Product Details
| Company |
New York and Putnam Railroad Company |
| Certificate Type |
Capital Stock
|
| Date Issued |
April 1, 1905
|
| Canceled |
Yes |
| Printer |
Not indicated
|
| Signatures |
Hand signed
|
|
Approximate Size
|
10 3/4" (w) by 7 1/4" (h)
|
Product Images
|
Show the exact certificate you will receive |
|
Authentic
|
Yes
|
| Additional Details |
Issued to, but not signed by, William Rockefeller
|
Historical Context
The New York and Putnam Railroad Company (affectionately known as the “Old Put”) was incorporated on January 13, 1894 by J.P. Morgan. All the New York & Northern Railway property was conveyed to the new company on January 15, and on February 1, the entire line was leased to the New York Central for as long as the New York & Putnam was to exist.
In 1902, the state approved the abandonment of a segment of the branch from Mahopac Falls to the defunct Mahopac Mines. In 1911, a branch line was built from Yorktown Heights to Mohansic Lake. The construction was to serve the proposed Mohansic State Hospital, a 6,000-patient insane asylum, and a training school for delinquent boys.
In 1915, New York City objected to the threat of water pollution to the Croton Reservoir from this project. The state legislature withheld further appropriations on May 1 1917. The project promptly died and the railroad abandoned the branch line.
The line merged with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad on March 7, 1913, which in turn became the New York Central in 1914. The line was then known as the Putnam Division of the New York Central.
The "Old Put" would still be with us today if a 1928 plan proposed by the Westchester County Transit Commission was completed. The plan consisted of connecting two tracks of the Hudson division with the Putnam's, enter a tunnel under the Harlem River at 149th Street, and reach the foot of Manhattan via express tunnel under Madison Avenue. Estimated cost was $150 million dollars. The 1929 Depression put a quick demise to any expensive proposals.
But in 1929, a "first" did occur. The "Put" main line was chosen because of its curves and grades as a proving ground for diesel power. On March 18 at 9:20 am, America's first diesel-power passenger train left High Bridge. It was so successful, that in June, the NYC tested a different diesel for over-the-road freight service. It only mishap was on a sharp curve as it approached Carmel. The engine tore off a ten-foot sliver of rail.
Related Collections
William Rockefeller
William Jr. was born in Richford, New York. He was the middle son of con artist William Avery Rockefeller Sr. and Eliza Davison. In addition to elder brother John, William Jr.'s siblings were Lucy, Mary, and twins Franklin (Frank) and Frances. He also had two elder half-sisters, Clorinda and Cornelia, through his father's affairs with mistress and housekeeper Nancy Brown. In 1853 his family moved to Strongsville, Ohio. As a young pupil in public school, he was inspired and motivated by his teacher-mentor, Rufus Osgood Mason, whom Rockefeller later named "A Rockefeller Patron."
At the age of sixteen, he began work as a clerk for a miller in Cleveland, Ohio. About two years later, he joined his older brother's produce commission business, Clark and Rockefeller, which later supplied provisions to the Union Army.
Rockefeller was very adept in business matters. When John D. formed Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler in 1867, he invited William to take charge of the company's export business in New York. In 1867, William Rockefeller and Co. was formed as a subsidiary to Rockefeller and Andrews. In 1870, that company became Standard Oil. In 1911 when Standard Oil of New Jersey was split up by the United States Supreme Court. He also had interests in copper mining and processing, railways (which had expanded extensively in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), and public utilities, and built up the National City Bank of New York, now known as Citigroup.
In the late 1890s, Rockefeller joined fellow Standard Oil principal Henry H. Rogers in forming the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company, a holding company that intended to control the copper industry. Rockefeller, along with Henry Rogers, devised a scheme which earned them a profit of $36 million. First, they purchased Anaconda properties from Marcus Daly for $39 million, with the understanding that the check was to be deposited in the bank and remain there for a definite time (National City Bank was run by Rockefeller's friends). Rogers and Rockefeller then set up a paper organization, known as the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company, with their own clerks as dummy directors, saying the company was worth $75 million.
They had Amalgamated Copper Company buy Anaconda from them for $75 million in capital stock, which was conveniently printed for the purpose. Then, they borrowed $39 million from the bank using Amalgamated Copper as collateral. They paid back Daly for Anaconda and sold $75 million worth of stock in Amalgamated Copper to the public. They paid back the bank's $39 million and had a profit of $36 million in cash.
With help from banker John Dennis Ryan, Amalgamated acquired two large competitors, and soon controlled all the mines of Butte, Montana. By the late 1920s it had become Anaconda Copper Company and was the fourth-largest company in the world.
From 1912 to 1913, the Pujo Committee investigated Rockefeller and others for allegedly earning $30 million in profit through cornering the copper market and "synchronizing with artificially enforced activity" in Amalgamated Copper stock in the New York Stock Exchange.
When the newly formed Mutual Alliance Trust Company opened for business in New York on the Tuesday after June 29, 1902, there were 13 directors, including Emanuel Lehman and Rockefeller.
