The Wildcat Station was started by Churchill County pioneer Lemuel Allen.
LEMUEL ALLEN,
The subject of this sketch is a native of Harrison County, Ohio; on the twelfth of April, 1839, he was born and in the same year his father and mother removed
to Van Buren County. Iowa. There he remained with his father, assisting on the farm and attending school, until the year 1859. In that year he married Miss Sarah Ann Peugh. and in the same year he and his wife started for Pike's Peak, but stopped in Kansas until the following year, when they returned to Iowa, and resided there up to the year 1862, when they started for Carson Valley, Nevada. They first settled seven miles above Fort Churchill, on the Carson River. Possessing little of this world's wealth, they found their little stock of provisions and the team of patient oxen, all that was left them with which to begin life; but rich in the mutual faith and affection they had for each other, they were nothing daunted, and cheerfully faced the dim and shadowy future. Mr. Allen had paid out his last two dollars
on crossing the bridge spanning the slough at the sink of the Carson. There they remained until December 1, 1863. when they removed to the south side of the upper sink of the Carson River. called Carson Lake. He there established a station called "The Wild Cat." taking his father as partner, who had come out to join him, as did also his mother and the family, the following year. The station was on the old Pony Road, and there the family remained until 1867, when he removed to their present residence. Since that time he has kept a " station " for the accommodation of the traveling public. He now owns in the county 1,040 acres of land, 500 acres of which is fenced and under cultivation. He cuts about 600 tons of hay each year, and has also a fine bearing orchard, including a variety of fruit which yields a
sufficient quantity to abundantly supply his own family and also his neighbors. Mr. Allen was ambitious to master the study of the law, but being compelled to seek his own fortunes in life, has had but little leisure lime since early youth for anything like systematic study, but during the entire length of time of his residence in the State of Nevada ho has devoted every spare moment to the pursuit of his favorite study, and at length, on the sixteenth day of January, 1873, he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Nevada. He was elected District Attorney for Churchill County in 1871, and re-elected in 1873; he was again returned to the same office by the election in the year 1880. In the year 1875, he represented his county in the Assembly, and was in 1876 re-elected to that position. The children living
are six, three sons and three daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have buried three other children.
-History of Nevada, Thompson and West 1881
Somewhere in there, he also found time to teach school.
"The first school in Churchill County, under the county organization, was held in the " Big Adobe," on the Upper sink of the Carson, in December, 1871.
The first teacher was Lemuel Allen, who is still a resident of the county."
-History of Nevada, Thompson and West 1881
LIke many crude stations of the time, it was not the most luxurious of accommodations.
As White Pine is all the talk from San Francisco to Salt Lake, I will give you a few particulars regarding the trip and country. Left Gold Hill November 4th, at 1 o'clock, camped at Gate's Station, 13 miles; November 5th, made Bishop's Station, 30 miles; 6th Allen's Station, 25 miles, and a hard old place it is for those in search of comfort, 7th, made dry camp among the sagebrush; 8th, made Trench's Station, 9th, Cold Springs;10th, Gopher Hole, 11th, Austin. Here we found everyone wild with White Pine Fever.
-Gold Hill Daily News, November 24, 1868
Don't know where Gate's Station or Bishop's Station were located, but the 23 June 1862 issue of the Daily Alta California says, "Twelve miles further is Honey Lake Smiths, where better accommodations are furnished. Again twelve miles, brings the traveler to Bishop's Station, and in eight miles more he reaches Ragtown where horses can be shod "when the blacksmith is not in jail."
He made it all the way to Lt. Governor.
With Lemuel Allen, who subsequently became lieutenant governor, she crossed the plains in 1862 with it train of ox teams. Two families in the train, those of Allen and William Harmon stopped at Dayton, and the other continued to California. The Allen family located at the south end of Carson lake in 1864 along the old express route. Two years later they settled on two quarter sections of land in the Island district south of Fallon which has been the Allen home since that time. Lemuel Allen was elected lieutenant governor during the first administration of John Sparks in 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Allen moved to Reno where he died in 1918. Mrs. Allen removed to Fallon the year following her husband's death. At the time the Aliens arrived in Churchill county. no one was living on the present site of Fallon. and the few who lived in the valley at that time. were David Wightman, Joe Cushman, James Barrett, Ace Canyon at Ragtown Station, and J. H. Dillard, all of whom have passed away.
-Reno Evening Gazette, December 20 1926, Mrs. Sarah Allen obituary
An old-timer reminisces:
In 1850, Cranston Allen and his oldest son David came around the Horn to San Francisco. They stayed there three years. Then he went back to Van Buren County. Son David stayed, and finally settled in Los Angeles County. If Cranston had stayed, he might have settled on the land [where] the Palace Hotel now stands. He had the chance, but he moved on. In 1863, Cranston crossed the plains and joined his son Lemuel at Wild Cat Station, Nevada. Lemuel was his youngest son. He was followed by his wife, two sons, and two daughters in 1864. They came out to join him in Nevada. Wild Cat Station was on the Pony Express route. Of course, it wasn’t working at the time. Wild Cat Station started in 1860, and only lasted nineteen months, but it was still on that trail at that time. It was right up here south of the valley. There is still a little place—a little adobe place—where it had run. It started in 1860 and only ran until early 1862, nineteen months, but there was still the remnants of it. The Wild Cat Station was south of Churchill County, in the hills there. After being there at Wild Cat Station a year or two, they rented a ranch near the main road on the Overland trail.
-Cecyl Allen Johnson: Pioneer History of Life in Churchill County, Nevada
The Allen Family and Their Descendants
Interviewee: Cecyl Allen Johnson
Interviewed: 1966 , Published: 1970
Interviewer: Mary Ellen Glass
Kind of a nasty road for which you will need some ground clearance, and 4WD would make you feel a whole lot better I'm sure. Much erosion on the road. Ol' Lem built his station with what was on hand, and what's on hand is rocks. Partial walls of the station remain.