PBA Galleries

1 pp. with docketing note on verso.

To Dr. [Gustavus] Simmons, a bill for plastering work; and G.[odfrey] Shissler, Autograph Note Signed. Sacramento, September 13, 1862. A receipt, also to Doctor Simmons, for $262.50 paid “for a Black Horse which I guarantee to be sound.”  Mara, with his extended family in cattle-yoked wagons, one loaded with provisions, set out from St. Louis in the summer of 1849 bound across the plains for California. Some of the cattle died en route, forcing the party to abandon most of their provisions. By the time they reached Utah, Mara’s pregnant wife had become ill and his 76 year-old father was paralyzed by an insect bite. More cattle died of hunger and others were driven off by Indians. At last reaching California, the party was stranded at Feather River on the verge of starvation and was saved only by an Army expedition mounted to give relief to overland emigrants. They finally made it to Sacramento, where Mara settled and eventually prospered, working as a plasterer for prominent citizens like Dr. Gustavus Simmons, who later headed the California Medical Society. The year after Mara signed this document, Sacramento finally won the competition to permanently host the state government and Mara was paid $500 to plaster and whitewash the newly-constructed Capitol Building.