Beautiful RARE certificate from the
Charleston Coastwise Transportation Company issued in 1875. This historic document has an
ornate border around it with a vignette of the state seal. This item has the signatures of the Company's President, Benjamin F. Simmons and Secretary, Edwin Welling and is over 132 years old.
Certificate Vignette
The company was incorporated on February 13,1873.
The Charleston Coastwise Transportation Company was in business for the
purpose of transporting, by sail vessels, produce, goods, wares, merchandize and general freight between Charleston, in the State of
South Carolina, and any other port or ports outside of the Atlantic Seaboard or in the West Indies.
The founders of the company were Benjamin F. Simmons, John C. Mallonee,
Edwin Welling and Reuben R. Hudgins.
Shortly before the Civil War, Benjamin F. Simmons purchased property two miles southeast of the City of Orangeburg off US 301 on Middlepen Road in Middlepen Branch, Orangeburg, Orangeburg County, South Carolina. He gave it the name Middlepen Plantation.