(WEST DAKOTA TERRITORY) Stockholder signature lists for the

Sale 2646 - Lot 287

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Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

(WEST--DAKOTA TERRITORY.) Stockholder signature lists for the Black Hills Placer Mining Company--managed by Ambrose Bierce. 116 partially-printed pages with 183 signatures, approximately legal size, bound with ribbon in top margin; curling from old folds, minimal wear. Pennington County, SD, October-November 1880

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The Black Hills Placer Mining Company was founded in 1879 with claims near Rockerville, SD. The well-known author Ambrose G. Bierce served as the company's general agent, taking a short break from his writing career. As explained in these documents, the founding contractor Ichabod M. West soon suffered a financial failure, which forced the company to restructure. Bierce resigned his position in the company that month. Each stockholder signed a consent form. This packet begins with a 7-page list of 183 stockholders. The bulk consists of 109 stock subscription lists, each with the company's preamble and restructuring resolution, and each completed with the signatures of one or more stockholders plus witnesses.

Among the notable stockholders who signed here is Union Civil War general Alexander Shaler, who was the company's president and leading stockholder, and signed many of these certificates as witness. The cartoonist Thomas Nast signed for his 400 shares on 8 October. Two other notable stockholders were industrialist Cornelius J. Vanderbilt, who owned 4,000 shares; and Bierce, who owned 5,000 shares. They both offered permission by the signatures of their attorneys, on the same sheet. See Fatout, "Ambrose Bierce and the Black Hills" (1956).