ungraded, in vg condition
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"ALPHEUS BULL endorsed check. California Trust Company. Signed by BB Minot to Alpheus Bull. $100.00 in SILVER. Orange two cent Washington stamp. In March of 1849, Alpheus Bull joined the Lafayette, California. Mercantile Mining Company which was organized for an overland trip to California. The Gold Rush was well under way and although Alpheus Bull was not convinced of the abundance of gold in California, he anticipated using his ministerial calling during an exciting trip. The party left Lafayette, Indiana and traveled through Mexico to Mazatlan and by ship to San Francisco, arriving in late July of 1849. Alpheus and several others were successful prospecting at Nigger Hill. Within the year Alpheus Bull, George Baker, and William Robbins decided to become merchants of mining supplies. Baker went to San Francisco to purchase supplies and ship them by riverboat to Red Bluff. Bull established a business in Red Bluff to receive this merchandise, sell it to miners there or send it by wagon to Shasta, where Robins maintained their other store. Alpheus Bull and several others also owned the Shasta, the first steam vessel built in the state of California. Eventually the firm supplied mining camps from the Sacramento River east to the Sierra foothills as well as to the northern mines. By 1854, they were acting as a bank for local miners. The firm's other ventures included the first flour mill in Northern California, livestock, building materials. mining equipment and even a bakery at the Red Bluff Store."