Month: April 2018

Chapter Two.   Northern Hotel and Bar. Raids, Illegal gambling and alcohol.

In late 2017 the site of what is arguably one of the most historic gambling site fell into the deep hole of ‘Who Cares?’  Add to that, what history is available, is often buried in the fact-fantasy land of the internet.

Yet with names like the Stockers, the Stearns, and Siegel, the Northern Hotel Bar and Club in downtown Las Vegas has a fact based history that will surprise most.  That includes the role the owners had in legalizing gambling in Nevada.

At this point there appears to be no effort on the part of todays’ operators of the property, or the Fremont Street Experience, or the City of Las Vegas to let locals and visitors know of the important and colorful history of this site and the rest of Fremont Street.  (April 3, 2018 I’ve been quietly told, this will change.  The when and how is still a question.  But, at least the discussion has begun.  Will stay on top of it.)

From the day the Northern Hotel and Bar opened in 1912 until he fled town, Lon Groesbeck operated both floors of the building.  His energy was focused on money making possibilities of the first floor, alcohol and gambling.

Six years later, after Nevada and Clark county voters, in 1918 overwhelmingly  approved legislation outlawing the sale of liquor, the future for Groesbeck, whose health was already failing, turned from clouded to clearly dark.

But when the Northern opened, like Las Vegas in 1912, it a welcome oasis on the northern edge of the Mojave Desert.

Las Vegas is also about half way between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City which, with the abundant of water at the time, made it an ideal place for a railroad to build a massive maintenance plant. 

Las Vegas, 1912, Author’s collection

 And with the plant hundreds of men came to Las Vegas, most of them single.

Despite the 1910 statewide ban on gambling, Las Vegas with its red light district-Block 16, (the east side of the 200 block of North First Street.) was at best a controlled “wide open town.”

After operating both floors for two years, in the late fall of 1914, Groesbeck transferred his “saloon license” to Fred Van Deventer.”

Details limited other than the transfer was approved by the Las Vegas City Commission. [i]

Then, not long after the town celebrated its tenth birthday there was a call to clean up the town both literally and morally.

In May of 1916, Clark County District Court Judge Charles Lee Horsey convened a grand jury with specific instructions to look into vice and law enforcement in Las Vegas. Arthur Jerry Stebenne

Judge Horsey would later become a Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court.

At the end of June, the grand jury issued its report.  “Upon the subject of gambling” the report said “the neglect of duty on the part of peace officers, we have found for a long time past, illegal gambling has been openly conducted, with the knowledge of the peace officers who have made no effort to prevent the offense.”[ii]

And in regard to the sale of alcohol, still legal in 1916, the jury’s “Committee on Public Morales,” wrote, “We find upon investigation that for the years 1915 and 1916, 85%of the indigents were made such directly through indulgence in liquor and gambling.” [iii]

And, the grand jury did not stop at gambling and alcohol telling the judge “it is apparent that there are cases of illicit cohabitation in Clark County, particularly in Las Vegas and stringent laws should be enacted over this disgusting offense against public decency.”  [iv]

The grand jury also handed down eight indictments for violations of the gambling laws.

Among those indicted was Groesbeck. He was charged with conducting an illegal casino operation at the Northern.[v]

Groesbeck was specifically charged with taking a percent, a “rake-off” for setting up tables where men could play poker for money.

Groesbeck and his crew, which included early versions of “pit bosses,” ran the games.

Nevada state law at the time allowed people could gamble at poker, but did not allow the house to take a piece of the action.

A poker game at the Northern.  The tables were all line up on the west side of the club, with the bar running north and south on the east side of the building.

Three months after he was busted Groesbeck was found guilty of allowing gambling at the Northern.  The case, at the time, was described as under the new law the “first successfully prosecuted case against illegal gambling in Nevada.”

Clark County District Attorney, A. S. Henderson, in his colorful closing arguments compared Groesbeck to a spider; “When once a man is in its clutches it suck out his life blood.  Like a spider, he grabs the fly and sucks the living blood out of him and leaves him to suffer the torments of hell.  That’s what the gambler does, sucks the living blood until the man is fleeced of everything. [vi]

After Groesbeck was found guilty, the other defendants all pleaded guilty.

The next month, Judge Horsey sentences all six to one to five years in the state penitentiary in Carson City. But, with overall public opinion running against the “actual imprisonment of the offenders,” to the surprise of few the judge suspended sentence of each of the gamblers. [vii]

As far as Groesbeck, the Judge said, “I do not say, I have no sympathy for the defendant.  I say, I have no sympathy for his business of far as his business relates to gambling.  If I had the power” there “would not be any gambling in Clark county or anywhere else.”[viii]

With sale of liquor still legal Groesbeck went back to running the Northern Hotel and Bar for both men and for a while, for women.

The Northern catered only to men in the bar and the poker tables.  In an effort to expand business “Six ‘wine rooms’ were established in the rear which ladies could patronize through a ‘family entrance’ off the alley.” [ix]

(We have been unable to find a photograph of women in the wine room or an image of the ‘family entrance’ to the Northern.)

A year after Groesbeck’s bust for gambling, he was in financial trouble.

In October of 1917, Liddie Groesbeck, his wife, (who lived in Salt Lake City) borrowed $2,800 from Fred T. Van Derventer, aka Fred Van Deventer.[x]

She agreed on October 17, 1917 to pay off the loan in fourteen equal payments of $200.

To “secure payment,” Mrs. Groesbeck put up “all the furniture, bedding, rugs, carpets and utensils of every description now in or about the second story of the building known as the Northern Hotel situate on Fremont Street between Main and First Streets,” also “the safe, desk, cash register and tables and chairs on the first floor.” [xi]

The loan document is signed only by “Mrs. Liddie Groesbeck” and says she “hereby acknowledge myself to be indebted.” [xii]

Ten days later, a notice appeared in the newspaper, “Fred VanDeventer has sold his interest in the Northern Hotel to Lon Groesbeck.”[xiii]

The changes at the Northern appear to be in preparation for the Salt Lake Brewing Company selling the land and the building.

Looking for a buyer in the middle of the winter of 1917, the company didn’t have to go far.

Fred and Nellie Cullen Leonard, who owned several business in Utah, would become the short term owners.

Leonard, in 1912,  was the brewing company’s key representative in Las Vegas.  He negotiated the deal for the brewing company to buy lot 27 in Block 3.

In addition to beverage, candy and hotel operations the the Leonard’s  owned the Cullen Investment Company of Salt Lake City which became the new official owner of record of the Northen. [xiv]

Initially, the Leonard’s kept their friend Groesbeck on as manager of the property.  That would soon change.

At its first meeting in 1918, Groesbeck asked the Las Vegas City Commission to transfer the “retail liquor permit” back to him from Fred Van Deventer.  The request was approved. [xv]

Groesbeck resumed control of both floors of the Northern.

Weeks later, Van Deventer moved to Long Beach with his family.  Instead of opening a bar, Van Deventer was reported “doing his bit” for the war effort in a “shipbuilding plant.” [xvi]

The last half of 1918 was a challenging for Las Vegas and its’ residents and would begin Groesbeck end.

Las Vegas ca. 1912, looking west from First and Fremont Streets.  Author’s collection. The Northern is seen on the left side half way up the street with the extension from the top of the second floor.

Hit hard by the flu that killed millions around the world, dozens died in Las Vegas.

Many of the community’s young men had been drafted and were in France fighting in World War One.

And in November, the issue of banning the sale of alcohol was on the ballot.

In Las Vegas the question of whether to elect a sheriff who would enforce any such ban, or one whose record as sheriff was soft on the saloon crowd was also on the ballot.

As campaigning started, the flu epidemic hit Las Vegas.

By the time it was over the epidemic became a pandemic, killing millions of people around the world.   More than fifty deaths were recorded in the small community of Las Vegas with an estimated population of less than 25-hundred.

Business was bad, travelers stayed on trains that were passing through Las Vegas, school were closed, sick people were confined to their homes, political rallies cancelled.

For the most part, local newspapers reported the 1918 election was quiet.

The most noise came from the ‘wet’s and the ‘dry’s battling over the question of banning the ‘booze.’

Post card cartoons of the day carried the message.

 When the votes were counted in Las Vegas, Clark County, and the state, 22,308 people voted on the prohibition initiative.

Statewide 59% of the voters cast their ballots in favor of the statewide ban.

In Clark County the ‘drys’ whipped the ‘wets’ by a 69% to 31% margin.  In Las Vegas the vote was similar, 63% in favor of the ban to 37% against.

On the flip side, voters elected former sheriff Sam Gay, a former bouncer in the red light district, who had been forced out of office earlier.

For a few days after the election and into the New Year it was still easy to get a drink at the Northern and other saloons, but slowly liquor went under the bar and into the back room.

Saloons along bock 16 began closing their doors and reopening as soft drink parlors. But there was little trouble in securing liquor.

Saloons were located along Block 16 with the two-story Arizona Club leading the pack.                           Author’s collection.

The hotel “bars” along Fremont Street were, less public about their illegal offerings.

Sheriff Gay, recalled, once “the church folks got busy and voted” for the ban, “me being Sheriff, had to dry the town up.  So I sent around word to all the barkeeps to close or start selling buttermilk.  And all but one did.  I had to go in and help drunk up what he had left.”[xvii]

 The Sheriff also took out an ad on the front page of one of the local newspapers;  “I am going to enforce the prohibition law to the letter,” starting on January 6, 1919.[xviii]

He added a warning, “Mr. Bootlegger this is your first and last notice from me.  Your next notice will be a warrant of arrest.” [xix]

Six weeks later, Sheriff Gay would make his first arrest under the new law.

But, it was not a local person.   The suspect, A. P. Chamberlin, had just driven into town from Utah and got a room at the Northern.

The Sheriff went to Chamberlin room in hotel, found several bottles of bonded whiskey and arrested the out-of-towner.

 

Chamberlin was found guilty on February 26 and sentence to 90 days in jail and fined $125 and court costs and left town.

Through the rest of 1919, the saloons, said Sheriff Gay,  “The town was dry for a year” he said “there was “no bootlegging then.” ”[xx]

While there were no desert stills, not yet, the Sheriff said  the liquor that was sold came secret stashes left over from before the Nevada ban,as well as alcohol brought in from states where it was legal.

While the sheriff thought the town was ‘dry’ most would have described it if not ‘wet, a least very ‘damp.’

Reflecting on 1919, the Las Vegas Age reported, there were people “who have been almost openly, and notoriously selling whiskey in this city.” [xxi]

When the next bootlegging arrest was made, it was the district attorney, not the sheriff who filed the charges.

On the evening of Friday, January 2, 1920, Clark County D. A.  Arthur Jerome Stebenne led a raid on the Northern to find the “King of the Bootleggers.”

Unable to find Sheriff Gay, the Stebenne secured the services of a deputy sheriff and the Las Vegas Constable.

Arriving at the Northern they found Sheriff Gay was already there.  The D.A. “demanded” Gay participate in the raid.  [xxii]

The four law enforcement officers found Groesbeck in bed in a back room of the first floor. [xxiii]

A half empty bottom of whiskey was in plain sight.   Groesbeck, according to published reports, pointing to the bottle, told the four lawmen, “There is all I have, you can use that against men if you want to.” [xxiv]

But the D.A. said he had information that there was more whiskey. 

At which point, Groesbeck got out of bed and opened a nearby trunk containing twenty-three pint bottles of McBrayer whiskey. [xxv] 

 

 

 

Las Vegas Age January 3, 1920, page one.

Calling Groesbeck the “King of Bootleggers” Squires wrote in the Age, “the illicit sale of whiskey has been going on in this city ever since the prohibition amendment went into effect.  Groesbeck has been suspected of being the chief violator of the law.  It has been common knowledge that whiskey could be secured there by paying the price.  Numerous cases of drunkenness have been traced to whiskey secured at the Northern.”[xxvi] 

A few days later, Groesbeck pleaded guilty to “the charge of having whiskey in his possession.  He was fined $400 and court costs of $22.50 and to serve three months in the county jail.  The judge suspended the sentence if Groesbeck paid the fine and left town.

Groesbeck paid the fine and quickly left town.

But the district attorney, working quickly, forced a change in the suspended sentence and ordered Groesbeck arrest.  In the few hours  between paying the fine and the district attorney getting the jail time reinstated, Groesbeck left for Utah. [xxvii]

At the end of year Las Vegas newspapers were reporting on Groesbeck death in Salt Lake City.  He was 62.

When Groesbeck fled town early in 1920, and with both alcohol and gambling illegal, it was the Cullen Investment Company turn to begin looking for someone to take over the Northern.

Groesbeck, before he left town, told authorities he had leased the gaming operations to James Germain.

At that moment, January, 1920, Germain aka German had another job, the official Las Vegas Enumerator for the 1920 U.S. Census.

At the end of January, 1920, he interviewed the Stocker family and filled out the census forms for the five members of the family.   [xxviii]

 

The five Stockers were Oscar the father and his wife Mayme, and their three sons, Lester, Clarence and Harold.

Oscar listed his occupation as a “brakeman” with the railroad, which would be the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, also known as the “Salt Lake Route.” [xxix]

When it came to Mayme “none” is listed under occupation. [xxx]   Under the 1920 Census guidelines given to German Rule 158 says, “in the case of a woman doing housework in her own home and having no other employment the entry should be “none.”

Both Clarence and Lester listed their “occupation” as “salesman” in a “cigar store.” [xxxi]

And, finally, Harold, like his father was employed at the rail yards.  He was listed as a “Machinist Helper.” [xxxii]

Before 1920 called it a day, the Stocker family would begin a nearly century long relationship with lot 27 of Block 3 of Las Vegas.

 Coming up, Chapter three.  The Stocker Era Begins.         ‘Three wild and crazy guys!” arrive in Las Vegas.

[i]  “City Board,” October 10, 1914, Las Vegas Age, Page two.

[ii] “Grand Jury Indicts Nine for Gambling,” June 10, 1916, Clark County Review, Pages one and three

[iii] “Grand Jury Indicts Nine for Gambling,” June 10, 1916, Clark County Review, Pages one and three

[iv] “Grand Jury Indicts Nine for Gambling,” June 10, 1916, Clark County Review, Pages one and three.

[v] Grand Jury Indicts Nine for Gambling,” June 10, 1916, Clark County Review, Pages one and three.

[vi] “First Gambling Case Results in Conviction,” September 30, 1916, Clark County Review, page one.

[vii] “First Gambling Case Results in Conviction,” September 30, 1916, Clark County Review, page one.

[viii] “First Gambling Case Results in Conviction,” September 30, 1916, Clark County Review, page one.

[ix] “Poker, Whist, Bridge Only Games Allowed in 1st Gambling Club,” May 16, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal & Age, Section B, Page four.

[x]  “Chattel Mortgage,” between Liddie Groesbeck, and Fred T. Van Derventer,” October 17, 1917, Clark County Recorder Office, Las Vegas, Nevada document 10829.

[xi]  “Chattel Mortgage,” between Liddie Groesbeck, and Fred T. Van Derventer,” October 17, 1917, Clark County Recorder Office, Las Vegas, Nevada document 10829.

[xii]  “Chattel Mortgage,” between Liddie Groesbeck, and Fred T. Van Derventer,” October 17, 1917, Clark County Recorder Office, Las Vegas, Nevada document 10829.

[xiii]  “Local Notes,” October 27, 1917, Las Vegas Age, page three

[xiv] “Groesbeck landed by Dist. Atty. Stebenne,” January 3, 1920, Las Vegas Age, Page 1.

[xv]  “Regular Meeting of City Commissioners,” January 5, 1918, Las Vegas Age, Page one.

[xvi]  “Local Notes,” May 18, 1918, Las Vegas Age, Page three.

[xvii] “The old west live, Las Vegas, A desert bloom,” 1930, Illustrated Daily News. Clipping, no page number.

[xviii] “Sheriff-elect gives notice and warning,” January, 1920, Las Vegas Age, Page 1.

[xix] “Sheriff-elect gives notice and warning,” January, 1920, Las Vegas Age, Page 1.

[xx] “The old west live, Las Vegas, A desert bloom,”  1930, Illustrated Daily News. Clipping, no page number.

[xxi] “Groesbeck landed by Dist. Atty. Stebenne,” January 3, 1920, Las Vegas Age, Page 1.

[xxii] “The ‘Northern’ In liquor raid,” January 3, 1920, Clark County Review, Page one.

[xxiii] “The ‘Northern’ In liquor raid,” January 3, 1920, Clark County Review, Page one.

[xxiv] “The ‘Northern’ In liquor raid,” January 3, 1920, Clark County Review, Page one.

[xxv] “The ‘Northern’ In liquor raid,” January 3, 1920, Clark County Review, Page one.

[xxvi] “Groesbeck Landed By District Atty. Stebenne,” January 3, 1920, Las Vegas Age, page one.

[xxvii] “Lon Groesbeck Flees From Jail Sentence,” January 10, 1920, Las Vegas Age, Page one.

[xxviii]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll: T625_1004; Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxix]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll: T625_1004; Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxx]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll:T625_1004;Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxxi]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll:T625_1004;Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxxii]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll:T625_1004;Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

Chapter Three. The Northern -To be Owned by the Stockers including 3 “wild and crazy guys” aka “My Three Sons”

                              Chapter Three.   

(updated April 3, 2018)

      The Northern -To be Owned by the Stockers….including 3 “wild and crazy guys” aka “My Three Sons!”

In 1903 the land where lot 27 of Block 3, of “Clark’s Las Vegas Townsite,” would be located was owned by pioneer, Helen J. Stewart.

That year she sold the land to U.S. Senator William A. Clark.  The Senator and the Union Pacific were building a railroad between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

The land then became jointly owned by Senator Clark and U.P.

In May of 1905, the railroad sold lot 27 of Block 3 in a land auction.    J. F. Dunn, Superintendent of the Oregon Short Line railroad, which is part of the Union Pacific system, bought the lot.

In turn the Salt Lake Brewing Company, in 1912, bought the lot from Dunn. The new owners built a two-story structure and named it the Northern Hotel and Bar.

The brewing company owned it for five years and then sold it to the Cullen Investment Company of Salt Lake City.

Cullen was owned by Fred and Nellie Leonard, who helped broker the original deal between the Dunn and the beer company.

Then on the 21st of October, 1921 Oscar C. Stocker bought the property.

Stocker paid $12,000 for the building and land.

In addition to the land and the building, the transfer deed also contained the language of the original railroad deed.   This would allow the owner to sale alcohol, if and when it became legal again.[i]

At the time, the 48-year-old Stocker was a brakeman on the Salt Lake Route railroad.

His wife was Mayme and they had three sons, Lester, Clarence and Harold.

A number of internet sites estimate $12,000 in 1921 is equal to more than $150,000 in 2018.

How Oscar was able to save up or where he got the money is still a question.

Lester had just gotten out of prison, Clarence had been working as a clerk in Los Angeles, and Harold said he had to take a job in 1919 in Las Vegas as a machinist; saying he needed money, “I had to eat.”

A simple mortgage arrangement with the Cullen Investment Company is possible, however, often those were part of the deed transfer.  In this case no mortgage is attached to the agreement.

While the sale was finalized in October of  1921, it is clear by late in 1920 members of the Stocker family were “proprietors” of the Northern.

From that point on, the Stockers would all play a significant role in the history of the Northern, Las Vegas, and the development of legal and illegal gambling for several decades.

Who were the Stockers?

Looking for every note that may turn into a nugget as to who and why the Stockers would turn out to be “colorful,” we found contradictions, interesting memories, and a series of facts that turned out to be fiction.

We start first with when the family arrived in Las Vegas.

That date is questioned by Stockers themselves.  It was either 1910 or 1911.

 

The heart of Las Vegas 1911 looking west from middle of 200 block of Fremont Street.

     Mayme Stocker said she and her family arrived in Las Vegas either late in 1911 or as her youngest son Harold, believes, 1910.

Harold would later be elected to the Clark County Commission.  His official biography on the county web site says “The Stocker family arrived in Las Vegas in October of 1911.”[ii]

Based on when the 1910 U.S. Census was taken, the Stocker family was in Los Angeles on April 16, that year. [iii]

In the census, Oscar is listed as a “switchman” on an unidentified railroad. Mayme, who listed her name on the census form as “Mamie V” did not list an occupation. [iv]

Her two oldest boys, 17 year old Lester Wellington Stocker, and 16 year old Clarence listed their occupation in 1910, as “messengers” for the “telegraph co.” [v]

Harold was listed as 8 years old and attending school.  Born on March 8, 1900, rather than 8, Harold would have been ten years old at the time.

Mrs. Stocker was 35-years-old when she said she arrived in Las Vegas for the first time.  She remembers it being May of 1911 and she was on her way to visit relatives in Butte, Montana.[vi]

She said, “I got off the train, along with a number of other passengers to see the town.  The heat together with an array of drab buildings and thick dust under foot, was not conducive to a good first impression.” [vii]

In the 1948 interview, Mrs. Stocker remembered said she told one of the other passengers at the time “Anyone who lives here is out of his mind.” [viii]

But, then she said, “I didn’t know then that I would return to Las Vegas before the year was out to make my home.” [ix]

Her husband Oscar worked for the Union Pacific railroad in Los Angeles.  Mrs. Stocker said her husband was transferred to Las Vegas late in 1911.  She added, “A few weeks following his arrival here, my three sons and I came to Las Vegas to live.”[x]

Harold Stocker was eighty-year-olds at the time of the interview and he remembered his family arrived in 1910.

Whether it was 1910 or late in1911 is important for a couple of reasons.   A labor dispute and school fire.

Las Vegas was the half way point between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.   The railroad line, the Salt Late Route, as it was called, was owned the Union Pacific Railroad, and former U.S. Senator from Montana, William Andrews Clark.

In 1911, the railroad had just finished building a massive large maintenance plant and complex for its trains in Las Vegas.

At the same time the railroad was building the maintenance complex, it was also building a large dormitory for the expected floor of workers.  In addition, the railroad was also building more than sixty homes for men with families.

The homes, now known as the “Railroad Cottages,” were for the skilled craftsmen, like the senior Stocker.

Several of the cottages have been preserved.  They were moved from downtown Las Vegas to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve and to the Clark County Museum.

Post card from 1911 of the Railroad Cottages on south Third Street. 

 

If Stocker arrived in late 1911, he would have arrived in the middle of a labor dispute.  A strike for recognition of the railroad shop workers started at the end of September, 1911.[xi]

Did Stocker, a strong union man, arrive in Las Vegas in the middle of the 1911 labor dispute, or did he arrive a year earlier in 1910?

If he arrived in 1911, it would be at a moment where the community and the railroad were at odds, but hopeful the dispute would be short.

In a move that upset the town, the railroad kept all the non-striking workers within the yards, building a fence around the entire maintenance complex, including the railroad commissary.  The fences were topped with barb wire.

The men were housed and fed within the yards and were not allowed to go into town.

1911-1912.  The railroad put up the fence around the shops to keep people both in and out.            Author’s collection

   “Las Vegas was still very crude” when she arrived in 1911 Mrs. Stocker said, “there were no streets or sidewalks, and there were no flowers, lawns or trees.  One thing which impressed me was that all the homes were fenced.  Even the court house had a fence around it.” [xii]

As far as housing she and her three sons, “We stayed at the Las Vegas Hotel, the second story of the building now occupied by the Las Vegas Club, until the late Harley A. Harmon, who was then county clerk found housing for us.”[xiii]

In 1911 the Las Vegas Hotel-Club, was on the south side of Fremont, just a door down from where the Northern would be built in 1912.

(The Las Vegas Club decades later would move to the north side of Fremont Street.  I would occupy the Overland Hotel building, rebuilt in 1911, on the north east corner of Main and Fremont Streets.  Both were torn down and became a large hole in the ground in early 2018.)

In Las Vegas the first public sign the strike was informally over occurred on April 27, 1912.  The railroad announced effective May 1, it would no longer provide meals for their workers.

This was good news, according to the Las Vegas Age, “The commissary department at the shops will close,” and “the money which, since the beginning of the strike has been lost to the business of the city will again be thrown into the channels of trade greatly to the benefit of business in Vegas.”  [xiv]

Newspaper publisher Charles Squires, who generally sided with the railroad in labor disputes, ended his story with, “We join with the entire city in a feeling of thorough satisfaction at this action.”   [xv]

This all but ended the labor dispute in Las Vegas.

As the railroad hired replacement workers, the strike locally and nationally would soon fade, coming to a quiet end in a couple of years with the railroad recognizing the unions.

Another railroad strike would take place a decade later, and this time the Northern would play a major role.  This labor dispute would find the governor of Nevada in Las Vegas with a gun in his hand.

While Squires may have had a “feeling of through satisfaction” for the “entire city,” 1912 was a time of stress for the Stocker family.

Starting at the end of 1912, and ending eight years, based on a variety of public sources and interviews with the Stockers, the family would spent most of their time in southern California:  Los Angeles and San Pedro.

It is also likely during this period of time, in part due to the senior Stocker work with the railroad and his travel back and forth the family also maintained a home in Las Vegas.

The trigger to this temporary transition back to southern California was likely the arrest in Las Vegas of one of the Stocker boys.

A command appearance at the brand new Clark County Court House came shortly after the Stocker’s oldest son Lester arrived in Las Vegas.

The nineteen year old Stocker was arrested in September of 1912.

The Las Vegas Age reported a cigar store had been burglarized and “suspicion at once fell upon two loafers who have been hanging around the place.”   The ‘two loafer’ were identified as Patrick Murphy and a second person only identified as “a young blood named Stocker.”    [xvi]

The two were taken to the city jail, “on a charge of burglary in the first degree.”[xvii]

On November 16, still being held on the burglary charge, the “young blood named Lester” celebrated his 20th birthday.

The following week the Clark County Grand Jury met, heard the case against the two men and only indicted Murphy.

All charges were dropped against Stocker, and he moved to Los Angeles.

Lester’s next run in with the law would turn out differently.

Based on voter registration records, and telephone directories it appears that Clarence spent most of his time from 1913 to 1919, in southern California.

Lester spent the early part of the decade with his brothers in southern California, but a visit to Montana in 1916 would require him to spent the next 3 years in that state.

It is likely in 1913 Lester and Clarence were joined by Harold, and for a while their mother.  Harold said the move to Los Angeles was due to a fire at Las Vegas’ grammar school.

As a new building to house both grammar and high school students was being built in October of 1910, a fire hit the existing school at Second Street and Lewis Avenue. [xviii]

Stocker says his mother had just arrived in town.

Harold would later say, the two of them left Las Vegas, “When the school burned down, I had to go to Los Angeles to go to school.  We didn’t have a high school here.”   [xix]

The new school building, at 4th and Bridger admitted students for the first time in October of 1911.[xx]

Harold, didn’t go to Los Angeles after the fire, as he was one of the students at the new Las Vegas school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 1911 post card.  The new building was both a grammar and high school.

Harold was still in Las Vegas in the spring of 1912.

After his twelve birthday on March 8, he was put on the third grade Roll of Honor for being “neither absent nor tardy” and having “attained 80 percent cent in scholarship and department.”[xxi]

In 1913 Lester, and Clarence, along with their father were living at 1308 West 51st place in Los Angeles.  Clarence listed his occupation as a telephone operator.

At the time, Lester was unemployed, and their father was a switchman for the railroad.[xxii]

For the traveling public the railroad was called the “Salt Lake Route,” officially it was the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad.

Likely the next move was related to their fathers work with the railroad, The three men moved in 1914 to 1409 ½ East 20th Street in San Pedro, California. [xxiii]

At the time, both Clarence and Lester listing said they were working as “clerks,” and their father, as a “brakeman.”[xxiv]

In 1916 Clarence registered to vote in Los Angeles, listing his address as 1021 Hillvale Avenue.    In a different document, his brother Clarence is listed at five feet 4 inches tall, weight “approximately’ 130 pounds, with blue eyes.[xxv]

The next known public report shows Lester Stocker on his way to the Montana State Prison in August of 1916.

In the early summer of 1916 Lester was in Montana, he said he was only in the state “one week” before he got into trouble.   He was said he didn’t have a job he and was just “doing nothing.”

The “doing nothing”, according to the August 27, 1916 edition of the Great Falls Montana Daily Tribune, included the burglarizing of a jewelry store in Great Falls.

Stocker and an accomplice took “several pieces of valuable jewelry containing diamond settings.”

 

On August 31, 1916, in custody, Lester appeared before the judge at the County Court House in Great Falls, Montana.

When asked by the Judge how he pleaded to the charge of “Grand Larceny?’ Stocker said he didn’t have an attorney and pleaded guilty.

The judge sentenced him to serve to three and a half years in the Montana State Prison.

Lester told prison officials he was living with his brother at the Hillvale address in Los Angeles. [xxvi]

He also said  “V. Stocker,” his mother and his father “O. Stocker,” were living in Los Angeles in the fall of 1916.

 

September 1, 1916  the day Stocker arrived at the state prison in Deer Lodge, Montana.

 

Author’s collection

 

The youthful looking 23-year-old Stocker wrote on his prison registration he was only 21 years old and under occupation, wrote “none.”

The following June, still in prison,  he registered for the draft.  [xxvii]  The  registration records show Lester was of “Medium” height, “Medium” build, blue eyes and light colored hair.  To the right is Stocker after the barber provided him with a prison haircut.

After serving eighteen months, prison records show Stocker received his “Final Discharge” from the Montana State Prison on March 31,1919.

Within a few months of his release, the entire Stocker family would either be in Las Vegas or on their way.

Although Lester’s youngest brother would return to Las Vegas in 1920 an experienced gambler, it would be Lester who would become the first Stocker to get a gaming license in Nevada.

And sadly he would be the first one to die.

His brother Clarence also became familiar with the legal system. In the spring of 1917, Clarence was arrested at a “dance hall” in Los Angeles.

In court, “several witnesses testified that he ws under the influence of liquor and staggered, but Mr. Stocker said that was because he did not dance well.”

He was arrested by a “special officer” of the Los Angeles Police Department and “booked as a vagrant.”[xxviii]

The vagrancy charge was dropped, and Stocker took the officer to court asking for $15,000 in damages for false arrest. [xxix]

The former special officer, now working for the railroad as a fireman, claimed he knew Stocker.  He said Stocker had “associated with criminals.” [xxx]

Los Angeles Times April 10, 1917

The judge ruled in Stocker’s favor say a person may not be arrested on “the ground the person formerly consorted with criminals.” [xxxi]

The judge only awarded Stocker $50 saying the “judgement would have been for a large amount if greater damages had been shown.” [xxxii]

The third and youngest brother, Harold, says after moving back to Los Angeles from Las Vegas.  He attended school, and while in high school  he became the family’s expert on gambling.

Over the years, Harold Stocker was interviewed by several journalists including A.D. Hopkins, as well as late UNLV History Professor Ralph Roske.

From those interviews the following is pieced together. Harold’s story didn’t change over the years, it just grew.[xxxiii]

Harold said he started going to the U.S. Mexico border towns  including  Calexico and  Tijuana starting in 1915; “I was fifteen-year-old, I used to work every summer.  I was big husky, weighted 200 pounds you known, played freshman football.   I was working in a studio in Los Angeles, when I was a kid, and (in audio, sounds like he says Tom Mix) this movie director (also later Harold says it was a “producer”) took a liking to me and would take me down to the border.”

Stocker says he met members of the A.B.W. Combination, which operated the Owl Club.  Stocker said he knew a member of the ‘Combination,’ “Carl Withington, who used to be from up around Bakersfield.”

At first, the teenager Stocker said ,”I got a job racking chips at a roulette wheel.  That was the game that had the most play in those days.  That and 21 which we dealt with gold coins and big pesos.”

 

As far as a teenager working in Mexican casinos, Stocker said “It wasn’t illegal, there was no regulation there at all.”

“Being down there” Stocker said he “met a lot of people around the track and those kind of places you know and ah you naturally would pick up things.  You are down there two or three months at a time, my mother was in Los Angeles.”

In addition to helping around the casinos, Stocker said they would “stake me at a card game at the hotel.  Sometimes I win thousand, two thousand.  For a 15 year old kid that’s a lot of money.”

It was now 1917, on April 16, the United States had formally joined the war in Europe.

Stocker recalled one tripe to Mexico, it was in the summer of 1917 his Hollywood friend “staked me to $500 to play in a “21” game while he went over and played Pan. “

 Images of Mexican clubs from Author’s collection.

Stocker said, playing blackjack,  “I’d bet $5, which was the minimum until I had a hand, and then I’d bet $100.  And if I lost, I’d go back to $5.  When the summer was over my cut was $6,000.  A lot of money for a 17 year old.”

When Stocker turned eighteen in March of 1918 he would soon begin his last summer working in Mexican casinos.

When he returned to school in the fall of 1918, he said he volunteered for the “Student Army Training Corp.” 

Designed for university students to be trained as Army officers, Stocker said he was able to join in September of 1918.

Shortly afterwards he said his “unit was pulled out of school for active duty in costal defense at Fort MacArthur at San Pedro.”

Weeks later on November 11, 1918 World War One officially ended.  Stocker would says years later he thought  World War One was just “nonsense.”

“I was only in” the S.A. T.C. for a short time he said, “September to December of 1918.  Then the flu bug came along and closed all the schools. I never did finish high school.  Then I came back to Las Vegas in 1919 and went to work in the railroad shops as a machinist.”

Harold said he needed the job, “I needed to eat.”

It is clear that Oscar and Mayme were already in Las Vegas.  Oscar was still working for the railroad.

With Lester either in prison or just getting out in 1919, where Clarence was is not known, but by the end of the year they were in Las Vegas selling cigars.

The U.S. Census, conducted at the end of January, 1920 shows the entire family in Las Vegas. [xxxiv]

Interesting, the federal census enumerator was James Germain who at the time also held the gaming license at the Northern.

Oscar listed his occupation as a “brakeman” with the railroad, which would be the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, also known as the “Salt Lake Route.” [xxxv]

When it came to Mayme “none” is listed under occupation. [xxxvi]   Under the 1920 Census guidelines given to Germain rule 158 says, “in the case of a woman doing housework in her own home and having no other employment the entry should be none.”

Both Clarence and Lester listed their “occupation” as “salesman” in a “cigar store.” [xxxvii]

Harold, like his father was employed at the rail yards.  He was listed as a “Machinist Helper.” [xxxviii]

Within months of the census, the Stockers would begin first as proprietors , and then as owners of the Northern Hotel and Club.

Nearly three decades after the sale, Clarence would state it was the three brothers who originally bought the place in 1920.

This would be echoed by Harold who said they re-opened the hotel and named it the Northern on September 5, 1920.

Officially, the deed on file with the Clark County Recorder puts the year of purchase as 1921 and the father as the owner.

Another element of the sale stuck in Clarence’s mind for decades. Stocker was required to purchase of all the furniture in the building for $2,500.  This brought the total cost to $14,500.  [xxxix]

This is likely the furniture Groesbeck bought new eight years earlier.

Once the Stockers were able to examine in detail all the furniture, it was “in such a deplorable condition that most of it was hauled into the desert and dumped.”[xl]

At the time the Stockers took ownership of the Northern the social and economic order in Las Vegas began to dramatically shift.

And, the Mr. and Mrs. Stockers  and their three sons were a major part of the “Roaring Twenty’s” in Las Vegas.

   Coming up in part four,  Part four The Northern becomes “A Strike Headquarters” for a massive nationwide railroad dispute  and the oldest of of “My Three Sons” gets the families first gambling license.

[i] “Deeds,” Clark County, Nevada Recorder’s office, October 21, 1921, Book Eight, Page 565.

[ii] http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/parks/Documents/centennial/commissioners/commissioner-h-stocker.pdf

[iii]  1910, Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 71, Los Angeles, California; Roll T624_81; Page; 2B; Enumeration District 😉 143;FHL, microfilm: 1374094.

[iv]  1910, Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 71, Los Angeles, California; Roll T624_81; Page; 2B; Enumeration District 😉 143;FHL, microfilm: 1374094.

[v]  1910, Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 71, Los Angeles, California; Roll T624_81; Page; 2B; Enumeration District;) 143;FHL, microfilm: 1374094.

[vi]  “Woman of the Week,” August 15, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal 7 Age, Section B, page 8.

[vii]  “Woman of the Week,” August 15, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal 7 Age, Section B, page 8.

[viii]  “Woman of the Week,” August 15, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal 7 Age, Section B, page 8.

[ix]  “Woman of the Week,” August 15, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal 7 Age, Section B, page 8.

[x]  “Woman of the Week,” August 15, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal 7 Age, Section B, page 8.

[xi]  “Great Strike Is Now On,” September 30, 1911, Las Vegas Age, Page one.

[xii] “Woman of the Week,” August 15, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal & Age, Page 8B.

[xiii] “Woman of the Week,” August 15, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal & Age, Page 8B.

[xiv]  “Commissary Closed,” April 27, 1912, Las Vegas Age, Page one.

[xv]  “Commissary Closed,” April 27, 1912, Las Vegas Age, Page one.

[xvi]  “Tap Hick’s Til,” September14, 1912, Las Vegas Age, page five.

[xvii]  “Tap Hick’s Til,” September14, 1912, Las Vegas Age, page five.

[xviii] “Incendiary,” October 29, 1810, Las Vegas Age, page four.

[xix] “Stocker, Harold.  Interview, 1971, November 30. OH-01773. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada.”

[xx] “History of Clark County Schools,” by Harvey N. Dondero, compiled and edited by Billie F. Shank, 1986, Clark County School District, Las Vegas, Nevada, page 25.

[xxi]  “Roll of Honor,” April 6, 1912, Las Vegas Age, page five.

[xxii]  “Los Angeles City Directory, Stocker, 1913, Los Angeles, California, page 1814.

[xxiii]  “Los Angles City Directory, Stocker, 1914, Los Angeles, California, page 2113.

[xxiv]  “Los Angles City Directory, Stocker, 1914, Los Angeles, California, page 2113.

[xxv]  World War Two registration card, April 26, 1942, Clarence Clifton Stocker, back of card.

[xxvi]  “Registration Card, Lester Wellington Stocker,” June 5, 1917, World War One Registration form, number 4405, pages 1 and 2.

[xxvii]  “Registration Card, Lester Wellington Stocker,” June 5, 1917, World War One Registration form, number 4405, pages 1 and 2.

[xxviii]  “Rules for Police Conduct Outlined,” April 10, 1917, Los Angeles Times, Section II, page five.

[xxix]  “Rules for Police Conduct Outlined,” April 10, 1917, Los Angeles Times, Section II, page five.

[xxx]  “Rules for Police Conduct Outlined,” April 10, 1917, Los Angeles Times, Section II, page five.

[xxxi]  “Rules for Police Conduct Outlined,” April 10, 1917, Los Angeles Times, Section II, page five.

[xxxii]  “Rules for Police Conduct Outlined,” April 10, 1917, Los Angeles Times, Section II, page five.

[xxxiii]  “Adventures in the bootleg business,” by A.D. Hopkins, January 4, 1918, Nevadan-Las Vegas Review-Journal page 26J,   The following are from the “Stocker Family Papers, ID MS-00154 at UNLV Special collections and Archives; “The Day the Strip Was Born,” by Jim Seagraves, August, 1980, Clipping from magazine,  UNLV Special Collection, Stocker Collection and Archives, “Stocker, Harold,”  A. Kepper, March 13, 1918, two page set of notes, UNLV Special Collections and Archives. Stocker Collection. “Stocker, Harold.  Interview, 1971 November 30. OH-01773. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

[xxxiv]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll: T625_1004; Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxxv]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll: T625_1004; Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxxvi]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll:T625_1004;Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxxvii]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll:T625_1004;Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxxviii]  1920, United States Federal Census, Place, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, Roll:T625_1004;Page 23A; Enumeration District:3 .

[xxxix]  “Poker, Whist, Bridge Only Games Allowed in 1st Gambling Club,” My 16, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal & Age, page 4 B.

[xl]  “Poker, Whist, Bridge Only Games Allowed in 1st Gambling Club,” My 16, 1948, Las Vegas Review-Journal & Age, page 4 B.