Credit: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives.
To finance construction, the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company initially issued 1,000 shares of stock at $300. When subscriptions quickly reached 2,276, the price rose to $1,000 within days. The certificates were signed by company president William Bingham (1752-1804). A native of Philadelphia, Bingham had spent the American Revolution in Martinique, where he spied, smuggled, and recruited privateers to prey on British shipping. Returning to America a wealthy man, he had then been a founder of the Bank of Pennsylvania.
