B&O RR Stock Certificate signed by Johns Hopkins 1857 Start Price USD 179.00 Current Price USD 179.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price USD 189.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Friday, May 16, 2008 End Time Friday, May 23, 2008 Location FLORIDA See more about ' B&O RR Stock Certificate signed by Johns Hopkins 1857' Description                                                                                                                                                                   1857 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Stock Certificate                                                                   signed by Johns Hopkins   Johns Hopkins signed  Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stock certificate No. 21947  issued February 21, 1857 to  T Scott & Son  for 100 shares. Johns Hopkins was Chairman of the powerful Finance Committee of B&O and boldly  signed the certificate  as “ President Pro Tem” . The certificate was printed by Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Company and has an embossed B&O Corporate Seal. Red stamp cancellations indicate the certificate was canceled May 1, 1857.   Certificate has some slight staining near the top center and has one punch cancellation hole that affects signature but is otherwise in very fine condition.  This certificate and would be a nice addition to your collection. A brief biography of Johns Hopkins follows:    Johns Hopkins Johns HOPKINS, philanthropist, born in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, May 19, 1795; died in Baltimore, December 24, 1873. His parents were Quakers, and their son was trained to a farming life, but received a fair education. At seventeen years of age he went to Baltimore, became a clerk in his uncle's wholesale grocery store, and in a few years accumulated sufficient capital to establish himself in the grocery trade with a partner. Three years later, in 1822, he founded, with his two brothers, the house of Hopkins and Brothers. He rapidly added to his fortune until he had amassed large wealth. Retiring from business as a grocer in 1847, he engaged in banking and railroad enterprises, became a Director in The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and, in 1855, chairman of its finance committee. Two years afterward, when the company was seriously embarrassed, he volunteered to endorse its notes, and risked his private fortune in its extrication. In March, 1873, he gave property valued at $3,500,000 to found The Johns Hopkins Hospital which, by its charter, is free to all, regardless of race or color, presented the City of Baltimore with a public park, and gave $3,500,000 to found The Johns Hopkins University, which was first proposed by him in 1867, and was opened in 1876, embracing schools of law, medicine, science, and agriculture, and publishing the results of research by  professors and students. At his death he left a fortune of $10,000,000, including the sums set apart for the endowment of the university and hospital, which were devised to the trustees in his will.         Place a Bid!