2580

Bodie & Benton Railway and Commercial Company Bond, 1886

Currency:USD Category:Western Americana / Collectibles - Railroad Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Bodie & Benton Railway and Commercial Company Bond, 1886
SOLD
425.00USDto 6******n+ buyer's premium (85.00)
This item SOLD at 2016 Dec 10 @ 17:16UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
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Series B, bond no. 191 issued for $1000 in gold coin.  The vignette is of a train hauling lumber through the wooded mountains. There are felled trees all around a lumberjack's cabin. Excellent condition. The Bodie and Benton Railway Company formed in 1882 out of the Bodie Railway & Lumber Company, which had formed in 1881 to build a railroad for the purpose of getting wood to Bodie. The company principals were brothers Seth and Daniel Cook, R. N. Graves, and H. M. Yerington, who ran the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.  This railroad is the only small gauge railroad in California that does not hook up to any other railway in the state. Its southern terminus was at Mono Mills and was never completed as envisioned to Benton.  They hired Thomas Holt to supervise the construction.  He hired many Chinese laborers, as they were familiar with building rail lines in the U. S., but Holt ended up having severe labor problems because of hiring the Chinese workers.  People in the mid 1800s were very xenophobic about  Chinese laborers.  The U. S. government had just enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 to stem the tide of immigration from China, but the hostility towards the group did not subside. In 1893 the company reverted to its former name [Ref:  Myrick, David F., The Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California, 1992].  This bond is signed by H. M. Yerington as President, but the Secretary's name is illegible.  There are punched holes through the signature lines, at the top and through the coupons. State: California City: Bodie Date: FHWAC#: 37506