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Mariposa Company: Early 1866 Fremont Related Stock Certificate

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
Mariposa Company: Early 1866 Fremont Related Stock Certificate
SOLD
150.00USDto 5*****r+ buyer's premium (31.50)
This item SOLD at 2016 Dec 09 @ 16:07UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
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Certificate No. 747 for 100 preferred shares made out to Stone Nichols & Stone dated May 4th, 1866. Incorporated in New York on June 25th, 1863 and signed by president, David B. XXXX and secretary, XXXXXX. Large 11 X 9 ¾ printed in red with a vignette of miners feeding ore to a stamp mill. Fremont spent six years after California statehood attempting to have his Mexican Land Grant validated under American Law. Finally, in 1856, the Supreme Court restructured and approved of his original claim. Known as the Rancho Las Mariposas Grant this included the mineral rights not previously obtained over a property area of over 70 square miles. Fremont then reclaimed the property which had been illegally claimed and developed by others. He tried to obtain financing to continue to develop the mines on the property.



However, the Civil War had started and in January 1863, Fremont, then a Major-General in the Union Army, sold Rancho Las Mariposas with its mines and infrastructure to Morris Ketchum, a New York City banker, who formed a public corporation, the Mariposa Company incorporated in 1863, and sold stock. Later that year, Frederick Law Olmsted, noted New York architect, came to Mariposa as superintendent for the Mariposa Company. Olmstead was not a mining expert however, he administered investments in stamp mills, tunnels, shafts, and the other infrastructure related to nearby mining towns. The Mariposa Company was incorporated in 1863 and by the next year had five mines and five mills operating. The richest gold quartz ore came from the Princeton Mine. (Ref. New York Times 8-3-1864) By 1865, the Mariposa Company was bankrupt, Olmsted returned to New York, and mines were sold at a sheriff's sale. The mines were restarted as The Mariposa Land & Mining Company in (Ref. Newell D. Chamberlain, 1936, The Call of Gold: True Tales on the Gold Road to Yosemite, Gazette Press, Mariposa, California and The Mariposa Estate: its past, present and future. Comprising the official report of J. Ross Browne (U.S. commissioner) upon its mineral resources, transmitted to Congress on the 5th of March, 1868). (Ref. 5-4-66 ABN VI-330 P375) State: California City: Mariposa Date: 1866 FHWAC#: 41815