MAJOR GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT - STOCK CERTIFICATE ENDORSED 03/01/1872 - HFSID 176088

JOHN C. FREMONT
John C. Frémont endorses a stock certificate for one hundred shares of preferred stock on the Cincinnati Railway Tunnel Company.
Stock Certificate signed: "Fremont & Morton by/J.C. Frémont Atty/authorized in the presence," on verso, 1p, 10¼x6. Cincinnati, 1872 March 1. Certificate No. 70. Certifying "that Mess. Fremont & Morton are entitled to One Hundred Shares of Fifty Dollars each, in the Capital Stock of the Cincinnati Railway Tunnel Company...." Signed on front: "A.J. Hodder" as President and "Geo. B. Ellard" as Secretary. Not filled in on verso, which is signed: "A.J. Hodder" as Witness. In the 1840s, John C. Frémont (1813-1890) led Congressionally-funded expeditions to survey the Oregon Trail, Oregon Territory and the Great Basin and Sierra Mountains to California. He grew wealthy during the gold rush of 1848 and became one of California's first two U.S. Senators (1850). In 1856, he became the first presidential nominee of the newly founded Republican Party, losing to Buchanan. In the Civil War, Frémont was appointed Major General by President Lincoln and briefly commanded the Western Department, removed from his post when he decided independently to emancipate all of Missouri's slaves (August, 1861). Fremont's railroad investments proved unsuccessful, losing the fortune he had made during the California gold rush. Lightly creased. Lightly soiled. Chipped at blank left and lower edges, upper and lower left corners chipped away. Light show through of writing. Overall, fine condition.