Pair of Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Co. Transfers Issued to Lynde Catlin - Stock Certificate

Pair of Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Company Transfers, 1 issued to Lynde Catlin and 1 signed by his attorney Featherstonhaugh. So Early!

Lynde Catlin, the first cashier of the Merchants' Bank, was born in 1768, in Litchfield, Conn. He was educated as a lawyer, graduating at Yale College in the class of 1786: His descendants among the alumni of that university were: his sons, John M.(class of 1820), Charles R.(Class of 1822); his grandsons, Lynde A. (Class of 1853), Charles T.(class of 1856), Rev. Hasket D. (Class; of 1859), George L.(class of 1860), Dr. Arnold W.(Class of 1862); and his great-grandson, the Rev. Sidney C. Partridge (Class of 1880).

Mr, Catlin was of English ancestry, the Catlin family having come over to England with William the Conqueror. Several of his ancestors were distinguished men in their day, a number of them being knighted. The family settled in Kent County, England, Sir Robert Catlin being Lord Chief Justice of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Thomas Catlin, the great-great-great-grandfather of Lynde Catlin, was born in England about 1612. His son, John Catlin, was born in England in 1646 and was married to Mary Marshall, in America, July 27, 1665. Samael Catlin, his son, and great-grandfather of Lynde Catlin, was born at Hartford, Conn., November 4, 1672.

Lieutenant John Catlin, grandfather of Lynde Catlin, was born October 20, 1703, and his son, Captain Alexander Catlin, the father of the Merchants' Bank's first cashier, was born January 6, 1738, and died at Burlington, Vt. He married Abigail Goodman, the granddaughter of Captain Joseph Wadsworth of Charter Oak fame. Lynde Catlin married Helen Margaret Kip, of Albany, N. Y., on October 19, 1793. They had eight children, four of whom died in infancy. One of his sons, John Mortimer Catlin, was Colonel of the Seventh Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., 1337-39, and was private secretary to John Jacob Astor. Another son, George Catlin, married Catharine Livingston Kearny, a cousin of Generals Phil and Stephen Kearny.

While Mr. Catlin was cashier of the Merchants' Bank he attracted the attention of John Jacob Astor who induced him to become cashier of the branch in New York of the United States Bank (the famous Whig institution of those days), Mr. Astor himself taking the presidency; and at the dissolution, in 1820, of the United States Bank he returned to the Merchants' Bank as its president. In that capacity he died October 18, 1833, and his remains were interred in the family vault in St. Mark's churchyard.

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