Maria Virginia Slade was likely the first tenant of this modest dwelling owned by pioneer merchant/miner F. R. Merk. On March 19, 1864, Vigilantes hanged Jack Slade, swiftly carrying out the controversial sentence because they feared that the beautiful, persuasive Mrs. Slade would arrive and change their minds. Mrs. Slade thundered into town on her black thoroughbred a few minutes too late. Local legend has it that she kept her husband’s body here in a zinc-lined coffin filled with whiskey. After spring thaw she took him to Salt Lake City for burial. In the house a year later on March 23, 1865, Mrs. Slade married her husband’s friend, Jim Kiskadden. The couple moved to Salt Lake City and divorced in 1868. By the 1890s, the Bartlett family owned this property, and it later served as parsonage for the Methodist Church (1902-1936). The original beveled siding and gable roof are typical of Virginia City’s first frame dwellings.
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