1883 Mississippi Valley Company Stock Signed by Confederate General Absolom West For Sale

1883 Mississippi ValleyCompany Stock Signed by Confederate General Absolom West

Up for yourconsideration is a January 4, 1883, Mississippi Valley Company stockcertificate signed by Confederate General and company president Absolom M. West.West was a Confederate Militia General who served as Brigadier General of theMississippi state troops, a Mississippi State Senator, President of the Mississippi CentralRailroad, a candidate for Vice President of the United States, and he organizeda branch of the National Labor Union.

Confederate General Absolom M. West Biography
AbsolomMadden West(1818 – September 30, 1894) was aSouthern UnitedStatespolitician, soldier, railroad president and labor organizer. Westwas born in Alabama, where his father Anderson West was a county sheriff. Hisfamily obtained Federal land grants in Mississippiand movedtoHolmes County, Mississippi, in 1837, where he becameaplantationowner. He won election to theState Senateofthat state as aWhigin 1847. In 1853 he became an officer of thenewly formedMississippi Central Railroad.

Although initially anopponent ofsecession, when the American Civil Warbroke out Westbecame abrigadier generalin the Mississippi State Militia. Heraised aregiment, and later assumed various administrative offices forthe state. Sometimes simultaneously, he served as and commissary-general.At his direction, thelegislature established a commission consisting of one lawyer and twobusinessmen to examine and audit the books and papers of his several offices.At the end of the Civil War, West was the only officer of the state to make a finalaccounting.

After 1864, West alsoserved as president of the Mississippi Central Railroad, which by that time hadbeen mostly destroyed by the contending armies. After the war, the railroad wassold to theIllinois Central, and West was returned to the State Senate.

Soon thereafter, hewas elected to the FederalHouse of Representativesalthough he,along with the rest of the unreconstructed Mississippi delegation, was notpermitted to be seated. In the years that followed, West established a branchof theNational Labor Union, and served as aDemocraticelectorfor President in the election of 1876.

Re-elected to theState Senate, he soon became disenchanted with the Democrats, and joinedtheGreenback party. For that party, West was a candidate for VicePresident on the ticket of Benjamin Franklin Butlerin1884.

Absalom M. West diedat Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1894.

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