The charter of the Bank of North America has been renewed from time to time, and was made a National Bank, December, 1864, and is still one of the leading financial institutions of the State and Nation.
It is one of the only three banks in existence at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the others being the Bank of New York, at New York City, and the Bank of Massachusetts, at Boston.
Matthias Baldwin Completed First Successful
Locomotive January 8, 1831
The first successful American locomotive was made in Philadelphia by Matthias William Baldwin, and completed January 8, 1831.
The story of the man and his wonderful achievement is the story of one of the greatest industrial plans in the world and is full of human interest.
Matthias Baldwin was born December 10, 1795, the son of an Elizabeth, N. J., carriage-maker, who was in affluent circumstances at the time of his death, but the mismanagement of his property caused the loss of nearly all. Matthias was the youngest of five children and but four years old when his father died. He inherited his father’s skill with tools and early began to construct labor-saving devices to assist his mother in her housework.
At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a firm of jewelers in Frankford, now a part of Philadelphia. His habits were sober, industrious and earnest. He devoted much of his spare time to singing in the little Presbyterian Church.
At twenty-one he became an apprentice in the firm of Fletcher & Gardner, silversmiths and jewelers, of Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.