Antique photograph from the collection of a historic Mariposa, California Gold Mine town Old West family. They’re the Daut, Schroeder / Schanz, and Stewart families (see some history below). Mariposa, near the west entrance to Yosemite National Park, has their Mariposa Museum & History Center where you can learn more about the area. This is a Victorian. Depicting four men with delegate ribbons. Very interesting photo with the scenic, painted backdrop and props. In faint pencil, Mr. Stewart is noted on the back. Schanz and Stewart were brother laws: Stewart was married to Joseph Schanz’s sister, Louisa C. Also on the back is “Mariposa Cal” and something that may be Whitlock or Sherlock set? Maybe you like this photographer or subject matter, share the same genealogy with this family, or have a historical interest in the American Western trail from San Francisco to Merced to Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada? There’s something for everyone! He and his wife Christina Egenhoff were German Immigrants, natives of Hanover, Germany. I don’t know that he worked the mines, but his son, George D. When he passed away, they referred to him in the papers as “the Mariposa pioneer”. From an 1867 article: “On Monday last, Frederick DAUT and “Indian Tom, both of whom were working for Mr. MALONE, near CLARK’s saw mill, Mariposa county, were considerably injured by a premature blast while working in a tail-race of a mining claim. DAUT had the flesh torn from his hand and his eyes badly burned with powder. Tom was also burned about the face and eyes. He discovered Schroeder Mine in 1878. When Schoeder passed, his will was published in the papers and he’d written that his main executor was Fred Daut. Schroeder’s wife (Elizabeth Worther Schoeder aka grandma Schanz Schroder) had been previously married. In his will, John left his stepdaughter, Louisa C. George Dietrich Stewart his house on Saxon’s Creek with gardens, outbuildings, blacksmith’s shop, etc. Schroeder left his buggy to Fred Daut’s daughter, Emilia. He left further property to his daughter Mrs. Carl Schiffer (Theresa Schroeder Schiffer), his son Carl J. See: Mariposa Gazette, Volume LVII, Number 45, 30 March 1912.