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Early Lake Mining Company Stock Certificate

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Early Lake Mining Company Stock Certificate
SOLD
325.00USD+ (78.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2016 Dec 09 @ 18:27UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
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Stock Certificate No. 21 for 60 share made out to John H. Redington (President) dated June 23rd, 1863. The Company was capitalized at $600,000; 600 shares at $1000 each and incorporated in San Francisco on April 17th, 1863. $1000 per share was a very high value for this period of time. Signatures include Horatio P. Livermore, Secretary and John H. Redington, President. Black on light blue pattern paper, by Towne & Bacon, Printers. S.F. Vignette of woman warrior entitled Eureka in upper center. A red brown 25 cent Internal Revenue stamp on left side. Fine condition. (Ref. KWHA 2-25-09-4 P300)

John H. Redington and H. P. Livermore were also officers of the Natoma Water and Mining Company, the largest owner of water rights in the county, organized in 1851. “The Natoma Water Co., at Folsom, Sacramento County, also had some sixteen hundred acres, mostly in table grapes. Livermore, the business manager, imported many of the choicest wine grapes of Spain and Portugal See “American Grape Growing and Wine Making by George Husmann 1883. p. 297. Sometimes referred to as the father of Russian Hill in San Francisco, Horatio P. Livermore, the son of industrialist, public-utility pioneer and state Sen. Horatio G. Livermore, acquired the "Livermore House" in 1889 at Florence and Jones streets and today remains one of the oldest houses of the original enclave. Horatio was also a founder of the Olympic Club back in 1860 in a downtown firehouse. [Comes with additional historical background.]

In 1888 he launched a lumber enterprise similar to the timbering plan designed years before by his father. Initially the log drives were difficult in the boulder-strewn river, and the expensive experiment was abandoned. But Horatio P. had another idea which paid off. In the late 1880's he began to see that by the time the dam was finished water power as a direct motive force for the wheels of industry would be superseded by electric power. He believed that the water of the American River could turn generators for electricity in Sacramento, 22 miles downstream, in spite of the fact that up to that time electric power had never been transmitted more than five miles. His belief was not without foundation. It was obvious (to him) that the water power developed at Folsom Dam should be used for production of electric power and that the market for that power was in Sacramento. But finding knowledgeable people who would agree that electricity could be transmitted such a distance economically was not easy. Livermore learned of the advances made by Frank J. Sprague in the development of a direct-current motor for operation of electric railways.

This gave him an idea. Folsom power could be used to operate the Sacramento street railways. Confident that a way could be found, he went ahead. To arm himself with a negotiating weapon, he personally obtained a franchise to build an electric railway system in Sacramento, regardless of the fact that the Central Electric Railway Company had been operating its cars by battery for the past year. Livermore actually built a stretch of double track on H Street. Next he wrote to Sprague, who had installed electric streetcars in Richmond, Virginia, stating his problem in detail. Sprague offered to design a workable system. Convinced then, that he was on the right course, Livermore incorporated the Sacramento Electric Power and Light Company, November 5, 1892, to build the powerhouse and construct the long-distance power line and a distribution station in the capital city. He also assigned to the new corporation the street railway franchise. Finally, the Westinghouse Company sent Engineer L. B. Stillwell to California to investigate. Armed with all the data, he returned to Pittsburgh and eventually his company submitted a plan, explaining meanwhile that the whole problem was theoretical and their suggested solution experimental.

When General Electric heard of the Westinghouse activities, it also developed a new interest in the Folsom project and sent Engineer F. O. Blackwell and Professor Louis Bell to study the problem. G. E., on the basis of its experts' reports, followed its competitor with an offer to build the Folsom system. Livermore had won his point. The new Sacramento Electric Power and Light Company was to build and operate the system, taking its water on lease from the Folsom Water Power Company. Though Horatio P. plays a major role in the story of the Folsom Powerhouse, a principal partner in Horatio's ventures was his brother, Charles E. Livermore. Though both brothers had interests in the wholesale drug business and quicksilver mining, among others, their main concern was the development of water power at Folsom. Charles was at the head of the company when the plant began operations. http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/5548.pdf
State: California City: Lake County Date: 1863 FHWAC#: 41801