Joliet and Chicago Railroad Company stock certificate 1900 (Illinois)

Tough to find cert.  Stunning under print and rare color combination. Nice vignette of steam locomotive with coal car.  Issued and cancelled. Dated 1900 (over 189_ printing).

The Joliet and Chicago Railroad was chartered February 15, 1855 and opened in 1856, continuing north and northeast from Joliet to downtown Chicago. It was leased by the Chicago & Mississippi, providing a continuous railroad from Alton to Chicago. In 1857 the C&M was reorganized as the St. Louis, Alton and Chicago Railroad, and another reorganization on October 10, 1862, produced the Chicago and Alton Railroad. The C&A chartered the Alton and St. Louis Railroad to extend the line to East St. Louis, opened in 1864, giving it a line from Chicago to East St. Louis.

The Bridgeport segment of the Chicago & Alton Railroad was in actual fact the Joliet & Chicago Railroad, but it had been perpetually leased by the Chicago & Alton from the early 1860s onward. The line later became part of the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad, which itself was merged with the Illinois Central Railroad to form the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad.