New York and Harlem Rail Road Co. Transferred to August Belmont - Autographed Railway Stocks and Bonds

Capital Stock transferred to August Belmont but not signed.

August Belmont (1816-1890), Banker, Born in Prussia. At 14 he secured a position with the Banking House of the Rothschilds at Frankfort and later managed some of the enormous financial transactions of the Rothschilds. At 21, he came to New York. In 1841, he fought a duel over a point of honor, in which he was wounded with the result of being lamed for life. He became a U.S. citizen. In 1854, he was appointed U.S. Charge d’Affaires at the Hague. He was involved in other diplomatic posts and in politics. Later established the firm of August Belmont & Co. In the Civil War he aided the Union cause by his influence in European political and financial circles.

The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and 1852 between Lower Manhattan to and beyond Harlem. Horses initially pulled railway carriages, followed by a conversion to steam engines, then one to battery-powered Julien electric traction cars. In 1907, the then leaseholders of the line, New York City Railway, a streetcar operator, went into receivership. Following a further receivership in 1932, the New York Railways Corporation converted the line to bus operation. The Murray Hill Tunnel now carries a lane of road traffic, but not the buses.

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