Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad Check, Stagg, California

Item Details

Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad Check, Stagg, California, My 17, 1907. 2 3/16 x 8 5/16 inches.

Good condition. Perforated with PAID stamp. 3/4-inch cello tape to face of check. 1 1/2-inch closed tear. Mild soiling. Multiple stamped endorsements on verso. 

Great piece of ephemera related to the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad and its superintendent William Washington Cahill.  Check No. 42 made payable to Tonopah and Tidewater RR Co. in the amount of $12,546.04 drawn on the Farmers & Merchants National Bank, signed by Cahill, May 17, 1907, Stagg, California.

Francis M. "Borax" Smith created the Pacific Coast Borax Company in 1890. Pacific Coast Borax produced the famous 20-Mule Team Borax Brand and its iconic logo. Smith created the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad Company in 1906 in part to ship borax but also to carry freight and passengers. The railroad was envisioned to run all the way to San Diego (Tidewater) but never made it. 

W.W. Cahill aka 'Wash', he was born in1873 and died in 1959. Cahill was appointed by 'Borax' Smith to be superintendent of the T&T Railroad.

His father, David Cahill, was a stagecoach driver
in Calico, his mother, Frances Rebecca Stiles, died in 1891 and is buried in Calico, CA. Her brother, Ed Stiles, was the first to hitch 20 mules together to haul borax.