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Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Co. Issued to B.P. Cheney and signed by his son, B.P. Cheney Jr. - Stock Certificate

Inv# AG2291   Stock
State(s): Illinois
Years: 1888

Stock issued to and signed by Benjamin Pierce Cheney. Also transferring at back 1 share to his son, Benjamin Pierce Cheney, Jr.

Benjamin Pierce Cheney (August 12, 1815 – July 23, 1895) was an American businessman, and a founder of the firm that became American Express. Cheney was elected a director of Wells Fargo & Company in September 1854 in place of Alpheus Reynolds, who had resigned. On April 15, 1863, the Wells Fargo management named Cheney, Danford N. Barney and William Fargo a committee to go to California "in the best interests of the company". Traveling by stage, they spent most of July, all of August, and most of September 1863 in California looking after the company's affairs.

Through his business contacts, Cheney became interested in the Vermont Central Railroad (later the Central Vermont), the Northern Pacific Railway, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the San Diego Land and Town Company. He was also the founder and a director of the Market National Bank of Boston and the American Loan and Trust Company. He helped finance the Northern Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, and had much to do with getting Wells Fargo's express service on both roads. He was a director of the Santa Fe from 1873 to 1894.

When it became evident the railroad was in dire straits, other directors sold their shares. Cheney, by contrast, refused to take advantage of his inside information and held his shares, suffering a significant personal loss when the railroad went bankrupt in the Panic of 1893 and was reorganized. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Pierce_Cheney

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (reporting mark ATSF), often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February, 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The railroad reached the KansasColorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado in 1876. To create a demand for its services, the railroad set-up real estate offices and sold farmland from the land grants that it was awarded by Congress. Despite being chartered to serve the city, the railroad chose to bypass Santa Fe, due to the engineering challenges of the mountainous terrain. Eventually a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico brought the Santa Fe railroad to its namesake city.

The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at one time or another it operated an airline, the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway, and a tugboat fleet. Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, and ferryboats on the San Francisco Bay allowed travelers to complete their westward journeys to the Pacific Ocean. The AT&SF was the subject of a popular song, Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer's "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", written for the film The Harvey Girls (1946). The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31, 1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchison,_Topeka_and_Santa_Fe_Railway

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Condition: Excellent

A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.

Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
Price: $305.00