L. W. Currey, Inc.

(Railroads; Northern Pacific Railroad Company) Jay Cooke & Co. THE NEW NORTHWEST AND ITS GREAT RAILROAD. 7-30 GOLD LOAN OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC R. R. CO. SAFE AND PROFITABLE INVESTMENT! THE FIRST MORTGAGE LAND GRANT GOLD BONDS OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, NOW SELLING AT PAR AND ACCRUED INTEREST (CURRENCY) ARE UNHESITATINGLY RECOMMENDED TO ALL CLASSES AS AN INVESTMENT THAT COMBINES A PROFITABLE RATE OF INTEREST WITH ABSOLUTE SECURITY. JAY COOKE & CO. FINANCIAL AGENTS [cover title]. N.p. [New York];: Jay Cooke & Co., n.d. [April 1871]. Single sheet, 15x42.5 cm, printed on both sides on cream paper stock, folded to make 10 panels, one map. The Northern Pacific Railway, a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest, was chartered by Congress on 2 July 1864. It was given nearly forty million acres of land grants to be used to raise money for construction. New England businessman and promoter Josiah Perham (1803-1868) was elected its first president on 7 December 1864. For the next six years, backers of the road struggled to find financing. "The backing and promotions of financier Jay Cooke in the summer of 1870 brought the first real momentum to the company. In 1873, Northern Pacific made impressive strides before a terrible stumble. Rails from the east reached the Missouri River on June 4. After several years of study, Tacoma, Washington, was selected as the road's western terminus on July 14, 1873. For the previous three years the financial house of Jay Cooke and Company had been throwing money into the construction of the Northern Pacific. As with many western transcontinentals, the staggering costs of building a railroad into a vast wilderness had been drastically underestimated. Cooke had little success in marketing the bonds in Europe and overextended his house in meeting overdrafts of the mounting construction costs. Cooke overestimated his managerial skills and failed to appreciate the limits of a banker's ability to be also a promoter, and the danger of freezing his assets in the bonds of the Northern Pacific. Cooke and Company went bankrupt on September 18, 1873. Soon the Panic of 1873 engulfed the United States, beginning an economic depression that ruined or nearly paralyzed newer railroads ... Northern Pacific slipped into its first bankruptcy on June 30, 1875" (Wikipedia). A fine copy. Rare. One of several variant printings: OCLC reports copies at Yale University, The Buffalo History Museum and Hagley Museum and Library (Wilmington, DE). This is an early version, before the issues using red ink overprinting for emphasis. (#167137).

Price: $650.00