Raynors HCA 2016-10
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2016
Great lot of 10 original checks drawn on the BANK OF CALIFORNIA by the NORTH PACIFIC TRANSPORATAION COMPANY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 871-1872. All are signed by CHARLES J. BRENHAM Gold Rush Mayor of San Francisco and business partner of famed Western expressman Ben Holladay. BRENHAM, Charles James ( 1817-1876) was the second and fourth mayor of San Francisco in 1851 and from 1852–53. worked as a Mississippi riverboat captain on the run between New Orleans and Vicksburg. Brenham came to California with the Gold Rush in 1849 and took up his pervious occupation as the Captain on the S.S. "McKim" between San Francisco and Sacramento. After serving as Mayor of San Francisco, he entered the banking business and joined the famous Western expressman Ben Holladay in the firm of Holladay and Brenham, the holding company of the NORTH PACIFIC TRANSPORTATION COMPANY in San Francisco. HOLLADAY AND BRENHAM owned several well-known steamers which sailed from California ports to Panama and eventually across the Pacific. In 1861 they purchased the S.S. "Sierra Nevada" which had been launched in New York in 1851 for the Empire City Line. The S.S. "Sierra Nevada" sailed between San Francisco and Nicaragua and other ports until it was wrecked in the Channel Islands in 1869. The company also owned the S.S. "Pacific" which it purchased from the US Mail Steamship Company in 1867. In 1871 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Holladay and Brenham had teamed up with New York shipbuilder and investor WILLIAM WEBB to establish regular steamship service between San Francisco and Australia and New Zealand. Brenham was married to the daughter of General John Adair. He died in San Francisco on May 10, 1875. BRENHAM PLACE in San Francisco is named after him.
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