Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Contents
Descriptive Summary
Title: Mark Brumagim Collection
Collection number: MS 190
Creator:
Brumagim, Mark
Extent: 4 boxes
Repository:
Meriam Library
California State University, Chico
Chico, California 95929-0295
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary
property.
Preferred Citation
[Name of Collection], Mark Brumagim Collection, MS 190, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University,
Chico.
Biography
Mark Brumagim sailed out of New York Harbor on March 24, 1849, aboard the bark "Linda." The pioneer from New York's Montgomery
County arrived in California in November of 1849. He opened a bank in Marysville in 1850, the first bank in California north
of San Francisco. Eight years later, he and his brothers established the banking firm of Mark Brumagim and Company in San
Francisco. Brumagim and his partners held investments as far away as Durango, Mexico, and later became creditors of John C.
Fremont.
Brumagim played an active role in the Marysville community. Attempting to lower freight rates between San Francisco and Marysville,
he became a trustee of the Citizen's Steam Navigation Company. He continued his involvement as the first treasurer of the
Mutual Hook and Ladder Company, City treasurer and as a charter member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). His
wife, Mrs. Lillie Brumagim, had a great interest in music, poetry, and writing.
Brumagim, having changed his last name to Birmingham along with many of his relatives, spent his last several years residing
in New York City. He died on December 23, 1914, in his eighty-eighth year. Mark's brother, the Reverend D.M.Birmingham, also
a resident Northern California, died in 1915 at the age of 80.
Contents
The Brumagim Collection mainly consists of personal correspondence, including a number of letters from Brumagim to his family
and friends in New York. Miscellaneous correspondence between Lillie Brumagim and her friends and relatives is a component
of the collection, in addition to a number miscellaneous letters, photographs, pieces of music and publications written by
both DM and Lillie Birmingham.