onlinesteamboatmuseum

Steamboat Stock Certificates


BoatmensBankChec22Jan1892150dpi002

BoatmensBankChec22Jan1892150dpi002

A check written by Sam'l N. Holliday from a Boatmen's Bank of St. Louis account on January 22nd, 1892. 2.35 x 8.40 inches.

I scanned this engraving of the Steamer City of St. Louis from an original Boatmen's Bank of St. Louis stock certificate. Nice detail. This should be on some denomination of U.S. currency.

BoatmensBankShares1890sREDUCEDforNORI

Here's the whole document Boatmen's Bank blank shares certificate from the 1890s. (We have the boat vignette on one of the illustration pages.)

I visited what was then the main office in St. Louis during the early 1980's to see Dean Cornwell's huge mural-sized painting "The Race of the ROB'T E. LEE and the NATCHEZ."

The name, date established and address from the Bank Encyclopedia might be enough:

The Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis
100 North Broadway
St. Louis, MO 63166

Established: October 18, 1847

bankencyclopedia.com

excerpts from additional information:

FDIC Certificate #: 4564
Status: Inactive
Closing history: Merger - Without Assistance
The Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis (#23857)
Federal Reserve ID: 350152
Date Established: October 18, 1847
Commercial bank, national (federal) charter and Fed member, supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
100 North Broadway
St. Louis, MO 63166

OhioRiverBridgeFerryCoForNORI

The Ohio River Bridge & Ferry Company

Cancelled Stock Certificate No. 135 for "X" shares at $100 each that was never sold and filled out. Issued by THE OHIO RIVER BRIDGE & FERRY COMPANY - Incorporated under the laws of the State of WEST VIRGINIA. The seal of that state of West Virginia is featured in the upper left corner of the document. This blank form was printed in 1900 when the company was presumably founded but whether or not it actually got up and running is unknown. So far I haven't found reference to this company online or in reference books. Another company or companies that had the same intention to use the ferry and bridge enterprise may have superseded this one.

The company's intention was probably to initially run steam ferries from one side of the Ohio River to the other in different locales within the state of West Virginia while bridges were built within the proximity of the ferry routes. Upon completion of the bridges the ferry service would be discontinued. The company-owned ferries would then travel to the next location where another bridge would be built by the same method. There is probably a treatise on this practice with the history of ferries that were replaced by bridges as was the case in Hannibal, Missouri and a great many other rivertowns.

Augusta, Kentucky is one of the towns on the Ohio River which still maintains ferry service since a bridge was never built there. Crossing the river would have been restricted when ice during the winter made the river impassable or during extreme flooding when the current of the stream became too swift for it to be navigated safely.

wvexp.com

The area of the Ohio River that borders West Virginia, and the islands that located within it, are wholly owned by West Virginia, the deed of cession of the Northwest Territory fixing the low water mark on the Ohio side as the western boundary of (what was then) Virginia. More than 30 West Virginia communities extend along the river.







moremusejmphotosclickhere

With the exception of images credited to public institutions,
everything on this page is from a private collection.
Please contact Steamboats.com for permission for commercial use.*

All captions provided by Dave Thomson, Steamboats.com primary contributor and historian.

logo