1851 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company Stock Certificate
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:10009016 | Country/Region of Manufacture: United States |
| Circulated/Uncirculated: Circulated |
The Baltimore & Ohio RailroadCompany ...; Certificate No. 12706, 1 share issuedto Mrs. Margaret Goslen onDecember 1, 1851, EmbossedCorporate Seal, Vignetteof early locomotive with stagecoach like passenger carriage and two round red cancellation stamps indicating cancellation October 23, 1856. Certificate is invery fine condition and is over 168 years old. Certificate is hand signed by the B&O President Thomas Swann who later served as Mayor ofBaltimore, Governor of Maryland and was elected to the US Senate for the Stateof Maryland. TheBaltimore and Ohio Railroad pioneered the concept of the common carrierrailroad in 1827. The B&O waschartered in 1827, and construction on the main line began the next year. Thefirst tickets for passenger excursions were sold in 1829, and the twenty-onekilometer (thirteen-mile) line from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills opened in 1830.Regular service was provided using horses for motive power, but by 1831, steamlocomotives took over passenger trains, and horses were completely eliminatedfrom freight service within the next few years. The Baltimore & Ohio wasthe first common carrier railroad chartered in the United States. It wasn’t thefirst in the world; that accolade belongs to the Stockton & Darlington andManchester & Liverpool, both English, in 1825. The B&O sent its firstengineers and financiers across the Atlantic to inspect and learn from thesepioneer railways to learn the latest technology. The railroad was conceived asa means to capture western trade for the port of Baltimore.
