Telephone Department Card from the New York Stock Exchange Telephone Ticket issued in 1907. This historic document was printed by Franklin-Lee Bank Note and is number 379. It was issued to Charles D. Mead for the account of Hooley, Learnard & Co and is hand signed by the Secretary of the Exchange, George W. Ely. George Ely was born January 6, 1840, in West Springfield, Massachusetts in 1857, at 17, he enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard. In 1874, George W. Ely was named Secretary of the New York Stock Exchange and eventually Ely was secretary of the N.Y. Stock Exchange. During World War I Ely was in charge of the Liberty Loan Committee on the big board. As Secretary of the Stock Exchange, he was referred to as the man who owns the Big Board. When anyone violated the rules of the Exchange, Ely who would apply swift judgment. Upon his death the New York Times of August 22, 1922 reported: "No more characteristic figure in the New York Stock Exchange of a quarter century ago could be named than George W. Ely, who died on Wednesday at his country home in Onteora in the Catskills. He became a member of the Exchange in 1869, and in 1874 was elected secretary, serving in that capacity to the end of the century 1900 when he resigned to become President of the Bankers Trust Company.