Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 321

Unsold
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(SOUTH DAKOTA.) Archive of the Krieger family in Deadwood and the Black Hills. 55 manuscript documents, various sizes, condition generally strong, including letters, tax receipts, deeds, claim certificates, and other documents relating to the family's years in Custer and Deadwood, D.T.; also 5 unidentified cased images found with the collection and presumed to be the Kriegers. Vp, 1876-83
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Additional Details

The Krieger family--father Augustus F. (1829-1884), mother Elizabeth (1833-1904) and sons Frederick A. (1856-1941) and Otto (1858-1923)--had been living in Nebraska, when they tested their luck in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1876. The first documents in this collection are a flurry of land claims by the Kriegers in and around the boom town of Custer, SD, most notably a claim certificate issued for "No 197 and 198 on French Creek for mining purposes" (the same creek where Custer had discovered gold to trigger the rush in 1874). The collection includes nine other receipts and claims for town lots, a ranch lot, and a horse in Custer dated February-April 1876. The venture was a bust, though, and the family retreated briefly to Cheyenne, WY. A friendly letter from Custer pioneer Samuel R. Shankland informed them that some of the Custer land was sold for taxes in January 1877, adding that "I will pay . . . Deadwood a visit ere long." Another Custer notable, James S. Bartholomew, signed a tax receipt for the Kriegers in March 1877.
In November 1876, the Kriegers bought two town lots in South Deadwood, just a few months after the arrival of Seth Bullock and Al Swearingen and the murder of Wild Bill Hickok. The brothers filed gold claims in the Toll Gate District the following January, and by 1879 were operating a furniture store in Deadwood, ordering large shipments from Chicago. The store did not prevent Otto from filing another gold claim on the Whitewood Lode in July 1880, represented here by a claim and a survey. The collection also includes two stock certificates issued to Frederick: in the South Deadwood Carbonate and Mining Company (August 1881) and the Philadelphia Coal Company of Deadwood (March 1883). Frederick picked up another sideline in 19 September 1881, co-signing an agreement to provide caskets and coffins to Deadwood's first undertaker, B.P. Smith. Early in 1883, the Kriegers moved on to Livingston, Montana, where they all remained except for Otto, who married and eventually settled in Los Angeles. Frederick lived until his eighties, and was likely one of the last men who could recall the glory days of Deadwood. with--20 similar documents from the Krieger family's time in Iowa and Nebraska, 1862-75.