Mark Hopkins signed 1875 Central Pacific land deed. Partly-printed DS, signed by Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker (signed “Cha. Crocker”), one page both sides, 8.5 x 13.75, August 31, 1875. Central Pacific Railroad Company land sale deed transferring CPRR land to Jasper M. Bell. In part: “The said Railroad Company has sold the lands hereinafter described, pursuant to the foregoing conditions, to Jasper M. Bell for the sum of One hundred and seventy one 40/100 ($171.40) Dollars, which sum has been by him fully paid to the said Mark Hopkins and Silas W. Sanderson, Trustees as aforesaid.” An adjacent page bears a State of California notary public signature and stamp with deed docketing on the reverse. In very good condition with areas of separation along the vertical hinge, wrinkling, scattered toning and soiling, and mirroring of a gold foil seal under Hopkin’s signature.
The Central Pacific Railroad was authorized by Congress in 1862 and financed by four Sacramento, California businessmen Leland Stanford and Collis Huntington, as well as Hopkins and Crocker, who was in charge of construction. Thus is was Crocker who was ultimately responsible for overseeing the western labor teams—groups of men primarily made up of Chinese emigrant workers. Meanwhile, Hopkins—the eldest of the four partners with a reputation for frugality—served as company treasurer...keeping watch over business dealings such as the one represented here. Every project of the ‘Big Four’—as the founders of the Western half of the first Transcontinental Railroad were known—required Hopkins' approval and could not proceed without it. Hopkins' autograph is the rarest of the ‘Big Four’ and among the scarcest of all American signers. RRAuction COA.
