Scarce partly-printed DS, one page, 12.5 x 16, December 20, 1836. Stock certificate issued to John Collinsworth for 3100 shares in the Texas Rail Road, Navigation, and Banking Company. In part: “Whereas the Congress of the Republic of Texas did, on the sixteenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, grant to Branch T. Archer and James Collinsworth…a Charter of Incorporation, under the name and style of the ‘Texas Rail Road, Navigation, and Banking Company’…and who now, for the purpose of carrying said Charter into effect, certify that John T. Collinsworth is entitled to Three thousand one hundred Shares, out of Fifty Thousand Shares into which the capital stock of Five Millions of Dollars is divided.” Signed at the conclusion “Jas. T. Collinsworth,” and also signed by B. T. Archer, J. Pickney Henderson, and Thomas F. McKinney. The reverse bears an endorsement written and signed by John T. Collinsworth, which reads, “I hereby transfer one undivided half of the written Certificate of Stock in the Texas Rail Road Navigation and Banking Company to James H. Gholson, for value rec’d this the 24th day of December A. D. 1836. Done in the town of Columbia the above day and date. I reserve the right of voting as the representative of said certificate. J. T. Collinsworth.” In very good condition, with central horizontal and vertical fold, a few small areas of paper loss along folds, scattered toning and foxing, some light creases and wrinkles, and show-through from endorsement and docketing on reverse.
With independence from Mexico secured, the Texas founders began considering expanding the new republic’s transportation infrastructure. The early railroading history of Texas was marked by multiple false starts and the Texas Rail Road, Navigation, and Banking Company was the first of multiple failed ventures.
On December 16, 1836, the First Congress of the Republic of Texas chartered the first railroad west of the Mississippi. That same day, Collinsworth was also appointed the court’s first chief justice, a post he held until his death. This certificate, granting him 3,100 shares of stock in the railroad, is dated four days after the company’s creation.
The Texas Rail Road, Navigation, and Banking Company proved to be a bust. The Panic of 1837 scared off investors, and populist anger at financial institutions made the company’s banking provision a political liability. Anson Jones owed his election to the Second Congress largely to his strong public opposition to the corporation. In the process, stock in the company became essentially worthless.
Collinsworth himself would soon meet his demise. On July 11, 1838, after a week of drunkenness, he fell or jumped off a boat in Galveston Bay and drowned. Most at the time assumed he committed suicide. The Robert Davis Collection, read more about Robert Davis. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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