The 30 Minute Rule begins May 21 at 7:00 PM EDT. An Initial Bid Must Be Placed By May 21 at 6:00 PM EDT To Participate After 6:00 PM EDT
ALS, one page, 7.5 x 9.75, May 15, 1840. Addressed from Independence, Missouri, a handwritten letter to Washington Hood, captain of the Topographical Engineers, enclosing an auctioneer's bill of sale of public property left in his possession, in part: “Your favor of 29 January ordering the sale of certain articles stored with 28 Sept last came to hand during my absence East. My agent anticipating my acquiescence did on the 29th Feb. sell as directed. Since my return I have been so occupied in starting my wagons to Santa Fe that I perhaps may have missed more than one opportunity of forwarding the amt as requested.” Waldo calculates the total charge. “The above amt of Eighty five Dolls will have been placed to yr. credit in the Bank of the State of Mo. ere the receipt of this.” In very good to fine condition, with old tape repairs to the integral address leaf.
S. S. Waldo was a mid-19th-century merchant associated with the Santa Fe trade, operating out of Independence, Missouri, and participating in the transport of goods by wagon between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Washington Hood (1808–1840) was a U.S. Army topographical engineer and surveyor. A West Point graduate (1827), he worked on important early American mapping projects, including helping Robert E. Lee survey the Ohio–Michigan boundary in 1835. He later mapped parts of the Oregon Territory and led a federal surveying expedition in present-day Oklahoma. Hood died young—likely of yellow fever contracted during fieldwork—at age 32.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
