VIRGINIA & TRUCKEE RAILROAD. Statement of Wood Purchased from the Rev. R.P. Manogue Month of December, 1876.
Item #5782
14"x8.5'; columnar form with docketing panel on back. July 11, 1877. The statement indicates payment for 1191 cords of wood at $6.50/cord delivered at Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Co for which a charge of $1974.50 was levied. An additional 30 cords were run through the flumes to the Carson & Tahoe yard for a charge of 142.50. Net due the seller was $3,545.65. The compelling element in the statement is the seller of the wood, Rev. R.P. Manogue who ultimately rose to become Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento. The Sacramento Diocese website informs "There are more stories told about Patrick Manogue than any other bishop or priest in California...he interrupted his college life in 1853, and came across country to a place called Moore's Flat, above Nevada City in California, where he started to dig for gold--and was successful...In four years of mining Manogue made enough money to afford an education in Paris at Sain Sulpice....Manogue was ordained a priest in Paris and came back home to California and his first assignment: Virginia City, Nevada...One of the men Manogue had mined with was John Mackay, an ordinary miner who later discovered the Comstock silver lode..." Perhaps Manogue was gifted the wood as a by-product of timber production but the quantity and dollars involved reveal what must have been a very welcome addition to the Virginia City parish treasury. Starting to separate along horizontal fold at middle, else near fine. |
