Wygant Theodore (1 results)

Oblong 8vo. 9.5 x 5.25 in., 1 lithographed stock certificate, printed in red & black, image of OSN sidewheeler, decorative borders, signed by Wygant, Ainsworth & Thompson at lower fore-edge, transfer printed on verso, signed by Edwin M. Lewis, to Mrs. Kate J. Jones, w/ stamps of paid dividends in 1878 and 1880. A nicely lithographed and rare original stock certificate issued in 1874 by Jay Cooke and the Northern Pacific Railroad to raise money for OSN after many of its original stockholders had sold out in 1867 as the Company continued to compete with Ben Holladay's Pacific Mail Steamship Co. Unfortunately, OSN became entangled with the declining financial woes of the Northern Pacific to the extent that by 1879, Henry Villard, representing German Bondholders in 1879 purchased the OSN, paid off the certificate holders by 1880, and the company disappeared into Villard's transcontinental railroad. Edwin Lewis in Shasta, OR transferred this certificate to Kate J. Jones May 1, 1875, and shows the stamps of being paid off in dividends when the Northern Pacific absorbed OSN's four railroads, 26 steamboats, and real estate in Portland, Astoria, The Dalles, Umatilla, OR, and Vancouver, WA.