GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY (U.S.). TREASURER:

Securities records include miscellaneous stock and bond journals, ledgers, and registers; transfer books; dividend records; and issuance records from the early years of the company. Superintendent's operating statements are a detailed monthly record of the cost of company rail operations, broken down by expense category and arranged by line segments.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Treasurer's records. Great Northern Railway Company records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Microfilm Production:

M572: Cash Ledgers and Distribution Records. Saint Paul: Dakota Microfilm Service, 1993. 9 microfilm reels.

Microfilm is available for sale or interlibrary loan from the Minnesota Historical Society.

Location of Originals:

The microfilmed originals of cash ledgers and distribution records (5.5 cubic feet) were disposed after microfilming.

Accession Information:

Accession numbers: 2340; 2341; 2342; 2343; 2344; 2562; 2563; 2564; 2565; 2566; 2567; 2568; 2569; 2570; 2571; 2572; 2573; 2574; 2575; 2576; 2577; 2578; 2579; 2580; 2581; 2582; 2583; 2584; 2585; 2586; 2587; 2588; 2589; 2590; 2591; 2592; 2593; 2594; 2595; 2596; 2598; 2599; 2600; 3498; 3499; 3500; 3501; 3502; 3503; 3504; 15,163

Processing Information:

Catalog ID number: 1720017

Work on the Great Northern railway company records was supported with funds by the Northwest Area Foundation, the Grotto Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation.

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Stock Issues

Stock Ledgers

Transfers

Dividends

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This series of ledgers and distribution records itemize the cash receipts and disbursements of the corporate treasurer, during the first 20 years of the railway's existence, and indicate the general ledger accounts to which the cash transactions are credited or debited. The volumes document, by ledger account, the daily receipts or disbursements that came through the treasurer or the treasurer's representatives in other locations. They record cash received or paid out in such broad areas as land sales, stock and bond sales, joint freight and passenger accounts with other roads, remittances from station agents, and cash paid out to major suppliers. The monthly aggregates of these daily receipts and disbursements were later recorded in the company's general books.

Reels 1-4 (Volumes 1-7) are cash ledgers and, as such, record the information described above in traditional ledger format. The volume is divided into the various ledger accounts and an index at the front of each volume indicates the page numbers on which those accounts are recorded.

Reels 5-9 (Volumes 8-12) are cash distribution records. Although they carry on the same function as the cash ledgers, they organize and present the information differently. Rather than being organized by accounts the volumes are organized on a largely chronological basis. Each day's receipts and disbursements are then abstracted according to the appropriate ledger accounts. The accounts are represented by columns across each set of facing pages. For the most part one of the facing pages records receipts and the other records disbursements. In volume 9, however, each page is divided into separate receipts and disbursements segments. Although the fundamental arrangement of the distribution records is chronological, the volumes are each divided into several segments, each of which itemizes the receipts and disbursements of a particular corporate entity, generally a subsidiary company or a regional office of the corporate treasurer.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Railroads -- Northwestern States -- Cost of operation -- Statistics.

Railroads -- Northwestern States -- Finance.

Railroads -- Northwestern States -- Statistics.

Organizations:

Great Northern Railway Company (U.S.) -- Finance.

Great Northern Railway Company (U.S.).

Document Types:

Bookkeeping records.

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