D. O. MILLS BANK.
(was still a real bank, until 2015!)
1852-1857
(Corner of Main and Fulton Streets - 1855)
1852 September - Daniel Walker and A.C. Moore sell the lot to James Mills, E. S. Townsend and D. O. Mills for $1300.
1852 Townsend sells to D. O. and James Mills. The lot has a frame building which houses the post office in the back.
1853 The bank, post office and Hunnewell's book and stationery store are in the building.
1854 D. O. Mills is the sole owner of the brick building with a secret passage leading to the assay and smelting office. The counter in the bank is of mahogany with black walnut trim and carved moldings.
Weekly Columbian newspaper ad - c1855
1855 The first telegraph in Columbia is installed.
1857 D. O. and Edgar Mills sell the building to W. O. Sleeper and A. E. Hooker for $10,000. Sleeper opens his bank.
1857 August 27 - Sleeper & Co., Post Office and Tuolumne County Water Company's brick office, southwest corner of Main and Fulton Streets is spared the great conflagration. (from Sacramento Daily Union - Aug. 29, 1857)
© Floyd D.P. Øydegaard
A check drawn on the Water Co. for McChesney - 1857
1860 A. E. Hooker sells to Sleeper for $7500.
1861 The assay office moves into the post office space and the telegraph office moves out.
1865 April 22 - Sleeper advertises in the Tuolumne Courier.
1865 Sleeper, facing financial problems, is forced into selling to William C. Ralston from San Francisco for $5,000.
W. S. Hutchinson c1866
1866 Wm. S. Hutchinson and Jos. Gilman buy the building for $1000, they run a news depot, stationery and grocery store. They bring the telegraph back into the building. Later Gilman sells to Hutchinson.
1871 August - Hutchinson. Block 17, Lot 236 - Deputy County Surveyor map by John P. Dart
1875 Hutchinson sells to Michael Mooney of Visalia.
1876 Mooney sells to Wm. Siebert, for $300, who later sells a half. interest to Frank Vassallo.
1880 Lyman Tibbits rents the building for a drugstore.
1881 Tibbits becomes the postmaster, so the post office returns to the building until 1895.
1889 Vassallo sells his half interest to Wm. Siebert.
1897 Siebert sells his interest to Mrs. Kate Siebert.
1899 Post office returns until 1911.
1911 Tibbits moves out.
Post Office - c1911
1922 Mrs. Pauline R. Naegele buys the building for $10. The roof has fallen in and the floor is rotten. She renovates the building, adds 10 sleeping rooms upstairs, with a candy store on the main floor.
1930 Julius C. Naegele (Born in Memphis Tenn., where he was listed as a confectioner in the 1880s census) at the age of 70 in the US census is shown as Candy Maker and owner of the Candy Store. Pauline is 62 years old and of Germany. Their household worth is $5000.
Naegeles Candy Kitchen or the Original Columbia Candy Kitchen. c1930's
1941 Leases to Christian Rex Nelson for a candy store. (Rex was born in Utah 27 March 1889. His parents were Andrew Nelson of Utah & Christine Daniels of Denmark)
1944 Ted Mellor works for the Nelson's.
1951 The state purchases the building from Pauline Naegele. Rex and Dorothy Nelson are operating the Columbia Candy Kitchen. (Rex dies of a heart attck 1 October 1956 and is buried in the Masonic cemetery in Sonora.)
1964 Dick and Ola Mae Nelson (Rex's son and daughter-in-law) take over the candy business.
An ad in a 1970 "Old Timer Days" Mother Lode Fair Program.
1971 Mike and Janice Nelson (Dick's son and daughter-in-law) take over the business.
1974 The Nelson's Candy Kitchen moves to their current (2019) location.
1980 The building is renovated and restored.
1984 El Capitan Bank opens.
1996 Valliwide Bank purchases El Capitan Bank Company.
1998 Pacific State Bank purchases Valliwide.
2000 Sentinel Savings buys the bank business.
2003 Central California Bank.
2006 Umpqua Bank.
2015 February 5 - "Just before noon the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office received notification a robbery alarm at the Umpqua Bank in Columbia State Park. A white male adult reportedly entered the bank, brandished a black handgun, and demanded cash." Maybe the first bank robbery in the 1854 Bank Building?
2016 Unpqua left town. No Bank in town!
WATER COMPANY OFFICE.
(AT THE BACK OF THE BUILDING)
1854 After the fire burned their wooden structure, the D. O. Mills bank and the Tuolumne County Water Company, rebuilt of brick. This was their office until 1901.
1871 August - Tuolumne Water Company. Block 17, Lot 241 - Deputy County Surveyor map by John P. Dart
1871 August - W.T. Hutchinson owns Block 17, Lot 240 (next to T.W.Co.) - Deputy County Surveyor map by John P. Dart
In the late 1940s Rex and Dorothy Nelson lived in the building until they needed more room for their Candy Kitchen.
1951 Lot and building purchased by the state from Pauline Naegele.
Restored in the early 1980s and used by concessionaire Candy Camin for her business, the Prospector's Trading Post, while the Brady Building was being restored. Then used as storage are by concessionaire Betty Holmberg.
1999 Leased to Cheryl and Mike Nelson as storage for their business: Brown's Coffee House & Sweets Saloon.
2014 Used as a secondary photo shop (Kamice's).
2015 Jack Douglass uses building for storage for their business.
Contact information Not Available.
UMPQUA BANK
SKIPPED TOWN!
This page is created for the benefit of the public by
Floyd D. P. Øydegaard.
Email contact:
fdpoyde3 (at) yahoo (dot) com
A WORK IN PROGRESS,
created for the visitors to the Columbia State Historic park.
© Columbia State Historic Park & Floyd D. P. Øydegaard.