AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM NEW HAVEN, CT, FEBRUARY 11, 1850, TO ROBERT SCHUYLER, ESQ., NO. 2 HANOVER ST., NEW YORK: DEAR SIR| HAVE YOU ANY ENGINEER CORPS, ABOUT FORMING IN WHICH YOU CAN GIVE ME A SITUATION. I HAVE BEEN LATELY ENGAGED ON THE PRELIMINARY SURVEYS OF THE NEW HAVEN AND NEW LONDON RAILROAD, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MR. RITNER, THE COMPANY ENGINEER; BUT AS THE CONTRACTORS HAVE THE APPOINTMENT OF THE WORKING ENGINEERS THEY EMPLOY THEIR OWN MEN, LEAVING ME QUITE DISAPPOINTED, AS I FELT SECURE OF MY PLACE. YOU PROBABLY REMEMBER THAT I OBTAINED EMPLOYMENT FROM YOU, ON THE SANGAMON AND MORGAN RAILROAD, AT THE SOLICITATION OF JAS. L. GRAHAM, ESQ. AND MY UNCLE R. WITHERS WHERE I GAVE SATISFACTION I BELIEVE. IF YOU HAVE NO SUCH CHANCE FOR ME, PERHAPS YOU MAY HAVE A POSITION ON SOME ROAD ALREADY ESTABLISHED...
New Haven, CT: 1850. 8.75" x 14.5", folds to 7.25" x 8.75" to make 4 pages. [1], [2 blank], [1] pp. Handwritten in ink on lined blue note paper; very neat penmanship. Docketed on verso. Old folds from mailing, small remnant of wax seal at outer edge. Postmark from New Haven with "Paid" rubberstamp. Light dusting of last page, Very Good to Near Fine.
"Dr. Frederick Oscar Leffingwell, fourth son of William Coit Leffingwell and Sarah (Dunham) Leffingwell was born at Orange, Conn., July 29, 1824, and died January 15, 1857, the result of an accident on the Illinois Central Railroad, while engaged in the performance of his duty. He studied medicine and received his degree at Yale College in 1847; but his preferences being rather toward civil engineering, he adopted that profession." [Leffingwell, Albert: THE LEFFINGWELL RECORD, A GENEALOGY OF THE DESCENDENTS OF LIEUT. THOMAS LEFFINGWELL, ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF NORWICH CONNECTICUT. New York: 1897. Pages 157-158.]
Robert Schuyler, first president of the Illinois Central Railroad, served from 1851 to 1854. "In 1853–4, Robert Schuyler, president and transfer agent of the New York and New Haven Railroad, issued some $2 million in unauthorized stock. This was the first American large-scale stock fraud, and its discovery burst like a bombshell over the Eastern establishment. Schuyler had been president of five railroads, helped develop several more, and was known as 'America's first railroad king.' Moreover, his family was exceedingly well connected at the very highest levels of New York society. The fraud had important repercussions: for the company, years of legal battles and a loss of $1.8 million; for Wall Street, legal and procedural changes to prevent reoccurrence of this type of fraud; and for New York’s upper crust, a sense of shame and disapproval so strong it caused the very name of Robert Schuyler to be all but written out of the historical record." (Mahler, Michael: ROBERT SCHUYLER'S 1853-4 STOCK FRAUD ON THE NEW YORK AND NEW HAVEN RAIL ROAD: THE PAPER TRAIL.]. Item #28157
Price: $350.00