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Contract from Benjamin Parks (credited with the first gold nugget) and Freedman Benjamin Elrod

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Contract from Benjamin Parks (credited with the first gold nugget) and Freedman Benjamin Elrod
SOLD
2,500.00USD+ (625.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2018 Mar 17 @ 11:26UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This one year contract gave a man of color - a freedman - named Benjamin Elrod land to farm in payment for 80 bushels of corn. There will be no charge for wheat. Benjamin Elrod and his family will CHEERFULLY obey all reasonable requests from Parks. Parks signs this document and Elrod makes his 'x'. Approved by WA Burnside of the Freedman's Bureau. Witnessed by RA Quillain sheriff (Quillian's brother was previously assayer for the Confederate-held Dahlonega Mint) and William Abercrombie. (The 1870 and 1880 Census shows Elrod still farming in Lumpkin County and had six children altogether. He would have been 29 at the time of this contract.)

Autographed document by Benjamin Parks, January 3, 1866. Agreement between Benjamin Parks and Benjamin Elrod, “a freedman” and his family to perform work on Park’s farm in exchange for free food, lodging and medical services. Elrod was to gather 80 bushels of corn, and Parks provided land rent-free for a potato patch and wheat for a year.

Parks is credited with the discovery of gold in the Dahlonega area in 1828, based upon a story published in 1894. No historian has been able to ascertain the actual discovery date in Georgia, but it is certain that prospectors covered northern Georgia in late 1828 to 1829 in the search for gold. Auraria became the first town, which gradually gave way to Dahlonega, particularly when the US Branch Mint was awarded to a site in Dahlonega.

The Parks discovery, though, ranks to local Dahlonegans as the original discovery. The story was related to the Atlanta Constitution newspaper in 1894, and is quite a story. Parks claimed he was deer hunting one day in the hills above the Chestatee River when he kicked up a rock and found a gold nugget. The owner was reverend Obarr. Parks asked Obarr for a lease, with 25% of the gold to go to Obarr, who thought Parks was kidding. “I took into partnership a friend, in whom I had confidence. I went over to the spot with a pan, and turning over some earth, it looked like the yellow of an egg. It was more than my eyes could believe.” Obarr, however, changed his mind, as gold often does to people. He wanted his lease back, threatened Parks and even had him thrown in jail, all to no avail. When Obarr lost the battle for the gold mine, he sold the land to a man named Judge Underwood, who in turn sold it to Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Calhoun then bought Park’s lease “for a fair price”, and proceeded to mine out 24,000 pennyweights (1200 troy ounces). [ref: Cain, A.; History of Lumpkin County for the First Hundred Years, 1832-1932; 1932, pp 92-94] The mine went on to become known as the Calhoun mine. Interesting piece of African American history! (Al Adams Gold Rush Memorabilia Collection) Date: 1866 Location: Lumpkin County, Georgia HWAC# 57070