 These goods were traded for the necessities of life, such as “whiskey, port, and tobacco”.In 1853, four prospectors came to Shingletown and found that the land contained several veins of coal.Within the year these four men, Richard Sharpe, Asa Lansford Foster, Francis Weiss and John Leisenring, formed Sharpe, Leisenring and Company, later known as Sharpe, Weiss, and Company.