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California Pioneer Certificate CA - San Francisco,1865 - 2012aug - General Americana

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:2,000.00 USD Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
California Pioneer Certificate CA - San Francisco,1865 - 2012aug - General Americana
Invoicing and lot pick up will NOT be available at the live auction.
Issued by The Society of California Pioneers, signed by Louis Lull, secretary, and Joseph W. Winans, president, certifying that J. Henry Riley became a member of the Society on 24 June 1865. The purpose of the Society was, according to its constitution, "to cultivate the social virtues of its members, to collect and preserve information connected with the early settlement and conquest of the country, and to perpetuate the memory of those whose sagacity, enterprise, and love of independence induced them to settle in the wilderness, and become the germ of a new State." According to Patricia Keats, director of the library and archives of the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco, Riley was approved for membership in the Society on 2 February 1863. Keats had no explanation for the delay in his actually becoming a member. The document , which measures 26" x 36" and in very good condition, with some water staining on the edges, states that Riley arrived in in The Golden State 6 October 1849, only 18 months after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. According to a mortuary record entry in a Society ledger, Riley died on 17 September (no year given) in Philadelphia, at the age of 42 years. -58989