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Andrew Jackson Hatch... continued from previous page
over the Truckee River. In 1888, four years after Myron
Lake’s death, his son-in-law took over the Lake House,
renaming it the Riverside Hotel. Hatch’s survey office was
advertised as “Virginia Street south of the river, across
from the Lake House”.
In 1872, Hatch purchased the 149-acre Marysville Ranch
from Rueben Hill, “…lying East of and adjacent to the farm
of M. C. Lake and on the road leading from Huffaker’s to
Reno” (now South Virginia Street and adjacent to Myron
Lake’s ranch). Mr. Small, the ranch foreman, oversaw the
property. Years later, it was purchased by Isaac Newton
Bakeless.

Hatch was very active in the Reno real estate market,
purchasing a great deal of land. He owned thirty-four
acres on the east side of Virginia Street and south of the
river, where his hired hands raised alfalfa. He also owned
land south of California Avenue and west to present-day
Hatch’s advertisement in the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper, 1871
Arlington Avenue. This property is known as the Hatch
Addition, adjacent to Lake’s Addition. He and Myron Lake went in on a joint venture for the Hatch and Lake Irrigation Ditch, which
was completed in 1865. At one point, Andrew also owned and operated the Reno Tannery. In 1869, he purchased another parcel
and in 1870 built a house on it. The house still stands on Marsh Avenue, in Reno.

In 1875, Andrew married the former Mrs.
Helen Thorp. She was the widow of State
Senator Simeon M. Thorp of Lawrence,
Kansas. Thorp was murdered, together with
one hundred and fifty unarmed men and boys,
during the infamous 1863 raid on the town by
Confederate guerrilla William Quantrill and his
irregular cavalry. The marriage also included
Helen’s eight-year-old daughter Gertrude.

In 1872, Hatch was again elected County
Surveyor for Washoe County, a position he
held again in 1876. About that time, he also
became a U.S. Mineral Surveyor. His listing in
the Reno City Directory reads: “Hatch, Andrew
J., county surveyor, U.S. mineral deputy, and
secretary Farmer’s Co-operative Association,
res. South Virginia, opp. Court House”.

In 1874, Hatch ran for Lieutenant Governor,
but was soundly defeated. Never the less, he
remained active in Republican politics the rest
of his life. He also had a genuine interest in
agriculture and that same year, he was named
Worthy Master of the Alfalfa Grange #1, in
Reno. Later he organized Grange #246, in
Sierra Valley, north of Reno.

Interested too in education from his days as a
teacher in Tuolumne, Hatch sat on the Nevada
State Board of Education. He was also on the
siting committee for a new parochial school
for girl’s school in Reno. The committee
unanimously choose a site on a small hill at
the edge of town. Bishop Whitaker’s School for
Girls was constructed and opened in October
of 1876. Hatch was one of two hundred
subscribers who contributed over $100 to
the school and was a prominent member of
Bishop Whitaker’s Episcopal congregation.
Hatch’s 1867 map of the Peavine Copper Mines

8 The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.1, 2023