the management and ownership of V. A. Ballou, now editor of The Watchman, but in 1870 the full-blooded Republicans captured it again through a new editor, W. H. Gallup, who gave it the name the Nevada Representative. Its first issue was made May 5, 1870, as Vol. XIII, No. 46. Its form and part of its name were changed for a time early in the seventies. Prof. W. P. Payne secured it and, on September 6, 1882, assumed control, with his wife, Mrs. A. M. Payne, as an accomplished associate editress. The firm has been Payne & Son since August, 1883, and under this management the clean, reliable pages of The Representative have achieved a leading place. Their foreman, J. T. Stone, has had continuous charge for twenty-three years. For a time in 1887-88 it issued a real-estate monthly, and is now publishing a weekly of the same nature for Smith & Son.
The next paper was a short-lived one, published for a time during 1862 by Potter, Frazier & Hawthorn, under the title, the Nevada Democrat. Its name indicates its policy, and its chief editor was Mr. E. B. Potter, now of Denver, Colo.
It was on November 3, 1874, when Vol. I, No. 9, of the third Nevada journal was issued, bearing the name Story County Watchman, and holding Anti-Monopoly and "Greenback" principles. It was established by Vaughn & Stoddard, but passed through several hands during the next six years, among whom were J. A. Fitchpatrick and R. H. Rodearmel. It was purchased in 1880 by Mr. V. A. Balton, who assumed control on April 2, and after a few issues of an independent nature, it boldly took its stand for Democracy and has since continued the only editorial champion of that party in Story County. Since 1880 its form has been that of an eight-page seven-column weekly.
The Highway began its career in 1875 as a twenty-four page monthly magazine devoted to Christian holiness, and purposing to be undenominational and evangelical. In January, 1879, it became a weekly, and about 1886 assumed its present eight-page form. Its circulation has spread through the Northwest, where it has become the successful organ of this class. From its office are issued Gospel Arrows, a semi-monthly tract, established in March, 1888, and Apples of Gold, a booklet quarterly for daily Bible reading and commentary. The Sunday-school Reporter, a two-column sixteen-page monthly, edited by E. J. G. Reid, is also printed by them, besides a large amount of pamphlets, tracts, etc., the number of tracts in 1889 reaching over a million and a half. They have steam-power press and stereotyping foundry in well-equipped rooms on the first floor of the Odd Fellows' Block. Their mailing list is such that the post-office department furnishes them with from fifteen to twenty extra mail sacks. The editor and proprietor is Rev. Isaiah Reid, formerly a Presbyterian pastor at Nevada.
The Nevada Opera House was completed in December, 1877, at a cost of $9,000. It was erected by a company with S. Balliett, president, but afterward fell into the hands of Otis Briggs, and finally sold to foreign parties. It has two stories, is of brick, and is 50x96 feet. The assembly hall is well arranged and decorated.
Fraternities and other social organizations had their beginning in Nevada Lodge No. 99, F. & A. M., the first-born of Story County lodges, organized January 15, 1857, with these charter members: John Scott, W. M. ; E. Schoonover, S. W. ; T. B. Kelly, J. W. ; James Hawthorn, Treas.; W. H. Richardson, Sec. ; Charles Schoonover, S. D.; Henry F. Murphy, J. D.; William McGuire Tyler; B. J. Dunning, T. J. Adamson, John A. Miller, William E. Aldridge and Ephraim Bowen.