Pullman's Palace Car Co. signed by Geo. M. Pullman and John L. Gardner - Stock C For Sale

Stock signed by George Pullman as president and issued to and signed on the back by John. L. Gardner. Chicago, Illinois. George Mortimer Pullman (1831-1897) An American inventor and industrialist. He is known as the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, and for violently suppressing striking workers in the company town he created, Pullman, Chicago. Born in Brocton, N.Y., his family moved to Albion, New York. It was here that the young George gained many of his ideas that made him successful. Pullman also manufactured coffins during this time. Pullman dropped out of school at age 14, and eventually became one of Chicago's most influential and controversial figures. He arrived in Chicago in 1855 and discovered that Chicago streets were frequently filled with mud deep enough to drown a horse. He suggested that the houses be raised and a new foundation built under them, a technique his father used to move homes during the widening of the Erie Canal. In 1857, with a couple of partners, Pullman proved his technique would work by raising an entire block of stores and office buildings. Between 1859 and 1863, he spent time as a gold broker near Golden, Colorado where he raised money and met a future business associate, Hanniball Kimball. He used his money and success to develop a comfortable railroad sleeping car, the Pullman sleeper. The first one was finished in 1864. Although the sleeper cost more than five times the price of a regular railway car, by arranging to have the body of President Abraham Lincoln carried from Washington, D.C. to Springfield on a sleeper, he received national attention and the orders began to pour in. By 1865, he wanted to expand business into the reconstructing South and sent Kimball to act as his Southern agent. Pullman built a new plant on the shores of Lake Calumet, several miles from Chicago. In an effort to make it easier for his employees, he also built a town with its own shopping areas, theaters, parks, hotel and library for his employees. When business fell off in 1894, Pullman cut jobs, wages and working hours. His failure to lower rents, utility charges and products led his workers to the Pullman Strike, which was eventually broken up by federal troops sent in by President Grover Cleveland. A national commission formed to study causes of the 1894 strike found Pullman's paternalism partly to blame and Pullman's company town to be "un-American." In 1898, the Supreme Court of Illinois forced the Pullman Company to divest ownership in the town, which was annexed to Chicago. In 1867 he introduced his first hotel on wheels, the President, a sleeper with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food rivaled the best restaurants of the day and the service was impeccable. A year later in 1868, he launched the Delmonico, the world's first sleeping car devoted to fine cuisine. The Delmonico menu was prepared by chefs from New York's famed Delmonico's Restaurant. Loathing for Pullman remained, and when he died in 1897, he was buried in Graceland Ceme Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.