I picked this up off of
ebay. It ties in with my Humboldt County cover collection and my interest in Railroads/Logging. The check is a Bank of Arcata check from Sept 15, 1900. Written to Times Publishing Co. from the Arcata & Mad River Railroad Co.
Information about the Times Publishing Company (From company webpage)
"Times Printing has a long and rich history in Humboldt County. A fourth generation, family owned and operated business, the company has enjoyed serving the region since 1854.
Before being renamed Times Printing in 1939, the company was known as the Times Publishing Company. Originally the print shop for the area's first newspaper, the Humboldt Times, Times Publishing Company printed the newspaper and other jobs such as books, business cards and letterhead."
History of the Arcata & Mad River Railroad Company (From Wikipedia)
"Union Wharf companies
On December 15, 1854 the Union Wharf and Plank Walk Company[1] built a pier into Humboldt Bay near Arcata to load lumber schooners. The wooden rails overlain with strap iron laid on that walkway were built to an unusual narrow gauge of 3 ft 9 1#8260;2 in (1,156 mm) apart. A year later, 2 miles (3.2 km) of track had been laid leading up to the wharf. A horse drew the cars across the narrow gauge rail tracks.
This line was the oldest working railroad in California because while the Sacramento Valley Railroad filed papers of incorporation in 1853, they did not begin construction until 1855, after this line was operational. In 1875, the railroad was renamed the Union Plank Walk and Railroad Company. The wooden rails were faced with iron and a small steam locomotive, named the Black Diamond towed lumber out onto the pier from the 1872 Dolly Varden mill owned by Isaac Minor.
Arcata Transportation Company
Twenty-three years later, on June 15, 1878, the railroad was reorganized as the Arcata Transportation Company. The old side-wheel steamer, the Gussie McAlpine was replaced by a sternwheeler, named the Alta and the company kept adding track to local mills. In 1881 the Arcata and Mad River Railroad assumed control of the old line. Over the next two years, they replaced strap iron rail with 35-pound-per-yard (17.4 kg/m) T-rail and extended the rails further upstream on the Mad River until they reached the town of North Fork now Korbel and the Humboldt Lumber Mill owned by the Korbel brothers. Due to the initials of the line, it was nicknamed the "Annie and Mary."
Arcata and Mad River Railroad Company
In 1883, the Korbel family bought the line which had about 27 miles (43 km) of track split between common carrier lines and private logging track. The Korbels organized the company on December 29, 1891 as the Arcata and Mad River Railroad Company. In the late 1880s, the A&MR line carried lumber for the (Isaac) Minor Mill and Lumber Company of Glendale. In 1890, the A&MR engines included Arcata, North Fork, Eureka and Blue Lake as well as a small engine named Gypsy; by the early 1900s, a new Baldwin 1901 engine named the Hoopa was added.
In 1896 the line carried 24,752 passengers and 6,475 tons of freight from four saw mills and two shingle mills. Passenger revenue on the line was about 28 percent of freight revenue.
In March 1896 an E&ERRR construction train failed to stop and collided with a passenger train. The first known Humboldt County railroad accident with injuries occurred on September 13, 1896 when seven people were killed and 23 injured by a train falling through the Mad River truss bridge. Lawsuits relating to the fatal accident were filed against the Korbels but were unsuccessful.
Construction of the California and Northern Rail line between Arcata and Eureka in 1901 put the Alta out of business. Two years later the Humboldt Lumber Mill and the A&MR were bought by the Riverside Lumber Company and the Charles Nelson Steamship Company who reinforced the wharf for use by any locomotive instead of just the lightweight engine formerly used."
Ron
Posted 06/27/2017 10:10 am
