Two separate Quarto leaves ca. 27,5x20,5 cm (10 ¾ x 8 in). 2 pp. Brown ink on wove paper with the printed letterhead of “Southern Pacific Company, Executive Department, Cor. Fourth and Townsend Streets.” With the original envelope ca. 10,5x24 cm (4 ¼ x 9 ¼ in) with a period ink note “Tracing, West Side Mendocino Road.” on recto. Fold marks, paper slightly age-toned, but overall a very good letter written in a legible hand.

A historically important original autograph manuscript letter written by a Southern Pacific Railway employee in San Francisco to one of the wealthiest ranchers in Colusa County (California), Edgar Mills, urging him to sign the right of way through his lands as soon as possible as this is “the only portion which has not already been obtained” for the construction of the now-defunct West Side & Mendocino R. R., one of the first railways in Colusa County.

Dated 10 November 1886, this interesting letter offers a unique insight into the early business negotiations in the American West and documents the construction of one of the earliest railroads in Colusa County.

In 1886, ten years after the first train arrived in Arbuckle (Colusa County), the West Side and Mendocino Railroad Company of the Southern Pacific System proposed building a road “to be operated by steam power, for the purpose of carrying passengers and freights for hire, from the town of Willows, in Colusa County, to Round Valley, in Mendocino County, an estimated distance of seventy miles.” (The Los Gatos News. 1 October 1886. P. 1) In 1888, after two years of construction, the WS&M opened a 16.84-mile line (“Mendocino Branch”) from the town of Willows through Kurand, Halconera, Millsholm, and Athena to Fruto in Glenn County. The company’s attempt to extend the road to the Pacific Coast never came to fruition, and most of the branch line, except for a one-mile section west of Willows, was abandoned in 1951.

The letter was written only a few days after the Turton & Knox constructors “have been given the contract to build the West Side and Mendocino Railroad” (The Record Union. 25 October 1886. P. 3) and shortly after the announcement that the work was to be commenced immediately.

The letter is addressed to Edgar Mills (Ca. 1827-1893) of Sacramento, a banker and the owner of a 7,000-acre farm in the foothills of Colusa County. “Mills was born in North Salem, New York, and trained as a civil engineer. After surveying a railroad along the Hudson River, he arrived in California in 1849. Subsequently he entered the banking business with his brother D. O. Mills, of Sacramento. He later… took charge of it while D.O. Mills was associated with the Bank of California. After D. O. Mills relocated to New York in 1873, Edgar remained in California, overseeing the family businesses. In addition to banking, Edgar's business dealings involved commercial land development and several railroad ventures.” (Bopp, T. The Yosemite Commissioners. 2012. P. 24).

In the letter signed to Edgar Mills in New York City, the author, an employee of the Southern Pacific Railway, urges the banker to sign the contract for the right of way through his lands in Willows as soon as possible as this is “the only portion which has not already been obtained” for the construction of the railway road. The author optimistically writes about the company’s future plans of extending the line to the Pacific coast and notifies Mills about the other land owners, who “have all cheerfully donated the right-of-way.”

Apparently, Edgar Mills signed the right-of-way contract immediately after receiving the letter, as work on the railroad construction had already commenced by the first days of December. In 1888, the same year the WS&M merged into the Southern Pacific Railway System, the Millsholm-Milepost station of the Mendocino Branch was named after Edgar Mills.

Overall, a historically important original autograph manuscript letter offering a unique insight into the early business negotiations in the American West and documenting the construction of one of the earliest railroads in Colusa County. 

The text of the letter (original spelling and punctuation preserved):
“I enclose herewith, a tracing of the line of the “west side Mendocino R.R.” as located through your lands in the vicinity of Willows station, in Colusa County. Also a contract for deed, covering right-of-way for this railroad, in which connection I would say that the right-of-way through your land, is the only portion which has not already been obtained. Some few pieces in the immediate vicinity of Willows, have not been donated, but the citizens of that town have undertaken to defray all expense in the matter. The other land owners have all cheerfully donated the right-of-way. We intend to begin the construction of this road, as soon as the right of way shall have been obtained, to a point 23 to 25 miles from Willows, and continue its construction, until finished to that point. Eventually the road may be extended to Round Valley, and possibly to a connection with the Coast. We hope you will have no objections to signing this paper.”