Governor Durkee and the Missing Transcontinental Railroad Bonds: and the Missing Transcontinental Railroad Bonds

This is the tale of Governor Durkee and the First Mortgage Bonds of the Transcontinental Railroads. It tells the story of the financing of the Transcontinentals in developing the Nation. In a search for the First Mortgage Bonds that Charles Durkee owned at the time of his death in 1870, this book attempts to track the trail of the bonds through 1906. In 1865 Charles Durkee was appointed Territorial Governor of Utah following the Civil War. After assuming governorship, he joined in a partnership with Kerr & Company in Utah, supplying critical materials; labor and equipment for the construction of the railroads through Wyoming and Nevada to Utah. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads were joined together at Promontory Utah in May 1869. Durkee had accepted First Mortgage Bonds - Paramount Lien Bonds from the Railroads as partial payment. Following his death, the ensuing court fights over ownership and recovery of the bonds carried to the U. S. Supreme Court in the 1960’s. The U. S. Treasury was believed to possess the bonds. The value and worth, if true, remains a mystery unraveled.