Robert Elonso Lake was born in Illinois, November 9. 1857. He married Mary Ellen Osborn in Missouri in 1885. Six years later they moved westward to Ontario, California. But in 1904, a physician there advised Mr. Lake to move his family to a warm, dry climate since Mary Lake and their daughter, Alice, were possibly consumptive.

Robert Lake was then forty-seven years old, the father of nine children. With two sons he traveled to Las Vegas, in warm Nevada desert country. There were no houses in what was then just a railroad grading center, the population was less than 100 people. Inhabitants occupied tents along the creek, near the Old Ranch Site (Lorenzi Park). There Mr. Lake set up his barber shop with a barrel for a barber chair.

Later in 1904, the Lake family was reunited. Mary Ellen Lake and the children came by Santa Fe Railroad to Ivanpah, California, the closet station to Las Vegas. From there Robert Lake brought them by spring wagon through Goodsprings to their home. The cooling system consisted of two tent vents in order to take advantage of any breeze.

That same year the railroad offered city lots at auction. Robert E. Lake purchased two of them, one lot at Third Street was for his home, one lot at Second and Main was for the school. He was the first president of the school board, and he served many years a a trustee.

An early improvement to the school was a wooden floor for the tent. Alice Lake Rockwell would remember many years later that she learned to be careful because a dropped pencil could easily roll through a crack in the floor.

A daughter, Emily, was born in Las Vegas. At 92 in 1997, she was living in Santa Barbara, California.

Mrs. Lake found time in her busy schedule to be active in the establishment and support of her church, in the Welcome Ladies, as well as other civic groups, and she later assisted in the birth of many an early Las Vegan.

The Lake Children would prove to play a major role in the development of the city. They were among those in the first graduating classes from the school at Second and Main, Las Vegas High School, the first volunteer fire department, the first lawmen, teachers, and they were involved in many cultural groups.

Robert E. Lakes decision to make a move to the Nevada desert was a good one for the Lake family. May Ellen Lake died in 1968 at the age of 98. Daughter Alice Lake Rockwell live to celebrate her 102nd birthday. It was a good decision for the city of Las Vegas and the school system. He was a man of foresight and responsibility, the cornerstone of the Clark County School District.

by Ann Thalken (Former Robert E. Lake Elementary School librarian)