Beautiful RARE stock certificate from the Boston American League Base-Ball Club (The Boston Red Sox) issued in 1913. This historic document was has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman. This item has the signatures of the Company's President, James McAleer, and Treasurer, Bob McRoy and is over 111 years old.

The certificate was issued to Charles Henry Taylor and is signed by him on the back.

Charles Henry Taylor (July 14, 1846 – June 22, 1921) was an American journalist and politician. He created the modern Boston Globe, acting as its publisher starting in 1873. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1872, and later served as private secretary to the Governor of Massachusetts.  His commonly used military rank, General Taylor, was due to his service and rank in the Massachusetts state militia and served in the 38th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers

The Boston Globe
Taylor joined The Boston Globe in 1873, one year after it was founded. The newspaper was started by six Boston businessmen, led by merchant Eben Dyer Jordan, who jointly invested $150,000. The first issue was published March 4, 1872, at the price of four cents. In August 1873, with the paper facing low circulation and financial difficulties, Jordan hired Taylor as temporary business manager. At the time, Taylor was a 27-year-old Civil War veteran, who had worked as a staff member and printer for the Boston Traveler, and as a stringer for the New York Tribune.

His efforts ultimately created a profitable, large-circulation newspaper. He reduced the price to two cents and "laid down a strict rule that all news should be given impartially." His most important innovation, however, was adding stock quotations, women's pages, and sports coverage to the previous menu of political, national and foreign news, creating a prototype of a modern family newspaper. Within three weeks of his advent as publisher, the circulation climbed from 8,000 to 30,000.

All three of Taylor's sons were involved in management of the Globe:
Charles H. Taylor Jr. – treasurer-manager (1893–1937)
William O. Taylor – succeeded his father as editor and publisher (1921–1955)
John I. Taylor – classified advertising (1893–1896); best remembered for having owned the Boston Red Sox from 1904 to 1914.

Taylor has been credited with establishing effective election projection methods, enabling the Globe to "tame the mass of information flowing through the newsroom with specifically designed organizational tools"; he personally oversaw the paper's election projections from 1883 through 1920. The Globe successfully avoided an incorrect call in the 1916 United States presidential election, when it initially appeared that Republican Charles Evans Hughes would defeat incumbent Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

The Globe was a private company equally owned by the heirs of Jordan and Taylor for a little over a hundred years. In 1973 the Globe went public under the name of Affiliated Publications. Over the following twenty years, Affiliated Publications expanded into television and radio stations, as well as magazines and community newspapers.  They were part owners of Mccaw Cellular when Bob Kerstein was a Senior Vice President.

James Robert "Loafer" McAleer (July 10, 1864 – April 29, 1931) was an American center fielder, manager, and stockholder in Major League Baseball who assisted in establishing the American League. He spent most of his 13-season playing career with the Cleveland Spiders, and went on to manage the Cleveland Blues, St. Louis Browns, and Washington Senators. Shortly before his retirement, he became a major shareholder in the Boston Red Sox.

His career ended abruptly. During his brief tenure as co-owner of the Red Sox, McAleer quarreled with longtime friend and colleague Ban Johnson, president of the American League. In the wake of this disagreement, he sold off his shares in the Red Sox and broke off his relationship with Major League Baseball.

McAleer's rift with Johnson, along with his sudden retirement, damaged his professional reputation, and he received little recognition for his contributions to baseball. Today, he is most often remembered for initiating the customary request that the President of the United States throw out the first ball of the season.

Robert McRoy - 1882 -1917 McRoy served as secretary of the American League under Ban Johnson. When Johnson put control of the Boston Red Sox under Jimmy McAleer, he sent McRoy to serve as McAleer's secretary. McRoy worked for the Red Sox from 1912 through 1913. When Joseph Lannin purchased the Red Sox in 1913, McRoy returned to work for Johnson.

In the 1916-17 offseason, McRoy and Johnson recruited Jim Dunn to head up a syndicate to buy the Cleveland Indians baseball team from Charles Somers for $500,000. McRoy served as general manager of the Cleveland Indians from 1916 through 1917.

History from RM Smythe and Wikipedia.