State of Nevada Bond signed by Nevada's First Governor, Henry Goode Blasdel - 1867

Beautiful certificate from the Bond of the State of Nevada issued in 1867. This historic document was printed by Briton & Company, San Francisco and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a mining scene overlooked by indians. This item has the signatures of the State's Governor, Henry Goode Blasdel and Treasurer and is over 143 years old.


Certificate Vignette




Certificate Vignette



Henry Goode Blasdel (January 29, 1825 - July 22, 1900) was the first Governor of Nevada. He was a Republican.

Blasdel was born near Lawrenceburg, Indiana. He worked as a farmer, storekeeper and river boat captain before he came to Nevada in 1859. In 1861 Blasdel was elected Recorder of Storey County.

Blasdel was elected Governor in 1864, and re-elected in 1866. He served until 1870.

In 1891 Blasdel moved his family to Oakland, California, where he died on July 22, 1900.

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Nevada History

Derived from the Father Kino expeditions at the end of the 17th century through north Mexico and south U.S., Nevada passed to Spanish control, belonging to the Viceroyalty of New Spain. In 1821 became part of the First Mexican Empire of Agustin de Iturbide, until 1823, and afterwards of Mexico. As a result of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 and based on the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty, Nevada became part of the United States. On August 14, 1850, the U.S. Congress established the Utah territory which included the present day states of Utah, Idaho and Nevada. The year 1859 saw the discovery of the Comstock Lode, a rich outcropping of gold and silver, and Virginia City sprang up. This discovery brought a flood of miners, prospectors, merchants and others hoping to strike it rich.

On March 2, 1861, the Nevada Territory separated from the Utah territory and adopted its current name, shortened from Sierra Nevada (Spanish for "snowy range"). On October 31, 1864, just eight days prior to the presidential election, Nevada became the 36th state in the union. Statehood was rushed through despite Nevada's tiny population to help ensure Abraham Lincoln's reelection and post-Civil War Republican dominance in congress[citation needed]. As Nevada's mining-based economy tied it to the more industrialized Union, it was viewed as politically reliable (as opposed to the more agrarian and Confederate-sympathizing California).

Nevada achieved its current boundaries on May 5, 1866 when it absorbed the portion of Pah-Ute County in the Arizona Territory west of the Colorado River. The transfer was prompted by the discovery of gold in the area, and it was thought that Nevada would be better able to oversee the expected population boom. This area includes most of what is now Clark County, Nevada.

Mining shaped Nevada's economy for many years. In the late 19th century, the Comstock Lode played out, and Nevada went into a tailspin. There was even talk of stripping away statehood, the only time in American history such an action was discussed in Congress. However, the rich silver strike at Tonopah in 1900 helped save the state. This was soon followed by strikes in Goldfield and Rhyolite in the following years. These strikes lasted well into the 1910s and made Nevada a dominant player in mining once again.

Over 87% of the land is owned by the Federal Government. The primary reason for this is that homesteads were not permitted in large enough sizes to be viable in the arid conditions that prevail throughout Nevada. Instead, early settlers would homestead land surrounding a water source, and then graze livestock on the adjacent public land, which is useless for agriculture without access to water (this pattern of ranching still prevails). The deficiencies in the Homestead Act as applied to Nevada were probably due to a lack of understanding of the Nevada environment, although some firebrands (so-called "Sagebrush Rebels") maintain that it was due to pressure from mining interests to keep land out of the hands of common folk.

Gambling was common in the early Nevada mining towns but was outlawed in 1909 as part of a nation-wide anti-gaming crusade. Due to a sharp decline in mining output in the 1920s and the decline of the agricultural sector during the Great Depression, Nevada re-legalized gambling on March 19, 1931, when senate bill 98 was signed into law. At the time, the leading proponents of gambling expected that it would be a short term fix until the state's economic base widened to include less cyclical industries. However, re-outlawing gambling has never been seriously considered since.

In 1931, construction began on Hoover Dam near Las Vegas. Thousands of workers from across the country came to build the dam, and providing for their needs in turn required many more workers. The dam, and later war industries such as the Basic Magnesium Plant, first started the growth of the southern area of the state. Over the next 75 years, Clark County grew in relation to the Reno area, until today it encompasses most of the state's population.

The Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the City of Las Vegas, was founded on January 11, 1951 for the testing of nuclear weapons. The site is composed of approximately 1,350 square miles (3,500 km˛) of desert and mountainous terrain. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a one-kiloton of TNT bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats on January 27, 1951. The last atmospheric test was conducted on July 17, 1962 and the underground testing of weapons continued until September 23, 1992.

History from Wikipedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service)