4304

Pocket Watch with Comstock Heritage c1870 [204807]

Currency:USD Category:Jewelry Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 800.00 USD
Pocket Watch with Comstock Heritage c1870 [204807]
CURRENT BID
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
ENTER YOUR MAXIMUM ABSENTEE BID[?]
You must bid at least
200.00USD
USD
200.00 x 1 unit = 200.00USDApplicable fees & taxes are added at checkout.
[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2025 Nov 03 @ 08:00 (UTC-07:00 : PDT/MST)
FINAL AUCTION RECORD The Auctioneer’s podium notes serve as the final, legally binding record of the auction results, superseding any electronic bidding records. See Terms and Conditions
Pocket Watch with Comstock Heritage. Case reads: Cylindre / Remontoire / 6 Rubis // G. Weiss
135576; AO,800, J. Inside appears to be sterling. Includes interesting watch chain. Total weight 11.6 grams.

This watch belonged to the Reich / Schnitzer Family, owners of the famous Nevada Brewery in Virginia City c. 1890s-1913.

The following narrative tells the story of this important Virginia City Family.

Historical Collections by Shery Hayes-Zorn of the Nevada Historical Society:
Here is the little known story about the Reick and Schnitzer families and the Nevada Brewery in Virginia City, Nevada.

There are conflicting reports on how Louis John Reick emigrated to the United States. One version says that Louis came from Germany in 1862 and headed to Downeville, California before coming to Nevada. The second version shows that he emigrated to New Orleans back in 1832. On the ship records, it lists a Louis John Reick from Germany and his occupation as brewer. Did he take a ship around the Cape Horn to California before coming to Nevada?

Louis came to Virginia City and purchased this business in Six-Mile Canyon. He added an upstairs addition right before the 1875 fire. His niece and nephew, Rose (Rosa or Rosina) and John came to America in the 1882 to assist their uncle with the daily operations of the brewery and saloon.
Louis John Reick died April 7, 1894 and is buried in the Masonic plot in Virginia City.

Louis owned and ran the brewery and bar from 1862-1892, and then turned over the daily operations of the business to his niece and nephew. After his death in 1894, Rose and John inherited the business. The question that doesn't have an answer at this time is when did Albert arrive in Virginia City and begin work at the Nevada Brewery. Note: Fred Holabird's research indicates that Albert Schnitzer took over ownership of the Nevada Brewery in 1907, according to the Polk Directory. A photograph that accompanies the article indicates the saloon interior has Albert Schnitzer and Louis Reick in the photograph. So the photo has to be no later than 1894. Sometime between 1894 to 1900, Albert Schnitzer took over the management of the brewery. In the 1910 census, Albert was listed as brewer, John was the bartender and Rose was the barkeeper.

At the back of the building, there was a shaded beer garden that the locals would recall as "being a favorite gathering place."

Albert came to America and arrived in New York through Ellis Island in 1888. We are unsure exactly when Albert came to Nevada. Once he was here, he purchased lots on East 4th Street, (in Reno) and California and Marsh Avenues, owned several bars and invested in several mines businesses in the area including the Alpine Divide Mining Company.

He married Rose in 1905 and they went to California for their honeymoon. Rose reported that her two valises were stolen from the "wait-room at the ferry depot" in San Francisco.

The family lived in the upstairs apartment of the saloon/brewery. We have an interior photograph of the bedroom of Mr. and Mrs. Schnitzer residence; Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada.

By 1915, there were brief entries in the newspaper that mention that Albert was visiting Reno to check on his local investment properties. A couple of them mention that he purchased an REO studebaker and was traveling the road from Virginia City to Reno.

The photo of the Nevada brewery has a man and woman posing in the automobile could possibly be the John and Rose. While the man standing next to the vehicle has a similar profile, stance and hat when comparing the known photo of Albert Schnitzer on the ladder.

When the 18th amendment prohibition law was in place, Albert closed down the brewery. He was known for the wonderful "old Dutch dinners that included pretzels, tripe and limburger cheese." He owned two bars in Virginia City, the Senate Bar and the Sixty-Two Bar and one bar in Reno, the Dew Drop Resort and had to close them by 1923.

Albert passed away in 1925. Rose's niece, Mrs. Clara Jahn and her husband Albert Jahn moved into Rose's home in Virginia City. In 1930, they all moved to Reno.

Rose Barbara Kick Schnitzer died at her home at 842 Nixon Street, Reno in 1938. Albert, Rose, her brother John and uncle Louis are buried in the family plot in Virginia City.

In 1939, there was a Jubilee play called Schnitzer's Beer Garden that was performed by the Gay Nineties in Carson City and Reno that was "a comic review which was termed a riot."

The first mention of the Nevada Brewery in the Reno papers is 1942. Zoray Andrus Kraemer and husband, Erick Kraemer purchased the building to take up residence and convert the barroom into an artist's studio.

In a separate newspaper article, it is mentioned that Zoray opened her art gallery that was called the Welcome Grant. The article doesn't mention an address so was it located in the Nevada Brewery?

She graduated from the California School of Art and participated in area art shows and nationwide art exhibitions. She was one of the early Virginia City bohemian artists associated with helping create the Nevada Artist Association and the Nevada Artist Co-Op in Reno.
She was known for her artwork nationally but has been forgotten today in Nevada. When the Reno Veterans hospital opened up in 1947, Zoray and Beck Young painted beautiful murals of the Comstock for the recreation room. Are the murals still there?

This article came about from wanting to learn more about the framed lithograph that is hanging in the Research Library. [Ref: NHS digital e-newsletter ÔªøApril - June 2021 available online]

Fred Holabird's research indicates that Schnitzer owned the Nevada Brewery from about 1907 to 1912, and took over the saloon at 62 South C Street, known as the Senate Saloon, c. 1913-1919 under Schnitzer's ownership. Schnitzer purchased the saloon in 1912, likely because it was a much more visible and accessible location than the brewery site at the bottom of the hill. In 1913 Schnitzer sold his Nevada Brewery to Barry Karney. During the sale of 62 S. C Street the saloon was leased to M. L. Ward, who called it the Ward Saloon. When the sale was final, Schnitzer sold his Nevada Brewery and took over the saloon, renaming it the Senate Saloon. Karney defaulted on his purchase of the Nevada Brewery and Schnitzer got it back within a year. He continued to run both properties all the way through the start of prohibition in 1919. Through prohibition the building may have sat vacant. No business licenses were filed for 62 South C. during that period. As soon as prohibition ended in 1933, Rosa Schnitzer told the property to G. Puccinelli.

Consignor of these pieces is the great grandson of Schnitzer.
^
Date:
Country (if not USA):
State: Nevada
City: Virginia City
Provenance: