Henry & Nellie Mighels Correspondence, 1863-66 -- Completed

Henry (Harry) and Nellie Mighels were prominent Nineteenth-century Nevadans. They both grew up in Maine, where they fell in love when she was sixteen and he was twenty-nine. They carried on a long courtship through letters after Harry left for the Civil War in 1863. After being injured in 1865, he left the battle front for the new state of Nevada to edit the Nevada Daily Appeal in Carson City. Their correspondence ended in 1866 when Nellie came west and they were married, but this collection includes an additional three dozen letters from relatives they left behind in Maine. Harry and Nellie lived in Carson City for the rest of their lives, running a newspaper and raising four children. After Harry died in 1879, Nellie became the publisher of the Appeal. She hired Sam Davis as the editor, and later married him. Nellie had two more children with Sam, managed their ranch, and stayed active in the newspaper business and civic activities. She died at the age of 101 in 1945. These love letters between Harry and Nellie before their marriage document a civil war-era romance and the very early days of Nevada. Please contact Special Collections if you are interested in transcribing these letters or editing pages that were transcribed earlier.