2 Rare RR stocks-- Thomas Durant -- Mississippi and Missouri--1860's

Description

2 railroad certificates of Mississippi and Missouri Railroad
Rare -- 1863  this certificate was part of stock play that involved Thomas C. Durant (1820-1885)
"In 1853 Durant and partner Farnam received a commission to raise capital and manage construction for the newly chartered
Mississippi and Missouri Railroad (M&M)
.  The M&M Railroad acquired major land grants to build Iowa's first railroad...The centerpiece of the M&M was a wooden railroad bridge which completed in 1856 was the first bridge across the Mississippi River. The bridge linked the M&M to the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. After a steamboat hit the bridge, boat operators sued to have the bridge dismantled. Durant and Rock Island hired private attorney
Abraham Lincoln
to defend the bridge. This association played to Durant's favor in 1862 when President Lincoln selected Durant's new company, the Union Pacific, and its operation center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as the starting point of the First Transcontinental Railroad."
The other certificate is blank, but might have been earlier since its State of Incorporation is Iowa.