Description:

Cleveland Grover

Grover Cleveland ALS Re: NYC Trip in which he Became Life Insurance Salesman!

 

1p ALS inscribed overall and signed by former 22nd and 24th U.S. President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) as "Grover Cleveland" at bottom right. Written in Princeton, New Jersey on June 21, 1905. On textured watermarked cream bifold stationery. The remaining pages are blank. With expected paper folds and minor edge darkening, else near fine. Isolated mounting traces verso. 5.125" x 6.5".

 

In full, with unchanged spelling and punctuation:

 

"Princeton June 21, 1905

 

My dear Mr Parker

 

I have just received a receipted bill for my rooms +c June 15 + 16 at the Buckingham hotel, and I send you my check for the same $11.85.

 

Yours truly

 

Grover Cleveland."

On June 10, 1905, ex-President Cleveland had been approached by the American branch of the Equitable Life Assurance Society to serve as one of its three new trustees. This offshoot of the British concern of the same name had been incorporated in 1859. An extremely successful company, it was custodian to millions of dollars' worth of policies, and its board of directors once included movers and shakers like J.P. Morgan and Henry Clay Frick.

 

James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959), the son of the U.S. branch founder, had been forced to sell out his controlling shares after a scandal in January 1905. These 502 shares--the equivalent of $2,500,000--were then transferred to company trustee Grover Cleveland on June 15, 1905--the very first day of his stay at the Buckingham Hotel. Following the transfer, Cleveland essentially became the very well-known public face of the company; his circulars alerted policy holders to policy changes, like the company's plans for mutualization. [See Robert Swaine's The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors, 1819-1947, Vol. I: "The Predecessor Firms, 1809-1906" (Clark, NJ: Lawbook Exchange Ltd., 2007), p. 723.]

 

Grover Cleveland is the only U.S. President to have served non-consecutive presidential terms, the first between 1885 and 1889, and the second between 1893-1897. A Democrat, Cleveland first became involved in politics in his early 30s, while serving as Sheriff of Erie County, New York, Mayor of Buffalo, and later Governor of New York. Cleveland's administrations focused mainly on domestic issues, like corruption, the gold standard, tariff reform, and subduing labor unrest. After 1897, Cleveland retired to his estate Westland Mansion in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

A fascinating look at Grover Cleveland's life after the White House--as a Gilded Age company trustee, majority shareholder, business executive, and life insurance salesman!

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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