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| 1891 $50 Silver Certificate |
Paper Money of the United States: 1891 Fifty Dollar Silver Certificate
Obverse: Bust of Edward Everett, Secretary of State under President Fillmore in 1852 and 1853. Red scalloped Treasury Seal.Reverse: Ornate floral design.
Signatures: (as depicted) William Tecumseh Vernon, Register of the Treasury and Charles H. Treat, Treasurer of the United States.
Inscriptions: Silver Certificate - Series 1891 - Act of February 28th 1878 - Bureau of Engraving and Printing - Register Of The Treasury - Treasurer Of The United States - This Certifies That There Have Been Deposited In The Treasury Of The United States Fifty Silver Dollars Payable To Bearer On Demand Washington, D.C. - United States Silver Certificate - Amer Septent Sigil Thesaur - This Certificate Is Receivable For Customs, Taxes and All Public Dues, And When So Received May Be Reissued
Edward Everett, Secretary of State under President Fillmore
Edward Everett (April 11, 1794 – January 15, 1865) was an American politician, pastor, educator, diplomat, and orator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State. He also taught at Harvard University and served as its president.
Everett was one of the great American orators of the antebellum and Civil War eras. He is often remembered today as the featured orator at the dedication ceremony of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in 1863, where he spoke for over two hours—immediately before President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous, two-minute Gettysburg Address.
United States 50 Dollar Bills
Charles H. Treat, 21st Treasurer of the United States
Charles H. Treat (1842 – May 30, 1910) was an American politician who served as Treasurer of the United States.
Early life
He was born in Frankfort, Maine, the son of Henry Treat and the grandson of Col. Ezra Treat of Maine. He was descended from Robert Treat, who was the royal Governor of Connecticut from 1676-1708. He was educated in country schools, and taught in the Academy of Rockport, Maine to pay for his schooling. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1863. Thereafter, he entered his father's West Indian shipping business.
Political career
He developed a great talent for public speaking and organization. He spoke in Maine for James G. Blaine. He was the delegate at large from Delaware to the Republican National convention of 1888 in Chicago. He was a representative of Delaware in Congress. He moved to New York City and planned the entire campaign which won the east side for the Republican Party in 1893. In 1896 President William McKinley appointed him the collector of Internal Revenue for the Wall Street District, Elihu Root and Cornelius N. Bliss being his sponsors. He was reappointed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902. In 1905, Treat was appointed Treasurer of the United States by President Roosevelt, a post that he held until July 1909. He was succeeded by Lee McClung.
His death
He died on Monday, May 30, 1910 from apoplexy at the age of 68 in his apartment in the Hotel Victoria around 11:00 a.m. He was pronounced dead by Dr. Gilday. Funeral services were held June 2, 1910 at 3:00 p.m. at the Grace Church, New York on 802 Broadway near Tenth Street. The services were conducted by Dr. Slattery, rector of the church, who was assisted by the Rev. Charles T. Walkley, rector of the Grace Church, Orange, New Jersey, of which Treat was a communicant for fifteen years. He was a member of the Union League Republicans and West Side Republican Clubs in New York. He was married to Mrs. Frances Emily Huxford and they had two daughters.
William Tecumseh Vernon, Register of the Treasury
William Tecumseh Vernon (July 11, 1871 – July 25, 1944) was an American educator, minister and bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, president of Western University beginning in 1896, and Register of the Treasury from 1906 to 1911.
Biography
William Tecumseh Vernon was born to former slaves north of Lebanon, Missouri. Formerly held by the Vernon family, his father and the family took their surname. His parents likely named their son after the Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, a hero during the Civil War. William went to school in Lebanon.
Career
After graduation, Vernon taught at the Institute for several years. In 1896 at the age of 25, he was ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
That year he was appointed president of Western University, a historically black university near Kansas City supported by the A.M.E. Conference. He brought new energy to the school, gaining legislative support to add industrial education to the school. To support the new programs in training for agriculture and mechanical trades, he had facilities constructed, including new dormitories.
Vernon was a lifelong proponent of education:
With education symmetrical and true we will take the dead mass buried by slavery's hand and touch them to life. This beauteous angel, which has always done its work for those on earth, will roll away the stone from the tomb where is buried a race, and my people will come forth to their glory and the amazement of the world.
— William Tecumseh Vernon
Vernon achieved prominence as a Republican as president of Western University, and in 1906, he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as Register of the Treasury. All US currency printed during his tenure carries the signature of William T. Vernon. He was briefly reappointed by William Howard Taft in 1910, but the president needed the position for his own patronage. Vernon accepted a federal appointment as the Supervisor of Indian and Negro Schools on a reservation in Oklahoma, newly admitted as a state combining the Indian and Oklahoma territories.
In 1912, the A.M.E. appointed him as president (1912–1915) of their affiliated Campbell College in Jackson, Mississippi. Following that, Vernon returned to the pastorate when called by Avery Chapel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he served (1916-1920).
After being consecrated as a bishop in 1920, Vernon soon left for South Africa, where he worked as a missionary in the Transvaal district for four years. The AME Church had been successful in building congregations among the indigenous peoples in South Africa. As early as the late nineteenth century, it was helping students come to the United States for college.
At the 1932 AME General Conference, members brought charges against three bishops: William Tecumseh Vernon, Joshua Jones, and William Decker Johnson. Ultimately, Vernon and Jones were suspended from their duties for misuse of conference funds. In addition, there were complaints that Vernon had been too close to some of his women parishioners. This was at a period when there had been several scandals among senior clergy in the AME and other churches, and its prestige was declining.
In 1933 during the Great Depression, after the A.M.E. Church withdrew its support from Western University, the state provided funding. The governor appointed Vernon as head of the industrial department. He appointed a strong faculty and succeeded in getting its accreditation restored before stepping down in 1936.
Books
Vernon wrote two books on race and politics:
- The Upbuilding of a Race: or The Rise of a Great People, a compilation of sermons, addresses and writings on education, the race question and public affairs (1904)
- What the American Negro expects of World-wide Democracy: A statement of the Negro's Case and Cause (1919)