Collection Guide
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Inventory of the Pioneer Reduction Company Records
D-559
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Table of contents
Creator:
Pioneer Reduction Company
Title: Pioneer Reduction Company Records
Date (inclusive): 1892-1935
Extent:
0.8 linear feet
Abstract: The Pioneer Reduction Company processed gold ore in Nevada City, California. The
collection contains organizational records (by-laws, check stubs, bullion book, and stock certificate register)
as well as correspondence regarding the plant's operation.
Physical location: Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as many
are stored offsite.
Repository:
University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept. of Special
Collections.
Davis, California 95616-5292
Collection number: D-559
Language of Material: Collection materials in English.
Benjamin Hall was born near Manchester, England on May 28, 1867 to Robert and Rachel (Sykes) Hall. He arrived
in Nevada City, California in April 1880. He began his career as a mechanical engineer in a quartz mill in
Calaveras County. In 1892, with Joe Northey, Northey's son, and William Black, he purchased the Maltman
Reduction Works, a plant established in 1858 in Nevada City. In 1893, they incorporated it as the Pioneer
Reduction Company. Hall served as President.
Hall also owned a reduction plant in Unionville, Nevada.
He passed away on March 31, 1956.
Source:
Lardner, W. B.(William B.)
History of Placer and Nevada Counties California: with biographical sketches
of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from
the early days to the present
. Los Angeles: Historic Record Co., 1924.
The collection contains organizational records (by-laws, check stubs, bullion book, and stock certificate
regsiter) as well as correspondence regarding the plant's operation.
The collection is arranged in two series: Organizational Records and Correspondence.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public
access catalog.
Pioneer Reduction Company--Archives
Hall, Benjamin--Correspondence
Mines and mineral resources--California--Nevada County
Mineralogy--California--Nevada County
Gold mines and mining--California--Nevada County
Nevada County (Calif.)--History
Uncovering California's Environmental Collections Project
Collection is open for research.
Processing of the Pioneer Reduction Company Records was generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
and administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). UC Davis Special Collections was
awarded a Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from 2010-2012, "Uncovering California's
Environmental Collections," in collaboration with eight additional special collections and archival repositories
throughout the state and the California Digital Library (CDL). Grant objectives included processing hidden
collections related to the state's environment and environmental history. The collections document an array of
important sub-topics such as irrigation, mining, forestry, agriculture, industry, land use, activism, and
research. Together they form a multifaceted picture of the natural world and the way it was probed, altered,
exploited and protected in California over the twentieth century. Finding aids are made available through the
Online Archive of California (OAC).
Sara Gunasekara processed this collection with assistance from student employee Michelle Xie.
Extracted from D-016, Mining Records Collection in 2013.
[Identification of item], Pioneer Reduction Company Records, D-559, Department of Special Collections, General
Library, University of California, Davis.
Copyright is protected by the copyright law, chapter 17, of the U.S. Code. All requests for permission to
publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections, General Library, University of
California, Davis as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the
copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.