Beautiful RARE installment certificate from the Martinsburg and Winchester Turnpike Company issued in 1855. This item has been hand signed by the Company's Treasurer, John Miller and is over 156 years old. The certificate was issued to John N. Bell. Martinsburg and Winchester Turnpike, a macadamized road from Martinsburg, WV to Winchester, VA was conceived in 1834, built in 1849, and in business as late as 1879. Now part of Route 11, it is called the Martinsburg Pike. Shenandoah valley pioneers and their descendants published the following in 1908: Another important Turnpike in the Valley is "The Martinsburg and Winchester Turnpike." A charter was granted this company March 24, 1838, "with all the rights, powers and privileges, and subject to all the restrictions and liabilities herein given to and imposed upon the Valley Turnpike Company," the state giving same aid as granted the Valley Turnpike Company. This road is too well known to need any description; it being a continuation of the Valley system. It is managed and controlled by its own President and Directors. The route is through one of the most highly cultivated sections of the Valley--gorgeous scenery to the right and left;--and the great Valley lying to the south gives the traveler full satisfaction in his effort to study the landscapes so well known to thousands, who once in the line of duty marched over this Pike; when the armies of the North and South frequently used this highway. It has been estimated that more than a million soldiers marched over this road within the space of three years--with attendant artillery and army trains; that fully one hundred thousand horses, wagons, etc., also traveled it. The close of the war found it in bad condition. The company, however, rallied to their work, and had the Pike pass through its reconstruction period, long before the U. S. Government allowed the county government to pass beyond that period in her affairs. Stock research by OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service).