Claus Spreckels Signed Stock Certificate for the San Francisco & San Joaquin Railway.

SPRECKELS, Claus.

$3,200.00

Item Number: 146754

San Francisco: San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railway, 1895.

Rare San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railway stock certificate signed by industrialist Claus Spreckels. Quarto, one page page partially printed in red, green, black, and accomplished in manuscript, the certificate is dated February 26, 1895 as certificate #6 and issues 500 shares in the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railway. Signed by Claus Spreckels as President of the Company and additionally signed by Alexander Mackie as Secretary. Matted and framed with a portrait of Spreckels and an informational placard. In fine condition. The piece measures 16 inches by 27 inches. Rare.

Claus Spreckels immigrated from Germany in 1846, settling first in South Carolina before moving to New York and later San Francisco, where he opened a brewery. He soon moved into the sugar business, building refineries in San Francisco and dominating the sugar trade in Hawaii. By the 1870s, he began experimenting with sugar beets, establishing a refinery in Watsonville and encouraging Salinas farmers to grow his crop. The San Francisco and San Joaquin Railroad was built in 1890 as a response to the monopoly of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Spreckels pledged $500,000 if an additional 3 million could be raised, and stock was sold to many small investors who hoped to force lower prices by introducing competition. Soon after it was constructed, the SF&SJ Railroad was sold to the Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad.