Constitution, By-laws and Rules of Order of Independence Lodge, No. 158, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the State of California. Railroad Flat, Calaveras County. - Rare Book Insider
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(CALAVERAS COUNTY)

Constitution, By-laws and Rules of Order of Independence Lodge, No. 158, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the State of California. Railroad Flat, Calaveras County.

J. Winterburn & Co., San Francisco: 1882
  • $75
First edition. Twelvemo. 47, [9, including Membership Appication] pp. Publisher's printed pale salmon wrappers. Excellent condition."Rail Road Flat is a Gold Rush era mining town that was settled by gold seekers in 1849, named for a wooden track which conveyed ore cars with waste rock to and from the diggings. A post office was established in 1857, and the first stamp mill erected in 1866. By 1872, five or six mills were operating, and at the turn of the century two stamp mills and one arrastra were still in operation. The Clark Ditch was constructed to supply the placer mines of Rail Road Flat in 1856 and soon extended to the mines of Glencoe and Rich Gulch. Originating near Blue Mountain, it carried water from the South Fork of the Mokelumne over 55 miles, servicing two reservoirs and numerous downstream communities" (Calaveras History). It was the site of an Indian council as well as the center of rich placer and quartz mining. Its largest producer was the Petticoat Mine.
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Novum Testamentum Graecum, e. Codice Ms. Alexandrino, qui Londini in Bibliotheca Musei Britannici asservatur, descriptum a Carolo Godofredo Woide.

First printed edtion of one of the four great uncial manuscript bibles. Folio (11 1/8 x 18 1/4 inches). Half title, title, x, engraved plate, xxii, [264 unpaginated facsimile pages in Alexandrian Greek type cut by Joseph Jackson], 89. [1, blank] pp. Bound without the final blank, Contemporary smooth calf, rebacked earlier in the 20th century and with a new morocco gilt lettering label, original marled endpapers. Bookplate of a seminary and with their white call letters on the spine (no pockets or any ther library markings and provenance is solid), old ink spill to a small part of top edge but it only seeped down to a distance of about 1/4 of an inch. Very clean text in a very solid and acceptable contemporary binding.This is the first printed edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, one of the four great uncial codices or four great uncials. which are the only remaining uncial codices that contain (or originally contained) the entire text of the Bible (Old and New Testament) in Greek. The are of extreme importance for biblical scholarship and are counted among the greatest manuscripts of the Occident. Woide, wanting to remain as close to the original text as possible (in ancient Greek there are no spaces between words) had to have all the uncials carved from wood as the exact uncial typeface was not in existence. In the 20th century a photographic reprint was done but it does lack the bite of the type.
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Pagan Christianity; Studies in Modernism and Modern Cults with Which Is Incorporated an Examination of Pentecostalism.

Revised edition (the only edition recorded by OCLC although on the title page we find that the first edition was issued in 1933). Quarto. [1, title leaf], 228, [3, syllabus leaves ] ii. Typescript on rectos only. Publisher's quarter black tape over marbled boards. While there are about 15 copies in institutions, it is more than likely that the author had this title printed up and used it as a text for his class at Toronto Baptist Seminary.Brown's first administrative post in a seminary was Dean of Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College, the school that had been started in 1927 by Baptist Fundamentalist T.T. Shields. This post lasted until 1948 when he was dismissed by Shields for expressing moderate positions. But during this time Brown wrote this history of Christian cults (or at least a few of them). He writes lengthily about Christian Modernism and the goes on the the meat of the matter; his opinions of Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses and, most interestingly, Charles & Myrtle Fillmore's Unity School of Christanity (really a new age cult that would fit right in with today's culture). Unity views God as spiritual energy that is present everywhere and is available to all people and sees Christ as an ?elder brother? or ?wayshower? whose life demonstrated what is possible when we live according to out true spiritual nature or divine consciousness.
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The Maxwell Land Grand Company. General Office, Raton, Colfax Co., New Mexico.

First and only edition. The cover title is more helpful - "A Sketch of the Gold Mining Camps and the Mining Regulations of The Maxwell Land Grant." Small pamphlet (4 x 6 inches). 16 pp. with a photographic vignette to the title and copyright pages and a full page illustration of placer mining in the Moreno Valley and another of the Quartz Mill in the Baldy District. Publisher's stapled blue wrappers. A very good copy. OCLC only records one copy (new Mexico State University).The Maxwell Land Grant, the largest in Americcan history, of northern New Mexico encompasses the Elizabethtown miningdistrict. This was a crucial point for the purchasers of the Grant and likely the sale wouldn't have proceeded without it. The rush to Baldy Mountain, the peak on whose flanks Elizabethtown lay, began in the spring of 1867 with the discovery of placer loads in the Moreno Valley. When the Grant was sold in 1870 the mining operations were a shadow of their former strength, a mere 20% of their former yield. Still, the miners, when told the they were on private property, refused to pay rent of move. "After the new company took over in the spring 1870, the owners set a bout asserting their right to collect rents from the residents of the grant, none of whom had titles for the lands which they farmed or mined. Attempts to collect rents on these properties met with much resistance, and soon the company delivered eviction notices to the uncooperative parries. This was the first salvo in a decade of violence and turmoil in Colfax County. Throughout the 1880s the district limped along, and the gold fields became marginal to the Maxwell Company' operations. The grant's operators instead concentrated on the rich coal fields around Raton, and the vast range and timber lands throughout the grant." (R. D. Losebrock, Managing a Gold Rush). But in the early 1890s gold mining revived when the mines around Baldy once again became lucrative to mine. The price of both silver and gold had risen sharply. This pamphlet was issued to inform the new crop of miners the exact rules for mining on Grant property.
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Opened Seals, Open Gates. A New Exposition of the Book of Revelation, Simple, Literal, and Easily Understood.

First edition of this scarce but important book on Preterism (amongst many other debates about the Book of Revelation). Octavo. 529, [1] pp. including 28 illustrations by the author (including a fold-out frontispiece showing the path of an eclipse across the globe). Publisher's blue cloth, gilt lettering within scrolls on the spine. One rubbing mark along middle back joint else a very handsome copy indeed. OCLC only located 7 copies (which is odd).Grenville O. Field was a Congregational minister well versed enough in the languages necessary to attempt Biblical criticism. This title is chiefly known for its inclusion in the canon of Preterism. As such he argued that all biblical prophecies, with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the fall of the Roman Empire, or other significant historical events, were fulfilled in the first century prior to A.D. 70. This view is considered unorthodox by many mainstream Christian denominations. A common refutation of that dismal reads as- "There was nothing of prophetic significance that took place in between the New Testament authors and today.? But there was: the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman army in A.D, 70. That historic event was clearly prophesied by Jesus (Luke 21:20-24), yet it took place long ago. The fact is, tile vast majority of prophecies in the New Testament refer to this crucial event, the event which publicly identified the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, and which also marked the triumph of rabbinic Judaism over priestly Judaism, Pharisee over Sadducee, and the synagogue system over he temple" (K. L. Gentry)). In point of fact Preterism has been described in modern eschatological commentary as a Catholic defense against the Protestant Historicist view which identified the Roman Catholic Church as a persecuting apostasy. Field seems to preach a mixture of preterism, numerology, and actual science.
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Pocket Map of Mendocino County and Part of Lake County.

(CALIFORNIA; MENDOCINO COUNTY). LENTELL, J. N. [cartographer] Folding pocket map printed mainly in blue but with some colors. It measures 23 x 19 inches, When folded into the publisher's stiff card folder it measures 3 5/8 x 6 5/8 inches. Some discoloration to front but the map is in wonderful condition. OCLC only locates the copy at Sonoma State but Rumsey/Stanford has a copy as well.Logging was the primary industry of Mendocino County since the days of the Gold Rush. The biggest operation was the Mendocino Lumber Company which officially commenced operations in 1853 with a lumber mill built by Henry Meiggs. By 1873, the name of the operation had changed to the Mendocino Lumber Company and the mill was the most important in Mendocino County. But it was wild and difficult country and transporting the logs, especially Big Trees, was often filled with obstacles and injuries. "By 1883 the difficulties of using horses and oxen for moving logs to the river pool encouraged building railroads to reduce the friction of skidding logs. Railway branches were built to reach trees and then dismantled after those logs had been moved to Big River. Total length of track was never more than 25 miles (40 km). Teams of working animals pulled the logs on flatcars until 1901. In July of that year the first locomotive was put in place ensuring much quicker and more reliable transportation. The railroad was rebuilt after extensive flood damage in 1904. Union Lumber Company purchased the Mendocino Lumber Company sawmill, railroad, and timberlands in 1906; and again rebuilt the railroad after flood damage in 1907. This map shows the county when the Mendocino Lumber Company was still, largely, the only game in town.
  • $325