1031

CA,Sacramento-,Sacramento City Gold Receipt

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Documents Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 USD and UP
CA,Sacramento-,Sacramento City Gold Receipt
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Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite#309
Reno, NV 89511
Thursday August22, 10am-6pm
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Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite #309
Reno, NV 89511
Sunday August 25, 10am-1pm

1850-July 17,1850 Sacramento city partly printed blue paper, 3.75 x 5.5" manuscript filled in receipt for $1500 in gold deposited with Barton Lee, Banker.
Lee was a California pioneer, Sacramento`s first treasurer and is buried in the Sacramento City Cemetary. Born in New York in 1813, he moved to Iowa, Missouri, and the Oregon Territory before settling into business in Sacramento City in 1846. As one of the members of the firm of Priest, Lee & Co., he conducted business at Sutter`s Fort. When the city was laid out, the business moved to the corner of Second and J streets. The name changed to Lee & Cornwall and in its hey-day of prosperity, he bought out his partner. Financial tumult in 1850 caused the business to fail, and having lost all his property, he retired to the Sandwich Islands. On his return several years later, he reestablished himself in business in Sacramento and passed away in 1856.

On August 29, 1850, A. Steck wrote to his friends Cole and Cady in Watertown Wisconsin about the financial turmoil:
"Several bankers here have broken in a single fortnight, and others will break like pipe stems before another has gone by. Barton Lee, an Oregon emigrant, who settled here in May 1849, began trade with less than $500 capital, was actually worth, nine months ago, half a million dollars. No man here doubts it--he has often made 25 cents per foot on lumber, and the cash in three days. He has failed. The reason of this failure unquestionably was, a mistaken notion of the yield of the mines; the deposits in his hands were not equal to his expectations: the prices of real estate, lumber, goods &c. Had greatly depreciated, the enormous sums expended in the erection of buildings, the rents of which had fallen, all contributed to crush the man. Had he sat still and sold every alternate lot in this city which he owned, and improved the remainder, he would now be worth more than a million; but like most men suddenly rising into notoriety and importance by the accident of wealth, he could not take care of it. " {Watertown Chronicle, October 16, 1850} HKA#64263