One of the most vivid windows into life in Fallon, Nevada, comes from the images and people captured by the photography of Rolly Ross Ham.

Ham, photographed the small Nevada community in its formative years, between 1907 and about 1920. He More than seven hundred 5” x 7” glass plate negatives of his work survive today in historic collections and archives.

Rolly Ross Ham was born in Reno on October 27, 1881. In September 1901, he married Ida M. Harley. In 1908, having been employed in the hardware business in Reno, he moved his family, which then included a daughter Thelma Ruth, born in 1903, to Fallon to take a position in the hardware department of the I.H. Kent Company store.

Later with Fred Strassburg, Sr., he opened his own hardware business, Fallon Hardware. His son, Rolly, Jr., was born in 1914. Regarded as “a natural mechanic,” Ham eventually left the hardware store to open a repair shop.

He was prolific in his hobby of photography, taking photos of parades and special events, family gatherings, local Paiutes, portraits of neighbors, the infamous downtown fire of 1910, and construction of Lahontan Dam.

The year of 1918, the year of the influenza epidemic, was devastating for the Ham family. In January, 4-year-old Rolly, Jr. died, and in November, 15-year-old Thelma Ruth passed away. After the deaths of his children, Rolly continued to work in his shop but seemed to lose his passion for photography. He took few photographs after the deaths of his children. He passed away suddenly, of a heart attack, on March 12, 1927, at the age of 45 and is buried with his children at Mountain View Cemetery in Reno.