Beautiful stock certificate from the Atlantic-Pacific Railway Tunnel Company countersigned in 1885. This historic document was printed by the Railway & Bankers Eng. & Lith, Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an mountain range showing Torry's Peak, Mt. of Holy Cross, Kelso Mountain and Loveland Pass. This item has the original signatures of the President, A. S. Whitaker and Secretary and is over 139 years old.

Certificate Vignette

September 20, 1896 The New York Times

Published: September 20, 1896 The New York Times TUNNEL IN DISPUTE TROUBLE OVER "BRICK" POMEROY'S GREAT PROJECT. Eastern Stockholders in the $2,OOO,000 Idea of Tunnelling Mount Kelso, Col., Meet and Accuse A. S. Whitaker and :8. F. George? Officials of the Corporation, of Letting Taxes Go Unpaid and 'men ::Buying at a Tax Sale. A meeting of the Eastern stockholders of Atlantic-Pacific Ra.ilroad Tunnel' Company, I a scheme of the late "Brick" Pomeroy, I· was held in the. Hotel Normandie last Fri- I day night for the purpose of preventing , the cal'ry-ing out of what the stockholders think Is a fraud on the part· of certain officers of the company . . A lawsuit is meditated agaInst these · officials and O. L. Snyder of Buffalo, the attorney for the stockholders, has instructed Messrs. Ridell, Starkweller & Dixon, Denver lawyers, .to bring suit in the , name of Mrs. M. E. Hoyt of this State, and certain other stockhOlders . .. Brick" Pomeroy, wh"o died in poverty in ihls city a. few lDonths ago, was during much of hiSllife absorbed In various schemes in Western towns. He conceived the idea, while livlng in Denver, of dIgging a tunnel through l\fount Kelso, in Colorado, about sixty miles from Denver, thereby shortening the route from Denver to Salt Lake City 250 miles. InCidentally, he expected that he and all hands concerned in the scheme would get rich through the mining of ores in the mountaIn during the progress of the tunnel. Capitali7:ed i'or $7,000,000. He succeeded in organizing a company in 1880, which toe called the At1antlc~Paclfic Railroad Tunnel Company. It was capitalized at $7,000,000, ot which It was claimed about. $1,000,000 was subscribed. It was a Denver corporation, but the bulk of the shares was held by Eastern purchasers. Mr. Pomeroy was President of' the company, and A. S. Whitaker of Denver was made Secretary .and Vice President, whHe B. F. George of Denver was contractor. The work of digging the tunnel progressed slowly, until about one-fourth of the entire five miles had been dug out. Then the work stopped. The meeting of tlle stockholders Friday night was held to devise ways and mea.lIs to keep the propertr in the hands of its present owners. AccoI:ding to MI: . .snyde., ::lUSpicion that thIngs were not right was aroused when the Eastern stockholders received a, cIrcular, dated July 3, markeu .. confidential," saying that a. new tunnel · company had been organized in order to preserve the property. The circular stated that certain property of the tunnel compa. ny In Mount Kel~o had been sold in 1890 for back taxes, and that, as the ba.ck taxes had been paid for three consecutive years by the same person, under the Jaws of Colorado he had 'received a deed for the property from the County Treasurer. Asked to. Subllcribe t.or Taxes. The circula.r stated furtller that by last August the taxes would have run another three yea.rs without being paid, and that, as · they covered all the holdings of thE> com, pany, unless they should be paid the com!. pany would lose eVerything. Each wrson : receIving the cIrcUlar was requested to · subscribe toward paying the taxes and reorganizing the company. '1'he circular was slgned by Whitaker & George. When Mrs. Hoyt received it she authorized Mr. Snyder to look Into the matter. The result is the current proceedings. Mr. Snyder said last night: .. We found, on investigation, that the reorganiza. tion schem~ of the Denver officers was nothing but an attempt to steal the property from the stockholder's. Their method has been to allOW the taxes to run in arrears, allow them to be paid by their agent, and thus permit the property to be sold. The nature of this scneme becomes more patent when it 1£ known that the taxes the non-payment of which caused the most important part of the tunnel to be sold amounted to only $38. "It was the busIness of the officIals of the company in Denver to see that these taxes were paid . .. The property which· was sold for nonpayment is tlie Poposi lode, the Bonn lode, the Sonora lode, and the Great West lode. This property lies at each entrance to the tunnel, and as it is now in the hands of the conspirators, they calculate upon controlling the rest of it by virtue of their advantage . .. These men kept their deSigns quiet until the death of Mr. Pomeroy. Then they sent out their circular of July 3 . .. Another circular was sent out from Denver, dated Aug. 26, explaining that at a meeting In Denver a few days previously the company had ·been reorganj~edunder the nalne of the Atlantic-PacUic Railroad TUnnel and Mining Company, with a capitalization of $5,000,000. The circular stated that Messrs. George and Whitaker, in accordance with their saving fund circulars, issued preViOUSlY, had recovered the properties of the tunnel company (which were lost to us) by a · purchase of all the lost properties, paying all ta,xes, liens, and judgments on the East End properties to da.t~.' So:me Question", Put . · , NoW, what we desire to know and are trying to discover is WIlY the tunnel was lost in the first place for the sake of a few dollars' worth of taxes, and wny. when the taxes were charged to the tunnel company, they were aU paid except those on property <lontrolUng the entrance to the tunnel. and why moneY" should have Deen solicited to buy a tunnel already owned by the officers by virtue of their secret purchase at the tax sale . .. It is expected that the suU. which has been br,Pught by the Denver lawyers, will stop thiS business a.nd prevent the total loss of all the money invested by Eastern stockholders." Mrs Hoyt. who Is bringing the suit, is said to possess $50,000 worth of stock in the project. The stOCkholders who met Frldaynight represent some hali million dollars' worth of stock. Pomeroy sunk all his money in the project. Stm, it is claimed , that with successful financierillg, provided I the property can be rescued, it will be a. , profitable business. . Most of the stockholders are said to be ! men and women of moderate means. Most, of them are of the small investor class. The. contract called fol.' the completion of the work in 1883. It was supposed that the company. in addition to the revenue they would derive from the use of the tunnel by railroad companies, would get rich by the diSCOVery of ellormous supplies of gold, silver, copper, lead, and almost every other v~luable mineral known to man.