Thursday, May 23, 2019

Western Americana ... RAILROADS - 1875 AND BEFORE

From: "Buckingham Books" sales@buckinghambooks.com

... Listed below are items on RAILROADS - 1875 and BEFORE from our collection. ...

4. DAVIS, JEFFERSON [SECRETARY OF WAR]. REPORTS OF EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS, TO ASCERTAIN THE MOST PRACTICABLE AND ECONOMICAL ROUTE FOR A RAILROAD FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. MADE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR, IN 1853-4, ACCORDING TO ACTS OF CONGRESS OF MARCH 3, 1853, MAY 31, 1854, AND AUGUST 5, 1854. Washington: A. O. P. Nicholson, Printer, 1855 - 1861. ... Howes P3 says, "... it was the best cartographical work on the West up to its time and some copies were colored." Wagner/Camp says, "Despite their flaws, these volumes contain a monumental collection of scientific information, geographical, zoological, botanical, geological, of the still mysterious American West. Upon first examination, the volumes seem forbiddingly disorganized; reports clearly were printed as they were received; there is no overall system or arrangement, nor are there general indices to the volumes, and, as Camp has pointed out, there is the usual duplication of printing and lithography by both houses of Congress. However, these faults are amply compensated by the richness of the material within." ... $15000.00 (26611)
HOWES P3. WAGNER/CAMP 262-267. WHEAT 822, 823, 936. MOFFAT 35, 36, 49.

7. WHITNEY, A. MEMORIAL OF A. WHITNEY, PRAYING A GRANT OF PUBLIC LAND TO ENABLE HIM TO CONSTRUCT A RAILROAD FROM LAKE MICHIGAN TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. Washington: Ritchie & Heiss, Printers, 1846. First edition. 8vo. Senate document 161, 29th Congress, 1st Session, February 24, 1846. ... 10 pp., large folding map of the proposal at the rear. Whitney is requesting a grant of land sixty miles in width from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean,"to be held and set apart expressly to furnish, by sale and settlement, means to construct a railroad to communicate with the two points; and after the full and perfect completion of said work, should there be any lands remaining, your memorialist asked them for himself, his heirs, and assigns, as a reward for the work." The folding map is a map of the United States that shows railroads finished, railroads unfinished, and proposed railroads. Asa Whitney (1797-1872) was in the mercantile business in New York City and "recognized the necessity of a railroad to the Pacific, and was the first to suggest its feasibility, and from 1846 till 1850 urged it upon congress, the legislature of several states, and the public, by personal influence and his writings. He was finally instrumental in securing appropriations in 1853 for the first surveys of the northern, southern, and middle routes, and lived to see communication opened from sea to sea in 1869." ... Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. ... $595.00 (35788)

20. DEGRAND, P. P. F. PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRIENDS OF A RAIL-ROAD TO SAN FRANCISCO, AT THEIR PUBLIC MEETING, HELD AT THE U. S. HOTEL, IN BOSTON, APRIL 19, 1849. INCLUDING AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE U. STATES; SHOWING THAT, P. P. F. DEGRAND'S PLAN IS THE ONLY ONE, AS YET PROPOSED, WHICH WILL SECURE PROMPTLY AND CERTAINLY, AND BY A SINGLE ACT OF LEGISLATION, THE CONSTRUCTION OF A RAIL-ROAD TO CALIFORNIA, IN THE SHORTEST TIME ALLOWED BY ITS PHYSICAL OBSTACLES. Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, Printers, 1849. Second edition. 8vo. ... 24 pp. P. P. F. Degrand puts forth a convincing proposal for a transcontinental railroad that would travel between St. Louis and San Francisco. He offers comparisons to travel by sea route versus a transcontinental railroad and the amount of dollars realized by traveling by rail. He expresses that the route can be built in five years and the resultant prosperity to all will be tremendous. A convincing proposal and one of the earliest for a transcontinental railroad. ... $1,250.00 (44034)
COWAN p. 183. EBERSTADT 114: 641, 123: 51, 134: 550.

22. LAND DEPARTMENT, UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY. GUIDE TO THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD LANDS. 12,000,000 ACRES. BEST FARMING AND MINERAL LANDS IN AMERICA, FOR SALE BY THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, IN TRACTS TO SUIT PURCHASERS AND AT LOW PRICES. Omaha: Land Department Union Pacific Railroad Company, 1870. First edition. 8vo. 8 3/4" X 5 3/4" printed wrappers with map on back cover, 44 pp., introduction, illustrated, maps. The rear cover features a map of portions of Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. States where land grant bonds are available from the Union Pacific Railroad Company. The frontispiece is a map of the United States that shows the Union Pacific Railroad and its connections. A third map shows counties in Nebraska in 1870, and the Union Pacific Railroad lands, first 200 miles, grants of 1862-64. A description of the Nebraska lands are provided county by county. The available lands are contained in alternate sections of one square mile each, within a breadth of twenty miles on either side of the railroad and extend along the entire line. They extend through central Nebraska, southern Wyoming, and northern Colorado and Utah, and include within their limits the splendid agricultural lands of the Platte Valley, the great natural pastures of the Laramie Plains and the valleys of Lodge Pole Creek and Bear River, and the rich iron and coal fields between the Black Hills and the Wahsatch Mountains. Description, advantages, water resources, climate, soil, live stock raising, farming, markets, timber, minerals, information about homesteads, advantages of living in colonies, etc. Both Adams' Herd and Graff list similar titles but different years and claim their listings to be "rare." ... $2,250.00 (44035) ...

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