1853 Jeffersonville Railroad [Indiana] 10 shares of stock -War against the M & I

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1853 Jeffersonville Railroad Company certification of ownership of 10 shares of stock. Each share was $100, so this is an investment of $1000. Small section on left reads "No. 1549 Jeffersonville, Ia March 31, 1853 Issued to M.G. Bright On transfer of [?] Received Certificate No 1549 for Ten Shares of the Capital Stock of the Jeffersonville Railroad Company as above M.G. Bright" Vertical line between sections reads " Shares One Hundred Dollars Each" Larger section on right, No. Shares 10 No Certificate 1549 Office of the Jeffersonville Railroad Company, Jeffersonville, Ind. March 31st 1853 This is to Certify that M.G. Bright is the owner of Ten Shares of the Capital Stock of the Jeffersonville Railroad Company, transferable only on the books of said Company, in person, or by duly constituted attorney, this certificate being first surrendered, In Witness Whereof, Said Company has caused its Corporate Seal to be hereunto affixed, and this Certificate to be signed by the President and countersigned by the Secretary thereof [no seal on document] countersigned Wm G. Armstrong President J.H. McCampbell Secretary [Last section at bottom not filled in but signed again as Witness M.G. Bright" The Jeffersonville Railroad was chartered in 1832 as the Ohio & Indianapolis Railroad, the first chartered railroad in Indiana. It was to run from Indianapolis to Jeffersonville, Indiana, founded in the 1790s and located across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. The Company was finally organized in 1848 and renamed the Jeffersonville Railroad in 1849. It had built just north of Memphis, Indiana by 1850 and had gotten to Columbus, Indiana by 1852. The great competitor of the Jeffersonville was the Madison & Indianapolis, a state -run road which was the first railroad actually built in Indiana, laying track by 1836 and getting to Indianapolis by 1847. It ran successfully for a decade and kept the Jeffersonville out of Indianapolis. However the M & I declined and was sold in 1862 and renamed the Indianapolis & Madison. The two roads merged in 1866 as the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad [see #2 for locomotive of the JM & I which was named the M.G. Bright, the man who bought this stock] The J,M & I became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1871. This was one of the earliest railroads in Indiana. Signatories on the document are 1) William G.[ Goforth] Armstrong (1797-1858) an important Indiana Whig politician and president of the Jeffersonville Railroad. He was born in Columbia, Ohio, the son of Colonel John Armstrong (1755-1816) a soldier in the American Revolution, an Indian fighter in the Northwest, explorer, Treasurer of the Northwest Territory and land speculator. William was apprenticed in the clerk's office at Hamilton, Ohio for three years and then helped his father manage his business and farm. He married and moved to Bethlehem, Indiana where he farmed and had a store. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives 1822-1825, 1834-1837 and the Indiana Senate 1838-1841. Although his home county of Clarke was a Democratic area, he was always chosen as a Whig. He moved from Bethlehem to Jeffersonville in 1841, being appointed Receiver of public monies in the land office by President William Henry Harrison. However, he retired in 1842 and went back to merchandizing until 1847. He was active in renaming and getting the building going as the first president of the Jeffersonville Railroad serving until 1858. 2) J.H. McCampbell (1818-?) was president of the First National Bank of Jeffersonville and Treasurer of the Jeffersonville Railroad in 1865. 3) M.G. Michael Graham Bright (1803- 1881) was a lawyer and financier who had been born in Plattsburg, New York and came to Madison, Indiana in 1820 with his family. His father had a hat manufactory . He studied law and became one of the first Indiana lawyers practicing in Madison. Like William Armstrong, he served in Indiana legislature 1832-1834 as a Democrat from a Whig county. He was appointed State Agent in 1844 to assist in getting the state out of debt stemming fr... read more

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