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“Papa” Starke: The Pied Piper of Gardnerville “Often at large farm parties, he came prepared with a small hand organ strapped around his shoulders.    As he turned the crank, a stuffed monkey popped out of the organ and danced around to the most fantastic music imaginable.    Papa led the way much like the pied Piper of Hamlin and, followed by dozens of children, he led the march around the house and every building on the farm, all singing as they marched.”   Thus did Frieda Godecke remember H. William “Papa” Starke, a German immigrant saloonkeeper of Gardnerville, Nevada. Shown here, Starke was born in Westphalia, Germany, in 1860, the son of Dietrich  and Henriette Starke.    Little is known of his early life and career, although he likely was trained as a cook and baker.    He also married.    His wife, recorded as Lina Pferdehirt, and he had one son, William, born in 1887.    Then the marriage fractured, perhaps t...
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  The Whiskey Rant of “Big Swede” Jespersen   Because no photo of Chris J. Jespersen has come to light, I have substituted a drawing of a large bartender with a somewhat belligerent look to stand in for the Gardnerville, Nevada, saloonkeeper known as “Big Swede.”    The image introduces a man, described as “out of humor and a grouch for fair” who was asked about his whiskey and answered with an oration. Jespersen’s words were captured — and possibly embellished — by a local reporter who prefaced them by setting the scene.    A young whiskey salesman from the West Coast representing Cincinnati liquor companies entered the Big Swede’s Gardnerville establishment    and “in plaintive tones” asked the proprietor:    “Is this a saloon?”    When told in no uncertain terms that it was, the drummer feebly asked:    “What kind of whiskey have you got? The  Record Courier  of February 18, 1908, recorded this response f...
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  Bill Ward and Ft. Worth’s White Elephant     Foreword:    Some years    ago I did an article on the many American saloons that took  the name “White Elephant.”   More recently I was drawn to learning more about a drinking establishment with that name in Forth Worth, Texas.   Because this blog is devoted to narratives about individuals not institutions, I searched for information about the proprietor and found it in article that appeared 17 years ago in  Wild West magazine.    Written by Author/Historian Richard Selcer, it described in detail the remarkable 27 year career of William H. “Bill” Ward at the helm of Forth Worth’s White Elephant Saloon, an era marked by violence.    When I find such a piece I reprint it on my blog with attribution.    Because Selcer’s article was too long to use in its entirety, however, I have abridged it [*****] to emphasize Ward’s role — and added llustrations. The origi...
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