[Document] 1846 April 15, check for $2500 to Robarts & Walton / Asa Packer.

The check bears a stylized engraving of two women draped in classical garb with a backdrop of ships; beneath it reads, "Manly, Orr, and Lippincott, Philadelphia." For more information on the Packer family and their involvement with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Lehigh University, see also the Asa Packer Mansion Museum (http://asapackermansionmuseum.homestead.com/).

Packer endorses a check promising to pay $2500 within four months of April 15, 1846. Asa Packer was a captain of industry who built the Lehigh Valley Railroad and controlled a coal-mining empire in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. He also founded Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA in 1865. Born from humble beginnings, Packer became the third-wealthiest man in the United States, beginning his career in the canal industry and then branching out to railroads. He was a member of the Pennsylvania State legislature and a served two terms in Congress; he vied unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency as well as for the governorship of Pennsylvania. He died in 1879 after a fall in his Philadelphia office.