5043

Stagecoach King Ben Holladay Ephemera Collection [204541]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Transportation Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
Stagecoach King Ben Holladay Ephemera Collection [204541]
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[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2025 Nov 04 @ 08:00 (UTC-07:00 : PDT/MST)
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Lot of 7. 1) Holladay Overland Mail and Express Co., Special Deposit package receipt, unissued, 186_, like new. 2) Same company, Virginia City, MT, 186_ draft. Payable in Gold Dust. Unissued, like new. 3) Same company, Virginia City, Montana, 186_ draft, payable in New York. This unissued draft has detailed vignettes of a stagecoach and of two frontiersmen. Like new. 4) London & San Francisco Bank, San Francisco, 1869 check payable to Ben Holladay and signed by him. RN-B. Spindle cancel, else like new. 5) Oregon and California Railroad Co., Portland, Oregon, 1870 draft signed by Ben Holladay as president. RN-B. Light folds, else very fine. In 1862 Ben Holladay gained control of the Central Overland California & Pikes Peak Express Co. After reorganizing the name was changed to the Overland Stage Co. In February 1866 he bought out the Butterfield Overland Dispatch and consolidated the two companies into the Holladay Overland Mail and Express Co. He now controlled 2,670 miles of stage line west of the Missouri River. By 1865 passenger revenue often grossed $60,000 a month, and another $100,00 or more monthly from shipments of gold dust, bullion and other valuable cargo carried in his stages for 50c a pound. Other express companies and the US Post Office paid him almost $2,000,000 over five years. By 1866 Holladay could see future railroads replacing stage lines and he sold out to Wells Fargo. He then launched into riverboats and a rail line, acquiring the Oregon & California Rail Road Co. and nine river steamboats. Then on September 18, 1873, the New York stock marked plummeted, causing the "Panic of 1873." The Holladay empire collapsed. He was never able to make a comeback although he promoted the Holladay Addition to East Portland as well as the four-acre Holladay Park. He died in Portland, Oregon in 1887. Also included is a newspaper photo of Holladay which has crop lines around his image, and a good reproduction photo of him.
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Date: 1869-1870
Country (if not USA):
State: Oregon
City:
Provenance: Douglas McDonald Collection