GEORGE H. HARTFORD - STOCK CERTIFICATE SIGNED 12/01/1905 - HFSID 252314

GEORGE HUNTINGTON HARTFORD. Stock Certificate signed: "Geo H Hartford" as President of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, 1p, 11¼x9½ with 5¼x9½ receipt portion affixed at left margin. Jersey City, New Jersey, 1905 December 1. No. 35. Certifying "that John Simmonds is the owner of One Hundred Shares of the full Paid and Non-Assessable Preferred Stock of The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea company...." Preferred stock issue of $1.4 million; common stock, $700,000. Shares were $100 each. Also signed by the Treasurer of the company. On verso, Simmonds assigns the stock to himself and appoints Mr. Corkill as attorney on January 2, 1906. George Huntington Hartford started what would become The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company with his future father-in-law, George F. Gilman, in New York (circa 1860). Beginning as a single upscale retail and mail order store selling tea, spices, baking soda and other products, the company expanded to other cities by 1869. When Gilman died in 1901, Hartford and his two sons, George Ludlum and John Augustine Hartford, purchased ownership of the firm. In 1912, at John's suggestion, the company opened an "economy store" in Jersey City, New Jersey, offering groceries at low prices and clerks' service. The A&P was one of the earliest chain-store companies in the U.S. and was the largest in sales volume until surpassed by Sears Roebuck in 1964. Lightly creased. Folds, vertical fold touches the "G" in George. 3 cancellation holes also touch signature. Glue stains at left margin at receipt. Irregular left edge from removal from bound book. Overall, fine condition.