Banking House of Grandin Brothers [letterhead] 1892 addressed to Alexander Ennis Patton

Tidioute, Pa: Banking House of Grandin Brothers, 1892. Near Fine. 1 leaf 21 cm. Engraved. "J. L. Grandin. Wm. J. Grandin." Dated July 1, 1892, and addressed to A. E. Patton, cashier of the First National Bank of Curwensville, Pa. Signed by E. M. Curtis, cashier. Alexander Ennis Patton (1852-1904) became the president of the First National Bank of Patton when it was established in 1893 and was elected to the Pennsylvania Senate in 1900. The Grandin brothers, John Livingston Grandin (1836-1912), William James Grandin (1838-1904), and Elijah Bishop Grandin (1840-1917), in 1859 followed the lead of Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pa., who had dug the first successful commercial oil well in the United States earlier that year. With oil money they established the Grandin Brothers Bank in 1870. Victims of the Jay Cooke & Co. bankruptcy in 1873, they exercised their right to take Northern Pacific Railway bonds with land-purchasing rights in the Dakota Territory, rather than 15 cents on the dollar. Although the bonds themselves were worthless, the 26,000 acres they acquired became the largest corporate wheat farm in the Dakota Territory in the late 19th century. Temple Grandin is the great-granddaughter of J. L. Grandin. In Near Fine Condition: lightly creased; clean and bright.