A REPUBLIC OF TEXAS $100 CONSOLIDATED FUND OF TEXAS CERTIFICATE, ISSUED TO ASHBEL SMITH, HOUSTON, SEPTEMBER 1, 1837, engraving and manuscript on wove paper, No. 2432, signed by Francis R. Lubbock (1815-1905), Comptroller, and William G. Cooke (1808-1847), Stock Commissioner; with original receipt from Medlars. 3 1/4" x 6 1/4" Note: Ashbel Smith (1805-1886) is recorded in the Texas State Historical Association, "Smith had a long and distinguished medical career. When he arrived in Texas in the spring of 1837, he became Sam Houston's roommate and close friend. Houston appointed him surgeon general of the Army of the Republic of Texas on June 7, 1837. In this role, Smith set up an efficient system of operation and established the first hospital in Houston, a military institution. He also served as the first chairman of the Board of Medical Censors, which was established by the Second Congress of the Republic in December 1837. During the devastating epidemic of yellow fever in Galveston in 1839, he treated the sick, published factual reports of the progress of the disease in the Galveston News, and after the epidemic abated, wrote the first treatise on yellow fever in Texas...In 1842 Ashbel Smith traveled to Europe as the charge d'affaires of Texas to England and France, a position he held from 1842-1844. In 1848 Smith met with ten other Galveston doctors to begin working for the formation of the Medical and Surgical Society of Galveston. When the Texas Medical Association came into being in 1853, he was chairman of the committee that drafted its constitution and bylaws...After Texas became a state Smith served three terms (1855, 1866, and 1879) in the state legislature as a representative from Harris County. As a legislator, he supported measures to aid railroad construction, validate land titles, improve common schools, found the University of Texas, and pay off the public debt...He spent his last years in an unceasing effort to establish a state university with a first-class medical branch. As president of the University of Texas Board of Regents, established in 1881, he led the effort to recruit the best professors available for the university faculty and to set up a curriculum necessary for a first-rate institution of higher learning." Provenance: Medlar's Inc., San Antonio, Texas, Invoice No. 12336, No.2432, sold, $200, January 30, 1988. Estate of Dr. Paul E. Shutts, Houston, Texas.

Some old apparent repairs, expected cancelation marks, creases, and small tears, overall in good condition, wear commensurate with age. Simpson Galleries strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by Simpson Galleries regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by Simpson Galleries. All lots offered are sold "AS IS."