Hamton CA Gold Rush Town?

"Ah, a thread in which the original poster asks a question or proposes a thesis, and then pushes back against or rejects every alternative or contrary suggestion that is given, regardless of its plausibility or the value of the information that is contained and the interest which other members have shown. A true classic of this forum"

Because most can be dismissed out-of-hand as Impractical. The Postmaster Ham(p)ton is by far the Best Guess
"sometimes, a Cigar is just a cigar"

But, I'll bite: does anyone have a Postmark from Hamilton during this time, with Robt. Davis as Postmaster? Even a sample of his handwriting would suffice

This cover would be a good candidate for UV light examination.
Its not clear that there aren't other possible remnants of markings on the stamp. May or may not be, but would require careful in person examination.
All of that combined with the obvious issues with the cover at UL - something went on there - soaking, or other.

It may very well be exactly what it seems to be, but it does need a close look.

From research I was able to find documentation that 1861 to 1865 there was a Hamilton Cal post office. The PM around a at least 1863 / 1865 was Jas Wagstaff. The info I have only covered the civil war years.

in my 1857 Post Office Guide I have it listed, Butte Cty, with Robert Davis as PM

I have some nice UV Light sources, and nothing glows; the cover's UL is dog-eared, that's all

fwiw: I bought it from a Euro cover dealer who had no idea about the ms and didn't care. "The stamp is very very nice" is all he wanted me to know

There is a Butte Valley with PM Peter C Mann same time frame, Civil War, can not find a Butte City.

Butte County

I'm looking for anything Hamilton CA postmarked mid-1850s, or anything written by the PM there at that that time

tell you what: if it's proven that the ms is Hamilton, I'll donate it to The State of California Library Dep't., Historical division under the Good Name of Mr. Becker as its discoverer, and he can enjoy the adulation of the California crowd (which is pretty good, I'm guessing). No hard feelings.

I did nothing to discover anything. It may be impossible to prove what it IS, but simple to prove what it ISN'T. It is usually a simple matter of starting with solid historical research in actual postal archives and published lists, then supported by non-postal records if necessary. Nothing more than "What post offices were open in the mid 1850s?" and "Which has the closest logical match?"

yeah, there's that... and I'll show you a ms RI fl that everyone says doesn't exist

There are three towns named Butte City in California. The one in Amador county opened Oct 12 1857 and closed Dec 1 1858 so it is the right era.
The 2nd Butte City was in Colusa County, opening May 28 1873 and was transferred to Glenn County in a boundary change Mar 10 1891. thus becoming the third Butte City. It is still open.

not Butte CITY
Butte County
'cty' is an old conjunction for County
funny how conjunctions, if unrecognized, can baffle people

https://d2jf3tgwe889fp.cloudfront.n...862-323p.pdf

Not sure if this link will work, I hope it will. These are all post offices in 1862.it may be helpful.


<<Edit: Link fixed by KirkS>>

Sorry can't get it set up correctly on my tablet. The link would take you to a download of a pdf file.

You could Google 1862 list us post offices