Stillwater and St. Paul Railroad Co. signed by Jay Cooke, Jr. - 1871 dated Autographed Stock Certificate

Stock signed by Jay Cooke, Jr as president. The very nicest signature found on this stock. Rare!

Jay Cooke (1821-1905) Banker. A chance move to Philadelphia as a result of the panic of 1837 determined Jay Cooke's future career, with his eventually ending up as a partner in the distinguished banking house of Clark & Company in that city. Retiring as a wealthy man in 1857, he could not stay idle long, and founded Jay Cooke & Company in 1861, destined to become one of the most widely known banking houses in the country. Serving as treasury agent for the U.S. government during the Civil War, Cooke's banking house handled with great success the larger part of the $2 billion in bonds which the government issued to finance the war effort. After the war, Cooke's banking house specialized in financing very large enterprises, most notably the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In the depression of 1873, however, the house failed, helping bring on the panic of 1873. In October 1867, the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad leased the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad. The CP&A changed its name to the Lake Shore Railway on March 31, 1868, and on February 11, 1869 the Lake Shore absorbed the Cleveland and Toledo. On April 6 the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad and Lake Shore merged to form the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, which absorbed the Buffalo and Erie Railroad on June 22, giving one company the whole route from Buffalo to Chicago. The main route passed through Dunkirk, New York, Erie, Pennsylvania, Ashtabula, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio, Waterloo, Indiana and South Bend, Indiana.

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