William Reese Company

Founding Papers from an Arizona Company Intimately Connected with the Disastrous Walnut Grove Dam Failure

ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION OF THE PIEDMONT CATTLE COMPANY [manuscript caption title].

[Arizona]:

New York, N.Y., and Boyd County, Ky. May 1886. [4]pp., plus blank leaf docketed on verso, ribbon tied near top edge. Old folds, minimal wear. Near fine. Item #WRCAM56665

A beautifully-rendered contemporary calligraphic copy of an original document containing the articles of incorporation for the Piedmont Cattle Company in Arizona. The original had been previously recorded in Manhattan on May 12, 1886. This copy bears the certification of the clerk of Boyd County, Kentucky court, where it was recorded on May 31, and bears the embossed seal of Boyd County Court. It is also docketed with a note by the county recorder in Arizona that it was "recorded at the request of DeWitt C. Bates" on June 12, 1886. Most likely, this copy would have been retained by the company as proof of incorporation.

The Piedmont Cattle Company was founded by New York investors and incorporated in Kentucky, but as stated here "the corporation proposes to carry on business in Yavapai County in the Territory of Arizona...buying, selling and raising horses, cattle, sheep, and other live stock...and operating pipe lines, ditches and reservoirs for conducting, storing and distributing water for irrigating the lands of the Company." The visionaries were the brothers Wells and DeWitt Blake, Arizona miners whose main purpose was to create a dam through their related Walnut Grove Water Storage Company. The water was used for placer mining as well as cattle irrigation. The Walnut Grove Dam failed in February 1890, sending a massive wall of water down the gulch and killing innumerable residents.

The present articles of incorporation for the company provide a rare glimpse into the internal organization of a New York cattle company operating in the Arizona territory in the salad days of the Old West.

Price: $1,250.00