[Illustration: Riverside Hotel, Nevada]
The subject of this sketch went to school in Virginia City and later attended the Golden Gate Academy in Oakland, California. Like other young men, he followed various vocations and in 1896 he purchased the Riverside Hotel, which he has successfully conducted ever since. Under his management the hotel has continued to be the leading hotel in the city, and in 1901 the present large brick structure was erected.
In 1888 Mr. Gosse was united in marriage with Miss Josephine M. Mudd, a native of California. In politics Mr. Gosse is a Republican. He is a member of the Improved Order of Red Men, and has filled all the chairs in the local Tribe and is Past Grand Sachem of the State of Nevada. He is also a Mason, being a member of the lodge chapter, commandery and the shrine. He is an active member of the B.P.O.E. No. 597, of Reno, and was instrumental in organizing the Lodge. In recognition of his services, he has been made an honorary life member and is a member of the Grand Lodge of the United States.
Mr. Gosse's only son was among the first to answer his country's call when the United States entered into the World War in 1917; he died in his country's service a few months later….
No pictures of the picturesque West would be complete which did not depict in the foreground the fine, handsome figure of Nevada's erstwhile "Sentinel in Chief": former State Police Superintendent, Captain J. P. Donnelley.
The Captain and his wife were among the very first friends I made when I arrived in Reno. Since then we have become more and more intimate, and my admiration and appreciation of them both grow keener, if such is possible, the longer I know them.
Almost as interesting as the history of Nevada itself is the excited checkered career of this man, who at an early date left his native State of California where he had risen from the ranks of private to Adjutant of the 10th Battalion Infantry Guards and had sought in preference the dangers and hardships of rugged Nevada. Here he became deputy sheriff and chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Esmeralda County, to succeed Captain Cox as Superintendent of the State Police in 1911.
In the same year there was a spurt of unusual liveliness from the Indian quarter. Several white men were killed, and it was Captain Donnelley who was selected to head one of the posses and risk the brunt of the battle. The Captain's scrapbook, which he was kind enough to let me look over, revealed many an interesting incident, and one would never think when talking to him that this genial, humorous, kind faced man was every inch a soldier and a hero. The combination strikes me as wonderfully illustrative of what real culture and civilization can do for a man. He fights, not for the love of fighting, from a savage hankering after blood, but because it is for the good of humanity in general that he should fight, and therefore that he does well.
A large reward had been offered for the capture of those Indian desperadoes and of the several posses that had been sent out Captain Donnelley and his brave band were the only "lucky devils," and escaped with their scalps.
In appreciation of his fine work the citizens passed a resolution to send the following letter to the Captain: