Pullman Company signed by Robert Todd Lincoln (Abe Lincolns Son) - 1905

Beautiful certificate from the Pullman Company issued in 1905. This historic document was printed by the American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item has the original signatures of the Company’s President, Robert Todd Lincoln and Secretary, and is over 107 years old. Punch cancelled.




Certificate Vignette






Robert Todd Lincoln's Signature



Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843 – July 26, 1926) was an American lawyer and Secretary of War, and the first son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. Born in Springfield, Illinois, United States, he was the only one of Lincoln's four sons to live to adulthood.

Lincoln graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1860, then studied at Harvard University from 1861 to 1864, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter).[citation needed] (Later in life, Lincoln also joined the Delta Chi fraternity.[citation needed]) He then enrolled in Harvard Law School but did not graduate.[citation needed] Much to the embarrassment of the President, Mary Todd Lincoln prevented Robert Lincoln from joining the Union Army until shortly before the war's conclusion in 1865.[citation needed] He held the rank of captain, serving in the last weeks of the American Civil War as part of General Ulysses S. Grant's immediate staff, a position which sharply minimized the likelihood that he would be involved in actual combat. He was present at Appomattox when Lee surrendered.

Lincoln had a distant relationship with his father, in part because Abraham Lincoln spent months on the judicial circuit during his formative years. Robert would later say his most vivid image of his father was of his packing his saddlebags to prepare for his travels through Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was proud of Robert and thought him bright, but also saw him as something of a competitor, and once said, "he guessed Bob would not do better than he had." The two lacked the strong bond Lincoln had with his sons Willie and Tad, but Robert deeply admired his father and wept openly at his deathbed.

Following his father's assassination, in April 1865, Robert Lincoln moved with his mother and his brother Tad to Chicago, where Robert completed his law studies at the University of Chicago (a school different from but whose name was later assumed by the university currently known by that name). He was admitted to the bar on February 25, 1867.

His mother's "spend-thrift" ways and eccentric behavior concerned Robert Lincoln. Fearing that his mother was a danger to herself, he was left with no choice but to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital in Batavia, Illinois in 1875. With his mother in the hospital, he was left with control of her finances. On May 20, 1875, she arrived at Bellevue Place, a private, upscale sanitarium in the Fox River Valley. Three months after being installed in Bellevue Place, Mary Lincoln engineered her escape. She smuggled letters to her lawyer, James B. Bradwell, and his wife, Myra Bradwell, who was not only her friend but also a feminist lawyer and fellow spiritualist. She also wrote to the editor of the Chicago Times, known for its sensational journalism. Soon, the public embarrassments Robert had hoped to avoid were looming, and his character and motives were in question. The director of Bellevue, who at Mary’s trial had assured the jury she would benefit from treatment at his facility, now in the face of potentially damaging publicity declared her well enough to go to Springfield to live with her sister as she desired. The committal proceedings led to a profound estrangement between Lincoln and his mother, and they never fully reconciled.

In 1877 he turned down President Rutherford B. Hayes' offer to appoint him Assistant Secretary of State, but later accepted an appointment as President James Garfield's Secretary of War, serving from 1881 to 1885 under Presidents Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. During his term in office, the Cincinnati Riots of 1884 broke out over a case in which a jury gave a verdict of manslaughter rather than murder in a case that many suspected was rigged. Forty-five people died during three days of rioting before U.S. troops dispatched by Lincoln reestablished calm.

Following his service as Secretary of War, Lincoln helped Oscar Dudley in establishing the Illinois Industrial Training School for Boys in Norwood Park in 1887, after Dudley discovered "more neglected and abandoned children on the streets than stray animals." The school relocated to Glenwood, Illinois in 1899. It first enrolled girls in 1998. Under the name Glenwood School for Boys & Girls, the school continues to operate as a haven for boys and girls whose parents are unable to care for them.

Lincoln was general counsel of the Pullman Palace Car Company under George Pullman, and was named president after Pullman's death in 1897. In 1911, Lincoln became chairman of the board, a position he held until his death in 1926.

A serious amateur astronomer, Lincoln constructed an observatory at his home in Manchester, Vermont, and equipped it with a refracting telescope that had a six-inch objective lens. Lincoln's telescope still exists; it has been restored and is used by a local astronomy club.

Robert Lincoln made his last public appearance at the dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C. for his father's memorial on May 30, 1922.

---

George Pullman never forgot his first overnight train ride. It was the early 1850s, and he was making the trip from Boston to Westfield, Massachusetts. Like everyone else he spent the night lying fully clothed on a rough mattress. Like everyone else he didn't sleep much. This was no way to travel, he thought, and began to consider the cash to be made in creating comfort.

Pullman had ideas and ambition, and a few years later -- now in Chicago -- he had money, a stake of $20,000 made from raising buildings in the city's flood-prone neighborhoods. His greatest feat, in 1858, involved elevating the stylish Tremont Hotel. After workmen installed heavy beams in the basement of the four-story building, Pullman supervised the simultaneous turning of 5,000 jackscrews by 1,200 men. Slowly the Tremont rose to higher ground.

A man who could move hotels wasn't likely to be cowed by the challenge of building a better train car. Besides, almost anything would be an improvement. Rail travel was a miserable experience, a back-battering ride on stiff benches in cars thick with dust in the summer and smoke from the wood stove in the winter. Even when some rail lines began offering overnight accommodations, passengers were given little more than cots or mattresses and little privacy. Pullman saw a market there: the growing number of businessmen traveling from city to city.

He began to rebuild two coaches, dividing the oversized cars with curtains into 10 sleeper sections. With the cleverness of the cabinetmaker he had once been, Pullman hid his beds in upper berths that could be opened at night, and similarly installed hinged chairs that could swing back up to the ceiling. He built a linen closet and toilets at both ends. He mounted everything on four-wheeled trucks with heavy iron wheels and springs, softening the ride. But perhaps most important, Pullman paid enormous attention to detail, lining his sleepers with rich cherry wood and covering the seats with plush upholstery that seemed even softer in the glow of oil lamps. By the end of 1858 his sleepers -- which he considered experimental -- were carrying somewhat confused riders. Most couldn't fathom actually trying to sleep on a train. When they realized this was indeed possible, they still had to be convinced that they could remove their shoes. No one would steal them, the conductors promised.

George Pullman's sleeper was a thing of beauty. But he was just getting started. Soon he would create a luxury car the likes of which had never been seen.

History from Wikipedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service)