Reuel Colt Gridley “Citizen Extraordinaire”
Lander County, Lander County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Reuel Colt Gridley “Citizen Extraordinaire”. This simple stone structure, opened to the public in late 1863, was originally operated as a general merchandise store by the firm of Gridley, Hobart, and Jacobs. Gridley is best remembered for his 1864 wager that prompted the auctioning of a sack of flour for donations to the “Sanitary Fund,” the Civil War forerunner of the American Red Cross. The flour was sold again and again throughout Nevada and California, then taken east and eventually auctioned at the St. Louis Sanitary Fair in 1864. In all, it raised about $275,000 for the fund. Gridley died almost penniless six years later.
Erected by Lander County Civic & Historic Society
The Story
This modest stone store, opened in 1863, became the launching point for one of the Civil War's most remarkable fundraising stunts. Merchant Reuel Colt Gridley lost an 1864 election wager and, honoring it, auctioned a sack of flour for the Sanitary Fund—the wartime forerunner of the American Red Cross. Resold again and again across Nevada, California, and finally at the St. Louis Sanitary Fair, the single sack raised roughly $275,000 for wounded Union soldiers, even as Gridley himself died nearly penniless six years later.
Why it matters
Gridley's flour sack shows how even remote mining towns far from the battle lines threw themselves into the Union war effort, funding soldier relief through frontier ingenuity and civic generosity.
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Related people
- · Reuel Colt Gridley
Related events
- · Sanitary Fund flour sack auction
- · St. Louis Sanitary Fair, 1864
Themes & tags
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