Carson’s oldest native dead at 97

Thursday, Aug. 20, 1998 | 10:19 a.m.

Mighels, who briefly owned the Carson City Morning Appeal in the 1940s, was hospitalized Sunday with pneumonia.

Mighels' family was involved with the paper from the time his grandfather Henry Rust Mighels became its first editor in 1865 until Harry Mighels sold the Appeal in the early 1940s because he could not find a Linotype operator during World War II.

"I'm the only one in the family that's not a newspaper man," Mighels said in a 1996 interview.

Mighels went on to work for the Nevada Department of Transportation from 1943 until he retired in 1966 as a journeyman appraiser. During his state career, he also worked in the right-of-way department and he drove a motor grader for several winters in the 1940s and 1950s.

Not only was the Mighels family an integral part of Carson City history but Harry Mighels, until the end, was the best resource for early 20th century Carson City history, said state archivist Guy Rocha.

"I have lost an individual who has helped me so many times to point me in the right direction," said Rocha, himself one of the more fluent source of Nevada history. "When I needed to know about turn of the century Carson City, I called him. If I had a question about the red light district, he knew about it. I could ask him about early families and he knew the kids."

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; two daughters, Barbara Southey of Independence, Calif., and Mylie Herman of Grass Valley, Calif.; four grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Mighels will be cremated and there will be no memorial services, according to his wishes.