FIRST -- Governor of the Provincial Territory of Nevada - Isaac N. Roop - Susanville, CA
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member NW_history_buff
N 40° 25.120 W 120° 39.416
10T E 698785 N 4476863
This commemorative and citizen memorial plaque is located in front of the historic Roop's Fort on the Lassen Historical Museum property.
Waymark Code: WMNRZJ
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/27/2015
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Zork V
Views: 1

Located in front of the historic Roop's Fort is a boulder with a plaque monumented in front that reads:

COMMEMORATING THE CENTENNIAL
OF LASSEN LODGE NO. 149, F.&A.M.,
MARCH 21, 1961. AND IN MEMORY
OF ISAAC N. ROOP, ARDENT FREE-
MASON, FOUNDER OF SUSANVILLE,
FIRST GOVERNOR OF THE PROVI-
SIONAL TERRITORY OF NEVADA, CIVIC
LEADER AND FRIEND OF MAN, AND
JOHN S. WARD, FIRST MASTER OF LASSEN
LODGE, WHO WAS WOUNDED IN THIS
PLACE DURING THE "SAGEBRUSH WAR."
THIS PLAQUE IS DEDICATED BY THE GRAND LODGE F.&A.M. OF CALIFORNIA
MAY 6, 1961

John S. Ward is also noted on this plaque as the FIRST Master Mason of the Lassen Masonic Lodge.

Wikipedia has a nice writeup on Isaac Roop's life and reads:

Isaac Newton Roop (March 13, 1822 – February 14, 1869) was a United States politician, pioneer, and a lifelong member of the Whig party. In 1859, he was the first elected (provisional) governor of the newly proposed Nevada Territory.

Biography
Roop was born in Carroll County, Maryland.[1] He married his tutor, Nancy Gardner, on December 24, 1840. He was devastated by her loss ten years later when she died of typhoid fever on June 20, 1850, and became widowed with two sons, John and Isaiah, as well as a daughter Susan. Possibly motivated by grief or desperation, he pulled up stakes for California that same year and tried to rebuild his life.

Career
In 1851 William Nobles (guide) started taking settlers over a route through the Sierra Nevada passing through the Honey Lake valley; included among these settlers were the 29-year-old Isaac Roop and his family. His first three years in California were spent in Shasta County, in farming and trading. During this period he also held the positions of Postmaster and School Commissioner. He had accumulated in that time upwards of fifteen thousand dollars' worth of property, but in June 1853, lost it all by fire. It was then that Roop retreated to the Sierra Nevada and to Honey Lake, where he concentrated on his own backcountry holdings and nearly single-handedly erected the burg of Rooptown which he would later name for his daughter Susan.

In September 1859, Roop was elected the first territorial governor of the proposed Nevada Territory. At the time, Susanville was thought to be in Nevada instead of California. The new provisional government first convened on December 15, 1859, in the town of Genoa. Roop lived in the contested County of Roop. He was elected in 1861 to the new Nevada Territorial Senate. After the county's dissolution in 1865, Roop returned to Susanville, California. There, he became Lassen County's district attorney for two terms and stayed in the town that he had built and loved until his death in 1869.

Death and legacy
Roop died in his residence in Susanville on February 14, 1869. His daughter Susan Arnold resided in the town as well until her own death in 1921, and both were buried in the town's cemetery. There is a mural depicting father and daughter in downtown Susanville.

Roop County, Nevada was named for him.

FindaGrave.com also has a nice page dedicated to him and there is a nice memorial at his grave in Lassen Cemetery.

FortWiki.com has a good page devoted to Roop's Fort. In addition there is a really good writeup on the Sagebrush War mentioned on the plaque here. The narrative mentions John S. Ward as firing the first shot that started the Sagebrush War.

FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group

Date of FIRST: 09/01/1859

More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

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