role in the history of American literature during an 1863 Christmas visit to the Nevada territory when he influenced the career of Mark Twain. Born Charles Farrar Brown in 1834 in Maine, the future Artemus Ward lost his father when young and became an apprentice printer at age thirteen. Eventually, Brown graduated to reporter and comic columnist during a career that took him to Ohio.

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