Appointment Issued to and Signed by James Stillman - 1892 dated Autograph

Appointment Issued to and Signed by James Stillman.

James Jewett Stillman (June 9, 1850 – March 15, 1918) was an American businessman who invested in land, banking, and railroads in New York, Texas, and Mexico. He was chairman of the board of directors of the National City Bank. He forged alliances with the Rockefeller family, Standard Oil and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. to lay a foundation that made it, arguably, "the greatest bank in the Western Hemisphere." He engaged in an expansion policy that made National City the largest bank in the United States by 1894, the first to open foreign branches, and a leader in foreign exchange. By 1902, the bank was able to pay any sum of money to any city in the world within 24 hours. He was worth approximately $77 million at the time of his death, making him one of the wealthiest people in the country at the time.

Stillman was born on June 9, 1850 to Charles Stillman (1810–1875) and Elizabeth Pamela Goodrich in Brownsville, Texas, a town founded by his father. Both of his parents were born in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Charles Stillman had significant business interests which James acquired in 1872. He expanded those to control of sixteen Texas banks and a significant land holdings in the Rio Grande Valley, particularly Corpus Christi and Kerrville, Texas. Along with Edward Henry Harriman, Jacob Henry Schiff and William Rockefeller, he controlled the most important Texas railroads (including the Texas and Pacific Railway, the Southern Pacific Railroad, the International-Great Northern Railroad, the Union Pacific Southern Railway, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, and the Mexican National Railroad). In 1876, Stillman supported Porfirio Díaz's overthrow of the government of Mexico by the Revolution of Tuxtepec. He was chairman of the board of directors of the National City Bank and retired in 1908. He died on March 15, 1918 at his home on 9 East 72nd Street in Manhattan, New York. His funeral was at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stillman

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of about 400 miles (640 km). Incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853 primarily for the purpose of providing a connection between the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and the large markets for coal in New York City the railroad gradually expanded both East and West, eventually linking Buffalo with New York City. Like most coal focused railroads in Northeastern Pennsylvania (e.g. Lehigh Valley Railroad, New York, Ontario and Western Railroad and the Lehigh & New England Railroad), the DL&W was profitable during the first half of the twentieth century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining Pennsylvania coal traffic especially following the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster and competition from trucks following the expansion of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960, the DL&W merged with rival Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad which would be taken over by Conrail in 1976. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware,_Lackawanna_and_Western_Railroad

Read More

Read Less