1889 Colorado Installment Note Alfred T Bacon & 1891 Grand Valley Canal Co Water For Sale

Historic 1889 to 1891 Colorado Frontier Pioneer Expansion Archive Featuring Alfred T Bacon Installment Note and Grand Valley Canal Company Water License

An exceptional, interconnected two-piece late nineteenth-century Western American manuscript and financial archive tracking the real estate speculation, capital investment, and vital irrigation rights that fueled the development of pioneer Colorado. Dating from December 1889 through June 1891, this authentic lot captures the operational history of both the eastern slope cattle and land boom in Greeley and the high-stakes western slope agricultural fruit belt development in Mesa County. Together, these documents tell a compelling story of early frontier resource management, financial structures, and localized printing houses.

The first piece in the archive is an ornate, beautifully preserved financial installment note datelined Greeley, Colorado, December 11th, 1889. The pre-printed text outlines a binding sixty-dollar mortgage or land contract payable in ten-dollar increments to the prominent Yale-educated capitalist and New England Livestock Company founder, Alfred Terry Bacon. The document features striking visual elements, including a distinct blue geometric proprietary stamp and multiple bold purple authentication hand-stamps struck across the text. It is boldly finalized on the signature line by the debtor, Badger F. Haynes. A highly collectible printing imprint along the bottom right margin reads Democrat Press, Greeley, confirming its local publishing origins. The reverse side features an extraordinary archival discovery, revealing that this note was custom-printed directly onto the blank back of a cut-down, repurposed 1881 Northumberland County, Pennsylvania probate form. The reverse also contains a meticulous handwritten iron gall ink payment ledger tracking five consecutive installments collected through June 1892, complete with multiple transfer signatures from Alfred T. Bacon assigning the funds to Mary E. Bacon and the De Long Brothers and Harris collection firm.

The second piece in the archive is an official printed and handwritten corporate water license from The Grand Valley Canal Company of Mesa County, Colorado. Labeled as Form A, Number 427, and datelined June 15th, 1891, this document represents the primary lifeblood of western slope settlements before the original canal company was completely dissolved and reorganized in 1894. In consideration of an eighty-four dollar payment, the license grants pioneer rancher A. W. Smith the legal right to carry thirty statutory inches of water through the main canal system to irrigate his farm located in the Northwest quarter of the Southeast quarter of Section 19, Township 1 North, Range 1 West. The lower left corner features a pristine, detailed circular corporate graphic emblem, and the bottom is finalized by general manager Frank C. Gundy, licensee A. W. Smith, and corporate agent Charles F. Caswell, who later achieved historical prominence as a Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. The reverse side remains cleanly preserved with a bold period blue-pencil archival filing date of 1891 and a rare vertical print line reading Democrat Press, Grand Junction, proving the company utilized the local frontier job printing press of the Grand Junction Democrat newspaper.

Both components are in excellent antique condition, displaying rich ink colors, crisp typography, and robust paper preservation. The sheets show natural age-appropriate toning and typical light horizontal fold lines from historical vertical ledger storage that enrich their authentic archival character without obscuring any handwritten text or signatures. This pair serves as a premier display group for specialized collectors of Western Americana, early Colorado territorial banking, canal and irrigation history, or unique nineteenth-century frontier publishing artifacts.