Bartlett Fire Extinguishing Company - West Virginia 1886

Beautifully engraved certificate from the Bartlett Fire-Extinguishing Company issued in 1886. This historic document was printed by Gibson Bros. and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an old piece of fire fighting equipment. This item is hand signed by the Company's President and Secretary, Wallace A. Bartlett and is over 124 years old. This is the first time we have seen this for sale.


Certificate Vignette

The following was from the Acts of the Legislature of West Virginia 1886

THE BAKTLETT FIRE EXTINGUISHING COMPANY.

I, Henry S. Walker, secretary of state of the state of West Virginia, hereby certify that an agreement duly acknowledged and accompanied by the proper affidavits, has been this day delivered to me, which agreement is in the words and figures following :

The undersigned agree to become a corporation by the name of "The Bartlett Fire Extinguishing Company," for the purpose of purchasing and selling letters patent, granted by the United States and other countries, for improvements in fire extinguishing apparatus and for purchasing, selling and manufacturing patented fire extinguishing apparatus. Which corporation shall keep its principal office or place of business at the city of Washington, county of Washington, and District of Columbia, and is to expire on the first day of July, A. D., 1935. And for the purpose of forming said corporation, we have subscribed the sum of five hundred dollars to the capital thereof, and have paid in on said subscriptions the sum of one hundred dollars, and desire the privilege of increasing the said capital by the sale of additional shares from time to time to five hundred thousand dollars in all.

The capital so subscribed is divided into shares of fifty dollars each, which are held by the undersigned respestively, as follows, that is to say :

By Wallace A. Bartlett, of Washington, D. C, two shares;

By Geo. M. Fillmore, of Washington, D. C, two shares ;

By H. H. Blackburn, of Washington, D. C, two shaies;

By J. H. Russell, of Washington, D. C, two shares;

By Geo. W. Bonnell, of Washington, D. C, two shares.

And the capital to be hereafter sold is to be divided into shares of the like amount.

Given under our hands this 24th day of July, 1885.

Wallace A. Bartlett, Geo. M. Fillmore, H. H. Blackburn, J. H. Russell, George W. Bonnell. Wherefore, the corporators named in the said agreement, and who have signed the same, and their successors and assigns, are hereby declared to be from this date until the firs1 day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-five, a corporation by the name and for the purposes set Jorth in said agreement.

Given under my hand and the great seal of the said [G. S.] State, at the city of Charleston, this nineteenth day of August, eighteen hundred and eighty-five.

Henry S. Walker, Secretary of State.