1892, New York. Stock certificate for 100 shares. Orange/Black. Engraved vignette of a steam locomotive at top center, nice portrait vignette of Frederick Billings at bottom. Issued to and signed on verso by Thomas F. Oakes. Punch and stamp cancellation does not effect signature. Very fine.
THOMAS FLETCHER OAKES (1843-1919), president of the Northern Pacific Railway. Thomas F. Oakes came west with his family (wife Abby, son Walter, and daughters Grace, Zillah, and Georgiana) in May 1880. At the request of Henry Villard he settled in Portland, where he assumed direction of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. On October 25, 1880, the birth of another son, Prescott, completed the family.
