Charles M Pratt signed No.1 Kanawha & Pocahontas Railroad Stock Certificate

Description

No. 1
Stock Certificate  of
The Kanawha and Pocahontas Railroad Company
issued for 2000 shares to and signed by
Charles M Pratt as President of the Company.
Kanawha & Pocahontas was incorporated in 1898 to reach coal deposits owned and/or controlled by Charles Pratt Company of New York City. The line was constructed in 1902 as a narrow guage railroad beginning at the main line of The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) at Paint Creek Junction along the Kanawha River in Kanawha County , WV.  The line ran for 14 miles along Paint Creek to Kingston in Kanawha and Fayette counties and later was purchased by C&O and operated as its Paint Creek Branch.
The line was leased to the C&O and was done so  by William A McCorkle, a former WV Governor with the reported assistance of Industrialist Henry Huddleston Rogers , both acting on behalf of Charles Pratt and Company.
H H Rogers was a partner with Charles Pratt in Charles Pratt & Company. The Company was involved in the oil business primarily as an independent refiner in Brooklyn New York and later sold out to John D Rockefeller becoming part of The Standard Oil  Empire.
Charles Millard Pratt the son of Charles Pratt to whom this certificate was issued became the Secretary of Standard Oil and HH Rogers became a Vice President. Charles Pratt is also credited with founding Pratt Institute, a technical school and college in Brooklyn in 1887. After the death of Charles Pratt in 1891 Charles M Pratt  became President  and operated the institute for many years. Pratt Institute still exists today.