THOMAS THOMPSON ECKERT. [(1825-1910). General manager, vice president and president of Western Union and a Union Army Officer. In 1862, Edwin M. Stanton, the new Secretary of War, appointed Thomas Eckert as chief of the War Department telegraph office. An aggressive and able leader with a great deal of pre-war telegraph experience, Eckhart was largely credited with ensuring that the telegraph was successfully utilized by Union forces in the field. Throughout the war years, President Lincoln was a regular visitor to Eckert’s office, and the two men quickly became close friends and confidants. The bond between the two was so great that Eckert was to attend Our American Cousin as Lincoln's bodyguard, but was not allowed to do so by Stanton. Instead, he found himself among the grieving few that stood by the dying president at the Peterson House later that tragic evening.
1878, New York Stock certificate for 1 share of $100. Brown\Black. Engraved vignette of a steam locomotive at top center, portrait vignette of Frederick Billings at bottom. Issued to Western Union Telegraph Company. Endorsed on verso by Thomas T. Eckert as Vice president of the company. Folds. Fine.
