Holograph DS with integral address on California stampless cover with San Jose, CA postal cancellation, December 6, 1851. Addressed to Oregon City, Territory of Oregon.11¾x14¾ with folds. Apparently a document prepared and signed by Moses Schallenberger as administrator of the estate of his brother-in-law Dr. John Townsend, mailed to a Leonard Summers in Oregon City for his release of contingencies in the estate matter. Signed by Summers and the Secretary of the Territory of Oregon, E.D. Hamilton who attests Summers' signature as genuine, and affixes the embossed Oregon Territorial seal. The document is then returned to California, where it is filed in 1852 with the signatures of various Santa Clara County court officials.

Moses Schallenberger, born 1827, was a lad of 17 when he was with the 1844 Elisha Stevens overland party, the first that ever completed the trip into the valley of California and contained approximately fifty people, many who became prominent Santa Clara Valley citizens. The party stalled at Donner Lake, where Schallenberger and two others stayed behind to protect the goods carried, while the others surged forward in the snow, finally reaching Sutters Fort. The snow became so deep that to escape starvation the three started over the summit on snowshoes, but the boy, Schallenberger took ill and felt his slight chance for survival would be better if he returned to the cabin. There he existed on trapped animals and game until a rescue party arrived in the spring to accompany him to Sutters Fort where he became a trader, finally removing himself to San Jose where he acquired considerable property. Dr. Townsend, a member of the party and, married to Schallenberger's sister, named the present Truckee River, Stevens River, a designation that did not last.