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Virginia City,NV - Storey County - 1867-1874 - Yerington Personal Bank Checks :

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Banks, Registers & Vending Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 300.00 USD
Virginia City,NV - Storey County - 1867-1874 - Yerington Personal Bank Checks :
Collection of four checks, one business check, and three personal. The first check, drawn on Wells, Fargo and Co. in Carson City on Sept. 10th 1867 payable to H. F. Rice for $263.00, is signed by a Yerington and Kidder agent. John Flint Kidder was a member of the Nevada Territorial Legislature in 1861. He was a surveyor for the Lake Bigler boundary to Honey Lake. In 1862, he surveyed Esmeralda County. After that he went to California for four years and was a surveyor for the Houghton-Ives Commission in 1863 that set the demarcation line between Nevada and California. In 1867 and 1868, Kidder had residences in both Sacramento and Nevada. Kidder eventually became a building engineer for the Oregon and California Railroad, of which Yerington had some involvement. Yerington was the Superintendent of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. The partnership of Kidder and Yerington is heretofore unknown but the check proves there was some sort of relationship.

Author Michelle Frazier recounts her grandfather’s fireside stories of early Nevada. One of them was about Henry F. Rice. She writes “Rice was originally an insurance salesman before becoming the first Wells Fargo agent appointed in the Nevada Territory. [He also was on the Ormsby County Commission in 1861, again in 1864, 1866, and in 1868.]He was quite intelligent and was later described by his quite literate niece Amilla as ‘….both nefarious and notorious and in [possession of a larcenous elixir in his spirit…’ At any rate, he replaced Abraham Curry as the Carson City Mint's Superintendent in the autumn of 1870 after Mr. Curry resigned that position to run for Lieutenant Governor of the State of Nevada. Curry had been under fire from day one in his position as the Mint's first Superintendent and some say his political aspirations were the only reason he ever took the job in the first place. Serving only from January, 1870 to September, 1870, Curry left the job in haste with some assurances from well-connected political friends that he would be a mortal lock to win the Lieutenant Governor's job. That assurance would prove to be misdirected as he lost that bid. . . .

Mr. Rice was an original member of the commission appointed by the Treasury Secretary to oversee the building of the Mint in December, 1865. When Abraham Curry stepped down, Rice was a natural choice to succeed him. . . . Rice continued to run the Carson City Mint until May of 1873 when he was forced to resign amid a scandal that some Carson City gold coins were debased and lightweight” [http://www.pcgs.com/articles/article_view.chtml?artid=2767&type=1&universeid=313]. The check has a cancel stamp saying “Paid Through.”

The second check, with buff RNG imprinted revenue stamp, number 50, is drawn on Yerington’s personal account and is personally signed. It is drawn on the Agency of the Bank of California, payable to Wm. B. Hickok in the amount of $38.25 on August 13, 1874 in Virginia Nev. Hickok was an eastern mining engineer according Fred Holabird. Hickok’s signature is on the back of the check. This Hickok is not to be confused with the famous “Wild Bill Hickok” although they are contemporaries.

The third check, with buff RNG imprinted revenue stamp, is number 55, drawn on the Agency of The Bank of California, Virginia, Nev. and personally signed by Yerington on Aug. 22, 1874. The check is made out to G. W. Chedic, an early Carson City merchant and an early settler in the Genoa area when Nevada was part of Utah Territory, in the amount of $75.00. Geo. W. Chedic signed the check on the back.

The fourth check, with buff RNG imprinted revenue stamp, is number 80, drawn on the Agency of The Bank of California in Virginia, Nev. It is made out to Thos. Taylor and Co. for the amount of $52.00 on September 25, 1874 and signed by Yerington. Thos. Taylor Co. signed the check on the back.