United Electric Railways  stock certificate c1919 (Rhode Island) 

RI streetcar company. Awesome vignette of a streetcar full of passengers. Unissued and not cancelled. Dated 19__ but circa 1919 from company records. Measures approximately 11 x 7.5 inches. 

In 1887, the first electric car rolled down South Main St. There had been street cars in Rhode Island as early as 1865, but "electric fever" had hit Rhode Island and many new companies came to life. So much activity was taking place that by 1902 there were 15 companies.

The Traction Company organized the RI Suburban Railway Co. (1899), which bought the Pawtuxet Valley Street Railway Co., the Cumberland Street Railway Company and a Barrington/Warren company in 1900. Interstate Consolidated Street Railway Company was absorbed in the Suburban system in 1901.

To combine the Traction Company's holdings, United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia and the Traction Company formed the Rhode Island Company in 1902. The Rhode Island Securities Company, a holding company for the United Gas and Improvement Company, owned most of the stock. By 1907, J.P. Morgan's New Haven Railroad Company controlled most of the stock of the Rhode Island Company. The Rhode Island Company also leased and operated from the United Traction and Electric Company who owned shares and bonds of the Rhode Island Suburban Railway Company, Pawtucket Street Railway Company and the Union Railroad Company. The Union Railroad Company owned stock and leased the Providence Cable Tramway Company. In 1914, the New Haven Railroad was ordered to divest itself of New England streetcar companies. The Rhode Island Company floundered with little money to pay leases and competing with automobiles and buses. By 1918, the Rhode Island Superior Court terminated the leases of the Rhode Island Company.

The UER was chartered in 1919, after the previous operator of the streetcar, the Rhode Island Company, went into receivership. The company was placed under the control of the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission upon inception, to limit the impact to service in the event of financial difficulties.

UER began operations of the consolidated network in 1921, and achieved an all-time high ridership annual of 154 million people in 1923. UER was purchased by the New England Power Company in 1926, and was operated under the UER brand by the Rhode Island Service Company until the system was again reorganized as the United Transit Company in 1951.

The transportation system in Rhode Island was de-privatized in 1966 when the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) began operations.

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