Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Company (Signed by Hamilton McKown Twombly)

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You will receive the exact certificate pictured



Over 100 years old



Capital stock



November 20, 1901



Issued, canceled



Continental Bank Note Company



Hand signed



10 1/2" (w) by 8" (h)


PLEASE NOTE: Paper loss in lower left corner, cropping into bottom border.

Issued to, and signed by, Hamilton McKown Twombly

Hamilton McKown Twombly Sr. was born on August 11, 1849, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and grew up in Boston. His parents were Alexander Hamilton Twombly (1804–1870) and Caroline (McKown) Twombly (1821–1881). Twombly's siblings included Alexander Stevenson Twombly (1832–1907), Alice W. Twombly Jones (1848–1906), and Almina E. Twombly Sheldon (1851–1875). He attended and graduated from Harvard University in 1871.

Career

Twombly worked as a financial advisor to William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885), President of the New York Central Railroad. He sat on the Boards of Directors of the Chicago and North Western Railway, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and the New Jersey Shore Line Railroad. He also sat on the Boards of Trustees of the Guarantee Trust Company and the Mutual Life Insurance Company.

In 1890, Abram Hewitt partnered with Edward Cooper and Hamilton M. Twombly in forming the American Sulphur Company. That company then entered into a 50/50 agreement with Herman Frasch and his partners to form the Union Sulphur Company

Society life

In 1892, Twombly and his wife were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families led by Mrs. Astor, as published in The New York Times. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.

In spring and fall, Twombly and his wife resided at Florham (a combination of "Florence" and "Hamilton") in Florham Park, New Jersey; it is now "Florham Campus" a building of Fairleigh Dickinson University. They summered at Vinland Estate in Newport, Rhode Island, and they wintered at 684 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

He was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Tuxedo Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, the City Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Transportation Club, Turf and Field and the Somerset Club of Boston.

Personal life

In 1877, he married Florence Adele Vanderbilt (1854–1952), a daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam. They had four children:

  • Alice Twombly (1879–1896), who died at the age of sixteen on the eve of her society debut.
  • Florence Vanderbilt Twombly (1881–1969), who married William Armistead Moale Burden (1877–1909), a son of I. Townsend Burden and grandson of Henry Burden, in 1904.
  • Ruth Vanderbilt Twombly (1884–1954), who took over management of the Twombly estate after her father's death.
  • Hamilton McKown Twombly, Jr. (1887–1906), who drowned in an accident at age 18.

Twombly died on January 11, 1910, in Madison, New Jersey, after an extended illness. According to his obituary, his death was caused by "cancer and a broken heart" over the death of his son. His funeral took place at Saint Thomas Church in New York, with a sermon by David H. Greer (1844–1919), and the banker J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) was one of the pallbearers. He was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx. He left the majority of his estate to his wife.

The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad was the creation of William McCreery, a prominent Pittsburgh businessman, merchant, and railroad builder. McCreery had suffered at the hands of Pennsylvania Railroad in a business that had a loss or failed. The Pennsylvania Railroad at the time used discriminatory rates which became a hot issue in Pittsburgh. On May 11, 1870 McCreery and ten other people filed Articles of Association with Pennsylvania Secretary of State. The stated length of the railroad was for 57 miles.

After 2 years the starting group was not very successful at raising the required funds and in 1877 many of the directors were succeeded by a new group of Pittsburgh businessmen. The new group was James I Bennett, David Hostetter, James M. Baily, Mark W. Watson, and James M. Schoonmaker, all influential.

In the spring of 1877, the first rails were laid down in Beaver Falls, which had the largest population other than Pittsburgh. The other reason for this was around February 1877 Jacob Henrici of the Harmony Society had business there. Henrici would also become a director in 1877.

On July 6, 1877, McCreery resigned and Bennett was elected to president with Jacob Henrici becoming a director. Henrici was the key due to his Harmony Society ties which was a communal religious group founded in 1805. In 1880, William Henry Vanderbilt's Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway bought stock to the tune of $200,000 in the P&LE. The P&LE would stay in the Vanderbilt's New York Central system until Conrail. Also in 1877, an agreement between the P&LE and the Atlantic & Great Western (Erie) and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway was reached for routing traffic at Youngstown, Ohio. The final track laying between Pittsburgh and Youngstown was on January 27, 1879.

At the opening in 1879, the P&LE was a poorly built, single track line. Fortunately for the railroad it was an immediate success and money was soon available for improvements.

In 1881, the P&LE became linked with the notorious South Pennsylvania Railroad (South Penn). This would lead to William Henry Vanderbilt to control of the P&LE as a link in the South Penn and the building of the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Youghiogheny Railroad. The South Pennsylvania Railroad was planned to connect to the PM&Y.

Vanderbilt did this by buying Henry W. Oliver's and the Harmony Society's stock in the P&LE. Then Vanderbilt, aided by Andrew Carnegie, advanced the PM&Y all of the funds to build to Connellsville, Pennsylvania and then lease it to the P&LE for 99 years. The PM&Y in the end was the only part of the South Penn that was built, but it would be an important part of the P&LE. The PM&Y opened in 1883 and leased to the P&LE in 1884. Concurrently in 1883, to get the P&LE ready for the expected new business due to the South Penn linkage, the McKees Rocks shops were built.

The company came under more formal control in the 1887 by the New York Central Railroad. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway's president, John Newell, took over as president of the P&LE in 1887. Under Newell, Reed and Colonel Schoonmaker; the P&LE would become the "Little Giant". From 1887 to 1927, the P&LE would become a heavy duty railroad, with double track all the way from Pittsburgh to Youngstown. The P&LE operated as an independent subsidiary, even after New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad merged to form Penn Central.

The making of coke in Connellsville had been a big part of P&LE traffic, but by the early 20th century it had lessened. The development of by-products distillation processing of coke had moved to the Pittsburgh area. The P&LE then extended up the Monongahela River to Brownsville, Pennsylvania in 1901. The Pennsylvania Railroad at the same time had extended to Brownsville. Both the PRR and the P&LE had plans to extend even further up the river into West Virginia coke fields. Most likely due to the South Penn, they decided to work together by using the Monongahela Railway.

The Monongahela Railway then was extended south to Martin, Pennsylvania reaching the Kondike Coke fields. Later in 1915 it reached Fairmont, West Virginia.

When Conrail was formed, the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad again became an independent company because P&LE was owed $15.2 million by Penn Central, and operated as such until its merger into CSX Transportation (CSX).

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We guarantee all of our pieces to be authentic. If you ever determine that a piece is not authentic, it may be returned for a full refund of the purchase price as well as any associated shipping charges.

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