MAJOR GENERAL JOHN A. DIX - STOCK CERTIFICATE SIGNED 10/21/1856 CO-SIGNED BY: AZARIAH C. FLAGG - HFSID 176087

TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD: GENERAL JOHN ADAMS DIX and AZARIAH C. FLAGG
Stock certificate for 40 shares in the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, signed by John Dix, President James Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury in 1861, and Azariah C. Flagg, New York State secretary of state and comptroller. The Mississippi and Missouri is important because its owner, Thomas C. Durant, used his ownership of this railroad to obtain ownership of the Union Pacific, one-half of the U. S.'s first transcontinental railroad.
Stock certificate signed "A.C. Flagg" as Treasurer and "John A.Dix" as President. 2 pages, 10¼x7, 1 sheet, front and verso. Black and red ink notations in unknown hand. Dated Oct. 21, 1856, transferred Oct. 22, 1856. Certificate no. 331 for 40 shares of stock, worth $100 per share, in the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, originally bought by D. J. Townsend. This certificate was cancelled on March 11, 1857. The Mississippi and Missouri Railroad is important because of its owner, Thomas C. Durant, one of the men responsible for the U. S.'s first transcontinental railroad. Durant founded the Mississippi and Missouri in 1853. The railroad was corporately linked to the Rock Island Railroad, which built the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River in April of 1856. The Mississippi and Missouri was the first railroad in Iowa and was ostensibly chartered to build a railroad across Iowa from Davenport to Council Bluffs, and Durant stuffed its boardroom with respected citizens like DIX (1798-1879), who had been a U. S. Senator from New York (1845-1849) and would be President James Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury in 1863, and FLAGG (1790-1873), who had been New York State secretary of state (1826-1832) and comptroller (1834-1839, 1842-1846). However, construction was slow under Durant's ownership, and the line ultimately terminated in Kellogg, Iowa, 40 miles east of Des Moines, Iowa in 1865, or only halfway across the state. Durant's main reasons for owning the Mississippi and Missouri were to obtain ownership of the Union Pacific Railroad... not to mention raking in obscene profits. Once he had ownership of the Union Pacific, Durant announced that the railroad would connect to the Mississippi and Missouri, the first in a series of stock manipulations that netted him and his friends millions. The Rock Island Railroad bought the Mississippi and Missouri in 1866 and completed the line to Council Bluffs in 1869. Lightly toned, soiled, creased and rippled. Normal cancellation punches, which touch signatures. Left edge is folded over and pasted down onto certificate. Pinholes in top corners. Light tear in right edge. Light nick in top edge. Show through from wax seal and notations on verso touches Flagg's signature, but not Dix's. discolored along right edge on verso under folded-over portion (no show-through). Folded in half vertically and thrice horizontally and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.